How to choose a Human Design Expert
5 tips to help you pick the right specialist for you
Are you really new to Human Design and wondering who the heck to listen to when there are so many people teaching HD? Where do you even start?
Or if you’ve been Googling for a few days or weeks or even months already you might have discovered they don’t all agree! So who’s right? Who do you trust?
In this article, I’m going to share 5 tips to help you to pick an HD guide who is right for you. Please know, from the outset, that I’ve been learning about, applying and embodying Human Design in my own life for almost 8 years (at the time of writing) and teaching it for almost as long.
Now before we talk about those five tips, you probably need some context…
If you may haven’t discovered it already, you’ll soon realise that not all Human Design experts agree on the way that Human Design should be taught.
Even if you get charts run by several different experts, as long as the raw (birth) data you’ve given them (or you entered yourself) is the same, the charts should be pretty much identical (bar a few stylistic changes). So the chart doesn’t change. But depending on the human you’re working with (or the blog post you’re reading or the video that you’re watching) the interpretation of that chart could be wildly different.
It is important to note that, broadly speaking, there are two main schools of thought in the Human Design field.
Some people feel that we need to teach it exactly the way that Ra Uru Hu taught it from the point where he channelled the Human Design System in January 1987. And then there are other people who have taken the work of Ra and have either simplified it or layered it together with other tools. There are now, more than 35 years later, multiple versions of Human Design because, while the chart stays the same, each new HD expert brings with them their own human perspective.
Which way is correct? Well, that depends on who you ask.
The view I hold is that there are many, many, many ways to approach this body of work, just like there is in Astrology or any other tool that can be used to help people to better understand themselves.
For you, it’s important that you work out who is correct for you to learn from. So let’s dive into these tips now.
5 tips for picking the right Human Design expert for you
- How long has this person been learning about, working with and teaching Human Design?
What you’re looking for is how long have they consistently been experimenting with their Design and actively engaging with the work.
If they are really new and really excited and have only been learning about it for six months they’re not going to have a very embodied understanding of Human Design. Sure, their enthusiasm might be contagious, but there’s going to be a real limit to how deeply or competently they can guide you.
Whereas someone who has gone through formal training over several years, as some people have, then they’re going to know a lot more.
So do some digging around(or ask the question about) how long this person has been working with and learning about Human Design. Often they’ll have it on the About Page or their Bio or you might hear it in the introduction to a podcast interview or read it in their HD Specialist listing in a directory.
2. Have they done some kind of training?
These days there is everything from very short courses on Human Design all the way through to seven years of certification training with the International Human Design School and everything in between.
It’s worth noting that there are multiple teachers who don’t ascribe it to the way that Ra originally taught Human Design. They don’t agree with some of his perspectives and his view on the world. And while they love the tool (HD) they have chosen to interpret and approach this body of work differently. So there are now several people around the world who have been teaching Human Design for over 20 years who run their own certification programs and have their own communities of students who are Human Design experts in their own right. So that’s something to be aware of.
Now, because there is no way to regulate the teaching and sharing of Human Design, pretty much anyone can call themselves a Human Design expert. (This is the same issue we have with Life Coaching, NLP, EFT tapping and countless other tools and systems for supporting people in this broader “personal development” industry; their use is not regulated in a lot of countries).
So someone could have read a book on HD yesterday and then start teaching you what they learned today. This makes it a little bit difficult for you as a consumer. So see if you can dig around or ask the question: Have they done any formal training? Or how did they learn about Human Design?
Now, for the record, I have seen some amazing resources created on Human Design by people who have done no formal training. But for them to create such great stuff they have spent years consuming books, videos, mini-courses, group programs and other HD materials and then focused on applying and embodying the work in their own life.
I’ve also seen other people who’ve taken a huge amount of formal training and even multiple high-end courses, and I would not ever send them a client (or go to them myself for that matter). The reason? They haven’t embodied what they’ve learned so they’re teaching from the textbook in their head.
So it’s not necessary, in my opinion, that somebody has done a lot of formal training but it is important to ask the question or to get curious: How did they come to know this information they want to teach me?
For me, for example, I’ve been learning about, applying and embodying Human Design in my own life for almost 8 years (at the time of writing) and teaching it for almost as long. (Note: I was one of those very enthusiastic people who wanted to teach HD to the moment I learned anything at all about it! So I get these people, but I just wasn’t that good and now I get why!)
During that time, I have done some formal training with Karen Curry Parker who learned directly from Ra about 23 years ago (at the time of writing this article). I have also done a truckload of self-study with multiple different teachers, including consuming some of Ra’s original teachings. So that’s my HD background, so now you have a sense of how I came to this knowledge before you consider if I’m the right guide for you.
3. When you learn from this HD expert how do you feel? Did their article or video or “thing” you consumed leave you feeling empowered?
There are a lot of people who teach a lot of things about Human Design that are very black and white, right and wrong, on or off. This can leave you feeling like you are powerless, that you’re a victim, or that there’s something wrong with you.
Or maybe it’s not that strong, maybe you leave the call or the class feeling somehow limited by what they’ve said. Now, there is a fine line to navigate because it can be very uncomfortable to realise you’ve been playing some other role than your inbuilt, natural truth your whole life. If you realise you have not been being yourself for a very long time that is uncomfortable!
But as you learn more about yourself, it should kind of feel like a bit like a revelation. Hopefully, you find a place with the work where you find yourself thinking something like:
“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with me after all! Well, okay, even if this is uncomfortable, I can see how vitally important this information is to know.”
