Mental Health Champions: Why & How Dr Margit Gabriele Muller Of Coach for Mental Health Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness
An Interview With Michelle Tennant Nicholson
Being in nature has an incredibly calming effect on me. Just looking at the trees, flowers, sky, clouds, and sun — as well as birds and other animals — helps me to focus on what really matters in life. It allows us to be more grounded and reconnect with Mother Earth; something which is so often forgotten or neglected while living in big cities surrounded by buildings only. Even the Japanese practice of forest bathing highlights the importance of being in nature and reconnecting to it. So, going out into nature — even if it’s just a small park — will make a major difference to our well-being.
As a part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Margit Gabriele Muller.
Dr. Margit Gabriele Muller is an award-winning Certified Mental Health Coach who focuses on helping businesswomen that went through trauma in their childhood because of parental mental illness. To support those women in healing from their past, she created an online mental health course with private coaching called “Making Peace With Your Past.” In addition, Dr. Margit is a Master Life Coach, Professional Certified Coach, NLP Master, Certified Life Purpose Coach, Certified Mindfulness Practitioner, veterinarian, speaker, and award-winning author of the book “Your Pet, Your Pill®. 101 Inspirational Stories About How Pets Lead You to a Happy, Healthy and Successful Life.” Dr. Muller is also the Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital in the United Arab Emirates, making her the first female falcon doctor in the male-dominated world of Arab falconry.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I was born in Weissenhorn, a small and picturesque Bavarian town located in Germany. I had an enjoyable childhood, playing outdoors frequently. My life changed when my mother received her diagnosis of schizophrenia when I was eight years old — something that would forever stay with me. Though we faced some difficult times as a family, we stuck together instead of breaking down under the pressure as most families do under such circumstances.
Throughout those tough times, my little pet rabbit was always there for me. She helped me overcome my loneliness and fears. At such a young age, it’s impossible to fully understand something like a psychiatric diagnosis. Even though I read a lot of books about mental illness, the profound impact of what happened still traumatized me deeply.
Having a mental illness in a small country town was accompanied by a lot of stigmas and massive rejection of my extended family and society at large. This made it hard to have a regular life, as I was burdened with too much responsibility for someone so young.
Despite having severe nightmares for over two decades, I didn’t realize how deeply those experiences were buried in my subconscious mind. However, the love I have for my animals gave me the unconditional love and profound consolation I needed because I could confide in them all my worries, fears, and anxieties.
I initially decided to study human medicine because I thought it was what I wanted. Yet, two years in, only then did I realize that the impulse had come from a place of guilt; the feeling of not being able to help my mother more as she went through schizophrenic episodes although she always said that I helped her so much. That’s when I made the decision to change courses and study veterinary medicine instead — one of the best decisions of my life. Working with animals allowed me finally to begin to confront my trauma and make peace with everything that happened in the past.
From my early childhood experiences, I steeled myself to overcome any and all traumas. My determination led me to become The “Falcon Whisperer”-the famous falcon doctor in a male-dominated world of falconers located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
You are currently leading an initiative that is helping to promote mental wellness. Can you tell us a bit more specifically about what you are trying to address?
Because I have experienced it first-hand, I understand how tough it can be for loved ones of those with mental illness to get the help they need. So, to promote mental health and wellness, I’ve designed a program specifically for businesswomen and female entrepreneurs who are also adult children of parents suffering from mental illness.
After extensive research, I have realized that many adult children of mentally ill parents suffer from comparable issues, regardless of the mental illness their parent has. This affects not just romantic relationships, but also familial and professional ones.
Businesswomen who faced trauma as a child, are more likely to cope with different mental health concerns than others. For example, women who experienced traumatic experiences during their upbringing tend to experience more anxiety and display perfectionist tendencies. Because of this, they may have difficulty assigning tasks to employees and constructing cohesive work teams. Additionally, the high-achieving nature so many survivors exhibit can cause them to try taking on too much responsibility — a fast track to burnout. Furthermore, businesswomen who experienced childhood trauma often have difficulty trusting others — which can make networking and building collaborative relationships difficult. Because they often don’t believe they deserve happiness or success, self-doubt is common among women who have suffered childhood trauma. They may also doubt their abilities and feel like they are not smart enough or capable enough to achieve their goals. Consequently, this self-doubt can make it difficult to take risks or to put yourself out there in your career.
