Today we’d like to introduce you to Carol Holguin.
Hi Carol, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in a large family. I was the sensitive, awkward kid who didn’t quite fit in, so I tried to shrink into the background. I felt others’ feelings. So much so, I never knew which were mine. It was confusing and, at times, overwhelming. As a teenager, I found that alcohol tamped down the sensitivity, gave me a sense of “me-ness” that was freeing. It allowed me to fit in without the overwhelm.
At age 31, I was newly divorced, newly sober, and desperate to figure out a new life plan. I had hit bottom. I wanted to figure out who I was, needed to find work that paid decent money, and afforded flexibility to be available to my kids. I chose massage therapy, thinking I could get my license within a year and be off and running. What I didn’t know at the time was that massage therapy would set me on a path of working deeply with others and with myself.
My first paying client was an incest survivor whose therapist suggested she get bodywork to help her integrate the work they were doing in their sessions. This was way before somatic therapy was a thing. I found that being present as a compassionate witness for this deeper work was my sweet spot. My sensitivity was not only helpful, but necessary. I loved helping people find a sense of safety in their bodies. This connection through the body led the way for agency and peace of mind for my clients, and had a profound effect on the integration process.
In 2014, I returned to my massage school and learned Trauma Touch Therapy™ – a somatic therapy focusing on releasing stored trauma from the body. I earned my certification, which validated and deepened the process I had been doing with clients for over two decades.
I came to realize that the process also helped clients to release limiting beliefs and inefficient coping skills, opening blocks to creativity. When we can sit with the discomfort of memory, emotion, and the corresponding sensations in the body, the body can let go. And we are left with this space in which we can make different choices, take different actions that align with a deeper inner knowing.
In Body to Soul Coaching. I help people learn the tools to self-regulate, to explore their deeper landscape, and to align with the deep-down knowing of who they truly are.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t think anyone walks a smooth road all the time. Mine certainly had its bumps and twists.
The personal struggles – financial, emotional, romantic, and physical – seemed to be constant companions on my journey. However, each experience took me deeper. For that, I am grateful.
I took on different jobs to help pay the bills – I coached swimming, sold cars, and directed resort spas.
In 2002, I returned to graduate school and earned my Master of Counseling degree, thinking I would become a psychotherapist. But after a year of counseling psychiatric patients and then chronic pain sufferers, I returned to massage therapy, knowing that the body held secrets that the mind couldn’t access alone.
I knew that the skills I had were solid and helpful, but I struggled with how to market what I do.
In 2018, my husband and I moved from California to Wimberley, Texas, excited to become part of a small-town community. And then COVID hit and shut everything down for a time.
I finally opened my practice here in Wimberley a little over a year ago, sharing space with two women in the healing/personal growth space. I have found my home here.
We’ve been impressed with Body To Soul Coaching, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Body to Soul Coaching is a somatic form of personal coaching that helps you to access and release the learned patterns of thought, belief, and behavior that keep you stuck or cause you overwhelm. Perfectionism, Impostor Syndrome, procrastination, to name a few. But also traumas we experience as adults – toxic work environments, abusive relationships, or a culture that doesn’t value or respect the body. We overextend, overwork, and overwhelm our nervous system with unrealistic expectations. We people-please or shut down to have some semblance of control and agency. What we need is to slow down, get still, and allow our bodies to speak to us.
In coaching, we work with whatever comes up that day, showing my clients that there is no direct path to releasing, no expected way. No right or wrong. Only their experience. We may use play, movement, or art to help loosen the reins a bit. I encourage my clients to follow their body’s impulse to move, to vocalize what is coming up. I hold space for what comes up – no judgment, no “figuring out”, the client and I are a team in this journey. And my part is to be a compassionate witness to the beautiful work they are doing.
I guess you could say I am known for holding a safe space for my clients to experience and go with whatever comes up. I am always amazed at the body’s ability to show the way. I am always thrilled with my clients’ joy and expansion as they start to unravel years and decades of limiting patterns..
I offer individual coaching and am working on a group coaching program. I also offer Trauma Touch Therapy™. On my website, I offer a self-paced audio course focusing on grounding, awareness-building, and the basics of somatic exploration. I offer a 90-minute free consultation to see if this work is a good fit. We can do this in my office or via Zoom. (It is helpful to experience 2-3 in-person sessions, especially at first.)
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
One of my favorite childhood memories is a family vacation to Texas. I had five siblings, so we rarely took family vacations. But this one time, we flew from Atlanta, Georgia, where we lived, to Houston, Texas. All eight of us on a plane! I was about 12 years old.
We rented a car in Houston and all piled in. It was hot and crowded, and we bickered and fought with each other. But we drove to Luling to visit my Mom’s parents on their ranch. We played with a litter of barn kittens, swam in the river at the back of the property, saw the Milky Way at night, and saw fireflies! We met cousins we’d never met. It was magical!
Then we drove to El Paso to visit with my Dad’s parents. My Grandfather drove a ’57 Chevy Corvette convertible. He was funny and generous, and we met our cousins on my Dad’s side. We all went out for dinner at a little restaurant called La Hacienda, sitting around several tables moved together. There must have been 30 of us!
It was a moment that sparked my love of travel, and a rare moment filled with family and laughter that fills me up, even today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bodytosoulcoach.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/bodytosoulcoach
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/bodytosoulcoach
- Other: https://substack.com/@lettershometoself
