It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Kevin Krall 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:41
Good morning Las Vegas it's Sondra all art with. It's where I am. today. My guest is Denise hooks. Denise is a Clinical Professional Counselor. Thank you, Denise, for coming on the show. Thank

Unknown Speaker 0:54
you for having me. I'm so excited. Man.

Unknown Speaker 0:57
I've known this woman for quite some time. I've known you since college, although we're not the same age. Yeah. to school together. Yeah. And you were, you know, just in the kind of beginning of your educational goals.

Unknown Speaker 1:17
Right, Greg? We

Unknown Speaker 1:18
met in undergrad. Yeah. Now you're an MS. In clinical professional counseling.

Unknown Speaker 1:25
Yes, yes. I finished the trauma cycle of education. Yes. No,

Unknown Speaker 1:30
you know, I gotta give the listeners some background story about us. So we went to college together, we hung out together. We were bar buddies together. And one night, which my family, especially my kids will never forget. And you know what I'm about to say, I do. This pre cheerleader, goes to my home, and does a backflip in the living room. And my kids went wild. So whenever I bring you up, I have to say, you know, the one that did the backflip? Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So with all that, Denise, we have had so many conversations, right, like personal ones. Some that I've dealt with my kids, some that have dealt with my marriage. And man, you gave some great advice. I have to say,

Unknown Speaker 2:29
oh, that means so much coming from you honestly. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 2:31
And I think a lot of it, you know, with the kids was because of the age difference. You know, it was like,

Unknown Speaker 2:38
I was like the gap in between.

Unknown Speaker 2:41
In between me and my kids in terms of age. Yeah. Yeah. So you can relate, you know, kind of both ways. So are you working with children now because you're so good at it.

Unknown Speaker 2:56
I might right now my caseload is primarily adults, however, bring the kids it is so hard to find therapists that will work with kiddos. I, I do have to preface though I am completely online. So I'm totally virtual. However, we have so much fun still, like kiddos might the type of practice that I do is really based in ancestral forms of healing. And so that really looks engaging kiddos and the expressive forms of healing. So art plays theatre, you know, anything that's fun, silly and goofy, and we can do it, you know, virtually as well. So it's a lot of fun. I love kiddos, and this is a question I just want to answer because everyone always wonders what's the youngest age that you take? And the youngest I will go is five attention span and being on the on the video, you know, kind of limits me at like five, six years old. But yes, bring me your kids.

Unknown Speaker 3:58
You know, you bring up the ancestral trauma. And then you also brought up theater. So I was watching an interview with Terrence Howard. And he was saying, you know, to work through some of that stuff. You know, ancestral or social theater is a great way to express you know, those things and work through some of that trauma. Yeah, so that yeah, kind of resonated.

Unknown Speaker 4:26
Yes, absolutely. I completely understand. I was originally a theater major. Oh, okay. Yes, I was originally a theater major and my parents were basically like, and no hate on theater majors because I love y'all y'all my people. But my parents in the day you know, my parents are in their 70s So they were like you can't make money. So like what's your what's your see? Like, that's cute, but like, you can't do that

Unknown Speaker 4:50
right now, unless you're like Taraji P. Henson. Exactly.

Unknown Speaker 4:55
Not in LA. Like where are you going? It nudged me into a different direction. And back then like,

Unknown Speaker 5:05
you know, I

Unknown Speaker 5:06
was like, Okay, well, I want to theater, but I'm going to be a psychologist. And they were like, this isn't really what we meant by. Because back then psych wasn't really taken seriously yet, either. So, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 5:18
So explain the difference. Explain the difference between a Clinical Professional Counselor and a psychologist. Like, what's the difference?

Unknown Speaker 5:28
Yes. So psychologist and psychiatrists are able to prescribe that. That's basically our biggest difference. I'm a Clinical Professional Counselor, which means I don't dab in the medicine. I'm not I don't stab with Big Pharma, we're not friends. You know, so that's like, the main difference as far as our training or professional background, you know, our clinic clinical hours that we have to get. They're all the same, pretty much. And then psychiatrists do additional work, because they have to go to med school.

