We were lucky to catch up with Sandra Mendelson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sandra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

I used to marvel at people that made immense career changes, veering onto a path completely different than the one they set out upon. I just never fit the profiles I read (eg: “Hobby As Cupcake Baker / Dog Walker/ Jewelry Crafter Becomes Full Time Passion Pursuit.” So I rationalized my way through 28 years of corporate positions at companies where really bad behavior on the part of management and Chapter 11 filings were the norm . In hindsight, I realize everyone was fueled by fear – especially me – and I was jumping from one piece of near crumbling earth to another, trying only to avoid falling into some abyss.

Finally, at 50, curiosity knocked on my door and I decided to finally do something that actually interested me: I found a route into the helping professions by becoming a certified health coach. Simultaneously, I was introduced to healing with low level lasers and LEDs (light emitting diodes), became certified to work on humans and animals, and launched a practice focused on reducing pain and improving quality of life.

Two years later- it was love – or maybe awe – that called me out and the 65 barns around my home began exerting a kind of crazy, magnetic force on me. So, I became certified as an Equine Photopuncture Therapist (using light tools instead of needles), traded heels for muck boots and the chance to work with creatures I had always loved and admired (but never “owned”).

One day, post session, as I put away my equipment, a client’s horse named Emilion cracked my consciousness wide open. I heard a loud voice- not my own- boom inside my head:

“I’m here to rescue you from humanhood. I’ve decided I like you, and I’m taking you under my wing. I am impatient with the way things are, and I know you are too, and I have faith that you will help change them.”

I had no idea what he meant, but he continued, “When the barn closes every day, we no longer need to keep up the façade and we can be our true selves. We know the weather patterns for days—sometimes weeks in advance—because we feel it and the birds tell us. We hear the birds and the plants speak. Everything speaks.”

Up until this point I had never heard an animal speak and had pretty traditional beliefs about animal awareness and capabilities. But a door was opening and I never looked back from that point. My old life was gone and I was about to start living….

Sandra, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I assist humans in deepening their bonds with animals and growing their understanding of the animal world and what animals are actually teaching us.

As an ANIMAL COMMUNICATOR, I connect with my clients’ animal partners to clarify and solve behavior and health issues, reveal life lessons they are learning through their animal relationship bonds and address end of life concerns. I similarly communicate with animals in spirit to help create closure, and answer unresolved human questions from the animal’s expansive state out of form. Finally, I support my human clients in trusting their own intuitive abilities to understand what their animals are trying to convey. I even have them ask their pet’s permission for me to tune in, and they are invariably, happily surprised by their responses!

Supporting the human-animal relationship is the single most important element of my work, so I spend 30 minutes listening to the human’s concerns, questions and any background they want to share, before I ever tune into their animal partner. Quite often, “things are not what they seem” but always, animals communicate with such love and compassion that humans embrace the major awakenings that result.

I only began working with clients after years of practice. First, beginning in 2012, I began receiving and sharing messages from animals that really apply to all humans, so I coined the term CHANNEL OF ANIMAL CONSCIOUSNESS. Since then, I have been regularly sharing the insights and wisdom from over 100 species of the animal kingdom, via books, my blog and a whole lotta social media posts (Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn). The first messages came from face-to-face encounters with horses. Then, functioning as guides, horses insisted that I “tune into anyone from anywhere.” When a blue whale, a sacred cow and a water buffalo came through one afternoon, with perspectives that boggled my mind, I realized I was on a path that had to be explored. I had to overcome a lot of internal doubt, and internet-searched many verifiable things I “heard” so that I could believe them. I had no agenda, nothing to prove and never read anyone else’s animal communications so that I knew I wasn’t imitating or being influenced by any outside sources. By the time 53 species had addressed topics from love to healing, relationships, death, human misconceptions and much more, my first book “We Walk Beside You: Animal Messages for an Awakening World” was born. Three more have followed since then (We Walk Beside You book 2 and The Secrets of the Animals books 1 and 2 for children, written in rhyme). There is still so very much more I’ve channeled, waiting to take form.

As animals are not part of the human condition – they are not subject to the influence of institutions, corporations, the media, and the enslavement of the human mind, (and they don’t experience their identity by looking in a mirror!) –  they speak in truths that resonate with our Souls aka who we really are inside. They remind us of what truly matters, why we are here, and the importance of joy (“because in joy you are not in Ego or separation – you are part of all One.”)

The animals have given me the words to express what is in my heart. I’m happy to say that I just chose to share their wisdom fueled by curiosity, love (and a bit of awe) and things have worked out quite well. People are discovering the words and wisdom of the animals organically, as they open their eyes and become ready. The animals wouldn’t want it any other way!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

This is a fun question to answer:

I just kept sharing.
I didn’t plan it, but I developed street cred by “giving away” so very many channelings on social media.
At the bottom of each channeling were links to my books, if people wanted to know more.
No pushing, no advertisements, no celebrity endorsements: traditional methods didn’t work because my services require a shift in beliefs (ie: animals communicate intelligently and they can be heard and understood, telepathically, by humans).

My client base evolved from readers of my social media posts:
1. post readers became clients
2. post readers became book readers and then clients

Then, word of mouth kicked in and clients began referring more clients to me. Some say they were intuitively drawn to me because my channelings were easy to comprehend and spoke to their hearts. I’ve also gotten great feedback about their experience working with me. Compassion counts a lot!

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I was pretty much on intellectual autopilot during my 28 years in the corporate world. I pursued jobs based on what I COULD do and didn’t ask myself what I truly WANTED to do. However, there were many fewer options back then.

When I left the corporate world at 50, I entered professions and that didn’t exist earlier eg: health coaching and polychromatic light therapy for healing. These careers led me to the work I do now, that utilizes skills I did not know I had previously.

In short, I believe we are each like a house with many doors and, when we enter the work world we’ve hardly opened any of them. If you don’t exactly know what you want to do but you head in the direction of your curiosity and/or joy, you ultimately land in a really good place.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.smendelson.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandra_mendelson/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/messagesfromanimals/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandram1/