Dare to Be Unapologetically You: Steps to Discovering Your Authentic Self and Thrive | EP 9

Are you wearing a mask of self-confidence while secretly craving external validation?

Discover the secrets to self-esteem, self-care, and self-love in this episode featuring Hélène and Dr. Stephanos Ioannou. They take you on an eye-opening journey through personal growth and empowerment, sharing powerful insights that will leave you inspired.

Hélène reveals the incredible impact of 3 practices she performs everyday to stay disciplined and motivated. Learn how by a chance encounter she ditched her career plans of real estate and finance to become a fitness coach.

Shares the surprising wisdom she's gained from hosting intense fitness boot camps to the transformative world of embodiment coaching and empowerment circles.

Chapters:
02:37 - Shattering Societal Expectations
07:06 - The College Struggle and Depression
15:29 - Power in Acceptance
22:34 - Fitness as a Healing Journey
34:57 - Transforming Lives Through Coaching
42:08 - Clarity in Empowerment

This episode is your key to unlocking your true potential, from being stuck in Saudi Arabia to unstoppable self-confidence.

Join them as they navigate the depths of depression and the challenges of adapting to new environments. Their authentic stories of resilience will resonate with you and provide valuable insights into overcoming obstacles.

It's a story of transformation that you won't want to miss.

Let's jump right in!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Receive Exclusive Tips, Strategies, & Early Access to Events Directly to Your Inbox
Sign up for the Empowered New You Newsletter

 Empowered New You Events:
https://drstephanos.com/events/

Ready for a change?

Tackle stress, depression, insomnia, and relationship hurdles head-on
Talk with Dr. Stephano Ioannou in a dedicated  1:1 therapy session
Book your session today: https://tr.ee/5WT89sosUn

Designed for women like you, eager to awaken their fullest potential
Join Hélène for a 1:1 empowerment session
Schedule your call with her today: https://tr.ee/cq-rYVY1NZ

Contact us with questions, ideas, or feedback:
Health Pod Podcast

Follow our socials:
@iamhelenealexiioannides
@drstephanos_neuroscientist
@wearehealthpod

Support the Show:
Share this episode with a friend
Give us a review in your listening app of choice

Transcript

Hélène Ioannides [00:00:00]:

Welcome to Health Pod, your self development hub

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:00:02]:

on mental health, psychology, and spirituality.

Hélène Ioannides [00:00:06]:

I was given the space to be me, but within a poor So it was more than what society was accepting of growing up in a very small country. But it was a lot more than what most people were permitted to be within their household.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:00:25]:

Who was that person that you were speaking to?

Hélène Ioannides [00:00:28]:

An odd version of myself. It's like every day we have to restart. We have to restart who we are. I am taking their life to the next level. I'm empowering them. I'm uplifting them. I'm elevating their lives. Their sex lives, their relationships, their relationships to themselves, the way that the world perceives them. I realized that it was it was not fitness I was given It was access to something way bigger than what they even understood, to be whoever the fuck we want to be. Welcome to another episode on Health pod. I'm Helene, and I'm an empowerment and embodiment coach. And today, we're gonna be talking about how to step into your sovereign power, how to understand what confidence truly is and how you can stop that inner critic from sabotaging your life. You can follow us on our IG channels where you can find in the description here below. Do not forget to hit the subscribe button on our YouTube channel. We look forward to seeing you

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:01:42]:

So, Helene. Yeah. Welcome.

Hélène Ioannides [00:01:45]:

Well, thank you.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:01:46]:

So this is possibly the most stressful episode that I will ever shoot on the health pod because --

Hélène Ioannides [00:01:50]:

You better get it right.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:01:51]:

Yes. I better get it right. And I just wanna get it right, give people the message that you want to communicate in the best way possible. So as your partner, I've watched you grow. Since, the age that we've been together, the age of twenty three, now I'm thirty seven. So we had that growth together. When I've met you, I've met a woman that was very confident but also in a way, distant and she knew who she was. Was that always the case with you? Was that who you were, really?

Hélène Ioannides [00:02:37]:

Okay. To start with, I'd like to say that, I always felt confident and I always knew what I was and who I was, and What path I wanted to follow, but a lot of the time, society, my own mind, my fears got in the way, of where I wanted to get to.

 But internally, I felt I felt confident because I had sold myself a story that's fitted, fit in with what society, what my family, what coworkers, what people around me, friends wanted me to be, but When I truly found out what confidence was throughout the years, I then recognized that in fact, It was a facade all along. I felt that's yeah. There was this, you mentioned it.

