Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzanne Hanna.
Suzanne, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
When I turned forty my life changed forever. I had a very successful private psychotherapy practice in New York and was slowly burning myself out. I had recently ended a unhealthy relationship, rebuilt my house after being destroyed in not one but TWO hurricanes, and had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I sat ten hours a day in a beautifully serene office and yet I was dying inside.
Around the same time, I synchronistically got a twelve week old Golden Retriever puppy that I named Grace. As part of my own healing journey, we began to hike daily at a preserve near my house. One day, I was watching her leap through a field of wildflowers, she was happy, exuberant, and free. I whispered, THAT is how I want to live. I was done living in fear and I wanted a way out of what what I knew was slowly killing me.
That day I went home and pulled out an old road atlas. I made the decision that I wanted to travel with her. I don’t know if I was crazy or inspired. Maybe a little of both. So off and on for close to three years, we hiked 1,000 miles across the United States, all the way from New England to Montana.
That journey saved my life. I faced everything I had spent a lifetime running from. All of my fear, shame, resentment, anger, and grief. With every step, I crushed my self-doubt. I confronted all the self-defeating voices in my head. At some point along the way, I began to feel peace for the first time and I no longer feared being alone. I was led through that experience to create my program ‘The Wilderness Walk.’ I wanted to guide others through their own wilderness within so that they too could find internal freedom. To help them integrate both the dark and light aspects of the human journey.
Soon after, I packed up and moved across country to Colorado. I felt called to the mountains. Since then, I have led dozens of journeys all over the world and helped hundreds of men and women navigate their inner wilderness and find deeper meaning in their lives.
Within the last couple of years, I also started a nonprofit organization called Global Healing Collective. We are building a community of leaders who are committed to healing themselves, their businesses and the world. I am deeply passionate about supporting those who are driven by creating positive change.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No way!! But that is life, right? I look at all experiences as opportunities and lessons. I have learned my share and they have also made me stronger. Looking back, I have taken MANY courageous risks in my life and they have all led me to where I am today. I have no regrets, but there have been plenty of painful detours.
I have been an entrepreneur for over 25 years and it is NOT an easy path. It is filled with bumpy roads and incredible victories. I do wish I had more guidance along the way so that those detours were far less painful and messy. It is one of the reasons I am so passionate about building and creating support for leaders now. The truth is, no matter how hard we try, we cannot compartmentalize our lives. We need to be able to speak freely about our challenges and heartbreaks so that we know we are not alone. We are in need of a paradigm shift. One that allows for greater transparency and support in doing the deeper inner work so that we can heal on both a micro and macro level.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I consider myself to be a life disrupter. I help wake people up to what is not working in their lives both personally and professionally and then show them the unlimited possibilities that exist. This is NOT an easy process. On many levels, we don’t want to wake up, because the truth is, life will never be the same. We can’t unring that bell. We are hardwired to resist change. But if we don’t, we will continue to perpetuate the suffering. Life can be hard, we don’t need to make it more difficult by getting in our own way. There is not ONE person in this world who has not experienced some level of trauma. We desperately need to heal both individually and collectively.
My job is to walk people through both the dark and light aspects of themselves that lead to integration. I use nature both literally and metaphorically as a conduit for deeper healing. I leave no stone unturned and I provide a language, skills and tools to help them empty the heavy backpack they have been carrying for a lifetime. I am also building a platform for leaders where they can collectively come to together and receive support, guidance, skills, and recourses helping them lead more from the heart and create healthier cultures and ecosystems. To build lives that have deeper meaning so they can stay in alignment with what they value most in the world. So many people lose themselves along the way and I help them take the journey home
What were you like growing up?
Oh my!! I was incredibly imaginative and creative. I spent a lot of my time with my animals and friends. I grew up riding horses and spending time in nature. I was always the mediator in my family and very sensitive to what was going on around me. I felt things on a very deep level.
Contact Info:
- Website: thewildernesswalk.com, suzannehanna.com, globalhealingcollective.com
- Phone: 914-588-3735
- Email: info@suzannehanna.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzannemhanna/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewildernesswalk/ https://www.facebook.com/GLOBALHEALINGCOLLECTIVE/
Image Credit:
Caroline White
Suzanne Le Stage
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