Unknown Speaker 6:00
Right. But then the psychologist, so basically, you get therapy? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Got it. Yes. Now, when I called you and asked you, what type of therapy you name several things. And none of them. Am I familiar with? So? The first one was somatic practitioner. What is somatic? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 6:27
let's get into it. Yes. Okay. So a somatic response is actually referring to the response that our nervous system has to our everyday environment. So I always tell the people that I that I sit with, that your body responds faster than your brain. So this is why we have fight flight freeze or fraud mode, those are survival states that our body subconsciously goes into whether our brain has registered it or not, like our brain doesn't say, Okay, I'm gonna fight now. We just start that

Unknown Speaker 7:02
majuscule class. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 7:06
You know, you just throw hands right now, why should we get super upset? We're like, I saw red, I don't know what's happening. That's because your brain is not actually working fast enough. Your body is working for you in those moments. Okay. So what we're about somatic experiencing what we're doing. My specialty is working with people that have trauma, which all of us do. And if you're black, you have it. Okay, experience. So, yes, it's experience. And so working with people somatic response, because what happens is that when our body our nervous system goes into a response from reacting to a traumatic event, what can happen in our nervous system is that that survival state and that survival spot response that we do in that moment can get locked into our nervous system. And then if we don't the activate that nervous system response, what happens is that a temporary response turns into a long term response. And over time, because because this is not how our body is built to work for us. So over time, that long term survival state actually shows up in dis ease in the body, that can look like mental problems, that can look like emotional problems. And that can look like physical ailments, diabetes, heart issues, heart attack, anxiety attacks, you know, not being able to concentrate, not having good attention, things like this. So we we, we are really starting to learn that if we don't start here in our nervous systems. This is why we have all of these other diseases that we have learned over time how to pathologize, which is also super white supremacist, but we can talk about that on the day, but a different time.

Unknown Speaker 9:06
Okay, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 9:10
So that's the somatic experiencing, okay.

Unknown Speaker 9:15
So I get it used, you're getting people to deal with the trauma by slowing down and dealing with things so you make them more, so you have a more appropriate response. Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 9:32
Absolutely. So when is there Yeah, no, absolutely. When we're working because, go slowing down is a key part of recognizing our automatic response. So it's those subtle, those subtle things that we don't notice until we learn how to notice them. Like, you know, when someone's like, you know, well, that just pissed me off. I'm like, hold on, pause. As you're saying pissed off what's what's happening in your body's experience, right.

Unknown Speaker 9:59
Identify Buying triggers, does that correct? Right?

Unknown Speaker 10:02
We're identifying our body gearing up to survive, okay, because if we can catch it in that, we can actually have much more control over it. Because sometimes the way that we use to survive in response to a traumatic experience, one time, or at one moment in our life doesn't work for the rest of our life. And so, learning how to catch that response when it's happening and say, Oh, I don't actually need to respond this way. I know what my body's about to do in this moment for me, and it is trying to promote my survival. However, the way that it's doing it now doesn't work for me or isn't appropriate anymore. Right. And so then we can start to shift and alter and have control and notice that moment, but it's very subtle. And it takes time and practice. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 11:01
Because I know I'm too old to kick somebody's ass.

Unknown Speaker 11:06
Exactly. This thing. I love first of all, you're not old. But second of all, I love working with elderly, the actual elderly population, because that's not you. But that and the elderly population restating

Unknown Speaker 11:21
that?

Unknown Speaker 11:26
Because they, they honestly are kind of like, yeah, they're at the end phase of their life. But they also can't cope the same way they physically can't do what they've been doing the majority of their life. So it kind of becomes a result of like, yeah, like, I can't work anybody's ass like, you know, I'm 70. I'm 16.

Unknown Speaker 11:47
You got to basically just remember, exactly, so you got some other stuff. Now, you know, this is one piece of what you do. And one piece, one piece and where you do it is at elevated therapy. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Tell us about your, your agency.

