About Me
Given my experiences and life path, I now offer a whole-brained and integrated approach to the mind-body-spirit connection. Combining my expertise in change management, team facilitation, leadership coaching, self defense training, Shamanic Healing, energy medicine, brain functioning, and embodied spirituality, I offer a combination of techniques and tools that address the whole person. What I offer is practical and powerful, and integrates the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of an individual.
Some formal descriptions of some of my background and qualifications:
Change Management, Leadership Coaching & Team Facilitation
Sara graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Maryland with a major in psychology, and earned an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.
Following her graduate degree, she spent nearly 10 years as a senior change management consultant for Towers Perrin (now Towers Watson), consulting predominantly Fortune 500 businesses on large scale organizational changes and process redesign. During the last 2 years, Sara also served Towers Perrin as an Intellectual Capital Champion in Human Resource Effectiveness.
Crisis Management & Trauma Healing
Sara’s experience in trauma management is multi-faceted. She has worked as a certified rape crisis counselor in the Bay Area, supporting survivors, coordinating and working with special victims units, the court systems and hospitals, as well as supported the organization in fundraising activities.
Sara also completed programs such as Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) and IMPACT, and has been working with healers and caretakers in trauma centers and nonprofit organizations over the past decade to bring deep healing, transformation, and true empowerment to survivors and their families all over the world.
A few years later, Sara focused on bringing trauma healing into the larger DC area warrior and veteran communities, and she was named Honor Guardian for Arlington Cemetery by the Mindful Memorial Foundation for the work that she has done.
Energy Medicine & Shamanic Healing
Sara earned a certification as Master Practitioner in Energy Medicine and Luminous Healing through the Four Winds Society, one of the leading training institutions for Energy Medicine in the world. She went beyond her certification into much advanced healing methods such as Advanced Soul Retrieval, Advanced Destiny Retrieval, and Advanced Shamanic Tracking techniques.
Sara also completed private brainwave development training with Anna Wise, author of the book Awakening The Mind, to ensure that her shamanic journeying and meditation techniques are measurably and consistently producing specific changes in brainwave activity, thereby accessing specific parts of the brain appropriate for the healing at hand.
Sara is trained to work with therapeutic-grade essential oils, crystals, and Healing Touch, and she continues to train in advanced energy healing modalities.
Krav Maga & Self Defense
Sara has over 20 years of athletic experience. She earned a KRAV Maga Brown Belt and a certification as Expert II Instructor by Krav Maga Worldwide in 2010. Her teachers include Kelly Campbell, Ryan Hoover, James Hiromasa, John Whitman, Chris Torres and many more. Sara also earned a certification as Fit to Fight Coach in 2012.
Sara is an expert in advanced self defense techniques, including defenses against guns, knives, sticks, and other weapons. She is certified in handgun personal protection tactics and is considered an expert in personal safety and self defense.
In 2011, Sara opened a self defense and healing center in the heart of Washington DC with the intention to heal, transform, and empower lives (view the web archive). This Self Defense & Healing Center combined energy medicine and shamanic healing practices with self defense training. Sara since closed the center and is now focused on teaching self defense as a way of empowerment and healing. Her approach to self defense addresses the continuum, from awareness, to avoidance, to self defense and self care.
Personal Safety & Emotional Self Care
Sara served as a Senior Trainer for Personal Safety and Emotional Self Care for Global Journalist Security (GJS) from 2012 to 2016. GJS is a new kind of consulting and safety training organization comprising veteran journalists, press freedom advocates, and security training professionals.
During her time with Global Journalist Security, Sara helped activists, journalists, human rights defenders, aid workers, and numerous individuals from NGOs prepare for traveling to potentially hostile environments and helping them heal any potential trauma they may have experienced after having returned from such deployments.
Guide & Coach for Change Makers
Sara’s programs emphasize an inclusive, integrated, mindful and embodied approach to healing at the level of the body, mind and spirit with the purpose of creating ecosystems and communities that are healed, safe and thriving. Sara’s intention is to reorient all training toward true self empowerment and building thriving communities worldwide. She focuses on working with leaders, healers, instructors, teachers, activists, investigative journalists, human rights defenders, aid workers, veterans, warriors, and all those who are in the midst of intense environments and in the position to impact groups of people through their presence because it amplifies the work that she does and the impact she has on creating ways of being and living that are healed, whole and healthy in the world.
