Tammy Goen is one of the coaches that we found this month and we did a little interview with her. She impressed us with her emotional mastery and the ability to help other sensitive people unleash their real potential. As a highly sensitive person herself, Tammy helps her clients release unconscious beliefs and self talk and free themselves from those vicious loops that keep them stuck in life. But not just that! She helps her clients see that their sensitive nature is, actually, their greatest strength. Here is what she said.
Meet Life Coach Tammy Goen:
Name: Tammy Goen
Pillar: The Heart
Who is this coach for: Mainly highly sensitive people who want to feel less stressed, overwhelmed, or anxious, and find their true strength.
How they can help: By using techniques like EFT or Tapping to identify and shift trauma residue that keeps us stuck, also, mindfulness meditation and guided imagery among the many.
First of all, how are you and your family doing in these Pandemic times?
While my longing for connection has been challenged during this time, as an introverted Highly Sensitive Person the increased alone time and decreased activity have actually resonated well with me.
I’ve learned to reach out more, virtually and by phone, with those in my extended family and inner circle that I don’t see regularly and that’s been a nice addition.
One of the most challenging things for me, and many, is the decrease in hugs. Physical human contact is so important.
How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your clients? Did it affect you at all?
The effects are so varied.
Some have relished the alone time and the calmness of localized life, some are affected greatly by the divisiveness and chaos of the country and world, some have struggled with setting boundaries and finding solitude while spending almost every minute with family.
As a result of everything, I think people are experiencing the urge and need to finally pay attention to their own needs and actually create their lives rather than allowing expectations, habits, and the status quo to dictate.
What are the biggest lessons that you learned in this pandemic?
Make sure to reach out to others to stay in touch and continue the connection even when we can’t see them in person.
Focus often on the things that make us happy and let go of everything else.
Choose love over fear.
The Origin:
Tell us about you, your career, how you started with your coaching career?
I always saw myself as a helper and from the time I took my first college psychology course, I knew it would be my career path… to help others.
I worked for many years counseling survivors of trauma until I quite suddenly reached burnout and had to shift my career focus.
Only years later did I become aware of the High Sensitivity trait and realized why I wasn’t able to maintain my work as a counselor.
Being unaware of my needs as a Highly Sensitive Person, I had chosen a very intensive subset of clients without creating strong energetic boundaries and intention.
Many years after shifting my helping career to massage and energy work I began to miss working at an emotional level with clients.
As a counselor, I had focused a lot on changing mindset to change behavior (cognitive behavioral therapy), combined with the energy work and various mindfulness and meditation programs I’d learned, it was a natural fit to shift into holistic coaching and incorporate all of these modalities.
Prior to my shift to coaching, I became aware of the trait of High Sensitivity, and not only did I understand my burnout while counseling, but my whole life came into focus and made sense.
Highly Sensitives process information more deeply, thus things affect us more, we have a harder time letting go or ignoring things, our emotions can be intense, we feel energy intensely, and are seen as ‘too’ sensitive in the world.
This knowledge helped me reframe my whole life to that point. As my coaching practice grew, I began to recognize that the majority of my clients were also Highly Sensitive Persons, or HSP.
I began to focus primarily on working to help other HSPs decrease overwhelm, develop strong self acceptance and self love, and realize that their sensitivities can actually be their Super Power.
What was your biggest obstacle that you had to overcome in your life that made you who you are today?
My lack of self worth was always my biggest obstacle, and when I discovered that I wasn’t crazy or weird or somehow wrong and needing to be fixed… I was just Highly Sensitive, my self validation and worth increased monumentally.
It was especially helpful to learn that it wasn’t just me. 20% of the population experiences life in a similar way, and it’s a genetic trait… just the way we’re wired.
I learned to honor my Sensitive self and discovered how I can use, and have been using, my sensitivities to help others and have a very rich life experience.
The Coaching Style:
How do you innovate with coaching your clients?
From my holistic approach, I help clients address emotions, lifestyle, mindset, patterns, relationships, and spirituality.
Through my HSP filters, I can really understand what they’re going through and sense what is helpful for them and I incorporate an eclectic range of tools, including EFT or Tapping, meditation, and inner child work, as well as energy healing.
What’s unique about your coaching approach?
As a Highly Sensitive Person, I understand other HSPs… what their experience is like living in a world that’s 80% not Highly Sensitive.
When they share their struggles, I get it. My trait also helps me understand non HSPs.
I use not just one, but many tools and approach solutions from many sides. Every journey is different, as every client is different.
What benefits do your clients get after working with you?
Feeling less stressed, overwhelmed, or anxious.
Feeling confidence in setting and maintaining boundaries and honoring themselves at all times.
Also, feeling validated from within regardless of what others are doing or saying. Being able to honor their sensitivities and allow them to be the strengths that they are, so life is peaceful, joyful, and rewarding.
Do you use any specific tools to be efficient with your clients?
I use many different techniques, but find EFT or Tapping, to be particularly helpful in identifying and shifting unhelpful beliefs and trauma residue that keep us stuck and repeating the same patterns. Mindfulness, meditation, and guided imagery are also very powerful.
The Impact:
If you had a super megaphone that, when you speak into, the whole world will hear your message, what would you say?
If you’re Highly Sensitive… celebrate that!
You’re not weird, wrong, ridiculous, needing to be fixed, or ‘too’ anything…
You have so much to offer the world.
What is the greatest lesson you have learned in your life?
In order to be the person I want to be, in work and in all of my relationships, and for the world as a whole, I first have to take care of and honor myself.
Your final thoughts?
Life is challenging for everyone right now, and it can be even more so for HSPs, but it is possible to not just survive, but thrive as a Highly Sensitive Person.
Where Can You Find Tammy Goen?
If you liked this interview and it resonated with you, go and check Tammy’s website at https://lifescape-wellness.com/ or, you can visit her linktree and see all the ways you can connect with her.
She is also active on YouTube, so make sure to check her channel, you’ll find videos about HSPs, meditations, and different techniques that can help you. It was an honor having this interview with her.