Many businesswomen who experienced trauma as children often lack self-worth and have imposter syndrome, which limits their work performance. They’re not achieving their full potential because of the subconscious effects of their childhood experiences. However, most of these women entrepreneurs are unaware of how those early traumas are hindering them today.
Furthermore, studies have shown that trauma during childhood raises the chance of anxiety, psychosis, OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), and bipolar disorder later on. Science shows that people who went through severe trauma as children are 15 times more prone to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
The consequences of childhood trauma are drastic, and as a mental health coach and advocate, I want to bring awareness to these traumas so that women can improve their lives.
I have created an online course, “Making Peace With Your Past”, for women in business and female entrepreneurs that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. My purpose is to help you address the universal problems we as adult children of mentally ill parents all face at some point or other. This includes self-pity, despair, anxiety, loneliness, and guilt; as well as how to break free from repetitive patterns. The course runs for 12 weeks so that the course participants can work through it gradually and thoroughly.
This class will also help you overcome bad memories and move on, understand that stigma is not a shame, and find forgiveness. Private coaching sessions using tools like inner dynamics and neurolinguistic programming (NLP) are included with this course.
I help my clients access their subconscious minds in order to process and heal the traumas that are burdening them. This is essential to moving forward without being held back by their past.
I am also a Certified Mindfulness Practitioner and provide support through mindfulness and meditation exercises geared toward those experiencing problems, with the goal of creating a healing environment. These methods include self-compassion, body scans, better sleep, and stress reduction.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
As daughter of a mentally ill mother, I understand how much stigma and discrimination is attached to mental illness. For years, I was too afraid to tell people my mother had schizophrenia. People often treat those with mental illness differently — as if they are contagious or dangerous. I didn’t want anyone looking at me with suspicion, wondering if I would develop symptoms myself.
After I processed my own trauma, I realized that many other people suffer from the same experiences and face similar issues in society. That’s when I decided to start advocating for change. At first, I met a lot of resistance and was even asked to avoid talking about such upsetting topics in order not to damage my career. However, I didn’t care because I thought it was such an important issue that it needed to be addressed regardless of the consequences.
When I started talking about my personal experiences, many people who I never thought would be in the same situation came forward. This encouraged me to pursue this path as it is so liberating to simply be who we are without hiding our authentic selves. And there is nothing wrong or bad about our experiences; instead, they can even be therapeutic. Because of this, I’m passionate about letting people understand that such situations shape our lives, but they should not control or define us.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
I have always manifested my passions and ideas, but it wasn’t until I enrolled in the Mental Health Coach training course that I had my final “Aha Moment”. I inquired about a possible slot on Tuesday and was informed that there was only 1 seat left in the class that was limited to 10 participants and set to begin on Friday. It felt like destiny. Once I dove into mental health coaching and discovered more about inner dynamics, I realized that it was 200% the right choice for me to move forward with it.
I knew that I had found a new talent with which I could serve my clients and the community at large to improve their mental health and wellness. After I started providing mental health coaching and implemented inner dynamics, I was awestruck by the progress my clients made. Normal life coaching couldn’t compare to the difference I could make in someone’s well-being with mental health coaching. Helping people in this way has become a passion of mine — improving others’ quality of life through comprehensive coaching services. I discovered that I could use my coaching talent to improve the mental health of my clients and others in the community.
By sharing my story with others, I try to serve as a role model — particularly for women who may feel like they can’t overcome their childhood trauma. I want them to see that it is possible to have a successful and happy life despite such difficulties. I want people to move away from feeling like victims and instead create better lives for themselves. I hope that by sharing my story and speaking about the often-neglected topic of childhood trauma, in general, and parental mental illness/childhood trauma, specifically, I will be able to help others revisit and process their own experiences.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
I remember that when I first started my virtual mindfulness and meditation group that accompanies my course, we did a lot of different meditation practices but focused on one main problem the participants had. Whether it was stress, anxiety, or insomnia, they could choose what kind of meditation they would like me to guide them.