Basically want to walk away from that video, article, podcast episode, coaching session or online course feeling more empowered, feeling like you have more choice, more possibility in your life and like you finally got some answers you have been looking for, for your whole life. That’s what it should feel like and if it doesn’t then consider looking for a different Human Design expert.
4. Do you resonate with them? Do you enjoy learning from them?
One of the things that Human Design teaches us is that we are mechanically designed to be attracted to some people and repelled by others. It’s not personal, it’s just the electromagnetics of the chart. We’re not all supposed to learn from the same people. Let me give you an example from my own life.
As a Projector, I’m always studying more HD stuff (because it fascinates the heck out of me, even 8 years in). I’m always looking for great teachers and I’m forever recommending other HD experts to my own community, clients and friends. Often new teachers come to me through my community and one of my peeps may say something like this:
“Oh my God, Caroline, have you heard of so and so? They’re doing all this cool stuff in the Human Design space. They’re doing X Y Z in their business. You’ve got to check them out!”
So I go and have a look at them and maybe I see they have 10,000 followers on Instagram, a really swish-looking website, several high-end online courses and very pricy 1:1 sessions. I can see that they’re doing really well teaching Human Design to their community.
And I… don’t like their vibe at all. I find it hard to read a word on their sales page. I don’t like the way they explain aspects of the HD chart. I feel repelled. That tells me that I’m not in resonance with that person.
Whereas I’ll be guided to check out another person who may also have oodles of followers on Insta, a gorgeous website, very high-end courses, super high-priced 1:1 sessions, and… I’m lapping up every single word they’ve written.
I listen to the sound of their voice and think, “Ah, I could just listen to this person speak all day long…”. So that response from within my body tells me I am in resonance with that person and they’re someone I’m supposed to learn from and send my peeps to (when it’s correct for me to refer someone out).
So, back to you. If you are still reading this article and you’re lapping up my words then you probably resonate with me. But if you have been putting up with this, if you’re jumping ahead and feeling frustrated with me then please, stop reading this article. Go find someone else.
Because here’s the thing: if I resonate with you, I will feel good to you. You will enjoy learning from me. You’ll look for more of my stuff because it resonates with you. If that’s the case, that’s awesome. I’m happy to have you here.
Note: It’s allowed to feel good while you’re learning and while you’re being coached. It’s not school. It’s not university. You get to pick your teachers and it’s allowed to feel good.
5. Is there a time and money budget match?
First, let’s look at time: your most precious resource. Ask yourself, as you look at the offerings from the HD expert in front of you (now or any time in the future), “Is the amount of time I need to spend to consume their online course, complete their coaching program or even just listen to their video a match for the amount of time I have?”
If you have a lot of time to commit to your HD journey then you may love consuming materials from teachers who share a lot of content both in their free offerings and their paid offerings. If you don’t have much spare time, you may want to learn from someone who shares content in a microformat and gets to the point as quickly as possible.
Note: Some HD experts will offer both short-form and long-form content, short programs and longer programs, to meet both sets of people. That’s what I do as I really, genuinely love meeting people where they’re at and my Undefined Throat communicates differently each day. Somedays she wants to say a single, powerful line. On other days she wants to write a 2,000-word article ;)
Second, money: that other helpful resource. So the same questions can be (and need to be) asked about your money. Do you have a big chunk of cash that you can spend to learn about this (awesome) tool? Or do you have to learn everything for free? Or, more likely, are you somewhere in between the two?
Consider how much cash you have that you can easily part with before investing in a product, a course or 1:1 coaching. Because becoming aligned with your Human Design takes time, honey. No matter how exciting and amazing and transformational it sounds on someone’s sales page to their high-end program, it’s unlikely to change your life overnight.
You’ll have life-changing insights, yes. This will likely happen frequently, and maybe even as often as every time you read or learn something new about HD. But there’s a delay in getting those mental insights into your physical body and from there, having your physical body take different actions in your life and therefore create different results.
So before you go spending more money than you really feel comfortable with, please know this:
Over the last (almost) 8 years, I have read, watched and heard some amazing things about Human Design 100% for free and available to the general public. And over time, the more I learned about HD the more I realised that many of these articles, videos, and mini-courses were worth so much money that I almost couldn’t believe that expert was just giving it away. (That’s one very common expression of the Undefined/Open Will Centre for you: people endlessly teaching their gold for free).
I’ve also seen everything through to the opposite end of the spectrum: short online courses for several hundreds of dollars that teach the same content you can get for free elsewhere and coaching programs that are 1000’s and even tens of thousands of dollars. Sometimes I look at these people and they are true experts; they’ve been working with HD for well over 7 years, their online content demonstrates clearly to me just how embodied they really are with their own Design. These people I’m happy to send clients to and often these are the people I opt to work with myself.
But there are so many people, especially since the start of the pandemic, who are less than 3 years into their own journey with HD and it shows; they lack the depth of understanding of what they’ve been learning because they just haven’t had sufficient time to play, apply, integrate and embody the work. So be discerning with your cash. Whether you have $10 or $10,000 to spend use the 5 tips I shared here to choose a Human Design expert that’s right for you.
Caroline.
If you like how I teach (or want the same lessons but in shorter or different formats!) then keep reading to find more resources to help you become your most authentic, empowered, conscious self.
COURSES:
- Projector Beginners Course
- Generator Beginners Course
- Manifesting Generator Beginners Course
- Manifestor Beginners Course
- Reflector Beginners Course
- All courses
COACHING:
- Beginners Chart Reading — a private, recorded session where I walk you through the most important aspects of your chart. Designed for the newbie to Human Design.
- Live Your Design — you know a little or a lot about your chart but you’re struggling to live it! This session is designed to help you apply your chart to your real life.
WRITING:
