Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kelsay Myers, Founder of Dialogical Persona Healing Arts, located in Larkspur, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I founded Dialogical Persona Healing Arts on February 24, 2020, to serve those who are unfolding in their lives and relationships by offering Soul-based Coaching, transformative inquiry, and energy work while I finished my doctoral program, practitioner training, and personal embodiment process. Little did I know that in a matter of weeks, an international pandemic would change the world and lead to many people needing extra support in making the transition from the pre-pandemic world to one full of uncertainty, anxiety, and concern for ourselves and others' well-being. In the past two years, my business, skills, embodied practice, and personal growth has flourished. The integration I've experienced through moving, writing, drawing, dialoguing with, and embodying the symbols and metaphors of my soul had allowed me to trust and have more confidence in myself than I imagined was possible, as well as be okay with uncertainty and not knowing what's ahead at a time when we all were thrown into a state of not knowing what was happening in the world. In the words of the late Joan Didion: "We tell ourselves stories in order to live."

Our pandemic world has made us aware of many stories on a large and small scale. We all have preconceived ideas, or stories, that we tell ourselves, which allow us to go on from day-to-day. Some result in wonderful outcomes. . .some not so much. Some may be in conflict or tension. . .some allow for peace of mind. By taking the time to inquire into what our own experience is, it can have the effect of empowering, validating, and connecting us with all the parts of ourselves that want and need our attention. I see these stories as unexpressed aspects of ourselves, which I call "personas." In my work, whatever these personas feel, and experience is welcome to be seen and have a voice. My multimodal expressive arts coaching programs offer a transformative space to meet, move, dialogue, release and grow these personas through their embodied expression and integration. It can be intense and involved work, and I guide my clients in their unique and singular process, holding a compassionate, trauma-informed container.

My vision is to be of service to others and guide them in their own journeys of embodiment, growth, sovereignty, liberation, confidence, clarity, soul metaphors, restoration of voice, self-purpose, belief, and trauma integration using my own journey as a model. I am continuously looking for new opportunities for my business to unfold as my clients and I do. And my offerings and ways of serving my communities keep expanding and renewing in response. In addition to Soul-based Coaching, I now offer two other signature coaching programs: Write, Embody, Heal, and Mirrors of the Soul, two self-paced online courses in expressive arts, and a group coaching program for Korean adoptees called s(e)oul expressions.

Tell us about yourself

Trust, surrender, and being okay with not knowing were not easy for me as a Korean adoptee who relinquished at birth. I've been trying to learn about who I am and what my place in the world is through reading, writing, art, philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and an openness and curiosity for looking at myself and into myself that have formed the core of my identity from a very young age. But it wasn't until I learned how to be in my body and move with what it has been holding for more than thirty years that I felt like a whole person. And by the whole, I mean a person who is in touch with and attuned to what they feel in addition to what they believe, a person who experiences sensations, tingles, warmth, numbness, coolness, bubbles, gooeyness, and energy shifts in different parts of her body, sometimes simultaneously, and sometimes still nothing at all.

I am truly motivated to bridge the fields of healing, education, and the arts in practical ways for my clients. A scholar-practitioner, I bring several years of training in the healing arts through the Tamalpa Institute Life/Art Process®, The Academy for Soul-based Coaching, and integrative somatic trauma therapy modalities, as well as many more of my own personal experience and research in conscious dance, narrative therapy, and object relations. I also hold dual MFA degrees in Creative Nonfiction and Poetry from Saint Mary's College of California and am currently a Ph.D. student in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. My work and research provide a mirror to show clients what it means to be human in our current cultural and social moment. And to be human is to integrate the body, heart, and mind to invoke a feeling of openness, exploration, and safety for all parts of the self to be encountered and expressed in multiple ways.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishments are when I see the transformations my clients want to have to happen in a 1:1 coaching session or workshop. Seeing change, growth, and progress as it's happening for someone gives me the hope and faith in the human spirit and the human condition that makes this life so fulfilling.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

One of the hardest things for me about being a business owner is to stay on top of the algorithms and trends and navigate the various ways of finding more outreach to get my message across. Being able to consistently reach the people who are ready to transform in their personal and professional lives, within their relationships, and have deeper intimacy and connection with themselves and their loved ones can be difficult, especially as a new business and solopreneur. I am taking it day-by-day, though, and allowing it to unfold as I find more and more opportunities and platforms to begin developing these relationships.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Ask yourself what creativity means for you? And what being in business means for you? Look at any words or definitions that overlap. You might be surprised at the result. I've found being an entrepreneur is the most satisfying use of my creativity in all of its expressions.
  2. Have an organized structure for yourself within your business and daily practices, but allow for spontaneity, flexibility, and change. Success is in both having a clear direction and in allowing for a certain mysteriousness and unknown possibility.
  3. Have fun with the ups and downs of your business! There is enjoyment in being able to sustain and ride the waves in whatever way they rise and fall for you. All of it is part of the growth process.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.dialogicalpersona.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DialogicalPersona
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dialogicalpersona/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebowlerhat
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dialogical-persona-healing-arts/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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