Soulful Chats with Clinical Psychologist, Dr Samantha Clarke

In this month's instalment of 'Soulful Chats', I am joined by Clinical Psychologist and Coach, Dr Samantha Clarke.

Samantha shares with us her personal healing journey with spirituality, and how her life has been enriched by incorporating spirituality more fully into her life and work.

Join us as we explore all the ways spirituality can benefit individuals health and wellness, as well as transform the world by raining our awareness at the Collective level.

You can find Dr Samanatha Clarke on
🌟 Website: www.innerlightpsychology.com.au or www.mindbodyresilience.com
🌟Instagram @mindbodyresilience
🌟Facebook - Mindbodyresilience 

The book recommendations by Dr Sam are 'The Power Of Now', Eckart Tolle and 'All is Well', by Mona Lisa Schultz & Louise Hay: https://www.booktopia.com.au/all-is-well-louise-l-hay/book/9781401935023.html?source=pla&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs_rti_PUhgMV3admAh2d5AaZEAQYAiABEgJ3EfD_BwE

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Intro and Outro music: Inspiring Morning by Playsound

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Transcript

Tatiana: 0:00

Welcome to the Integrated Wisdom Podcast. I am your host, Tatyana Da Silva. Join me as we discuss what it means to live an integrated life and explore ways for you to create a life filled with greater meaning, peace, and connection by integrating the wisdom of spirituality, psychology, Neuroscience, Epigenetics and Energy Psychology are hoped to empower you to create deeper and more loving connections with yourself and others, whilst also paving the way for humanity at large to be reimagined and inspired to become the very best version of itself. Hello and welcome to the Integrated Wisdom Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me for yet another week. Today I have another monthly installment of Soulful Chats, and I have the pleasure of having my colleague and friend, Dr. Samantha Clark, who's a clinical psychologist and coach. She is deeply passionate about women's health and supporting women in connecting with their authentic selves and creating life from this place of personal meaning and passion. Sam incorporates a holistic approach to healthcare, placing emphasis on helping each individual move towards a more fulfilling and meaningful life. Her PhD is in the area of motivation and goal setting, and she's passionate about assisting people in finding their true intrinsic motivation, which creates the foundations for their self care and wellness practices. She's the director of a psychology practice called Inner Light Psychology on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Sam is also the founder of MindBody Resilience, which provides coaching, group programs and retreats for health professionals and women in Australia. And overseas, Sam has been working in the field of psychology for more than 20 years and has training in nutrition, personal training, mindfulness, meditation, and specializes in addressing lifestyle factors that impact physical and psychological health. Sam is also a lifelong learner and seeker, continuously expanding her knowledge through training in quantum coaching, pranic healing, and breath work. She enjoys exploring her own dreams and intuition, firmly believes that true healing comes from within. An ocean lover and nature enthusiast, Sam resides in Noosa with her partner, Scott and their son, Lennox. Together, they strive to create a life filled with freedom, love, fun, vitality, and adventure. Sam believes that we're all here to experience growth and to share our unique gifts with others, aiming to alleviate suffering and spread love and kindness. Welcome Sam.

Dr Samantha Clarke: 2:47

me, Tatiana. Lovely to be here.

Tatiana: 2:51

Oh, I just love that bio because it aligns so, so strongly with the things that we've been talking about offline and some of the things I've been talking, I've been talking about in the podcast. Uh, it was one of the things that drew us together. I think that we have this shared vision and mission for shining a light on how spirituality can help people's, uh, transcend suffering. Uh, so I'm really excited for

Dr Samantha Clarke: 3:14

Oh, me too.

