Discover How To Remap Your Mind and Transform Your Life With The Power of NLP

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And then, be ready to find your inspiration. Hello, and welcome to the Career Changers. Our guest today is Mahisha Claiborne, a physician and trainer of Neurolinguistic Programming, NLP, Hypnosis, and Timeline Therapy.

Founder of the Mind Remapping Academy, Dr. Claiborne helps people eliminate old trauma wounds that create hunger, hurt, fear, shame, and self-doubt, while teaching them to be trauma-responsive in their own communication. We'll talk about career change and how to remap your mind to create balance in your life. Hi, Mahisha, thank you so much for joining us.

Hi, Elisa, thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure to be here. I appreciate you.

Great. So, let's start with your background. How did you start your professional life, or better, what was your first job? Ah, well, I think what was your first job was a very good question, because I'll start by saying that my mom is a retired dentist, and my dad's a retired physician.

He was an OBGYN doctor. So, my mom took the top half, my dad took the bottom half, and then I became a family physician, which was everything in between. But my first job was a dental assistant with my mom.

So, I had the experience of being in an entrepreneurial lifestyle with my mom. I call her the original entrepreneur in my life. She started her own dental practice, and then I was one of the people who worked at the front desk as a kiddo.

I helped around in her practice. So, I would say that was my entry into, number one, entrepreneurship, but also, I think it's just that caring for people infused into me. And was that your dream job when you were a child? Oh, definitely not.

Definitely not. One thing, if being a dental assistant taught me one thing, it was that I didn't want to be a dentist. And what I will say, though, is the skills that I learned as a dental assistant, and even as a front desk person, actually ended up translating, and it was one of the jobs that I did when I was in college, that I worked to help me to earn money while I was in college.

But no, that was not my dream job when I was a child. I will say that I had many versions of dream jobs. I think at some point I wanted to be a marine biologist, and then I realized that while I liked the ocean, I didn't like it that much.

And then when I was in eighth grade is when I actually decided that I was going to be a doctor. And I wouldn't even say that was my dream job. It was just what I decided to do.

And I decided to do that because I was writing on an... I was on an eighth grade writing assignment, and our assignment was to write a college of our choice. And I chose Emory University, mostly because it was in Atlanta, where I currently live. And I was very intrigued about the city of Atlanta.

And I thought it was just close enough to home that I can get home easily, but far enough away to where my mother couldn't come every weekend. And so it was one of those like strategic choices. When I look back, I thought, I think to myself, how strategic I was at such a young age.

But that's really... I got a letter back from Emory and they said, oh, we'd be happy to show you around our campus and have you at our school. And I think that was the decision right there, which is odd. But as I went along, I learned that that was the life that I wanted.

I wanted to be able to care for people. I wanted to be able to help people. I am an oldest child.

So that is my nature. So then how did you progress your career? Well, so when I went to undergraduate, I started out as a chemistry major and I quickly realized I wasn't interested in that either. And so I switched my major to psychology.

I have always been very interested in the mind and how the mind works and why people do the things they do. So I had a psychology background. I ended up going to medical school in Atlanta.

So Emory is in Atlanta. I went to Morehouse School of Medicine, that's in Atlanta. And I got very, very interested in how the mind and body work together.

And so fast forward through my residency in family medicine, which was my primary residency, I was already thinking ahead to the fact that I was very interested in not just the traditional style of practice of medicine, but in more integrative style, which just means, you know, to, to combine what would be Western practices with like more holistic practices. And so coming even into my residency training as a family doctor, I knew I had in the back of my mind, that was the pathway that I was going to go down and coming out of residency at a time when it was still called alternative medicine at a time when this wasn't as popular as it is today. Now you hear integrative and functional medicine and holistic medicine and all of these modalities.

You hear it all the time, but in 2004, which is when I came out of residency, I can't believe it's been 20 years. It wasn't that popular. And so I had a lot of uphill, uphill battling to do to, to progress my career, a lot of connecting back before social media.

Sometimes the things I say, I can't even believe before social media existed. Yeah. What was before social media aging myself really before social media existed.

I was what we call pounding the pavement. So I connected, I networked with chiropractors, I networked with therapists, I networked with other doctors, I've networked with massage therapists and created community around me to help me to grow my practice. So that's, that's sort of like how I was, was able to progress my first career, you know, coming out, realizing that there wasn't a framework for the kind of medicine that I wanted to practice.

So I had to create the framework myself and it took a lot of failure and a lot of bumps in the road and a lot of obstacles, but I sort of discovered and created what worked for me in my career, that first career. And I think that gave me the, it gave me the foundation, being able to create my first career in my mind's gave me the foundation to be able to transition and change careers when I did. So how and when did you decide to make a shift in your career and why? Well, it's interesting because I think I decided to make the shift about five years before I did.

And my why sort of changed in that timeframe. I, as I shared, I came out of residency in 2004, I started my first practice right out of residency. I knew I wanted to do integrative medicine.

I trained in acupuncture. I was, I was already trained as a, as an energy practitioner, a Reiki master. I was, you know, versed in, in nutritional medicine at that time.

