HippoPress -- The Hippo -- Guide to Manchester and Nashua NH

As co-founder of Full Spectrum Wellness in Manchester, Debra LeClair has a background in holistic health and education. Her personal mission, as stated at FullSpectrumWellness.com, is “to spark hope, inspire positive progress and co-create sustainable fulfillment for those seeking to live their life’s purpose.” She became a licensed psychologist when she moved to New Hampshire in 2000 and then became certified as a life coach. She’s conducting a seminar called “Secrets to Breaking Your Own Glass Ceiling” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Highlander Inn and Conference Center, 2 Highlander Way, Manchester. It’s the first of a series of accelerated networking dinners put on by eWomen Network for 2007 on the theme “Breaking Records.”

Q: Can you tell me a little bit what your seminar at the Highlander is all about?
There’s science that backs up around what our thoughts are and what we can actually achieve. Some of these are Nike ads to some degree, but some of it’s really backed up by [science, i.e.] quantum physics can talk about the energy that our thoughts have and how we can create realities for ourselves. And basically how we do create realities for ourselves, not just if we do, it’s how we do it. But there’s a lot of ways that our thought processes, because of the way we’re conditioned, mess us up, get in our way. A lot of times, what we do is focus on what we don’t want, but we don’t realize it. “I’m so tired of just being like this, and I’m tired of never getting a parking spot, and I’m tired of not making enough money, and I’m tired of not having success!” The thing is, when you do that, that’s what becomes bigger.

I was talking to some hypnotists a couple weeks ago and one of them said, “The subconscious mind doesn’t deal in negatives.” Is that the kind of thing you’re talking about?
Exactly. They’re all in the same body of information. We’ve known that for a while, but that’s true. I’m certified in hypnotherapy as well. The subconscious, it doesn’t know how to lie, it only knows the truth. Just like the body only knows the truth ... So the idea is learning how to create an awareness of your own thoughts. It’s almost like the awareness of your own awareness, kind of appointing an observer. I know that sounds a little out there, but we tend to just go, we just do, we’re doing doing doing doing doing as opposed to stepping back and going, “Let me look at that,” but not from a way of being very critical, which is the other way when we think about what we do, we tend to be critical. This is a different way — this is a, “Let’s really look at what my thought process was” ... to get your thoughts more in alignment with that more prosperous kind of manifestation. And it could be anything, it could be manifesting the love of your life to making lots of money.

Whatever will make that person happy?
Exactly, that’s it right there, making you happy. So the idea is ... How do I start to move my thoughts into alignment? That’s kind of foreign to some people, to wake up every day and do, “I’m a millionaire,” or to try to do that thought ... so there has to be the steps along the way that will help them get to that space.

Do you make a distinction between work life and personal life in your life coaching?
There’s time when you do need to talk about them separately in order to integrate them ... sometimes what happens is, somebody’s very successful in their personal life but not in their professional life and vice versa. Okay, so what gives you confidence in your professional life that you can then bring into your personal life? ... At the same time, there are some issues where it’s important to ... talk to people about the separation between the two.

So most of your clients are looking to change big time?
Well, it’s hard to say big time. I think “meaningfully,” ... sometimes it’s a very small, internal change. ... For instance, I had somebody say, “I’m just a secretary, but I kind of like it, but I’m thinking I should go for something else.” But in talking about it, she found that there’s actually a lot of meaning for her. She realized that if she didn’t do what she did, all the doctors couldn’t do as good a job as they did, because she really kept things organized, she helped patients coming in feel comfortable, she knew she was good at that ...

Do you get people who suddenly realize through talking to you that what they’re doing isn’t as interesting or fulfilling as they might have believed it was because they were making lots of money or whatever?
Usually they already have that inkling — that’s usually why they call, like, “I have this great thing, but I want to do something completely different,” or “I’m not happy, I should be looking at all the trappings of this situation.”.

— John "jaQ" Andrews