Intuitive Counseling

The Powerful Phenomenon Of Psychic Shame

April 17, 2013 by drocco@ymail.com

One of the great things about being a teacher is that I can do it anywhere! I have been blessed to have traveled to some of the most interesting places all over this Awesome planet and to have met some of the most amazing people! Some of which have shown me such a display of courage and strength it has at times left me breathless. Most of the people I have had the pleasure of working with have been open, respectful and given back to me an equal amount, if not more of their own brand of love and inner knowledge. These amazing people have taken great leaps of faith and have worked through some difficult things and have earned every ounce of their lessons. However not everyone is exactly prepared to make healthy change in their life. Not everyone is ready to embrace the virtues of Intuition and Integrity. This is not to say that they never will. For some it may just take a little longer than others. And that is perfectly okay I am always here when the right time comes for each of you.

On one leg of my travels, I had just arrived in a new part of Long Island. It wasn’t long before the good word about my work and service had spread and since most of my students come to me by word of mouth, it was not unusual for me to receive a phone call from a number that I did not recognize.

One night I received a voice message from a woman who explained that she had heard wonderful things about me (why thank you!) and…. that if I was so wonderful that I could call her back and tell her who she was. There was a audible click as she hung up her old rotary phone and the message was cut off to silence…. (huh?!). I was confused. Most people who wanted to do business with me left a name and number by which they could be reached. As I listened to the message again, thinking that maybe I had missed something the first time, I began to hear the anger in this woman’s voice and feel the tightness in her heart chakra. She was angry, feeling ungrounded and disconnected and also feeling very sad at the moment. This was clearly someone who was in great pain and because she was never taught how to deal with this pain she was expressing it in the form of aggression. She was in search of help but unable to ask for it in a way that showed reverence for the healing of which she was in desperate need. Now, as an intuitive counselor, I have all of the faculties to recognize this and and while that is all well and good I have learned that I work best with people who are throughly versed in the art of Good Manners and I have also learned that despite their energetic and psychological pathologies some clients are not yet ready to hear the honest truth about their actions and behavior. Even though she was in need of help, this woman’s behavior was baiting, manipulative and downright rude. Definitely not someone I have time for in my busy schedule.

I spent a moment sending her light and understanding and love and after which, promptly deleted her number.

I sat there for a moment considering my own feelings about the situation. Even knowing how passionately I work to help others. Even with all of my knowledge of higher consciousness and understanding of humanity I was still bummed about the phone call. My human body and mind is precious to me and “conscious Rocco” was in need of some love and care. I listened to my heart and Spirit and heard what was being said. My guides came to the rescue and reminded me for a moment about all that I had accomplished. I had a resume that was quite long and clearly visible to anyone that bothered to visit my website. I had broadway actors and television stars that had launched their careers after coaching with me. And Everyone in the community had been raving about my services. I had even been enlisted by doctors and psychiatrists in the area to help them see their patients (and themselves) from a new perspective. I thought I was beyond the “proving” part of my career. It was then that I realized that this woman’s “bait and click” phone call was not about me or my business. It was about herself and her own psychic shame. A shame that was probably built from years of lies, fear and misinformation she had received about the psychic profession. Somewhere along the line she had developed a resentment for people who had access to their intuition and because of her desire to be in touch with the very part of herself that she had written off years before, she had decided it was okay to treat professional intuitives like third class citizens. She lacked respect for me and my work not because she was a mean lady but because she was missing the strength of heart to find some respect for herself.

All of this is stuff, the shame, the resentment, the self loathing are all things that I have gone through in the process of my career as an intuitive. This phone call got me thinking about just how I managed to work through some of this stuff long enough to make myself useful to the planet and the communities I have been blessed to have worked with. 10 years ago I would have jumped on this phone call just to validate that what I was experiencing was real. I would have called her back and shared with her everything I knew about her. Right down to her hair color and style. I would have earnestly laid out a plan of action to help her. And…she would have continued to have been disrespectful of my time and continued to resent my talent. Afterward, I would have been left drained, unsatisfied, way underpaid (if paid at all), and most importantly: too tired to help someone else who really wanted to be helped.

