Hi there! I'm Loraine Van Tuyl. I am a transformational Soul Authority coach - the natural offshoot of my roles as a clinical psychologistst (Lic PhD), shamanic eco-psychologist, ordained minister, and certified Depth Hypnosis practitioner (CHT - DH is an integration of regression therapy, Buddhist and transpersonal psychology, energy medicine, and Earth-centered wisdom traditions). For more info about my unconventional past roles and career path, click About Me & My Big Why page.
I have 30+ years of professional expertise in helping gifted, neurodiverse, and creative empaths transform Sensitivity Shame© and self-blame (posing as impostor syndrome) with shame-sensitive approaches infused in my secret sauce and this core Soul Authority claim:
HEAL LOVE LEAD with SOUL AUTHORITY® is my ONE-STOP (not the same as one-size-fits-all!) transformational system for serious students and clients who are:
Many highly sensitive people (HSP) realize as early as in kindergarten (me!) that something is not quite right. I shed more tears than my siblings, friends, and cousins combined, and was flat-out told that these tears were ‘crocodile tears’ and not real. Why? Because they lacked ‘good reason’ — as if feelings ran on logic. In grade school, HSP like me often get teased for being cry babies. I was even sent to the principal's office so she could try to fix me. We often get in trouble just for being too much or too little in comparison to the norm.
Sensitivity Shame© — a term I coined to describe my experience above and similar experiences reported by the many empaths and HSP I've guided — is the direct result of the negative, limited, and/or critical ways in which caregivers and significant people early in our lives perceived us (or the people we identified with). Our sensitivity was often explicitly or implicitly pegged as "overactivity," "too intense," and "over-the-top", leaving us feeling bad, ashamed, abnormal, defective, and inherently flawed.
Sensitivity Shame© (can be disguised as a deep-seated insecurity, social anxiety, self-consciousness, self-loathing, impostor syndrome, and/or fear of failure or rejection) is hands-down the biggest blindspot and block that holds big-hearted BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) and HS healers and leaders back.
Soul Authority transforms debilitating Sensitivity Shame© and shut down into fuel that will energize your path of liberation by awakening healthy anger and grief related to the loss of your authentic self. This integral non-negotiable step (energetic boundary work) gives us the agency and audacity to reclaim our true HS self and learn to thrive and Own our Natural Genius Zone®.
Soul Authority Tip: When sacred anger and energetic boundary work is avoided, it grows into an insurmountable block that makes HSP very susceptibility to manipulative "love bombing" or "admiration bombing" by narcissists, who are well-known for being the least interested in transforming their own shame and ego-defenses. Because of self-blame and bleeding-heart tendencies, they are also prone to having a hard time discerning between carrying vs caring and often end up taking responsibility for other people's problems and/or being taken for granted.
A super empath is a well-adjusted, self-actualized empath who's masterful at transforming stress and daily overwhelm into creative inspiration for personal and collective healing. Super empaths are a lot like Mother Trees and Redwoods. They're spiritually mature, generous, and interconnected.
They're optimally wired to serve the greater good, but they're also very susceptible to Sensitivity Shame© – absorbing tension, shadow issues, and negative energy that aren't theirs due to their sensitivity, big hearts, and tendency to put themselves last.
They have trouble advocating for themselves because of their avoidance of conflict and risk. For that reason, they're underappreciated and neglected (at best) and "endangered" (at worst) especially in top positions. They need and benefit from protection, support, and empowerment that compliment their unique strengths, mindset, and lifestyle.
They thrive when able to set fierce, protective boundaries, resource from within, and use their gifts to create transformational impact through their life missions.
Wondering if you may be an empath too? Take this 2-minute free empath test and learn about common challenges that trouble empaths. Find out if you're similar to the sensitive healers and leaders I work with to help determine if we are a good match.
AM I AN EMPATH? QUIZ
As a child, I cried at the drop of a hat because I carried a lot. I spent hours fretting about a harsh reprimand or mean look or tone. I preferred to be alone and play in the magical Amazon rainforest that covers 95% of my native Suriname, imagining that I was Mowgli.