I did a lot of self education because that was before the formal education was available to us. And so I was doing this work, building my practice. And about five years in, I thought to myself, this is probably not going to be it.

I mean, I enjoyed what I do, seeing patients. I enjoyed the, the, the way I could empower patients to be active participants in their health. I enjoyed the way I could coach patients because I had by that time also become a coach.

It was before I trained in neuro-linguistic programming, which I know we're going to get to. And I think I just came to a point where I realized that seeing patients one-to-one was not making the biggest impact that I could possibly make. It was satisfying, but it was limiting.

And so that was the first time that was five years into my private practice, which I ultimately owned for 10 years, but it was five years in. And I started to think about what else, what else could I do? So about, I was, I was exploring that for probably about three or four years and about four, about three or four years later, I realized, Oh, there are people, there are other doctors like me, but they are in the system and the traditional system and they are burning out. And I didn't realize that now I had experienced the burnout way before there was language for it when I was in residency.

And, and that's a whole other conversation. And I recognized, as I looked at my colleagues who were, who were out of that situation, but in what was supposed to be a fulfilling part of their life, and they were still burning out. And I had by this time, gotten the skills of coaching and I thought, well, how could I potentially help these doctors? How could I potentially help these people who were burning out? So that was the first time that I recognized a new path.

Now in 2014, so 2012 was five years into my practice. Two years later, I became pregnant with my son who is now nine years old. And then it became clear to me as I was 39, when I became pregnant, I had spent my entire life up to that point in my career.

And, you know, I was close to the, to the midway point of what would be a full life that I was clear that once I had my son, I wanted to be a present mom. I wanted to be able to be, have the freedom, the time freedom. And that was sort of like where my why shifted from, you know, I, I just want to do something different to, I need to do something different where I can make a bigger impact and where I can have time freedom.

So today you're making a dis-impact through your new career, your second new career, my second new career. And I'll share very briefly, cause I know we have a limited time. I came into my first, so my first transition, I started coaching moms in medicine and, and helping them to find meaningful careers.

And I thought to myself, if I am helping doctors find meaning in their career and preserving and giving longevity to their career, then I'm actually helping thousands of patients because they can be the best doctors they can be. They can be the best nurse practitioners or nurses they can be. And they're going to give patients a positive experience.

So that was sort of like the first time. So then after, so then between that time, I trained in neuro-linguistic programming. I trained at a hypnotherapist.

I was using this coaching inside of the, the coaching itself. I was using this modalities inside of the coaching. And then I had become a trainer and it was around 2016.

So my son was around two years old that I decided to actually sell my practice. So I, I, I sold my practice in 2017 and full-time was a coach, but I was also a trainer of this modality. I thought to myself, you know, at some point I need to transfer this knowledge to others.

And that happened in 2019 where I got the call. And in 2020, I held an event and I had my first class of, of students where I was actually teaching and training and certifying people in neuro-linguistic programming. And simultaneously, because we know what happened in 2020 with the pandemic, with the isolation, with the racial tension and violence, I also ended up stepping into activism and beginning to train in anti-racism, anti-oppression.

And so this was a trajectory of my career that I had no clue would ever happen. And yet I was using my expertise in communication, my expertise in trauma to impact organizations as well. So now I, you know, I do the training, the NLP training, and then I also work with organizations to help bring psychological safety, to help them be more trauma-informed in their communication.

And so that's where my second career shift came in. So you had this amazing career transformation journey and you alighted your challenges as well. And today you're helping other people to remap their mind, to create new balance in their life.

What does it mean to remap our minds? Well, really it, it simply is a process of, of empowering ourselves by taking our old programming that we merited, you know, the things that we do, the things we walk around saying to ourselves in our head, our old beliefs that don't help us, our values and our self-talk. How do we reprogram old thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that are harming us so that we can actually make changes in our lives and be empowered? And how do we learn the communication strategies to actually do that with others? So that's essentially remapping, like the mind remapping process is what I like to use. There's the technology of neuro-linguistic programming.

And what is neuro-linguistic programming? How can it be used to remap our minds? Well, so neuro-linguistic programming is how we use our language unspoken and spoken, how we use our communication, verbal and non-verbal to be able to reprogram those old thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. And it's a, it's a set of, it's a set of, of a way that we believe it's a set of a way of thinking, but it's also, there's a set of tools and there's a set of communication patterns that you learn when you learn neuro-linguistic programming. So imagine, to answer your question, how does it, how does it remap our minds? How does it transform our lives? Imagine you grow up with a particular, with these particular filters, the filters of your upbringing, the filters of your past experience, the filters of your beliefs and your values.

And, and you're not getting to the goals that you want to get to. You're not having the best relationships. Maybe your finances are out of whack.

Maybe you're not, you're, you're, you're timid about leadership, whatever the case may be. Imagine being able to reprogram the old thoughts and beliefs that stand in your way. Imagine being able to manipulate those filters of the inherited beliefs and get rid of them altogether so that you can be unleashed as your most powerful, authentic, and highest performing self.