You see, Since 2003 I have learned a thing or two about Self Love and I know that I cannot be the best me I can possibly be unless I show some love and awesome amounts of respect to myself first. Since that time I have done a lot of soul work. Body, Heart and Mind and Today I do not have to look outside myself to garner validation because I know myself very well and have respect for all that I am and every facet of the world around me.

Really

And I have achieved this actualization and understanding through my faith in the universe, open communication with my guides and God and by managing the psychology of something I have come to call Psychic Shame. Below I spell out the nature of this very human phenomena.

What is Psychic Shame?

Psychic Shame is an internalized shame carried by all who perform, receive, or include any kind of energetic, intuitive, healing or any decidedly unscientific service, ideas, faith or beliefs in their lifestyle. Like most shame, it is something painful, varies between individuals and can express itself in unhealthy ways through a variety of self-defeating practices.

Sounds gruesome doesn’t it? We all go through it. Psychic Shame can affect your health, your relationships, your business, your self and world view. It hurts and its something that will not completely go away as long as we are shameful and mysterious about our spiritual education and practices.

It is not easy to go public with any kind of spiritual work and in some cases, it is not even easy to be open about receiving these services. The oppression that comes from a variety of organizations, religious and non and the mystery that is generated in response to this oppression creates a deep seeded fear, sadness and self hatred that compromises the clarity and integrity of both the practitioner and the client. What we do becomes “hidden” and “subversive” a service that we receive in the shadows. And there is also the other end of the spectrum where sensitive people are revered as the gifted “chosen ones” bestowed magical powers that the “normal” folk could only dream to possess. This of course creates a rift between us all. The “gifted” on one side and the “normals” on the other. Its sad to watch this especially when our differences should be bringing us together.

In the coming articles, I have gathered examples from my own experience that have been triggers for my own Psychic Shame and some ways I have personally transformed this shame into something beautiful and useful for not only myself but the entire world around me. I will be discussing ways to help you understand what is happening in each situation both psychologically and energetically so that you can discover ways to make this shame work for you (and the rest of us rather than against. I hope you enjoy hearing about my experiences and invite you to share your own in the comments below

Filed Under: Intuitive Counseling, New Posts, Psychic Shame, Self Love Tagged With: intuition, psychic, psychic shame, psychology, rocco distefano

A Testimonial From Broadway’s Karl Warden

January 28, 2013 by drocco@ymail.com

I met Rocco in the spring of 2012 at a coffee shop in NYC while doing a show on Broadway. I was sharing a table with him enjoying my breakfast and coffee working on my laptop when he asked me to help him with hashtagging something on Twitter. I helped him and went back to what I was doing on my laptop. A few minutes later he leaned over to tell me that I had one of the strongest highly resonating vibrating aura he’d been around. I was curious so he showed me his website and I was fasciated and got a good feeling from him so I decided to book a reading.

During our reading, Through speaking with my guides, He went on to tell me certain things about myself that he couldn’t have known about me. He knew that I was away from my home in Los Angeles and in NYC for work. He went on to tell me that even though he could tell I LOVED doing my show in NYC on Broadway, he told me that I had to return home to Los Angeles whenever the contract was over because that’s where I needed to be. He knew I was an actor and that upon my return home to LA I would reconnect with a girlfriend whom I’d not seen in a while and that she had big awesome gorgeous hair. At the time I couldn’t think of who that could be but I never forgot it. He continued to tell me that she would help me get to the next phase of my career and that he was getting visions of my face on TV and on advertisements with my name under it. I wouldn’t be playing a role, I’d get to be ME on TV and that it would involve something I used to do. I couldn’t think of what that could be but I told him that he was right and it was a major career goal of mine to be on TV as myself. He said, “you will if you go home to LA and live your life, and pay attention to what your Heart is saying”.

MAN WAS HE EVER RIGHT!

