How does one differentiate the need for formal education in trauma healing as mandatory versus optional? I have been thinking about how Americans and most first world countries have been so inundated with the idea that someone must have gone to university to be taken seriously in mental health, and I can’t help but wonder the authenticity of it all. I think about how an old man in Bali healed my body; he a master of physical manipulation with no education and little understanding of my native tongue. I think about the plant medicine experience in the middle of Asia that led me to one of the most healing experiences of my life. I think about my first mentor and coach who dropped out of college but forever changed how I feel about myself and the world. And today, to some extent, I follow in their footsteps as a coach and mentor. To be clear, I do not have a college degree, but I have spent thousands and thousands of hours over the last decade being buried in both the academic and non-academic literature of the human being. In particular, I stepped into understanding the human brain and body systems as a way to heal myself.
I think about the people that I have learned the most from in the world of mindset and healing, and the ones that have had the most lasting impact on me are those that, in a practical and real-world sense, have done the work, created change, framed an understanding, and lead through example. So often, we are faced with checking credentials and let me say this I know from first-hand experience that some academics are not good at their chosen profession in the mental health field. In a pill-first, ask questions later mental health environment, I often wonder who we should be listening to.
I know without a doubt that in some modalities, I want someone to be licensed or have a degree, but in coaching and mentorship, there is no ultimate legitimate coursework for this. Sure, there are certifications. I can buy one from Udemy right now for $2.99, but what does that even mean. In the scope of trauma work, it means jack shit. So, why are we so tied to this idea that the baseline for anyone to create change in the world may be associated with the idea that they took a test? Many of us, myself included, took the tests on the streets, in the homes, and in the library to reshape ourselves and grow as human beings. Some of the people that I look up to the most in the mindset and trauma healing field didn’t graduate high school; hell, I barely graduated myself.
There is without question a place for collegiate and professional qualifications across the board in all professions and all walks of life, but it shouldn’t be the precursor for legitimacy. How else do we end up with crooked lawyers, pill-pushing doctors (yes, I believe there is a place for medication), the therapist who falls asleep during sessions (this happened to me), and book cooking accountants? Are these people the minority? I hope so.
I get asked frequently if I have any qualifications to be a coach for adult survivors of child abuse and I can’t help but ask myself what determines if someone is qualified to help someone through an experience that they have survived? I can’t help but think about Jesus, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, and the millions of other people who decided that they felt a calling to do something good with what they knew and understand of the world around them.
My point is simple: I believe that we all have a calling and should take up the mantel for what we believe in. We all, in some sense, have recited the Hippocratic Oath. And this line often comes to the forefront of why I do this “I will remember that there is an art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.” A little understanding is often the catalyst for massive change. For me, I recognize understanding to be a call to education. May education outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug. I say this all with the knowledge of the fact that nothing about life is one-size-fits-all.
We as people have to do our due diligence in deciding who we follow, who we learn from, and from who we distill life’s intricate lessons. Every day thousands of people interact with my posts, read my blogs, listen to my podcasts, and read my book, and it is such an honor and a responsibility that I have chosen to share. But why do they do that? I guess the same reason that I follow suit with the people that I seek understanding from because, in my heart, I know that they are doing their best and that their efforts impact my life somehow for the better. I don’t ask them for credentials or for some document that hangs on their wall. I seek their authenticity and their truth, and for me, that’s enough. Would I let them operate on me, file my taxes, or defend me in court? Probably not, but by now, you get my point. As I continue down this path, the only thing that I can genuinely promise is to do my best at all times and with that to always put understanding, patience, and truth first.
Until next time my friend…
Be Unbroken,
-Michael
P.S. You can take my brand new 1-hour course: The Key to Healing for FREE. Click Here:www.linktr.ee/michaelunbroken
Michael@ThinkUnbroken.com
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