Animal Communicator and Guardian Partnerships

Working off a blog I wrote in April of 2015 that has been getting a lot of views lately, I thought it would be good to revisit this topic of how important it can be for me to partner with the guardian of an animal to provide the best possible answers to their questions.

As I have explained many times, when I am working with an animal I get information in a variety of different ways--physical sensations in my body, emotions, pictures and images, words and phrases. There is often some interpretation required to understand how everything I am picking up fits together. When I am communicating with an animal, the guardian is often the key to "solving the puzzle" as we work together to make sense of what I have picked up.

Several years ago, I had an experience that showed how all of these pieces work together.  I was asked to do a session with an older dog who was whining / crying all day long.  For months, the only time he stopped crying was when he fell asleep. His guardian was very concerned and given that all blood work came back normal she was at a loss and was looking for additional help. She asked me if I could help them figure out what was making him so unhappy.

When I first connected with his energy, my stomach began to hurt. It felt inflamed and irritated but I couldn't get a sense of why, so I asked this sweet boy if he could tell me why his tummy hurt so much. He showed me the sensation I feel when an animal is dealing with allergies. I explained this to his guardian but after reviewing what he eats and how long he's been eating his particular food and treats, it didn't make sense to her. We couldn't figure out what he could be allergic to, as nothing new had been introduced.

My stomach still really hurt, which told me that we hadn't identified what was going on yet.  (Once I "name" or "identify" what is going on, the sensation will go away, so when the sensation lingers, it indicates to me that we haven't figured it out yet).

His guardian asked me if he mentioned his skin, as he has some pretty severe skin allergies. From what I was picking up, his itchy skin didn't bother him at all in comparison to how bad his stomach hurt. And then, Boom! Like a major light bulb going off in her head, she explained that she had been spraying something on his skin to stop him from itching but that he was constantly licking it off.  She asked if that could be the cause of his stomach pain. Because of the way my stomach hurt just talking about the spray, I knew we were on the right track.

Together, we began putting the pieces together. She realized that his constant whining / crying started about the same time she started putting this particular spray in his skin. Now it made sense why my stomach hurt and he gave me the "allergy sensation." I had interpreted it as food allergies because it was obviously something he was ingesting but since I didn't know about the spray, it wasn't something I could ask him about directly. Now with this new piece of information, I could see he had been trying to show me how the tummy issues and discomfort were connected to his skin allergies.

His guardian vowed to never use that spray again and we talked about some things she could do in the short term to not only help soothe his stomach but also some options to address his skin allergies. We were both so relieved to put all the pieces together and figure out what could be done to help her sweet boy feel better. I am also happy to report that within the next few weeks, he was feeling much better and was no longer whining / crying throughout the day.

Animals do the best they can to communicate with us and this was a wonderful reminder that partnering with the guardian is the best way to ensure an Animal Communicator can help them get resolution for their animals.

Many people are afraid to tell an Animal Communicator too much, either because they are skeptical of Animal Communication (and want to "test" them) or because they think that offering too much information will interfere with the process, but for me and how I work with animals, I find that the more information a guardian can share with me and the more willing they are to work WITH me, the quicker we can get answers and more profound the resolutions can be. 

Just a little something to keep in mind if you decide to work with an Animal Communicator. It is also important to note that not all Animal Communicators work the same way - but for me, the partnership / open communication with the guardian is the best path forward. Not just for the animal but also to empower the guardian, which is part of my personal mission.

Match or Mismatch? (Refresh of an older post)

This post was originally written back in November of 2019. I decided to give it a refresh and share it again because there seems to be a lot of this energy floating around lately . . . the "mismatcher" approach to listening. IMHO what we really need right now is for more "matchers" to come forward and help change the way we listen to one another. I have witnessed how that alone can create huge positive shifts in our interactions with others.

Back when I was a corporate trainer, I taught a lot of courses on personality and operating styles. We had participants look at their own operating styles to better understand themselves and then look at the operating style of someone they wanted or needed to partner with in the workplace. Based on those style differences and similarities, they came up with an approach that could open the door to working more easily with that person. (A post-workshop homework assignment)  :-) 

One course in particular had an element of a tool that was often difficult for folks to navigate. It was the concept of "matching" vs. "mismatching." Some people are natural matchers. They are the person who listens to another person speak and looks for things they might have in common - ways they "match" . . . this is the person who might say "Oh wow, you grew up in Arkansas? I have relatives who live there" or "One of my best friends also went to Whitworth and he loved it." 

Mismatchers, on the other hand, look for where they don't match. They might say, "I'd never want to live in Arkansas" or "Why would anyone go to a school that small and unknown?" They consciously or unconsciously look for where they "disagree" with what someone else has said. Mind you, I am not sure these folks are even aware that they do it. Rarely did I ever see anyone write down that they were a mismatcher in my classes. Usually I think it is just so ingrained in how they think that they don't notice how often they respond this way. While these folks are great to have on a project team because they can help identify possible pitfalls to solutions and implementation plans, they can also be difficult to find common ground and a sense of ease with.

I remember one particularly draining workshop I taught where I had a mismatcher in class . . . if I said "Here's a tool you can use in these types of situations" he would say, "I can think of a situation where that wouldn't work."  It took a lot of energy on my part to keep shifting things back to the positive because each time he "mismatched" what I said, more of the participants began to feel less hopeful that the course material could help them improve their work relationships. A mismatcher's energy can also spread like wildfire, which is why it can be so problematic. 

On a side note, a fun fact is that when I spoke to him about it privately, he was shocked! He had been completely unaware that he did it and was grateful that I had brought it up. He did his best the next day in class to stop himself from mismatching and seemed quite surprised at just how often he did it. Throughout the day, it became rather comical each time caught himself and we had some good laughs over it. A valuable lesson was there for me too as the experience really cemented the idea that most mismatchers don't realize they do it.

I decided to write about this now because of the huge increase I have seen in mismatchers lately.  It used to be they were a very small percentage of the population but that seems to have changed in recent years. Get on any form of social media and you will find yourself saturated in mismatchers . . . people commenting on where others are wrong, where they view something differently, where what is being said is contrary to their own beliefs, etc. 

The good news is that I have found that once we observe ourselves well enough to understand if we are a matcher or a mismatcher, we then have control over which approach we use. And I believe it is a choice we can make every time we go into an interaction with another person, whether it is in person or while we are scrolling on line. We can choose to listen (or read) with a focus on where we can agree and have common ground - or we can choose to listen (or read) with an ear towards where we don't agree.  It is completely up to us. 

I obviously have a bias here or I wouldn't be writing about it. (smile) It is no secret that I would prefer to see people look for commonality and points of agreement. It is because I have seen first hand how it allows conversations to be more fluid, more constructive . . . which in turn can lead to people working together more easily. I have witnessed how it can build a sense of community rather than a feeling a separation.

Matcher conversations can open the door to people feeling heard, to solution generation and problem resolution. Furthermore, they can lead to identification of a next step and to a next step after that. The only outcome I see of mismatcher conversations is frustration, discouragement or someone being shut down and feeling "not-heard." 

We are at a time now in our world where we are in dire need of solutions, resolutions, new ways of doing things. I also believe we could greatly benefit from really hearing each other and building bridges to strengthen our ability to work together. I don't believe mismatching is going to get us there.  

Would you be willing to look at yourself and observe if you are going into conversations or scrolling through social media as a "matcher" or a "mismatcher?"  If you are "mismatching" would you be open to altering your mindset to "matching?" 

You might be surprised at how dramatically it can shift the content and the outcome of the interactions you have with others. I am not suggesting that you have to change who you are. I am merely asking if you would consider playing around with another approach so you can experience first hand how it can change your interactions with others.