For that particular group session, the topic we chose was meditation to help with falling asleep. I started with a simple sleeping meditation and planned to do more advanced sleeping meditations in other sessions. When I was halfway through the session, I noticed one participant got increasingly relaxed until she finally slid down her couch and disappeared from the Zoom screen.
I started to wonder what had happened when another participant fell asleep with her cat on her stomach. At the end of the meditation, I tried to bring the group back into the present and open their eyes when they felt ready. Only one person came back to me, saying “My dog woke me up because he needed a walk, however, I slept so well.” The other participants didn’t answer at all, leading me to decide that it was time to close the session.
The next day, I received messages from the participants who told me that they had slept through the night — something which would usually frustrate me if it happened during a session. However, this was an amazing experience for me. The group’s goal to sleep was achieved, even though this was my first time ending a session with sleeping participants. This showed how beneficial and effective those special guided meditations are.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
In 2013, I had the amazing opportunity to meet the famous motivational speaker and self-help author Dr. Wayne Dyer during his visit to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. As Executive Director of the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, I hosted a special VIP tour for him. This tour was supposed to be one hour long as Dr. Dyer had several other appointments afterward. When he arrived, we had an amazing rapport right from the start. He was thrilled to see the falcons and we talked nonstop about a lot of different things as I showed him around. I told him that I felt like there was more I could do, and he said “Let’s sit down and have a talk.”
We talked for more than two hours on the bench in front of the Falcon Hospital. At last, he said something that would change my life forever: “You are the love. This hospital shines because of your love. You have so much more to give. You will take this love with you no matter where you go.”
Dr. Wayne Dyer’s insightful words inspired me not only to help others achieve personal healing but also to use my potential to reach out to others and pursue life coaching as a career. Consequently, I underwent the training necessary to become a master life coach and Professional Certified Coach.
Dr. Wayne Dyer’s understanding of me was integral to becoming a mental health advocate and creating my course “Making Peace With Your Past”. It helped me also to share my love of animals and my profound understanding of how animals can help people through my award-winning book “Your Pet, Your Pill®. 101 inspirational story is how pets lead you to a happy healthy and successful life”.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Wayne Dyer, whose sage advice has given me a new understanding of myself and set me on a completely new path.
According to Mental Health America’s report, over 44 million Americans have a mental health condition. Yet there’s still a stigma about mental illness. Can you share a few reasons you think this is so?
Sadly, mental illness is still highly stigmatized all over the world, despite the large number of people who suffer from it. In all cultures and countries, people with mental illness are regarded as less valuable and worthy than healthy people. There are many reasons for this stigma, but here are a few of them:
A key reason for this widespread stigma is that mental illnesses can often cause delusions, hallucinations, and unpredictable shifts in personality. These understandably scare healthy people who then see those suffering from these conditions as bad, mad, or even outright dangerous. Many of the prejudices we have against mental illness are passed down from generation to generation. Parents often warn their children to stay away from mentally ill persons and their families, perpetuating this discrimination. It can be difficult to overcome these deeply ingrained biases in society.
Awareness about mental illness has increased in recent years, however, the knowledge surrounding mental illness is still not sufficient to create a significant change in society. The lack of understanding and ignorance towards mental health issues is appalling, considering that anyone can be affected by them at any time in their lives.
Furthermore, people who suffer from mental illness face challenges in both public and private organizations. Institutional stigma is unfortunately still prevalent, which limits opportunities for those with mental illness. Also, research funding for mental health illnesses is often lower than for other physical illnesses. Lastly, there are generally fewer available mental health services compared to other types of healthcare services.
Stigma can also come from those who are affected by mental illness, through self-stigma. This happens when mentally ill people or their relatives have experienced stigma and discrimination firsthand, or fear being stigmatized if their mental illness becomes public knowledge. People with mental illness often have negative self-perceptions, feeling shame, worthless and valueless. As a result, they may become isolated to hide their condition. It takes great courage for them to stand against discrimination and stigma.
In addition, negative media portrayal contributes to the prejudices and negative perceptions of the public toward mental illnesses. Even criminal TV series often depict murderers or attackers as people with mental illness which negatively influences viewers’ opinions. Instead of writing about advances in research and medication to help control mental illness, attention-seeking media outlets prefer disgusting stories involving mentally ill people.
In your experience, what should a) individuals b) society, and c) the government do to better support people suffering from mental illness?
- Individuals
It’s crucial to realize that mental illness can affect anyone. No one actively wants to have a mental disorder, both mentally healthy and unhealthy people alike. Just like it’s socially acceptable to seek medical treatment for physical ailments, we should normalize getting professional help for mental disorders. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of shame and social stigmas surrounding mental Illness globally. It is important that we show understanding, compassion, and kindness to those who suffer from mental illness. They need our full support and acceptance to ask for help so they can receive proper treatment and, with therapy and medication lead lives that are as normal as possible.
Stigmatizing and labeling mentally ill people as abnormal, crazy, or outcasts does nothing to help them. We should never forget that any one of us could be in the same situation one day. The knowledge that they are not alone — that they have support from family, friends, and colleagues — can make a world of difference for somebody with mental illness by providing them with the social support network they desperately need.
2. Society
Society’s current perspective on mentally ill people is outdated and needs to change. The prejudices and stigmatization of mental illness are prevalent, but not often talked about. There aren’t enough support groups for people with mental illness or their families, especially in rural areas. We need to open up the conversation about mental health and break the taboo surrounding it.
We need more ambassadors and role models to spread awareness about mental illness in order to remove the stigma surrounding it. Education about mental illness should start at a young age, preferably in kindergarten. Children who have parents with mental illness often suffer from a lack of understanding, help, and support which creates lifelong trauma for them. This can lead to bullying and rejection by society during childhood and later on in life.
3. Government
Proper funding from governments is crucial in the effort to achieve a better understanding and treatment of mental illness. More money needs to go towards research so that real progress can be made in finding new ways to combat these mental disorders.
The number of people struggling with mental health is on the rise, so we need additional medical facilities that provide not only treatment and supportive therapies, like handicrafts, but also vocational training for young adults with mental illness.
Adding mental illness to the education curriculum of schools would help create a more understanding, knowledgeable, and supportive culture. This change would also reduce instances of bullying at school, which can lead to trauma in affected children. People with mental illness who are able to work should receive additional support from their employers.
More dedicated support for children of parents with mental illness should be provided as trauma in childhood can lead to those adult children developing mental illnesses. This would save a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on clinical treatment and hospitalization.
What are your 5 strategies you use to promote your own well-being and mental wellness? Can you please give a story or example for each?
Strategy 1: Pets
Pets have a profound impact on not just my well-being, but my mental wellness as a whole. I need my pets — they’re as vital to me as the air that I breathe. Science has shown that by petting a cat or dog for just five minutes, our bodies excrete hormones such as endorphins, dopamine, and oxytocin which greatly improve our well-being, happiness, and capacity for love. Pets offer us companionship, help to improve our cognitive function, and increase our mental well-being. Their love is unconditional, which allows us to be ourselves without worrying about what others think. In difficult or sad times, they can offer comfort and consolation, making us feel supported and loved. For me personally, looking into the eyes of my dogs is the sunshine of my life.
Strategy 2: Nature
Being in nature has an incredibly calming effect on me. Just looking at the trees, flowers, sky, clouds, and sun — as well as birds and other animals — helps me to focus on what really matters in life. It allows us to be more grounded and reconnect with Mother Earth; something which is so often forgotten or neglected while living in big cities surrounded by buildings only. Even the Japanese practice of forest bathing highlights the importance of being in nature and reconnecting to it. So, going out into nature — even if it’s just a small park — will make a major difference to our well-being.
Strategy 3: Mindfulness and mindfulness mediation
Before I got certified in mindfulness, I always assumed that meditation had to last for at least 20 minutes, and you needed to be sitting in a certain meditation pose. But then I realized that you could meditate anywhere, at any time, and for any amount of time. Even 3 minutes of focusing on your breath can make a positive difference. Mindfulness has become part of my daily routine; it helps me slow down, reduces stress, and makes me more aware of my thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Consequently, at the mindfulness group I host, I try to share my insights and expertise with others.
Strategy 4: Making peace with the past
Nothing is more peaceful than making amends with the past. Feeling like a victim and self-pity are among the worst things that can happen to someone. When I took another look at my childhood trauma, it all made sense — this was why I had become so resilient and persevered against challenging odds. It helped me understand that revisiting difficult experiences can help us learn and grow from them. Today, I see my mother’s mental illness as a gift because it has allowed me to transform my relationship with the past. Now, I am able to pursue any opportunity that comes my way and live life on my own terms. If you feel drawn to do something, go for it — don’t let anyone else stop you and create the future that you wish.
Strategy 5: Everything happens for a reason
The belief that “everything happens for a reason” is only understandable in hindsight. The decisions we make that require lots of effort often move us forward, while easy decisions usually lead to dead ends and force us to start over again. I believe we learn valuable lessons from the different stages of our lives which prepare us for what’s to come next. I have come to where I am now by learning from the challenges and difficult times in my life. These experiences have opened up new opportunities for me that would have been impossible to find otherwise. We can think of ourselves as being in a doctor’s waiting room while we are preparing for something, waiting for healing. However, we often want to hurry up and move on with our lives before we are ready. Although the time might not be right for us yet, no matter what the reason is, believing that everything happens for a reason can help us to become more patient and trusting. This belief gives us faith that in the end, everything will turn out well and be to our benefit.
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/mRKl-DikK18
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a mental health champion?
Inspiring books:
Thich Nath Hahn: The Miracle Of Mindfulness
Thich Nath Hahn: Transformation and Healing
Michael A. Singer: The Untethered Soul
Richard C. Schwartz: No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model
Jon Kabat-Zinn: Wherever You Go, There You Are
Podcasts:
The Meditation Conversation Podcast
QueenB.Divine — The Cure is Conversation
The Tragedy Academy
Truehope Cast
Sparkles 4 Mental Health
The Unladylike Lounge
Mdntv The Podcast
Resources:
Plum Village App (Plum Village was founded by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nath Hahn, who is widely known as the “Father of Mindfulness”. Based on his teachings, this App contains an abundant number of great resources for mindfulness and mediation)
Healthy Minds Program App (Backed by research from world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson and his team at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin — Madison & Healthy Minds Innovations, this App is based on meditation with the aim to help users manage their stress and mental wellness as well as gain focus and positive relationships)
If you could tell other people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Anyone can suffer from mental health issues, and nobody deserves to. But by opening up about our struggles, and by offering help to others, we can create a more compassionate world where people feel understood and supported. The negative connotation around mental illness needs to be changed, and people need to understand that it is okay to ask for help.
In today’s world, this is something we desperately need, and each one of us can help bring about this change in our own families and social groups. By being understanding, compassionate, and kind to those around us, we also positively improve our mental health and protect it.
How can our readers follow you online?
Your readers can follow me online by visiting my website www.coachformentalhealth.com as well as my social media
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmargitgabrielemuller
https://www.facebook.com/drmgmuller
https://www.instagram.com/drmargitmuller
https://www.twitter.com/Dr_Margit_GM
https://www.youtube.com/@drmargitgabrielemuller
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
About the Interviewer: Inspired by the father of PR, Edward Bernays (who was also Sigmund Freud’s nephew), Michelle Tennant Nicholson researches marketing, mental injury, and what it takes for optimal human development. An award-winning writer and publicist, she’s seen PR transition from typewriters to Twitter. Michelle co-founded WasabiPublicity.com.
