Daily Inspiration: Meet Ali Kates

Hi Ali, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
Hi, thank you so much for having me. Yes I am happy to share about my story and what got me started in the work I am doing. My husband, Ryan, and I lost 7 people close to us within 2 years, ranging from cancer, overdose, suicide, and more. Each time I went to a funeral, I saw the difference between those who had the tools to cope with grief and trauma versus those who did not. I remember thinking, “There must be more resources for people to cope with and find emotional healing.” Fast-forward four years and my physical health had crashed and burned. I sat in an IV room for 9.5 months, 3-4x a week, 6-8 hours a day, fighting for my health. On my good days, I had a strong feeling that this experience was breaking me down to build me back into the person I knew I was meant to be. My business was born inside of that IV room. I would sit there, day in and day out, and talk to people who were also struggling. I would listen to what was plaguing them mentally and how much they wanted resources to be able to cope. The overarching theme that people need when they are healing from trauma are tools to cope. It was during my own healing crisis that I created my Emotional Health Coaching practice.

We all face challenges, but would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Honestly, no.It has been challenging in the best way possible. The challenges that I face in my business directly reflect areas of my life where I need to grow. For example, if you are a people pleaser and become an entrepreneur, that part of you will be highlighted quickly. Each time I feel like I have got it under control or I feel super confident, another challenge comes. This is why I believe a large % of entrepreneurs don’t make it past a year. It’s a lot of self-development, and it is hard. Being the face of my company forces me to dig deep and do the inner work, which I am grateful for. It is incredible what has happened with my own self-growth journey by running my business. I have never felt more aligned than I do now running my Emotional Health Coaching practice. To anyone out there that is on the fence about starting their own business because they are worried about failure, I would say this: change the storyline you are telling yourself: what if you learned? What if you grew? What if you accomplished more than you thought you could? Start there, move from that place. We all do not know what we are doing when we start out. Heck even when people are “making it” they still feel some sort of imposter syndrome. I think that is part of it, it is growth. It’s messy and uncomfortable but worth it.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in helping anxious adults heal from their emotional pain without burnout. As an Emotional Health Coach & Trauma-Informed Coach, I teach individuals how to regulate their nervous system, move the emotional charge out of their body, and help them find healthy coping techniques. The thing about trauma that not a lot of people know is that it lives in your body. Most clients that come to me are walking around with an imaginary backpack that they have shoved all of their emotional pain and trauma in and it’s physically causing issues.This is why it is key to work with a coach to help you discharge that emotional pain stuck in your body. Every single client I have had (some have been in therapy for a while) has talked about how profound it feels when they learn how to regulate their nervous system and release the emotional charge from their body. They feel like a new person. This is why I do the work that I do. I have learned from my clients, my education, and myself, that you can do so much externally for your mental and emotional health, but it doesn’t stick until you address the body and nervous system.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Being myself. Things started to shift when I fully embraced who I was and how I show up in the world. The more I show up as myself, the more it permits others to do so, too, and this is what has resonated the most with my clients.Working in the mental health industry has made me realize the importance of self-care and nervous system health, so I make sure to practice what I preach every single day. Last but not least, I have an incredible support system, my husband, close friends, and family have been there throughout the journey, cheering me on, which has been impactful.