I was home in LA Sunday May 21 2012 and immediately started working on an awesome Choreography job for a major cosmetics company that I’d been preparing since November of 2011. I’m a HUGE gymnastics fan so upon completion of this project at the end of June, I took some time for myself and drove to San Jose, CA alone to attend the US Olympic Gymnastics Trials. On the second day of the trials I was leaving the arena to go back to where I was staying and I bumped into my friend Suri from Los Angeles who had also driven up alone to meet up with friends including former Olympians and accomplished NCAA Gymnasts.

I’ve known Suri for 5 years and hadn’t seen her in months so after an exciting reunion with her and some rapid fire back and forth catch up Suri laughed and tossed her hair and it hit me, I realized SHE was the female friend with the big gorgeous hair! I could barely contain myself with this revelation but didn’t divulge any info except that it was so crazy that I ran into her because a friend of mine told me that I would! She proceeded to tell me she’d been getting into hosting TV shows and red carpet events for different media outlets. It suddenly dawned on her to invite me to join her on this new web tv program about Dancing With The Stars on AfterbuzzTV.com as a Dance Expert. I followed through with her on this offer and she had me on the program 3 times!

I was very busy after my second appearance on the show with her doing two different musicals. One in LA and one in Long Beach. I was swamped with work and wasn’t checking my emails for the past few days and I woke up one morning with a text from her about a new TV show looking for Divers or Diving Coaches. Suri knew that before I went into acting and performing I was a competitive diver. I jumped on my email and sure enough I had an email from a casting service about this new Diving show looking for divers and diving coaches. I submitted myself with a note about my diving and coaching experience and sent it off and closed my computer to run to rehearsal for my show. 10 minutes later I got a call from casting setting up an on camera interview with me for this new diving show they were producing called Stars In Danger High Dive for FOX. I had a great interview and had a good feeling about getting the job. I kept getting notified that I’d made it to the next round and then another call in mid November 2012 that I was a finalist.

A few days after that I got the call that I booked the show and that I got the job! I would be one of only 4 coaches hired for the show and I’d be coaching two Celebrities how to dive in just two short weeks of training. I LOVE A CHALLENGE!

After this all came through I contacted the amazing Rocco and set up a Skype session with him. It was such an awesome experience. It was then that I let him know that EVERY SINGLE THING he said to me in that coffee shop that sunny day had come true! This man is the real deal and I’m so thankful to have him in my life and his abilities, guidance, and spirit are things that I would love everyone to experience. If you have questions about your life Please stop what you are doing and book a reading with this man! It will change your life!

I write this testimonial on the airplane in first class headed to film the Competition portion of our show. It has been such an awesome adventure and I can’t wait to see where I’ll go next! Please tune in Jan 9 on FOX Stars In Danger: High Dive!

Much Love

Karl Warden

Filed Under: Intuitive Counseling, New Posts Tagged With: afterbuzz, dancing with the stars, karl warden, rocco distefano, stars in danger: high dive!, suri serano

One Broadway Star’s Living Testimonial

January 28, 2013 by drocco@ymail.com

Book A Reading With Rocco Today!

During my travels I always send out a positive signal, an energetic message and commitment that I come in peace and I am here to share and receive a Loving vibration. As a result, I tend to meet some of the most interesting and talented people and some of them who are at the key points of a blossoming career. Broadway Actor, Dancer and commercial Choreographer Karl Warden was no exception.

I met Karl last May while I was teaching in and around the Chelsea area in New York City and he was starring in Broadway’s How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying with Jonas Brother Nick Jonas. This peaceful and high vibrating man was sitting in the corner of a freshly opened Chelsea coffee shop pouring over some paperwork. It was very busy and at his table was the only seat in the house. I shyly asked if I could join him. He flashed a gregarious smile, shuffled over some of his papers and invited me to sit down. I immediately sensed his heart. When I meet some one and the first Chakra to introduce itself his the Heart, I know I am dealing with a person who is self aware, spiritually evolved. I know that this is someone who speaks my language. I was immediately put at ease and as as I settled into my seat, my feet stuck firmly to the ground so I knew that he was quite grounded as well, something that I don’t often find in New York City and especially not in Chelsea.

