Peaceful Power with Kirstine Keel
I AM HERE TO HELP
To love and be loved – isn’t that what we all desire? Instead, are you having thoughts of never being good enough, feeling insecure and defensive? Are you feeling depressed, anxious, or overwhelmed with challenges that keep recurring? Difficult family relationships bring more conflict and stress with events such as divorce and the death of loved ones. Therapeutic experience and spiritual coaching are what I’m offering to conquer and overcome all these experiences. Lives are transformed with a sense of power, peace, and happiness.
KIRSTINE’S SPECIALIZED TRAINING and INTERESTS
Kirstine Keel, Clinical Mental Health Counselor
and Spiritual Coach
Professional Therapeutic Experience
Trauma: Van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score in-person course; Dr. Russ Harris – The Happiness Trap Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) course
Grief and Bereavement: Dr. Russ Harris, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy course
Shame and Vulnerability: Dr. Brene Brown – Braving the Wilderness course and facilitates the 12-week course from her book, I Thought it was Just Me (But it Isn’t)
Couples Therapy: Gottman I and II in-person course; Dr. Sue Johnson – Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) course
Addiction: My personal and professional experience – member of Al-Anon and Adult Children of Alcoholics ACA.
Domestic Violence: Certified through 2019 – Individual and Group therapy
Meditation Practices: Tara Brach course; Qigong on-going practices with Master Mingtong and Holden Qigong
Teaching: Prior Multiple Subject Teaching Credential in California and Utah – K, 1st grade, and 3rd grade
Artist: Oil, pastel, and watercolor portraits and landscapes
MISSION
My mission is to guide with kindly light in creating Peaceful Power within individuals – to give them the ability to create enduring relationships with a sense of belonging, and experience the vital and meaningful life they desire.
VALUES
Spiritually centered – to be in the present and guided by a Peaceful state of mind
Courage – a commitment to act with faith
Loving – to act with gentle kindness and forgiveness
Patience – to live with acceptance of our emotions in the present moment
Flexible – to be curious and open to change
Grateful – for the journey
“Kirstine, you could relate to and understand what I was
experiencing. I felt very comfortable talking to you.
I have learned to
create my world without shame.”
Dorothy Jolley
Ph.D. Psychology
This list of six values has taken me many hours of study and contemplation to create because it also describes my ability to be emotionally competent as Gabor Mate describes and they also coincide with Steven Hayes’s six processes of psychological flexibility. I find it to be the way I have increased my ability to love and be loved.
- Spiritually centered – to be in the present and guided by a peaceful state of mind. As we start our day or want to return to a more comfortable emotional mindset, applying this value gives us the opportunity to be filled with peace and happiness. We connect with the part of ourselves that is divine – our spirit through prayer and/or meditation. Steven Hayes describes this as contacting the present moment with self as context – from the context of our spiritual self. When I am in this mindset, I am more likely to make healthier choices in how I communicate, no longer feel anxious and receive guidance.
- Courage – a commitment to act with faith. Faith is a powerful feeling and motivating force that enables me to create and obtain what I desire. When I replace faith with doubt, I can feel how my body responds – the energy in my heart and gut feel faint. Then I know I’m in a state of fear. So, I return to my divine source, regroup, and ask for guidance. Faith returns and I can move ahead. This is committed action!
- Love – to act with gentle kindness and forgiveness. When I’m in a peaceful state and using faith as my motivating force, approaching ourselves and others with gentle kindness promotes connection and belonging. It’s of prime importance and sometimes difficult when we are faced with hurtful situations. We are immortal beings having a mortal experience which means we will be challenged and make mistakes. The ability to forgive is part of what increases our capacity to love and be loved. This is living a value-centered life.
- Patience – to live with acceptance of our emotions in the present moment. Because of my inability to accept my difficult and painful emotions and tried to bury them, I created a chaotic and painful environment. Gabor Mate also mentioned in an interview that we are the only species that create environments that are destructive to ourselves. So instead of burying painful emotions, I am able to be patient with myself and accept them in the present. Then I can do something about them. Acceptance is key.
- Flexible – to be curious and open to change. What if my emotions are coming from a painful wound of my childhood creating anxiety and having nothing to do with the present moment? We fuse with those painful thoughts and get stuck in those patterns. Then my expectation is unrealistic and won’t be met. Most of my anxiety has been caused by not paying enough attention to the source of my emotions. The ability to differentiate between present and past emotions will improve our intimate relationships because we will be focused on our present needs. We can defuse, differentiate and heal those wounds. We are free to transform those patterns into healthier paths.
- Grateful – for the journey. Gratitude is a wonderful feeling that produces happiness and joy. When we are uncomfortable with our present circumstances – frustrated, annoyed, hurt, fearful, or sad we can regroup by remembering those moments of grace received from heaven that have kept us moving forward.