Meet Joan Courtney
When I am in the zone, I find that my most fulfilling times come when I am helping people end old patterns of behavior and move into new, better ways of being. I help people tap into their inner wisdom and resources and create a new world for themselves.
At an early age, I found myself in a houseful of family members with scientifically minded interests like mathematics and physiology. Designated the touchstone for feelings and negotiations, I began unconsciously determining patterns of feelings and emotions leading to their behaviors. I was mapping out how each one had a particular strategy and how they got to their goals.
When I was in college, I was fascinated by communication and psychology. The idea that there was a subconscious mind directing and controlling our behaviors was amazing to me. Taking it one step further, I wondered if there was a way to change long held beliefs and dissonant "mind chatter" to move into success. I began to make a study of people in intense emotional pain and ways to help them past those roadblocks.
Since 1983, I have helped people end old patterns and get unstuck. Having trained in the basics of hypnotherapy, I found my clients thrived with this means for the inner personal work they were doing. I also came across Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) in 1989 and was fortunate to be trained by one of its founders, John Grinder. This process is the study of excellence and helped my clients get where they wanted to be even more quickly and comfortably than before. It provided a gentle nudge to easily shift behavior from the past and move toward a specific goal.
Beginning this journey into the mind when working with salespeople, I knew that motivation and success went hand-in-hand for this group and was determined to help them in any way possible. Between creating positive scripts and helping people change their perspectives from a negative ("I just got rejected") to a positive ("three down and 17 to go for the week"), my clients often achieved a 6-figure income.
Getting more and more curious about how the mind works to help or hinder, I branched out into medical and dental hypnotherapy and enlarged my scope of practice to include referrals from physicians and medical health care professionals. Working as an adjunct or stand alone modality with clients that have FMS, high blood pressure, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, depression and anxiety, many clients have found relief. Having self-diagnosed CFS, I also successfully developed a protocol for symptoms of this malady. I remain symptom free to this day.
In working with my clients over the years, I noticed some with multiple symptoms that were seemingly related and affecting each other. The common theme of these clients was a deep sense of despair and desperation accompanied by the thought "my life doesn't make sense any more" or "I feel like a whack job." In looking further, they all shared a similar bond: they had experienced a severe traumatic event, leaving a deep empty space within the mind and spirit. Since PTSD has been so closely linked to Vietnam veterans, it did not occur to me to look into this area at the time.
Fortunately, in 2000 I met a psychiatrist who referred a veteran to me. This physician and his patient seemed to be at a standstill in therapy and medications, and the doctor was searching for some adjunct support for this man. As this veteran, diagnosed with PTSD, began describing his issues, it quickly became apparent that his pattern had the same perceptions, ideation and physical symptoms as my other clients. I began researching PTSD and attending workshops, applying all that I could to find to support my clients. Since that time, clients and their families have kept in touch, describing the many changes in their lives and feelings of quiet competence when moving into wholeness once again.