We both went about our business and after a while we ended up chatting. He asked me what I did for work so I showed him YourLifeIsAwesome.com. He spent some time looking through my work and by the time he was finished, he was ready to book a reading.

The TV Show Karl Landed after our sessions

During our reading (which he wanted immediately!) I kept getting very bright and clear movies (in my mind’s eye) of him on television, introducing stars and discussing social trends/pop culture, all from his own point of view. I passed along some key people he would need to work with in order to make this happen. He giggled and began to glow even brighter than before, I could feel the wheels turning in his brain as he mulled over the information that he had received from his guides.

Over the next few months Karl and I had a several sessions that further validated his course and in November of last year, he told me that the Television show his guides had shown me had manifested and he had been booked on the Fox television special Stars In Danger: The High Dive! where he was on hand to coach celebrities like Terrell Owens, Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Antonio Sabato, Jr., David Chokachi and Alexandra Paul.

Karl with Jenni “JWoww” Farley

I could give you the details myself but Karl took the time to write his personal testimonial from the plane on his way to the set of his new show! So I will let him tell you his story Since his testimonial was written in Letter form you can read his experience of YourLifeIsAwesome in a special post. Please take the time to go to this link and read of Karl’s incredible experience.

A Testimonial From Broadway’s Karl Warden

I received this testimonial about a month ago while Karl was on set of his new show and I couldn’t be happier for him and his success. Karl was able to take the information I shared with him in his Reading and Coaching Sessions and with that information, he was able to create the kind of Life he Most Desired! One that allows him to be Completely Himself and challenge and engage his Spirit in new ways.

This the type of client that I love to work with. This is Someone who has the courage to take the “Snap Shot” that I receive from their Guides and follow that roadmap to their Heart’s most powerful desires! You see, all of these events, the happenstance meetings of all of these talented people, and Karl’s Ultimate success happened just like I said it would because he kept his Heart open to hearing what his guides had to tell him and allowed the possibilities that had already been seeded in his heart to take further root and blossom into a beautifully manifested reality. A Television Show!

You see, when someone comes to me for a Reading or our Personal Coaching sessions it is not just me and my Guides who are doing all the work. No Way! It is a two way street. I may be passing along the information from our Guides but it is up to You to be open to hearing the information and doing something Awesome! with that information.

Karl was proactive. He did not sit on the sofa and wait for the television station to call him. He kept his Heart Open by meeting and talking to as many people as possible. He kept Mind and body active by auditioning, working and keeping his eyes peeled for opportunity. And because he was able to be in the right place at the right time he was able to transform a “lucky turn of events” into something absolutely Amazing!

An intuitive reading is something that everyone should experience at least once and it ended up being an investment that paid off for Karl Warden in big ways! So I ask You! What is in Your Heart to accomplish? What are Your hopes and Dreams? What are Your Guides telling You today? Is that latest Career move the right direction for Your time and energy? Who do You need to meet or what do You need to do in order to move forward with you most passionate talents and desires? Are You feeling a little lost and Hopeless? Your guides have been patiently and lovingly watching this entire time and are looking to connect with You! If you feel you are ready to connect with your heart and spirit guides try Booking A Reading with me today! I can’t wait to see what is in store for YOU!

Filed Under: Intuitive Counseling, New Posts Tagged With: alexandria paul, antonio sabato jr, coaching, david chokachi, how to succeed in business, jenni "jwoww" farley, karl warden, nick jonas, readings, rocco distefano, spirit guides, stars in danger: high dive!, terrell owens, yourlifeisawesome.com

Intuitive Counseling: Do You Have What It Takes?

June 18, 2012 by drocco@ymail.com Leave a Comment

Rocco Distefano, Intuitive Counselor

So. You are solidly connected with your Guides and the Divine. You are familiar with the nuances of Energy and Frequency and understand how it affects you and the world around you. You are also very comfortable with who You are and know that without a doubt you are here to help others.

Then perhaps you are born to be an Intuitive Counselor.

I will start off by saying that this is by no means an easy business. It is not for the meek of heart. You have to be extremely versatile. Not only must you manage a raise in your own consciousness, you must also be shrewd in business and have excellent people skills. You must be smart, savvy, driven and talented.

