I Am Carmel Standen, a Soul Reconnection Coach, Energy Healer and Spiritual Mentor.
I’m also a wife and mum of two young adults. We love all things nature, especially the ocean, and spend our spare time bushwalking, swimming and fishing from our boat. Although we live in suburbia, our hearts belong in the bush and by the sea.
I’m a total bookworm with a craving for all things metaphysical and fantasy fiction.
I have studied metaphysics and holistic health and wellbeing for over 20 years and now I get to share all that knowledge and training with others.
Tell me a bit about what you were doing before you got in contact with Business Jump?
Before working with Nat and the team from Business Jump, my clients found me mostly by word of mouth. I had no idea how to run a business, how to reach potential clients or the many different ways to get my message out into the world.
Why did you want to start your own business, what is your why?
From a very young age I can remember playing with the energy I could feel between my hands. I used to love making balls of energy, then filling them with love, peace and joy and throwing them at my family and friends. I could see their body’s light up when the balls washed over them and watched the energy being absorbed into them. I was always told my hugs were filled with love and that my hands felt warm and tingly whenever I touched someone. As I got older, I realised this wasn’t considered normal, but for me it was as natural as breathing. I was always considered a bit weird by my peers and didn’t really fit in, especially at an all-girls catholic school!
It was in my late teens that I started researching and reading everything I could find on energy and alternative religions and dabbled in many different belief systems while starting to form my own views on what I now call spirituality. I learnt about metaphysics and quantum realms, alternative realities and parallel universes. I was like a sponge, soaking up everything I could lay my hands on.
I was 19 when I met my now husband and several years later our son came along. As a toddler he used to tell me about his friend the dragon and the castle covered in roses and thorns he had built in his room. He recalled being a knight and fighting to protect a kingdom. He was also considered gifted and intelligent for his age. This led me to more research. Can you see a theme here? I started delving into gifted children and learnt about the Indigo and Crystal children, Starseeds and Lightworkers. Things just kept making more and more sense and I began to feel less alone.
It wasn’t long before our daughter entered the world and turned it all upside down. She is affected by a unique digestive disorder that was diagnosed before birth and spent all her childhood and teenage years in and out of hospital, enduring multiple major surgeries and countless other procedures. This in turn created other physical and mental health issues. Feelings of anger, frustration, anxiety, depression and pure overwhelm were all part and parcel of our daily lives. In an effort to help her deal with all her medical problems I started looking into alternative and complementary therapies. I added crystals, essential oils and Reiki to my practices and trained in Holistic Counselling and Meditation Therapy. Anything that might help ease her pain was at least considered. After years of putting into practice everything I had learned and by using my own gifts, she is now a happy and relatively healthy young adult.
In 2013 our lives were changed forever when we, and two hundred other families, lost our home and everything we owned to a bushfire that ravaged the Blue Mountains here in Australia.
Those feelings of helplessness, loss and disorientation were some of the most difficult emotions we’ve had to deal with. Learning to reach out and ask for assistance was a deeply humbling experience. We understand on a personal level what it takes to live through trauma and continue to deal with the aftermath on a daily basis.
Although there were professionals available to assist us, there was no one who truly understood what we were experiencing or acknowledged that the help we required was far more than our obvious physical needs. We needed someone who understood that our lives were affected in a multitude of different ways and that it had changed not only our lives, but those of the people around us.
It was through these flames that Path of the Phoenix and our desire to help others was born.
How long had you wanted to start a business before you actually took action and took the
jump?
I had dabbled with various ideas for years and tried many different options on my own before I actually decided to take the Business Jump.
If you hadn’t of started your own business what do you think you’d be doing right now?
If I hadn’t taken the leap of faith and created Path of the Phoenix, I would still be helping others, because that is just what I do. But it would be in a much smaller and less defined capacity and no where near making the impact that I’m aiming for.
What have you done differently because of Business Jump that you wouldn’t have done if
DIY’ing?
Business Jump has given me the tools, resources and skills I need to take my business global. If I was still attempting to DIY I would never have even considered it as an option.
Tell us about your business?
Our mission at Path of the Phoenix is to help you reconnect to your Soul which is the truest part of yourself, the seat of your inner wisdom & guidance and your connection to the spiritual realm.
In order to do this, you need to find the parts of yourself that have been lost through trauma or by trying to fit into roles that are dictated by family or society. We provide support, guidance and resources to help you feel whole once more.
We’re not here to diagnose, analyse, categorise, judge or label you, but to provide information, techniques and resources to support your personal journey toward self-discovery.
There is no one size fits all approach to life. Our intention is to assist you to reach your own unique goals and to live your life in your own unique way.
We regard the mind, body and spirit as fundamentally interconnected and all the sessions we offer are aimed at empowering you to discover and access your own inner wisdom and healing capacity.
By using a unique combination of modalities along with our own personal gifts, research and knowledge, we help you to focus on finding solutions to your situation and addressing the root cause of the issue, not just the symptoms.
During most sessions, Emily and I work together as a team, using our gifts, knowledge and training to help you:- reconnect to your inner wisdom, learn to follow your intuition, clear low frequency emotions and limiting beliefs & strengthen your connection to your spiritual guides and guardians.
We support you in realigning your mind, body & spirit and empower you to reclaim your path in life.
For those that like the details, I’m a Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and Time Line Therapy. I have a Diploma of Holistic Wellness Coaching and certificates in Holistic Counselling, Holistic Human Development, Meditation Therapy, Empath Therapy, Intuitive Numerology and Reiki, as well as a Professional Certificate in Food & Nutrition Coaching.
Emily is a Universal Wisdom Keeper, Channel for the Angelic Realms, Energy Healer & Spiritual Mentor with a certificate in Aromatherapy Consultancy. She is also an avid nature photographer and lover of the natural world.
We have developed multiple techniques that allow us to offer all our services online via Zoom.
This allows us to help and guide people from all over the globe and create a positive impact in the lives of the thousands that follow our work.
How did it feel when you got the reins to your business to take out into the world?
When I first launched Path of the Phoenix it was nerve wracking and exciting all at the same time. I had been holding a vision of what I wanted to create for so long that it seemed almost surreal to see it come to life.
How many hours a week do you work on your business?
Not including the time spent 1:1 with clients or in my group programs, I spend roughly 2 hours a day doing behind the scenes work on the business. This includes social media, blog posts, phone calls, messages and emails.
What are some of your most special ‘business wins’ you’ve had to date?
The “wins” that have meant the most to me have been when I signed the very first client to my 1:1 Soul Reconnection signature program, co-facilitating at a 4 day Online Spiritual Retreat – Transcendence, and successfully launching and running the first round of the Phoenix Rising Empowerment Program.
Where do you want to be in 5 years?
My vision is of a little slice of heaven, somewhere on the Sth Coast of NSW, where people could come for a day or a week, escape the hustle and bustle of daily life and truly reconnect to themselves. It would be a sacred space where you could participate in meditation, coaching or healing sessions. Where we would run rituals and gatherings open to all like minded souls without fear of judgement or rejection.
What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone thinking about starting their business?
If you’re thinking about starting a business, my advice is to stop thinking and start doing! Just take that first step, reach out to Nat and the Business Jump team and know that they will guide and support you every step of the way. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Where can we find you?
URL – www.pathofthephoenix.com.au
Facebook – www.facebook.com/pathofthephoenix
Facebook Group – www.facebook.com/groups/reconnectingyoursoul
Instagram – www.instagram.com/path_of_the_phoenix
