Empowering The Leader Within You!
by Dr. Lisa Cooney, MFT

Emerging and Empowering the Leader within You!
At the age of seven, I stared out my childhood bedroom’s window and watched day after day, night after night people getting off the train and walking home or running for the train in the morning off to NYC. I looked at their faces for some evidence of joy, I saw none. When the moon came up, as I stared out the window, time and time again I prayed that I never lead a soul-less life and I prayed for the guidance and wisdom to know how to direct people to live with soul. It was then that the vision of my mission to emerge and empower leaders as they safely awaken to their fullest and freest potential while resting in the support of conscious and loving community began.
I first heard the term soul as I kneeled next to my maternal grandmother in church and she recited the prayers (not only what the lay people were supposed to say but what the priest was saying as well) and one day I heard “so that my SOUL and I shall be healed.” It was at that moment that bells chimed in my head and as the Billy Joel song says, “It’s all about soul” and my mission was born.
As I became Dr. Lisa Cooney, I extrapolated that vision and my grandmother’s soul prayer in my published dissertation entitled “Finding and Forming Spiritual Identity through Cooperative Inquiry.” Essentially, I documented how to live a soul filled life and unfold your soul signature while in supportive and loving community.
To emerge the leader in you is to make a commitment to yourself to say no even when its hard, to say yes when its scary and to trust your gut and only do what is in the highest and best aligned to uplift the human condition and live in alignment with what has heart and meaning to you.

My life’s work became and is still unfolding the leader in myself and all whom I work with. I not only see the leader in me and coax it out of its shell, but I see the leader in everyone I come in contact with and I strive to peel away the layers of fear (F =false, E=evidence, A=appearing, R=real) that keep them and me from shining in our highest and truest potential. As each layer falls away, their extraordinary stories takes shape and unfold.
Feeling felt like something was holding her back in her life, Kayla Gold needed soul rejuvenation. After working to emerge the leader in herself, she now feels a powerful sense of personal growth, experiencing a freedom and freshness in her creativity and a deeper understanding of people. “I’m able to be more present in my relationships with friends, colleagues, students and family,” she says, “And I finally understand what it means to love myself. I have recently reached a vocal level as a singer that has avoided my reach for years. I am singing from my soul and I feel great.”

Each workshop or seminar I teach and each workshop and seminar I attend adheres to the belief that humanity is inherently good and people desire to live as sharing beings with a very powerful and important task on our hands. To unfold, uplift and emerge the soul signature that is intrinsic to each and every individual on this planet.
Imagine our world if soul ruled the earth without the constricted, inflexible ego creating wars, poverty, separation and divisiveness. Imagine marching for peace as Mother Theresa did and not marching against war energetically. Imagine living as Ghandi stated, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Or as Ammachi states, “Fill your heart with love and then express it in everything you do.” Imagine a universe of soul living from the empowered self of emerging the leader in you. Can you imagine, if so there lay a leader awaiting its flight?
Cherié Page shares, “The community of support guided by healing mentors are tremendous pillars that uphold my soul; they surround me, influence me, and guide me every day of my life. They inspire my soul to live in the grandest version of myself with consciousness and courage to manifest and create the life of my dreams. As I have walked this path that is only my own, I have come to realize that life is not a process of discovery but a process of creation. I am not discovering but creating myself anew and every second is a chance to create, change, and grow. Therefore, I seek not to find Who I Am but I seek to determine Who I Want to Become. I am so grateful each day because in times of my greatest trials, my greatest triumphs were born. I wish to use the path I have walked along to be a dais from which I take the next leap in my life and begin the process of obtaining a Clinical PhD from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; so I may help others reach their greatest heights of human potential and live within their power as my mentors have done for me.”
Courtney Ryan Kaplan shares, “I found that emerging the leader in me takes persistence and a willingness to participate; to explore myself, my past, my relationships and my experience. Transformation was about going to my edge to see the truth about myself -- with the loving safe support a mentor provides. I made such wonderful friends, I healed situations in my life, and things started to change big time. Specifically, I got into a much better financial situation with a great job that paid more than twice what I was previously making. Then, I paid off large credit card debt, school loans, and other debt. Then, my relationship ended and I was free to move on and find a new partner who was aligned with my life. I DID find that partner who is my soul mate and has shown me just how incredible being in relationship can actually be. We are getting married in about a month. And, creatively, I used to be a blocked writer, but now I have started multiple writing projects and know this talent is also coming into bloom when before it was a dream that never got much traction.”
Anjuli Sherin shared that, “for the young woman who immigrated to America from Pakistan at age eighteen, the haven of community was a welcoming place to return to and call home. Being in this cauldron is the safe container in which I was able to experience what a healthy family feels like and grow up all over again into my joy, my light, and truth, and my purpose. Emerging your soul is a way of life, with a community of support, and a nurturing yet firm parent that has taught me to take the lessons of intimate relationship, mindful manifestation, conscious communication, and spiritual connection and use them to build my life, my Whole Life.
Believing and living this knowing afforded me the luxury of being awarded the Emerging Leader of the Year Award at the 7th Annual eWomen Network International Conference and Business Expo held this June in Dallas, Texas. This prestigious international tribute is awarded to women who are empowered and desire living their soul’s purpose in the world of business, education and life achievements. Sherin credits her mentor by stating, “she helped me lay a solid foundation for leadership and achievement, and above all provided me with a role model who walks the very path she teaches with a dedication and an attention to excellence and detail that is my bedrock and inspiration.”
As Courtney shared, it takes diligence, persistence and a willingness to believe that you not only have something important to share but as important is the doing of what the leader in you knows it needs to do now. It is the people, the teachers, the mentors and even the problems in my life that cleared to the path for me to know what I want and how to do it. Affirmed by Cherié as she stated, “All the challenging life experiences I have endured and which I have shared with you are opportunities for the evolution of my soul, a chance for me to decide who I want to become; because the soul cannot see what it is until it sees that which it is not.”
I am grateful for every life experience with those people and mentors who walked with me, danced with me, joined with me and for some letting go of me so that I may live my soul’s calling and unleash my spiritual signature on the lips of reality. I thank each person in this article for the willingness to share our collaborative success herstories. In the grace of the infinite and abundant divine I wish each and every being a mentor to guide them home.
Lokaha Samastah Suhkinu Bhavantu – may all being in all the worlds be happy and live in peace.
Live your success, empower your life and unleash your soul. The time is now.


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