Mentorship with Anya

Learning from Anya as a mentor has been a joyful and enlightening experience. Not only did I learn so much about the method, Anya's delight in the learning process itself is inspiring. She truly models the way we can all engage in the present moment with curiosity and openness to new possibilities. Anya has a gift for listening to the learner's progress. I felt like she was balancing offering me information, with listening for my moments of insight as well as areas for growth.

I was able to dive deeply into identity work and apply it to my own life and the experiences of my clients. I felt I was engaging in two simultaneous currents of understanding at the same time: method and theory. Anya offers such an abundance of methods and strategies for guiding clients through the inquiry process. I feel prepared with a varied toolbox of options for how to structure the paths I guide a client down. This gives me the ability to choose from many methods based on how they match and are called for in a specific situation and person. And the current underneath all of these methods, is the power of deeply understanding and living the theory of identity work. Identity work is ultimately a way of being present in life, and so I can always lean into living the core concept of Identity Work in any moment with clients. I find that this stance gives me more access to intelligence and intuition, and I even feel more at peace, I enjoy the process, and I feel energized after sessions rather than depleted!

Anya has helped me to understand how I was compartmentalizing and separating different aspects of myself and my intelligence in my life and in my work. Specifically for me, I was creating divides between logic/mind and embodiment/intuition/spirituality. We of course were able to use identity work as a path to gaining insight about this reality I was creating, and I opened myself up to allowing my true self to arrive in each moment without this divide. Ultimately, the felt experience of this change feels similar to what I think of as the primary result of identity work: I now witness and act from a place of more ease and confidence, and I feel braver to be and to discover my true self in each present moment.

As I begin to use identity work with clients, I find that we come to the root of issues much more quickly. I feel empowered to offer clients with a possibility that goes beyond just coping with their current reality. As someone who has extensive training and experience as a trauma therapist, I have noticed that my expertise before identity work has primarily been to get clients to a place of relief from pain. Identity work also has that effect, but it has additionally provided me with the step that comes after that -- the part where clients get to become truly liberated and empowered to live their lives with joy and enthusiasm.

I describe to my friends and colleagues that the main reason I signed up for this mentorship is because Anya has "figured it out." Anya presents us with a door I didn't exactly know I could open. As Anya has shared herself, there may be many ways to get to these insights, but my experience of Anya's method of identity work engages all of the parts of being human. Some other methods I have engaged with seem to only focus on one or a few of these: mind, body, emotion, spirit, consciousness, to name a few. I have learned and felt more viscerally a sense of wholeness, oneness, and connectedness of myself and my reality.

I feel very happy with the time and money that I invested in this training program. It has deeply changed me, and as I said above, it has opened a door. Anya appears to hold the importance of this choice to invest in the process with a real reverence for how important the learning process is. She has given me space to flourish in the unique ways that I will move with this knowledge in the world, and I experience a genuine delight for me as she witnesses my growth.

— Tul W., Identity Work Coach