Tatiana: 3:17

Why don't you tell everyone, the listeners a little bit about

Dr Samantha Clarke: 3:19

so I have worked in the area of psychology since Uh, 2000 and I think as I've just continued learning about health and wellbeing, my philosophy really has just become more and more holistic. I can see that, you know, the whole mind, body, spirit connection is so important. And I really feel like unless we incorporate those aspects, it's really hard to get really deep transformative healing. So I think for me too, one of the things that I love is I love learning. So. you know, for me, if I'm continuing to learn and I'm passionate about that, it just gives me more energy and I'm able to bring that into each area of my life. So I know that that is definitely a place of inspiration for me. And then I'm lucky I get to come back and share that with my coaching clients. And I get to, yeah, I'm really interested in helping women to connect with their own personal sense of meaning, because I feel like Women historically have often got a lot of shoulds and conditioning around who we're meant to be, particularly in certain roles. And I can really see that that can come to a really big cost to living a life that feels deeply meaningful. I also believe it's a, you know, place where people find illness and suffering. So yeah, I just am really passionate about supporting people in connecting with their authentic selves.

Tatiana: 4:43

Yeah. Oh, how wonderful. Uh, and how, so I guess I agree with you and, you know, from our conversations that I believe that the spiritual nature of life in the spiritual lens of things and people needs to be incorporated for us to truly assist on all levels. But I'm curious to hear what first sparked your interest in spirituality.

Dr Samantha Clarke: 5:04

actually. I've just been thinking about that. So, uh, I was raised in a Catholic home although in our home, it probably wasn't the most harmonious place. So it would feel like there was conflict at home and then we'd all bundle in the car together on Sunday and go to church and just had a sort of sort of a hypocritical kind of context to it. And I guess the Catholic. Religion for me at the time, being a young person didn't really connect me with spirituality. So I never actually thought I was spiritual. I actually felt that I wasn't but looking back, I remember talking, you know, having that connection with something bigger than myself. When I was younger, I remember having conversations. With something, a, a sense of something greater than me, even when I was like three, four or five, like at a very young age. So I feel like I've always had that, but I just didn't really. I wasn't clear that spirituality and religion could be two distinct things. And yeah, and I guess I really started consciously pursuing that spiritual path. More in my, it's actually when I was doing DBT, at, in my masters. And I was like, you know, you're having to learn all the stuff to teach to your clients because of course you don't apply it yourself. And I remember I was about to do my, I was about to do my PhD presentation. And that's where all the academics are sitting in the hall and they're, they're there to pull apart your PhD. And I was terrified because these are all people I respected and looked up to. And, You know, having negative feedback just felt overwhelming back then. And I remember stepping back and looking at these huge trees that are in Wollongong and they were just blowing in the breeze. And I could just have this perspective of this moment is really small. In the grand scheme of the world, this is. you know, very small in comparison to the bigger picture and my whole nervous system just relaxed. And it was like when that mindfulness piece from learning it was actually an experientially felt place that I was hooked. I was really interested in learning about Buddhism. After that, I would attend Buddhist talks and retreats. I was really, you know, attending yoga all the time and So I feel like that was when it really felt like a Wow. This has a really powerful place in transforming the way we think and feel about life.

Tatiana: 7:39

Oh my goodness. I've got chills listening to you speak because it's such a new, it's a really beautiful intangible example of how when we connect to this, we can call it source, we can call it, you know, that larger divine context that it has that power, right? Of helping us to get perspective in what we're facing and transcend the struggle of the moment. It's, it's beautiful the way that

Dr Samantha Clarke: 8:05

you. Yeah. It was definitely a powerful moment and I felt like it was a real entry point to, I want to know more about this and I want to delve into it.

Tatiana: 8:15

Yeah, how fabulous. So what was the first spiritual contact concept that you started your, your journey with

Dr Samantha Clarke: 8:22

I think it was like, you know, Eckhart Tolle's book of the power of now that, that was like such a big, you know, that was around that time for me. And like that really being in the present moment and being connected. But I also think it connects me deeply with that you know, the sense of divine oneness, that sense that we are all connected. And when we're in that present moment, my feeling of being able to have contact with that was something that I was really aware of. And. I started having some interesting experiences where, you know, I'd be having, you know, I'd be over the other side of the country and I'd have a dream about something. And then I would talk to somebody when I got back and they were like, this happened. And I'm like, Oh, I know I had a dream about that. And that, that kind of, you know, that we are all connected. And even, you know, when we look at what often is a problem in the world, it's that separation of, you know, us and them. And I feel like that sense of divine oneness can really be grasped when we're connecting with being in the present moment, being connected with yeah, our essence.

Tatiana: 9:30

yeah, 100%. And I agree with you. There's such a crisis of meaning and disconnection at the moment, isn't there? Uh, yeah. And so much of our suffering comes from that othering. I agree with you. A hundred percent. Uh, so what would you say have been the benefit for you personally in incorporating spirituality into your life on that

Dr Samantha Clarke: 9:53

Huge. Like I feel like, massive healing has happened for me. So in, I always felt like there was always spirituality there on the side. And then there was my other life. And then I feel like in 2018, I had a really big health crisis that was like a chronic health condition. It was quite enduring. And I know this is often a, Big entry point for a lot of people, but it was when something is with your body and a lot of your normal coping strategies, like you can't, you know, I had something going on with my ankle where I couldn't walk for a year. You can't do the things that you normally manage stress with. It's with your body. You've got no control of the physical symptoms and sensations you're having. It's enduring and long lasting. So I feel like it really such a challenging 18 months, but it was such a gift in helping me to see the power of spirituality as a way of, it's like the biggest diffusion skill in the world, right? Like, you know, for people who are like thinking like act, you know, I'm noticing a thought, but even just having, I had this sentence in my mind of, I'm a soul having a human experience. And that just, that was like, What are the gifts that this is bringing to me? What do I hear to learn from this really difficult journey? What are the, and it was such a blessing, but I really feel like that 18 month period really made spirituality like the foundation under everything else in my life. It's what I wake up to in the morning. It's what I go to sleep with in the afternoon. It's It's, yeah, with me all the time now and I just feel a deep sense of joy, peace, connection with people. I feel a deep sense of vitality and like I'm here. in a way of being able to serve and support others. That's like whatever that looks like in any moment. How can I do that?

Tatiana: 11:50

Yeah. How wonderful. It sounds like your process was very intuitive in many ways that you had this, this inner knowing or remembering as I like to think of it, of the context in which we're here. But did you use, did you find that there were certain practices that you also relied on that helped enhance that knowing or this ability to tap

Dr Samantha Clarke: 12:11

I definitely mindfulness meditation was a huge one. And that for me, wasn't always So that, that would be like sitting meditations or lying meditations. And of course I would do like the Joe Dispenza ones around healing. But a lot of walking meditations. So being in the bush, observing nature, being present, staying connected, a lot of prayer a lot of like journaling from that place of high self. Those sort of practices really supported me in being able to tune, particularly at a time when I wasn't well, like there'd be a lot of the mind that's here, that's caught up in all the stuff, but being able to then do a meditation where I can tune into, there's another aspect of me that has more wisdom that's connected to something else. Those sort of practices really supported that. And I have Beautiful friends who are into Buddhism and people who are into lots of different healing modalities, which I felt that community aspect really supported that deep knowing as well.

Tatiana: 13:17

Yeah. Oh, how lovely. How did you find that this like translated into your, your work with others? I don't know if you incorporate this in, in your psychological practice, but more broadly, have you found that professionally it's also enhanced

Dr Samantha Clarke: 13:32

Yeah, I feel like it's interesting because I, I feel like, It's given me, so the things that we would do in the psychology room, whether that's ACT or DBT or whether that's you know, understanding intrinsic motivation, I, I feel like those things now I potentially just understand from a different perspective. a different perspective. So I can still hold those things and do those evidence based processes. But I feel like my understanding of those feels like more of a spiritual connection than when I, when I was learning that stuff at the time. But I, but I feel like when I'm with clients every single tradition that I've explored has looked at The practitioner or the shaman or the doctor or the whatever has the certainty that that person in front of them can get well. And I feel like when that, when I'm working with someone, I have this deep knowing that that person is able to heal, that that person has support in their healing. And when I'm working with people, I feel like I'm supported. If I'm really clear on my intention on being there for them, supporting them, then I am supported with that. And I feel like that burnout piece, that's not, you know, I can look back in my early I'm not sure if you've read the book by Alice Miller. It's like the one where it's about why people become a psychologist or a therapist. And it's Oh, it's really interesting. I think I read it in my thirties and I was like, Oh my gosh. And but it's, it's a lot around like people who are in, you know, as children grow up and they're sort of in a helping role can gravitate towards psychology and doing so from a point of Subconscious place of, I'm doing this to be able to be worthwhile. So if I'm helping and I'm supporting, then I'm doing this from a place of me being worthwhile. And I think that that is such a big key of why we burn out because we can be so present for others and we can show up for others, but it comes with a sacrifice. Whereas I feel like for me, once I was more connected with my spiritual aspect of You know, we're all here to be and we are perfectly okay as beings rather than doers. I feel like I'm much clearer at being able to be more aware of what my self care needs. What's an okay capacity for me in terms of clients. And I feel like sessions flow more easily because I'm feeling in tune with myself and I feel like that internal residence helps me to connect with the person in front of me. And it feels a lot more like there's a lot more grace in that than when I felt like when I was working maybe 10 or 15 years ago where my head was working really hard. Yeah.

Tatiana: 16:22

yes.

Dr Samantha Clarke: 16:23

it's, yeah.

Tatiana: 16:27

so beautifully how, like, how beneficial it is for us to be able to show up authentically, right? And our whole selves. Uh, I agree with you. Like so much of the, the burnout comes from not just the thinking and the pushing, but also the fact that we have to. to tuck away this other really important element of us, right? Or at least some of us feel that way. I accidentally felt that way for a long time which I think leads nicely into a lot of therapists, particularly in Australia, not so much psychologists in Australia not so much overseas feel. Really fearful of talking about spirituality in that therapeutic context, uh, some of it's because of the way I think, uh, our, our profession is governed in, in this country, but, you know, we can talk about that. That's a whole episode and I certainly struggled with that fear for a long time. And it's been very liberating to find so many other psychologists like yourself who are spiritual, are ready to own that spiritual part of themselves and can see the value it brings to clients. But did you ever grapple with that fear, like the trying to, to reconcile the scientist practitioner in you and the, the spiritual elements of you and how to

Dr Samantha Clarke: 17:46

so, I didn't feel like that translated so much to the therapy room. I felt like I've always been pretty open as a psychologist in terms of being able to ask the questions of clients, you know, if they've lost somebody or there's been a grief, I feel like I can go there. But I felt like it was more evident with. colleagues. Like if I was at a conference, there was such a really big push around, unless you're even like having thoughts about things outside of What's measured, what's evidence based, was woo woo, was dangerous, like it had a very interesting stigma about it. And so in the past, like I'm sort of thinking like 10 or 15 years ago, that would have really made me cautious about talking about things. But a big part of my journey in terms of My healing and my well being is really around being 100 percent authentic and being 100 percent integrated with who I am. And so I feel like I want to share this stuff and talk about it because it's been super important for me and I know that's my truth. And I know that when we hear other people sharing, it can be just what somebody else somewhere in the world needs to hear. So yeah, I just feel the fear and take it. forward. And I feel like what I love about what you're doing is often my spiritual friends have been quite separate from my psychology friends. And the fact that you're bringing them both together and so many more people, it's like, we're all coming out of the closet. It's like such an interesting thing. So like, I love that people are embracing that. And I think there is a big as much as there's really, there's a big, Big things going on in the world that are challenging. I feel like a lot more people are starting to connect with their spirituality and to lean into that more and to start being more open about it, which I'm so grateful for.

Tatiana: 19:43

Me too. And it's by design, right? Like, I think it, it's not an accident that so many more people are speaking about spirituality this openly and trying to shine that spotlight. I think we're heading towards this transition period, right? Yeah. I think as therapists, like as psychologists, therapists, we play such a crucial role in that because we deal with people at their most vulnerable, right? So yeah, and so you, it sounds like you didn't really have to. Like, to do anything extra to help you override the fear that a lot of it came, again, it was, it was a very natural unfolding as you gave yourself permission to be more

Dr Samantha Clarke: 20:24

Yeah. And I,

Tatiana: 20:25

that. Would you

Dr Samantha Clarke: 20:26

feel like that 2018 period where I was really like that it was like the how to hold as much fear in my body. I felt like it almost, has made me really skillful at being able to do that now. It was almost like, okay, if you have fear, you just hold it with you. you know, sense and loving kindness, hold it in that place and move forward. But yeah, and I think when I'm thinking about I'm a soul having a human experience, what do I want to bring in this lifetime? Yeah, I, I don't feel caught up in fear about that stuff at all.

Tatiana: 21:00

Oh, how beautiful. Yeah. So from your perspective then, uh, what, what do you see to be the value for psychologists and therapists more broadly in particular to in embracing their spiritual selves or bring at least be more curious about spirituality? Because I understand that some people aren't even there yet for I like from your perspective, what would you say could be a benefit?

Dr Samantha Clarke: 21:23

think that It's just so, I think curiosity and open mindedness is such an amazing quality to have whether you're bringing that to learning about spirituality or bringing that to your client's experience. So I feel like whatever we can do to cultivate those qualities is really going to be helpful. But in terms of I can just see the improvement in burnout as such a big deal. I feel like a lot of if we can be really grounded in practices that quickly bring us back into our place of peace and inner you know, I love the harmonizing the heart meditation. Like I love that meditation so much. But even just having these practices that we can bring in. to ground between sessions to be able to check in with our intuition. Not only are we going to, you know, be able to prevent burnout, but we're also going to be able to model those things with the person we're in the room with. So it's a bit of a ripple effect modeling presence. We can also be more present and in tune with our clients. And that intuition, I feel like it's like a gateway. The more you can stay present and connected in the room, The more you're going to be able to support. the person that's in front of you, but also, you know, connection for yourself. Like what, what are, I guess, what are the beliefs that you have that are going to support your sense of who you are, how you feel in like building deeper connections with yourself, deeper connections in relationships. You're like, there's a lot of benefits. just that practice of more present and loving kindness. They are two beautiful qualities to be able to bring for ourselves, but into our relationship with our children, our relationships with our friends, our relationships with parents, even outside the therapy room.

Tatiana: 23:20

Yes. Oh, so lovely. It gives me one final reflection then, if you had to pick, And I can hear that there's been so many things that have enhanced your journey with this, but if you had to pick one transformative aspect of embracing spirituality more fully, both on a personal and professional level, what aspect would that be for you?

Dr Samantha Clarke: 23:40

I think it like comes full circle for me. I think it's that divine you know, divine oneness, that sense that we are all connected. So noticing personally, if I'm, judging or I'm separating being able to come back to that place of commonality and that we are the same. Because I think if we're personally taking care of that, and if everybody was doing that, what a different world we would live in. Would there be? any kind of racism, would there be wars? Would there be hatred? Like all of that stuff really comes from that separateness. So I feel like for me, that kind of loving kindness, that divine oneness, that would be, that's like my solid foundational practice that I feel like is always going to be the root of my, my focus.

Tatiana: 24:31

Yeah, I agree. I think that's so needed in the world right now. Right. Not just with all those social challenges that you've mentioned, but even when we think about the economic crisis that we're living in, right. How many people are struggling financially and it's so much of that's because of the inequality of resources. So yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent. I always joke that I'm an idealist by nature and I am, but I see the power of spirituality to truly transform the world if we can awaken that in

Dr Samantha Clarke: 25:00

I'm with you. And I feel like when you look at atrocities that happen, I'm like, if there was that sense of spirituality or that we are connected, I feel like those things, they just wouldn't have happened. So I, yeah, I'm a big supporter of your mission and yeah, I love it.

Tatiana: 25:21

I just, I feel so excited that I'm just finding more and more people like you that resonate with this. And I think in your own way, you've got a mission that's similar, right? You're also shining a light on these things and it's, yeah, it's wonderful. It's not, it's not, no accident. I think that. We have found each other and all the people are kind of stepping forward and feeling drawn to each other around these

Dr Samantha Clarke: 25:42

in numbers. Well,

Tatiana: 25:47

change slowly, but surely. And I guess the last thing that I've been asking all of my guests is for transformative book that they can suggest for others who are at the very beginning of their journey with. spirituality or that are curious to explore it a little bit more. What would be a book that you'd suggest as

Dr Samantha Clarke: 26:08

I've kind of got two ideas around that because I know you've had some amazing book recommendations. So I would say the power of now is a really good entry point. If you feeling like where's that translation from what we know about science into something that's a little bit more spiritual. But one of the books that really helped me when I was going through my health challenge. And I know that often psychologists have health challenges and probably people listening to your podcast resonate with this. The book all is well by Mona Lisa Schultz and Louise Hay. And it's where Mona Lisa Schultz looks at the research. around Louise Hay's spiritual readings around what's going on with the body, but Mona Lisa Schultz brings the research evidence that supports what the findings were. And I feel like it's a really good one for people to just open up and go, huh, like maybe That spiritual and the science isn't so separate. Maybe the science is catching up. Maybe we just can't measure things yet that we know actually are really effective and holding science as a really good thing to look through. But knowing that Potentially there's a whole lot of things that exist that we just can't measure it yet. We just can't validate yet. And I feel like that book's a really good little exploration of that.

Tatiana: 27:42

Oh, how fabulous. I'll add some links to the show notes to both books that you've mentioned. That's, it sounds really intriguing. I haven't heard of that book myself, so I'll look it up too. Uh, but I agree, like the science is catching up. It's very exciting. It's a very exciting time. There's so much studies coming out that are validating the value of spirituality, the neurobiology of spirituality. So. It's safer, I think, for us to step forward

Dr Samantha Clarke: 28:08

Absolutely.

Tatiana: 28:09

and own our spiritual natures. Well, this has been such a wonderful conversation, Sam. I really, really appreciate you coming on today. Is there any final thought that you'd like to share with the listeners?

Dr Samantha Clarke: 28:21

Final thoughts. I guess it's like really allowing yourself. I think we're in a world where there's a lot of external noise and there's so many things in the media or things that are trying to get our attention. But I feel like the best thing we can do is giving ourselves silence and space looking in. Finding a deep listening within and I feel like that's where true healing and true living from a place of authenticity and vibrancy comes from. So just giving yourself some time for silence and space and letting the voice from within. Talk to you.

Tatiana: 29:02

Yeah. Oh, so wonderful. Thank you so much for that. Where can people find you and do you want to talk a little bit about some of the

Dr Samantha Clarke: 29:09

Yeah, sure. So people will probably best way to find me would be through Mind Body Resilience. So Mind Body Resilience is my website and my company that looks at coaching, particularly for women and health professionals. We run some pretty cool retreats. So often we run retreats in Bali or Noosa or Byron. And there's some online programs that will be launching probably in about three months really looking at this, how to help women deeply connect with their intuitive selves, how to create well being from a place that is aligned with your intrinsic motivation. That, so that's something I'm really passionate about. So that's coming in the future, uh, not too far away.

Tatiana: 29:56

Oh, how exciting. Oh, again, I'll add all the links to your website and your Instagram handle to the show notes. So anyone listening can go and find Sam and her wonderful offerings. But once again, Sam, thank you so much for, for joining me today. I'm so grateful that you took the time to have this conversation with me. And yeah,

Dr Samantha Clarke: 30:17

I'm so grateful to be here and I, yeah, I love having these conversations. I feel like, you know, I think every time I've spoken to you, I feel like I could talk to you all day long because there's so many experiences that I think, Oh wow. I bet you, I bet you'd be cool to talk to about that. So yeah, I'm really grateful to be here and yeah, I just love what you're putting out in the world. So thank you.

Tatiana: 30:39

Oh, thank you. And thank you all for listening today. I hope you all have a lovely week and I'll see you all soon. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Integrated Wisdom. It is my sincere wish that today's episode may have intrigued and inspired you to reclaim your power and step into becoming more fully integrated spiritual beings. New episodes are published every Wednesday. And I hope you'll continue to join us as we dive deeper into what it means to live an integrated life. So if it feels aligned to you, I invite you to hit subscribe and share it with others who you feel may benefit too. You may also find me on Instagram at integrated underscore wisdom. Remember, each moment is an opportunity to embrace your divine potential and create a world that is more frequently inspired. So for now, stay connected, stay inspired and keep shining your light. Into the world.