And most importantly: You must have a deep respect for yourself, other people and the world around you.

I tell my students every single time I talk with them that they must be Galvanized when they wake up to do this job. This is not the kind of job that you can phone in. Our clients are coming to us for answers because they are not getting them anywhere else so when they call us up they deserve the highest work ethic, the best service and the utmost in care and respect that we can give to them.

Heart Meditation at The Gathering Inn Soup Kitchen in NY

We are not selling crock pots here. We are teaching people how to love themselves. How to connect with Life again. We are showing our clients how to raise their Conscious Awareness to better their personal and world views so that they may begin to live better lives. So if the idea of truly connecting with your clients is uncomfortable or the idea of meeting new people is scary than perhaps this is not the right job for you. If you have read this far and you are still on the same page with me, read on.

Here are just a few of the things that I have learned over the past 13 years that have made me successful today. The first half is dedicated to the Business side of things and the second half will focus on the importance of Healing and Loving Yourself and I will finish up with some of the Ethics that are crucial to ensure that your practice is moving the world Forward Not Backwards.

Enjoy

1. Whatever your methods for counseling, get your Name and Face out there for the world to see. If you want to reach a large group of people, you must be comfortable with people knowing who you are, what you look like and what you are about. Get photos taken professionally if you can or just get a tech savvy friend to make your pics look professional either way, you want to place your best face forward and all over your site, your services and your products.

2. Develop an Online Presence. Even if you are the best at what you do, no one will know how awesome you are unless you tell them! Your business should have a Website with a name that is easy to type and easy to remember. If you are not HTML savvy than you can find easy to use webpage templates on a blog site like WordPress. You can later modify your blog through WordPress but I really recommend purchasing your own domain at a site like GoDaddy and using a hosting service like ExNovo. Why give someone else the traffic that you are working so hard to get?

3. Your business card is your passport. It will take you places that your website cannot. Have your face, name and business clearly printed on your card. Keep things simple and elegant. Choose colors that pop and enhance your features. Make sure that you have your website, phone number and email clearly printed. Always have your card with you and make sure that it gets to the right people.

Simple, Elegant, Concise

4. Brand yourself. Sit down and write out all of your skills starting first with your strongest. This first skill is what you will showcase when you go public and will become the foundation for your products, style, and business model.

Ask yourself how you can market this skill so that you can get paid. Can you turn your skills into a book or a workshop or blog so that you can reach more clients? Can your private sessions be tailored into a personal coaching program? Discover the things that you are best at and package them accordingly.

5. Anything worth mentioning has itself immersed in social media. Your business should have at the very least a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter Account, and a LinkedIn Profile. You should be updating each of these venues at least once a day and connecting with everyone you meet.

When you can afford it, I recommend getting yourself a publicist. It will speed up the process and move things along.

6. Protect yourself and your business. Weather you call yourself a Medium, Psychic, Channel, Healer, Life Coach, or Intuitive Counselor, make sure that you know the laws of your state or province and where within your practice falls. Some states have “Fortune Telling” laws, others blanket Intuitive Counseling under the word Life Coach. Some states require you to have a license or certificate and others do not. Know these laws. Consult a lawyer and make a special page on your website that addresses these concerns upfront.

On this same page you will want to include a brief statement to be clear about your policies and intentions with your products and services. This includes things like your refund policy, hours of operation and any other information that your clients will need to know about how you operate as a business.

7. Know your Worth. Make sure that you are charging your clients the correct amount. What you charge for your services and products is a reflection of how you value your Time, Energy and Talent. Energetic Counseling of any kind requires a great deal of energy so if you undercharge your clients you run the risk overextending yourself for a client base that may have little value for your work. Make sure you are working with people who respect your work (and you) as much as you do and can pay you accordingly.

8. Read. Absorb every ounce of information that you can about every subject, even if it has nothing to do with Intuition. The more you know about the world around you and the people that are in it, the better equipped you will be to do your job. Read books, blogs newspapers, whatever you can get your hands on. The more you learn the better you will become at understanding (and accomplishing) the seemingly impossible.