Unknown Speaker 12:05
Yes. So there's kind of like a an over branching all of the parts that we're about to discuss, kind of inner weave through each other. And the over branching company is called elevate consulting, because we do a few things. Right. So part of this is somatic experiencing, and therapy. And then another part of this company is doing, working with corporations, businesses, nonprofit organizations. And what I do is I come into your company, and I observe how things are operating within your culture. And so I come to your company, and I kind of just sit back, see how the flow is. And I identify wounds, wounds within this nervous system. Because, yes, we have a nervous system within our body. But then we create these sub sectors of nervous systems and other family systems that we create through our lives. So that could be our friend family system. That could be our family family system, that could be our work family system. And so I learn your family system within your company and Corporation, and then we identify where the wounds are within this nervous system of this nuclei. And we learn how to appropriately communicate, how to have safe, vulnerable, honest, transparent communication. And I teach, like management and like the management like CEOs, anybody at the top tiers of the company, how to lead without asserting power, right? How do we how do we manage an operation without having a hierarchy and a power structure that is violent, and also based in patriarchy. And so deconstructing these ideas, and also seeing kind of this third point party come in, and have an overview of like, Listen, this is the culture of your environment. And this could be associated to maybe why we have high turnover rates, why we have people that are constantly calling in or not coming to shift and not showing up, right? Like or that could be why we're constantly in conflict with communication, or we have passive aggressiveness within our structure. Right? And so we denormalize those toxic communication styles, and we learn and build up from that structure and learn how to communicate appropriately because people don't leave. People do not leave organizations because they hate them. People leave organizations because they have management right? There's a number one reason people quit jobs or get fired from that. It's because they get to a tipping point. And it's because people don't know how to lead, because we're all working out of a power structure of patriarchy and hierarchy. And

Unknown Speaker 15:15
then all of our strengths are not in leadership, you know, when we own a business, so we need Yeah. Outside. Help, right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 15:27
Yeah, that that becomes, that's something that, I think, is one of the most like, Aha moments within companies that I have, where I'm like, Yeah, you keep telling this person to do this job. And they're clearly not good at it as somebody else that do those jobs, that like, instead of just getting mad at this person for like, not doing it the way that you want to, and like continuing to coach them, quote, unquote, coach them, right? Why don't we just accept that that's not them, because everyone and I mean, everyone. I mean, it's not everyone, but I would give it five years, it will be everyone. Everyone is neuro diverse out here. Shout out to my neuro diverse community and population because it's everybody. And so we don't work at the same structure that, you know, our coworker next to us does, like, you know, from somebody that has ADHD, don't give me five different tasks that I need to do, and expect that like all of them are going to be completed at the same rate. Right.

Unknown Speaker 16:27
That makes sense. So that's another piece of Elevate, consulting, right? Yes. Yeah. But there's a couple of other things that you do. Yeah, and we're gonna get into those. The next one is psychedelic integration coach. What do you mean by psychedelic integration? Coach?

Unknown Speaker 16:55
Yes. Okay. So this is really exciting. So I have therapy going on. And then business consulting. And then this other component is my coaching my coaching business. And this is a really fun component because, one, it allows me to work world worldwide. And two, it allows me to work in like the most sacred space that there is, in my opinion, and that is with Mother Earth, right, like in the bed. I mean, Mother Earth can get bed. Depending on if you have that eco sexuality going, Oh, make me.

Unknown Speaker 17:37
I'm drinking tea. Now we talked about talking about six back in the day. Quite a bit. Yes. We're not going to talk about that today. Okay, okay.

Unknown Speaker 17:51
Okay, so, so yes, so Mother Earth and like the medicine that she provides. So what I offer is psychedelic integration coaching. I work with a amazing tribe of women that are needed to this land and others who get sacred forms of plant and animal medicine. This can look like psilocybin, which is shrooms this can look like combo, which is poison from a frog. This can look like a backhoe or hoppy. This can look like DMT, right? MDMA? DMT, is like DMT, right? It's the root of a specific plant. And a certain it's a certain component of that. Okay, yep. And then we've got like MDMA. And, you know, we're seeing like all this, like natural this wave of like psilocybin and plant medicine, kind of going through FDA approvals and clinical trials and stuff, because it's becoming more and more, I would say colonized. But

Unknown Speaker 18:59
you're not giving people these animal and plant medicines, you're studying them or you're referring out, what does that look like?

Unknown Speaker 19:09
Yes. So, both things are happening, I am referring and I am sitting with so the tribe of women that I sit with are all native to the land, so their their medicine that they bring, so they are doing the Administering of the plant medicines or the animal medicines. And what I am doing is I'm sitting through this entire journey with you, and then and all of us together. And we start with the beginning where we like set intentions, right? Like I'm already a trauma therapist. So people that are coming to me are gravitating towards me because they've had specific areas in their life that are traumatic and that they can't really get past right. They don't understand why why this still comes up for them or why they're still super rageful and all of these things, right? So there's specific trauma that you want to work on, we talk about it, we talk about how plant and animal medicine, like which medicine might be the most effective or what what medicine is drawing, drawing to them. And we talk about, you know, doing a ceremony as what we would call it. And so, when that happens, this is when I call in my awesome tribe. And what happens is that I sit with you in the ceremony, I'm there the entire time. And I am basically like your emotional support

Unknown Speaker 20:39
to be with Manson.