A note on my approach
My focus is on creating experiences that help you remember your place in the Universe and your innate connection to nature. This is where our power lies: in our Connection rather than in any sense of “protection”. More on that when we speak…
I combine modern science with ancient traditions along with the professional skills I have learned over the years, to create experiences that empower and enable you to gain the tools, wisdom, and knowledge you need to live your life embodied, aligned and on purpose, while creating harmony and health within yourself and in the ecosystems you live in.
My approach is based on the energetic and spiritual dimensions of life. This web of life has been explored by quantum physicists through the Unified Field Theory as well as shaman and native peoples of most backgrounds and cultures. Spiritual people feel a deep and authentic connection to life and nature, and they create personally meaningful ceremonies or rituals to honor that connection. Some spiritual people are religious, not all are. Some religious people are spiritual, not all are. Yet all spiritual people have experienced a sense of deep connection, whether they practice their spirituality privately or publicly.
My work and life experiences have shown me that individuals who practice spirituality (regardless of type) are more resilient than those who do not.
I personally do not belong to any church and I do not espouse any particular belief or religious doctrine. My approach is experiential and based on fostering a personally meaningful, safe and healthy connection to life (view my soul coaching website for more – there, I use my spirit name, Sarah Hawk).
I serve all individuals, regardless of their cultural or religious background, and you are supported in whatever spiritual connection you may or may not have or desire. I only ask that you keep your mind open to and tolerant of other beliefs.
Each person I touch is a part of a whole. As you evolve and wake up more healed parts of your self, so does humanity. As humanity becomes more healed, our Earth relatives thrive. As our Earth relatives thrive, so do we.
My experience has shown me that we each have the capability to create vibrantly healthy, sustainably authentic, spiritually fulfilled, personally meaningful and peaceful lives. It is hope and intention that I can be of service to help you activate, initiate and elevate your Walk at this time, and to build your capacity and resilience to continue to live life in this elevated way.
Why Shamanic Healing?
After my sister died in a car accident in 2005, I was diagnosed with PTSD, suffered from depression, developed cancerous cells and lost meaning in life. After a year of experiencing intense suicidal thoughts and daily flashbacks (despite having gone to psychiatrists and psychologists, following life coach advice, and reading every book I was able to find, yet experiencing no relief in symptoms), I received an “extraction” ~a Shamanic Healing method~ that can remove intrusive energies after one has experienced trauma.
After this single healing session, which lasted only 45 minutes, I never had a flashback again. This was back in 2007.
Shamanic Healing works differently for everyone, so an extraction may or may not work for your traumatic or PTSD symptoms, yet, it may. All I can say is that it was my direct experience with Shamanic Healing and Energy Medicine that I transformed my life. At the time, I did not believe in any of it, yet the effects were clear, real, felt, and undeniable.
After this experience of healing, naturally, I wanted to learn more. I continued with Shamanic Healing, ceremonies, energy medicine and brainwave development. I also used physical movement and self defense training for my anger and depression, which helped tremendously. In less than 2 years, I healed my depression and all other dis-eases.
Through my journey, I now also have a toolbox that I am able to access and use whenever life requires. I know that anything can be healed that comes up in life, and that I play a vital part in the creation of my experiences. I know when I need to ask for help, I can discern my senses with incredible refinement, and I know how to interpret and follow my intuition with clear action based in my healthy vision for the world. To me, this way of being is where personal power and true self empowerment live.
Living Life & Ongoing Conversations…
I believe that practicing what I teach and embodying my practices are essential to being of service with integrity, impeccability, authenticity, and purpose. I enjoy meditating, conscious movement, working with my Mesa (Medicine Bundle), spending time in ceremony, laughing, dancing, singing, being in Nature, and creating transformational experiences for my Community. I also advocate TimeBanking and Freecycle Networks everywhere because they have been invaluable in helping me make changes to simplify my life and be of service in a way that suits who I am.
My friend Kiki and I occasionally get together to answer questions and have conversations. These have evolved into a kind of article writing, sometimes just my thoughts, and sometimes in Q&A style. You can read more about our collaboration on the Conversations Intro page. Feel free to browse the topics or email me if you have a question that you want Kiki and I to write about. We just may!