Mental Health Champions: Why & How Natalia Rachel Of Illuma Health Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness
An Interview With Michelle Tennant Nicholson
Alone time
I need a lot of alone time, not just from people, but from content, media, and any kind of ‘noise.’ This is how I get clear with how I’m feeling and what needs adjustment.
As a part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Natalia Rachel.
Natalia is a trauma, relationship and culture innovator who helps us understand how to heal and co-create a kinder, more intelligent and connected world.
All her work is about helping us heal from trauma, step into service, and become part of the solution through small acts of relational intelligence.
Her work traverses the clinical space, organizational culture/leadership, self-development and love and relationships. Her Book ‘Why am I like this?’ is out now with Penguin Random House.
Thank you so much for doing this with us!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?
The focus of my work is to help us understand how unhealed trauma is shaping our mental health, physical health, relationships communities, cultures and systems. What’s more, to help us heal and reroute ourselves from survival and adaptation, towards peace, power and sustainable collective evolution.
While my organization began purely in healthcare, it has transformed into a media and education company with this specific social impact goal.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
Initially it was my own journey recovering from trauma that inspired me to retrain and work as a therapist. As I went on, I continued to hear stories of people being retraumatized, whether in the healthcare system, in the workplace or in the day-to-day interactions of family and community. I could see that good intentions didn’t really translate into helpful support or sustainable solutions, so I became curious about how to shift this. There’s a huge education and resource gap. This is about making healthcare a social project. And finding words to speak of what we often can’t quite articulate and developing relational strategies to heal. In this end, this is all about learning how to relate in ways that heal, rather than harm.
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?
There have been so many stages to my journey in this space. I’m naturally a driven, fiery and passionate person. And I was born to break cycles. However, each time I move towards showing up and opening my voice in a new or disruptive way, I do get overwhelmed with fear. The old ‘witch burning at the stake’ scenario. But I have become good at cheerleading myself through this. And surrounding myself with people who believe in the importance of my work. I don’t think there was one trigger. Just a series of moments where I keep choosing to speak up in ways that I feel people are ready to hear… which is often just beyond the edge of comfort, but not too far.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
There have been so many incredible moments since launching Illuma Health. It’s been fascinating to run programs, teach and consult in new places — Singapore, Bali, USA, London, The Netherlands. Everywhere I go, the trauma looks and feels different, but underneath is exactly the same. It’s been interesting to watch people’s complex responses to me and my work. Quite often there’s some kind of suspicion of the outsider, but I’ve learned that if I maintain a sense of compassionate neutrality, this dissipates and so much healing is available. It’s kind of hard to out into words. I think we are all just waiting to be seen, hard and validated… and its really beautiful to see when people truly experience that in a reflective dynamic.
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?
The people who have really supported me on my journey are the women in my day-to-day life. The mummy friends who have my kids over when I’m working weekends, or the author colleagues who cheerlead me when I’m receiving rejections or trolls are doing their trolly thing. They remind me of my goodness day in day out, and this is the thing that keeps me going slowly and sustainably.
The other person who is a really big influence on my is my therapist. I’ve been seeing her weekly for 6 years.
I’ve dabbled with coaches and business mentors, but to be honest, a lot of what I a doing is about redefining what successful business is. I don’t want to climb the mountain in the same old way. I don’t want to compete or hustle. So, I find anytime I look to a traditional mentor, it doesn’t feel right.
I spend a lot of time in deep reflection, and in honest conversation with my trusted team members, and we just keep pivoting and evolving together to make sure that what we are building is in line with our values and feels enriching rather than depleting.
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?
Mental health and Therapy have a bad reputation/stigma for a few reasons. Some of these include
📌Reactive therapy collective
Because so many people seek therapy only during intense times of distress or devastation, we collectively have learned that therapy is a painful, short-term process only for the most awful situations. It’s time to recalibrate the way we understand therapy and its role in our lives.
📌 Dangers of Diagnosis
In some mental health systems, the moment you see a therapist, there’s the likelihood of diagnosis, medication and the often lifelong stigma and medical journey that comes with it. (psssst most therapists these days do not have prescriptive powers, and many will work in ways that do not require diagnosis / medical labelling).
📌 Climb the mountain smoke and mirrors culture
Most of us are in the rat race. Climbing the mountain to earn better, have higher status. More, more, higher, higher. Even though we have been working on a culture shift for some time now, mental health diagnosis or needing time for self-care can still be seen as a deficit and cause some kind of penalty on the journey. While many organizations are making moves to shift the stigma, the more important thing is for us to question our tendencies to self-abandonment and learn that health is the new wealth.
In your experience, what should a) individuals b) society, and c) the government do to better support people suffering from mental illness?
This is such a complex topic, but I would say to simplify it we need to look at a) Validation and b) resources/capacity building. There is so much healing in validation. And healing can really only happen if we build the capacity internally and dynamic for it to take place. When we look at these two core concepts as a foundation, we can create so many different strategies that tie back to them.
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?
- Alone time
I need a lot of alone time, not just from people, but from content, media, and any kind of ‘noise.’ This is how I get clear with how I’m feeling and what needs adjustment.
2. Physical fitness
Being active is really important to me. Every day I do something, weather its gym, yoga, swimming, muay thai or even a gentle stretch. I didn’t really grow up with sport and it’s been hugely healing to really get into an active lifestyle as part of my journey, especially because I have 11 years where I couldn’t move well/walk properly due to illness. Every day I move, I am truly grateful to my body and my life.
3. Connection
Being in beautiful relationships has become fundamental to my happiness. And I think it is the same for all of us. There was a time when there was so much disrespect and volatility in my relationships, but now they are full of peace, respect, nurture and love. It’s been life changing to co-create this.
4. Somatics
Becoming in tune with the non-verbal language of the body and the nervous system has been key not only for processing the past trauma, but being in connection to my intuition, needs and desires, as well as learning how to regulate, self-care and choose what truly nourishes me. To me, this is healing in real time and I engage in it every single day.
5. Parts Work
Parts work has allowed me to tune into the different parts or fragments of me that have different (and sometimes conflicting) needs and desires. It’s allowed to be be far more internally inclusive and self-compassionate, to develop a nuanced and full sense of self and to understand when I’m responding to someone or something in a seemingly incongruent way.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a mental health champion?
At the moment I am going through a phase of not taking in too much external information. I think it is because I am in creator mode right now. However, in my formative learning years I was really inspired by ‘Healing from Developmental Trauma’ by Dr Lawrence Heller, ‘Nurturing Resilience’ by Kathy Kain and Stephen Terrell and ‘Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors, by Janina Fischer. I also resonate with the work of Carl Jung, Arielle Schwartz, Peter Levine and Gabor Mate. There is so much incredible reading to be done!
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?
We need each other. We always have, we always will.
How can our readers follow you online?
Nataliarachel.com
Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-rachel-9505b023/
Instagram @natalia_rachel_change
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.