Unknown Speaker 20:42
Also, with your western tribe, you know, like, they're also supporting you along the way, but you know, me, right, and I'm someone that is also like, has some clinical training in my background as well. And so, then after this, we also integrate, which is a super important part, which is why I am the psychedelic integration coach, because the integration is super important, there is no timeframe on it. And so integration can last five days, it can last eight years, it can last your whole life. What we're doing is immediately afterwards, you have this mind blowing experience, and you're like, well, all of this stuff is super awakened and

Unknown Speaker 21:21
professional, because I probably want to join in,

Unknown Speaker 21:25
I think there's so so so, so important, as we get that medicine, more more, like less stigma, and more people are willing to, to start exploring plant medicine, you know, we're seeing its effectiveness on addiction and depression and anxiety, all of these things. And so having somebody there after a ceremony like this is very important to process. How do I how do I understand, right? Like, how do I understand what just happened to me? And so that's where I and I sit with people and we just process like what happened for as long as you need it, and as long as it takes for you. So yes, it can be expensive, especially with

Unknown Speaker 22:09
the I noticed you were ignoring that for a while. I know it's got to be expensive. You got to you got the medicines,

Unknown Speaker 22:19
I say For to me, it's it's not expensive, it's accessible. But I would tell people that if you're looking to do this, I highly recommend doing it word for word of mouth.

Unknown Speaker 22:32
Lamar Odom did something like this, right? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 22:34
a lot of celebrities are doing this and have been yet do not just google and google smoogle and find some some person that you like on Instagram and be like, ooh, them like this is a sacred journey. This is also sacred medicine. This is indigenous these are indigenous practices honor the sacredness of the medicine and I highly recommend people doing it word of mouth, someone that you know, has done it, see who their sources and go that way because that's how you know if the people that you're going through are reputable. If this cost 1000s of dollars for you, I do not recommend you doing it. Because the medicine should not be that costly. It should not cost that much money to heal. It is not about it's not 1000s of dollars to do it with me. It's not even hundreds of dollars to

Unknown Speaker 23:25
do is 999 No, just kidding. You know what listeners? Do you know what you can find Denise Hawkes on my website, elevated consulting is there WWW dot Its where I am.com and you can find her under the Resources page.

Unknown Speaker 23:42
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 23:43
You're welcome, girl. You've been there since the last interview. I've been on here for three years. So yeah, I never took you down.

Unknown Speaker 23:52
I know. Love you. So happy we got to do it.

Unknown Speaker 23:57
Is there anything else you want our listeners to know before I let you go? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 24:00
If you're interested in doing a psychedelic integration retreats and it's this is for women, it is called consciousness raising, I will be having another one finally because so many people have been reaching out to me in the summertime. So June or July and if you are interested, just you know, drop a DM hit me up in messages on Instagram, and let me know and I can get you the information to register.

Unknown Speaker 24:28
Oh awesome. Cool. Well, thank you so much Denise for being my guest today.

Unknown Speaker 24:36
Thank you for having me.

Unknown Speaker 24:37
And I'm looking forward to hearing about the retreat during the summer you got to tell us about

Unknown Speaker 24:42
it. Yes, it's gonna be amazing very excited. Very cool.

Unknown Speaker 24:47
Are you going to document anything like video wise?

Unknown Speaker 24:52
Yeah, I'm gonna do some some some videoing and some photography while while we're there I already I only have like two spots left and And we already have four women signed up. So I'm really excited. And this is something that you don't have to live. You know, I know this is public and local, but you can be anywhere you can be from anywhere, can sign up for

Unknown Speaker 25:13
it is local, but however, my website, and podcast are available everywhere. So if you're interested hook up, connect with Denise from my website. All the information is there. Thank you. Alrighty, sister, we'll talk to you later. Well, 91.5 Jas, and more. This is Andrea Polare. Thank you for tuning in. And don't forget, you can find me on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon podcast. And of course, it's where I am.com Thank you. See you next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai