Meet Scott David Clift of Connexus Services in South-Central

Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott David Clift.

Scott David, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve always been the little kid that asked “Why?” and “How?” and never stopped until I was satisfied with the answer. Why does this happen? How does that work? Why do those things fit together? And when it came to understanding myself, my community, and my world, it was no different.

My childhood had its share of “normal” challenges: feeling weird and left out, hand-me-down clothes I was made fun of for, fights with my siblings that I always lost because I was the youngest, stealing and fighting during the early teen years. Then there was the “abnormal” challenge: sexual molestation at age 3, growing up overseas in a religious cult, the mother who died when I was young.

But through it all, I kept asking the Why and How questions. Why is life this way? How will I make my way through it? What works best for me? What is my purpose? What is right and wrong? And those questions took me through a series of odd jobs in my 20’s: working with adults with severe developmental delays, teaching ESL to immigrants, overseeing a training program in multicultural communication, training others in non-violence and conflict de-escalation methods, training religious groups to be better listeners for each other, a graduate degree in Counseling (Individuals/Families/Couples), post-graduate certifications in body-regulation, trauma processing, neuropsychology.

I opened the business in 2008, just offering Counseling. Having developed a unique approach and understanding of human change and transformation, I launched my Coaching service in 2017.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Life is never a smooth road, and one of the elements of it that I delight in is navigating the challenges that emerge. During the first several years, the absolute biggest challenge was self-doubt. Who was I to ask others to put their trust in me to lead them to a better place in their lives? While I had certainly had positive experiences to draw from and be confident in my ability, my skill had yet to be tested.

But what I discovered early on was that it was not my job to lead them anywhere. Everyone’s journey is about finding and making a path. It was my job to help them gain the skills and tools they needed to walk that path. And while I get to walk that path with them for a short amount of time, I am not actually leading them anywhere.

The other biggest challenge is self-care. No matter what line of work you are in, taking care of ourselves is absolutely vital to our success. Digging in, learning and discovering what care for ourselves looks like is the first step, and can be very challenging in that it sometimes requires us to strip away everything we have thought and been taught about what are supposed to do. Nowhere was this more true than for me. I had to find out what the balance of the different elements of running a business, sitting with people as they navigated their traumas, and taking care of my own body and mind in the process really looked like for me.

No two people’s regimine for self-care should look the same because it is all about what works for that individual at that point in their life. And this is one of the remaining challenges for me, is how to keep tabs on changing circumstances in my own life and what that means for what my self-care will look like and making the necessary (and not always easy!) changes in my life.

Please tell us about your work.
As a counselor and life coach, I’m most known for a process that incorporates “left” and “right” brained approaches to creating change. Understanding what goes into the process of changing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors requires an integrative approach as these three elements of our choice-making apparatus are so intricately connected.

That being said, I’m most known for helping people expand their awareness of their whole self, and bringing that to bear in the ways they move through their day. Helping to create a balance between their thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations give them access to feeling more empowered acting more authentically.

I’m most proud of the reputation for “telling it like it is”, but with a great deal of understanding and empathy for how and when to deliver this, when to step back and allow an individual or couple to move on their own, etc. It’s about holding a balanced space such that when people are moving on their own as they need to, support and embracing and encourage them. If they are stuck, help nudge, challenge, and push them while maintaining understanding and compassion at the same time.

So many others in my industry fail to connect these two energies or default to one side or the other. I’m especially proud of how I have crafted the practice to incorporate these energies and the experience to know when to apply which in a way that works best for my clients.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Taking my first screw driver set and dismantling my bedside lamp…while it was still plugged in!!

Contact Info:

• Address: I-25 & Colorado Blvd, Denver, 80222
• Website: www.embracingyourwholeness.com
• Phone: 303-900-1916
• Email: info@embracingyourwholeness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connexusservice/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connexusservice/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/connexusservice/
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connexusservices/

Image Credit:
kbenfield photography

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