Becoming a Spiritual Warrior

Not long ago, I found myself at a crossroads—again. You’d think after leaving my corporate job, diving into coaching, and weaving psychedelic healing and Internal Family Systems (IFS) into my life, I’d be done with the hard pivots. But the truth is, if you’re living a soul-led life, the call keeps coming.

This time, it arrived in the form of a woman named Kathleen Hanagan.

Kathleen is 73 years old and still on fire. Nearly two decades ago, she left her life behind to travel to Peru, where a shaman told her something that stopped me in my tracks: “The leaders have lost their souls, but the people have not.” Her mission ever since? To gather those souls and help ignite a tipping point.

That’s what her course, Spiritual Warriorship Training, is about—reclaiming our innate power and remembering who we are beyond the noise. Beyond the matrix. Beyond the fear.

What does it mean to be a Spiritual Warrior?

Kathleen teaches that we are in a war. Not a war in the traditional sense, but a spiritual war—one waged by anti-life forces that have long dominated our world. These forces show up in the systems we live in, in the technologies we blindly follow, and even in our own inner critics. As she put it, “At one point in humanity, we didn’t have an inner critic. But we grew up inside the matrix.”

This hits hard when you’ve spent years untangling from the corporate world—where I once memorized pitch decks and value props like gospel. Where I became fluent in other people’s spells. Where I learned to contort myself into strategic soundbites, leaving behind the voice of my own heart.

Now, I work with people who are also in that in-between. Who are also learning to listen inward. This training deepens my ability to walk beside them—not as someone with answers, but as someone who’s learning how to stay.

Staying with What’s Hard

One of the first things we did in the training was drop into our bodies with a Sacred Heart meditation. Kathleen’s imagery was potent: courage as blue flame, love as pink, wisdom as yellow. When these flames meet, the Sacred Heart comes alive—and we connect to something far greater than ourselves.

It reminded me of how I work with clients through IFS. We go inside, slowly and gently, and learn how to sit with the parts of us that hurt. The parts that want to run or lash out or shut down. The parts that carry the core hurts—feeling invisible, unworthy, rejected.

Kathleen’s approach mirrors this inner work. She speaks of staying in the sensation, not getting lost in the “why,” and tending to what arises with fierce compassion. “Feel it,” she said. “Then ask: What do I do about it?”

No More Spiritual Bypassing

What struck me most was her absolute refusal to sugarcoat. Kathleen is clear: this path isn’t about bypassing the world’s pain. It’s about being with it, eyes open and heart intact. As one of my favorite IFS teachers, Robert Falconer, says: “Every culture has a name for dark forces. We’ve just stopped believing they exist.”

In this training, we’re naming them again. Not to feed fear, but to remember our power. We’re learning that the most radical thing we can do is breathe and feel. That holding ourselves with compassion in a world that thrives on mind-over-body is not just healing—it’s revolutionary.

What I’m Bringing Into My Coaching Practice

This training is helping me be more present with discomfort—in myself and in my clients. When someone arrives to a session overwhelmed by fear, heartbreak, or rage, I no longer rush to fix it. I invite us both to pause. To listen. To stay.

I’m integrating practices like Ho’oponopono, a prayer of forgiveness and wholeness, to help people reconnect with their own sacred center. I’m guiding clients into the body more and more—not to analyze, but to experience what wants to be seen and loved.

And most importantly, I’m remembering that healing isn’t about reaching some perfect version of ourselves. It’s about remembering the truth: we are already whole.

As Gabor Maté reminds us, “Trauma isn’t what happens to you. It’s what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.”

Through this work, I’m not just coaching from tools—I’m coaching from embodiment. I’m becoming the kind of guide who walks with people through their most tender moments, because I’ve walked there too.

And that, to me, is the work of a Spiritual Warrior.