After a military coup uprooted my family, we moved to the concrete jungles of Miami. I coped with the loss of my safe sanctuary and most trusted lifeline to my true self during the awkward middle school years by becoming selectively mute, pretending not to speak English. I didn't know how else to hide.
Decades later, my rigorous studies, certification, and extensive training in clinical psychology, shamanic practices, meditation and mindfulness fundamentals, energy medicine, Buddhist psychology, regression therapy, eco psychology, and Depth Hypnosis quantum leaped my healing. Despite these shifts, I continued to struggle with public speaking (and past-life persecution) terror and resisted stepping into my calling as a transformational healer and trailblazer.
Supported by my dream team of spirit guides, I wrote and shared my story in Amazon Wisdom Keeper: A Psychologist's Memoir of Spiritual Awakening in 2017. Since then, I have talked to audiences, big and small, online and in person, on podcasts and radio shows, at conferences, retreats, and book stores. I'd learned so much about overcoming crippling public speaking fear that I even became a WomanSpeak (transformational Toastmasters) group leader for a few years!
These transformations have allowed me to reach and empower hundreds of other spiritual and super empaths— sensitive experts, soulpreneurs, transformation agents, thought leaders, executive directors, coaches, psychotherapists, and academics—over the decades in fields such as mental health, medicine, social justice, law, engineering, conservation, the arts, business, community organizing, and integrative health.
They inspired me to design my signature e-course HEAL LOVE LEAD with SOUL AUTHORITY®, which draws heavily on my professional and personal experiences and offers struggling empaths the structured guidance, skill sets, and tools they're seeking and needing. My second book, Soul Authority: Liberatory Tools to Heal from Oppressive Patterns and Restore Trust in Your Heart Compass, emerged out of this intention and work and was published in April 2022.
This how-to book aims to offer super empaths additional guidance in transforming their biggest blindspot: sensitivity shame© and self-blame. The internalization of negative and oppressive patterns has lead to a lot of heavy and stressful "bleeding-heart carrying vs big-hearted caring" and "blind vs aligned action" over the generations. I believe that when we deeply heal on the soul level and feel our sacred central tree in our inner sanctuary having our back, we once again dare to trust our big hearts and honor our needs and dreams instead of letting our wounded feelings boss us around or trying to outsmart our inner wisdom with logic.
in MindBodyGreen
If you were lost in the woods, would you follow a compass that was leading you in circles? Would you stay quiet if the guide you were with insisted that their compass was more accurate than the navigational clues you were picking up from the sun, the mountains, and the current of the river?
Of course not.
And yet, so many of us don't trust our sense of inner knowing on the journey through life.
in MEDIUM
Many highly sensitive people (HSP) realize as early as in kindergarten (me!) that something is not quite right. I shed more tears than my siblings, friends, and cousins combined, and was flat-out told that these tears were ‘crocodile tears’ and not real. Why? Because they lacked ‘good reason’ — as if feelings ran on logic. In grade school, HSP like me often get teased for being cry babies. We get in trouble for being too much or too little in comparison to the norm.
in Thrive Global
The Glitch That High IQ Can't Fix
Arianna Huffington’s signature “tough-love” intervention in her 2018 Open Letter to Elon Musk brings an important point to light. Lack of genius is not the reason why Elon’s leadership abilities are lacking and under fire (called it!)
Arianna is well-known for leading Thrive Global’s wellness revolution by challenging negative cultural trends, such as the 24/7 work ethic mass delusion and lack of sleep."
in MindBodyGreen
I was born and raised in Suriname, the most forest-covered nation in the world, with 98% tree cover. "Nature Deficit Disorder"—a term that author Richard Louv coined to describe how being disconnected from nature can harm health—was not something I needed to worry about growing up. However, it plagued me nonstop after moving to the concrete jungles of Miami, attending a middle school that had no windows, looked like a warehouse, and felt like a giant freezer.
Get started today before this once in a lifetime opportunity expires.
