Yeah, But Why “Learn to Thrive” as a Focus Area?

As I start getting my blog going again, I thought it would be helpful to tell you a little bit about myself and why the subject of learning to thrive is so important to me. With that in mind, please allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Rachel Pointer. I am an inspirational speaker, author, resilience coach, and anti-trafficking consultant. I have over twenty years in the social services field, primarily working with children and families involved in the juvenile justice system. I have personally experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, suicide, drug addiction, childhood abuse and neglect, and child sexual exploitation. I have earned a BS in Youth Education and an MA in Adult Education, am a Master Certified Life Coach and have several additional coaching certifications in areas such as Relationship Group Facilitation, Mindfulness, Therapeutic Art, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), REBT, Forgiveness, and Transformation. I use my personal, professional, and educational experience to advocate for systems change, inspire personal transformation, and empower survivor leadership.

And, I also am just a normal person.

I am a daughter, a wife, a mother, a sister, and an auntie. I love to hang out with my family and close circle of friends. I enjoy a wide variety of activities from gardening to concrete work, cooking and baking to beadwork and painting. I write, sometimes just for fun and sometimes because my life depends upon it. I am terrible at sitting still, I drive my wife nuts sometimes because of that. I love to be outside; I am not a fan of winter or gray days because they suck. When I am not working, I spend most of my time chasing a toddler around the house, trying to convince him to leave the stove and trash can alone.

And, I am prone to diving headfirst into destructive burnout cycles…

I wrote a deeply personal workbook on the topic and published it last year because the more I spent time with people (personally and professionally), the more obvious it became that we have given up on dealing with our burnout. And that is dangerous on so many levels. I couldn’t stay in burnout land and also be a healthy wife or mom, which was more important to me than anything else. Publishing the workbook isn’t enough for me though, the topic of burnout and resilience is so critical to the work that I do and being able to be just a normal person too that I decided I needed to take this a step further.

So, here I am, a normal person who has done and seen a lot. A normal person who hopes that we can gather here in this space and encourage and support each other. I imagine if you are anything like me, that you have seen more than your fair share of heartbreaking and blood boiling situations. I hope that in this space we can find ways to navigate through those together and learn to thrive as whole people. We always do better when we have each other my friends.

Until next time, take good care of you.

Rachel