That's how neuro-linguistic programming transforms lives. So is neuro-linguistic programming based on words? Am I correct to say so? Well, it's, it's based on, it's based more on, it's based on more than words. So it's, it's based on communication.

It's based on thoughts. Yes. Words are powerful because words create images in our minds.

So we can use the words to create our world. And it's about more than that because communication is not just words. As a matter of fact, only 7% of communication is words.

And 93% is everything else. Our tone of voice, our body language, our facial expressions. So it's about communication and it's about our unconscious thoughts and our unconscious beliefs that we inherit.

So how can our unconscious belief that you mentioned now impact our journey to personal realization of success? I guess you had to go through this sort of journey as well, yourself, while developing your career and changing throughout the years. Well, when we begin to look at where our beliefs are impacting our limitations, and then we begin to look at what are the source of those unconscious thoughts and beliefs, then, then we can begin to dissolve them, get rid of them. And, and we have the power to form new beliefs consciously that then can go into our unconscious that help us to perform better.

So while I was looking at your website and your material, I found the topic about psychological safety and it really attracted my attention. Actually, I felt emotionally connected to that. Oh, this sounds very good.

So what is it and why can allow us to thrive? Psychological safety is the space of feeling safe in any environment from a mind standpoint, psychological and emotional. When you're safe, when you feel safe to learn, when you feel safe to make mistakes, when you feel safe to express yourself without those things being turned against you or without feeling like you're going to be gas lit, when you feel safe that when you, when you feel safe in your humanity, because we all make mistakes, when you feel safe to be able to challenge. So a lot of times people and organizations, particularly or in families, they don't feel safe to speak up for themselves.

When you have those conditions met in any environment, whether it's a corporation or whether it's a family or a community, a church community, then you have the experience of psychological safety. And there are lots of things that can threaten that. And there are lots of things that can enhance that.

Is there something like a small tips about psychological safety that you can give something that someone can do by themselves to feel a bit more safe? Well, when I talk about becoming a person who provides psychological safety, the first thing that I often talk about is listening and observing because the way we listen, that is what sort of drives our responses and our behaviors. So number one, you are observing, you're listening, but you're also observing other people's reactions and responses. And when you can observe, really observe and see other people's responses, you can see how they respond to you.

You can communicate what happened and they can tell you whether something you said felt off. And that opens the conversation to be able to cultivate and create conversations that help to improve and increase psychological safety. We have to forget how each of us with our choices can have a positive impact in the world.

How do you feel you're making the world a better place? Well, you know, one of the things I'm most committed to is having people to recognize where their own traumas are getting in the way of connecting with other people and how we are harming people and harming future generations by reacting from our own trauma. And so I think that for me, doing the work I'm doing and educating people about their brains, educating people about trauma, educating people about the impact their words and their communications have, helping people create more psychological safety, that is ultimately the source of helping people to be connected and understand and honor each other as humans. So we're reaching the end of this episode.

And if you could give advice to someone that is going through their journey to self-realization and trying to find themselves and what is their purpose, what would you say to them based on your personal journey and experience? I would say don't do it alone. I think oftentimes we get into this place of, oh, I have to do it all by myself. I'm just going to journal.

I'm going to read a bunch of books. I'm going to do, you know, the people are liking to do it all alone. And while part of that journey can be alone, it's more powerful in community.

It's more powerful when you do it with a coach, when you do it with a therapist, when you do it inside of a community of like minds. And so if I have one piece of advice to give, don't do this work by yourself. Find a community to do it.

So before the last question, if anyone would like to reach out to you and find the work you're doing, how and where they can find you? Well, if you're interested in learning more about the work that I'm doing, the courses I have, the trainings I have, or invited me to speak, the website is mindremappingacademy.com. That's mindremappingacademy.com. You can also connect with me on social media. I'm on all the social media channels, except for Twitter, backslash Dr. Myesha. And finally, if you're into podcasts, listen to the Black Mind Garden podcast.

This is where you can get a little bit more sense of what we've already been talking about. I talk a lot more deeply about psychological safety, about trauma, trauma-informed communication, and the various aspects of communication. The Black Mind Garden is the podcast on any of your favorite podcast platforms.

Thank you. So now the last question that we ask to all of our guests on The Career Changers, if you could give yourself a piece of advice, what would you say to your younger self? Invest early. I know that has nothing to do with self-realization, but I think that my own fears around that had me start a little bit later.

So I would say, don't be afraid to trust in people and invest a little bit earlier than you did. That would be the advice. That's okay.

What do you think you did invest early enough in? Real estate. Oh my gosh. I would have loved to have bought real estate earlier on.

Yes. Yes. Okay.

So an increased financial wisdom then. Yes, absolutely. It would allow me to create more of a legacy for my son, which I'm doing now, but I wish I would have done it earlier.

How about that? Well, that's great. Thank you, Maisha, so much for joining us today and sharing your inspirational career change story and wisdom with our listeners. Thank you for having me, Elisa.

And the last message to our listeners, don't forget to subscribe to our channel and tune in next week for a new inspirational episode of The Career Changers. Thank you.