When I started my business, Consonance Communication, the one question I was asked the most was ”So what makes you better than everybody else?” It came in different suits, but these were all variations on a theme: ”Why should a client choose you over XYZ?” or ”In what way do you stand out compared to others in your field?”
And these are all valid questions. Of course, people need to know the benefits and the advantages that can come with this kind of conversation when they book a session with me. Before they even consider making an appointment, they need to get a feel for whether I am someone they think they could trust. And they need to know if I can actually be of help in their life or not. And if you who read this choose to continue to do so, I hope to be able to answer just that in this very blog post.
My life purpose and absolute joy is to help people feel better in themselves and in their relationships with others around them, and the means that I use and work with is our communication. The word ”consonance” means to sound together (as opposed to being in dissonance with each other), and translated into human relationships, it’s about using our words and our listening skills in a way that creates more harmony, connection and understanding - within ourselves and toward others.
I help people navigate their communication with others when there’s a need for it. It could be a wish to bring healing and clarity into a specific relationship with someone in their life and with whom conversation feels strained, painful, imbalanced or in other ways unfulfilled. It could be a longing for more connection, integrity and meaning in their relationships with others. It could be a wish to find and be clear with their words and feel more grounded when speaking with - or in front of - people in general. It could also be that they experience a need to start talking to themselves in a kinder, more loving way, but don't know how to begin. Or anything in between.
To be honest, I think that the question ”What makes you better than everybody else?” mirrors a lot of what we are being taught by society and what we have been trained to think, which is ”You need to compare yourself to others and you need to compete with each other.” And while being fully aware of the risk that I might lose potential clients here, I still want to say that I’m here to do neither. I have done that enough in my life. Well, I have always been too much of a softie to be any good at competing, but I have definitely had my fair share of comparing myself to other people. And I don’t want to do that anymore. The truth that my heart holds is that we’re in this experience called Life together to lift each other up.
And so, what makes me unique in my field of work, I guess, is what my own life has prepared me for and that I believe can be of service to others. I come with the set of tools and the knowledge and the skills that I have collected through education, through practice, through having had countless conversations in my personal life and at work, through being a partner and a mom, through carrying a backpack where culture, country, language and faith differ from some of the closest people in my life (and in that a knowing that this is not always easy to navigate), through so many blessed opportunities of holding space for other people and through just as many healing and beautiful experiences of others holding space for me.
When someone is in a session with me, my first priority always is to provide a safe space for them to come as they are and to talk about what feels important to them. In my own life, I’ve probably made every communication mistake possible, but I’ve also learned a lot from them. And so I judge no one. I simply show up and invite whatever needs to be seen and addressed that would be of help to that person right there and then in where they want to go, where they want to be.
I truly believe that everything that happens in life, the good and the bad, holds a possibility for us to get to know ourselves - and sometimes each other too - at a deeper level, and that this is the level of love and compassion, of empathy and connection. When we’re hurting or when our relationships in life bring growing-pains, this can be difficult to take in. But I think that when we allow ourselves to take a step back and see things the way they are, it often comes with a gift, and this gift can also show up in many suits, a few of them being healing, connection, understanding, ease, trust and joy.
I work online worldwide through video and e-mail, in Swedish and in English, and sessions are booked through this website, www.consonancecommunication.com.
If this is something you feel a nudge to try, it would be a joy and an honor to connect with you. And if you know someone who you think could benefit from a session and if it feels right, then please share this post with them.
In warmth and gratitude,
Karolina
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