9. Question Everything. Don’t ever take anything someone tells you at face value. If someone presents you with a set of facts, take a look at them from every possible angle. Bounce them off of what you already know and see if they gel together. See if you can come up with similar ideas from a different angle or come up with something entirely new with the same information. Listen, Digest, Absorb, Reflect.

10. Pay attention to the food that you put into your body. Eat enough to satisfy and nourish you but not so much that it will weigh you down. Foods that are rich in minerals and vitamins like fruit and vegetables are great choices and will help cleanse your body of toxins and give you a boost. Things that clog your pores or compromise your immune system like red meat or highly processed foods are generally not a great idea, especially before a session. I am not saying that you have to be a Vegan to be successful, just be aware of what you are putting in your body. Reading labels and having all the facts before you eat is always a good idea.

11. Get enough sleep. When you are exhausted, you cannot be available to take care of yourself, let alone your clients. Listen to your body. If it is asking for sleep, respond with kindness.

Your Body is your Instrument here on this Planet. Take good care of Yourself

12. Exercise every day. I cannot stress this one enough. We have a physical body for a reason. Our bodies are designed to be used and challenged everyday. If you are physically capable then you should be moving, shaking, and working up a sweat at least once a day. It will ground you and steady you. Exercise will remind you that you are human. It will make you humble and ready to work from a higher vibration.

13. Limit your intake of alcohol and other mood enhancing substances. When we introduce outside chemicals to the body, it must fight twice as hard to function and creates an energetic and hormonal imbalance that can compromise the information and intention of your work. So while having a drink once and a while can be fun, it has no place in your practice. What makes Spiritual Work effective is the intimate connection and personal space you create for you and your client. When you come to your client under the influence, you are recieving them from a place of inauthenticity. Your clients are coming to you for guidance and it is your responsibility to be fully present to support them through their session. If you are not lucid, it is disrespectful to your clients and ultimately undermines the purpose of this work. Furthermore, if you continually choose to practice this way, you may develop a dependancy and that never ends well. For anyone.

14. Every Intuitive Counselor should undergo a period of Traditional Psychotherapy. No matter how spiritually evolved you feel you are. No matter how hyper intelligent you may be, you are still human and are working within the limited range of human conscious memory. So for us to perform at peak condition we must be as emotionally and psychologically integrated as possible. You need to know yourself (and love yourself) inside and out on a psychological level before you can ethically help another person on the Spiritual Landscape. Psychology is the foundation of all Spiritual Work and in order to stretch the imagination beyond the threshold of belief in a healthy manner you must be a grounded human being.

That being said, it is important to take into consideration the Psychological state of your clients as well. If you feel that a client is in any way in need of Psychological Care it is your responsibility to recommend it.

15. Confidentiality. Your clients are coming to you with questions of a personal nature and are trusting you with information they most likely will not tell anyone else. It is up to you to treat them with the respect that they deserve and keep their stories private.

It is also important to note that if you do not believe in every single word that you say to your clients on your website, in your sessions and with your products then your work and your business will suffer. People will just walk away if you do not care. If you begin the work day with Apathy than you will simply not succeed.

The guidelines above have been developed from years of exploration in business and my own personal experiences as an Intuitive. So, take your time and give yourself the space to learn the skills that you need to make your practice work.

My own practice is built on the ideology that anything that a Psychic or Intuitive reveals to their clients is coming from a place that anyone can access for themselves. It is up to us to show others that there is no mystery to what we can do, just a matter of self awareness. So anytime spent telling your clients that they Can’t is counterintuitive. It is our job to show our clients what they Can accomplish.

Rocco Distefano and Friends

The face of Intuitive Counseling is about to change. As the decade moves on, our profession has the extraordinary potential to become a relevant mainstay in the field of Professional Health Care and as the Human Spirit becomes more Self Aware, so too will our services.

So lets get to work! The journey ahead is going to be an exciting one and as each of you works to fine tune your own practices I look forward to having you there beside me as we move forward into this Special Time in Human History.