 You mentioned that I was confident, but at the same time, there was this standoffish behavior. I was very detached from my emotions, and it was really hard for me to take a look inside. And to recognize those emotions and to sit with them and to acknowledge them and give them space to flourish and clear So I was holding on to a lot within my body, within my thoughts, and within who I thought the world wanted me to be and how I needed to project myself. Only when I started to break down who I was, and recognize that in fact, I was nothing but everything all at once. 

Did I realize that Okay. Who does Helene want to be in this world? Mhmm. And how does she wanna show up? And The more authentic I was to myself, and the more I said no to things that didn't align. And I said yes to the things that felt like Yeah. This is where my heart is leading me. This is what I wanna do. 

This is not something that I have been taught I need to do or I need to be. The more I was stepping into my power, I was figuring out who I was and how I wanted to show up in the world and be more authentic to myself, to my relationships, be more vulnerable with myself, to be able to recognize what I'm feeling.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:05:09]:

So there was a connection between your intention on discovering what is my truest self, what do I really want? And how do I wanna show up in the world? Mhmm. So you kind of integrated in a way what society expected for you, but also connecting with your emotions and listening from insight. Mhmm. Wanted to be like.

Hélène Ioannides [00:05:34]:

I was always very intuitive. I would recognize what my body was feeling. I could feel certain things, but I I chose to brush them away.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:05:46]:

Okay.

Hélène Ioannides [00:05:47]:

I chose to push down those feelings and put on this, I can do it attitude with everything that I would do, whether that was being the top athlete within my school, being a, an a student at school, being praised by my parents, being praised by people around me, you know, like, Oh, you look so beautiful, all your amazing at athletics, all you can, you're you're an a student, There was just so many aspects of myself. 

I was the typical a type of person. So the more I was praised by that, the more I fed into that, that structure, and how I thought I had to show up When I started to question -- Mhmm. -- those aspects of myself, and I didn't receive the validation, the approval of people around me. That's when those constructs started to fall apart.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:06:48]:

Okay. So when was this transition? When did you stop receiving the validation

Hélène Ioannides [00:06:56]:

Yeah. When I decided that I was not gonna follow the path that I went to study.

Hélène Ioannides [00:07:06]:

And while I was doing my studies, I went through depression So that was my first signal. I put on 10 kilos, and I realized I'm unhappy. But in my head, going to study was the most epic times of your life. You were meant to be free. 

Celebrating life. You're away from your parents. You, you know, you get the sense of you and the sense of an adult, the sense of self, but I wasn't feeling that. I was feeling the exact opposite. I was lost. I was isolated. I was questioning my decisions, and I realized that if I was to be studying this in the 1st year and I had another 3 years ahead of me of doing real estate and finance that made me feel empty and not fulfilled, then would the rest of my life be that way?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:08:01]:

Mhmm.

Hélène Ioannides [00:08:02]:

And was I willing to sacrifice my whole life because of a decision I made when I was eighteen? And very early on within my studies, I recognized that, no, hell no. This isn't Helene. So I started to question Why what was I studying? Why was I studying this? Who made me believe that this was the ideal

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:08:27]:

Uh-huh. So you started finding your own internal voice, and you managed to do that by also connecting more to your emotional nature. Was there at some point in your life where this emotional nature, because you described to us an action based person. 

You were a volleyball player. You were good looking. You're a good student. So your your performance was based on how good you were and the praise that you were receiving from the things that you were achieving

Hélène Ioannides [00:09:06]:

Yes.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:09:06]:

So you were more in an action based, let's say masculine type.

Hélène Ioannides [00:09:12]:

Mhmm.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:09:13]:

Nature. Why was this internal voice, this emotional voice inside of you, suppressed? How could that be nurtured and facilitated to find your own internal voice? Did you see a specific model in your family that made you divert from this internal voice?

Hélène Ioannides [00:09:35]:

Growing up within society and within my family, I saw models around me of women that were so focused on how they looked. And even though A lot of them around me were good looking and with really good bodies. 

There was always so much judgment and criticism that I experienced. It was all about looking in the mirror and saying, ah, I don't like this part, or I feel uncomfortable with my jeans. And with that, that signaled to me that no matter what they look like on the outside, they were still very unhappy. On the inside, but my journey began from working on the outside.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:10:24]:

K. So it was an out in journey. Yeah. And is this the right way to go on this journey of self acceptance and self love?

Hélène Ioannides [00:10:35]:

I think everyone's got their own path, as long as there is awareness, and recognition around your patterns and how you behave. But because as a society, we have so much focus on what the exterior looks like, it feels like it's a good place to start. But with regards to looking at yourself in the mirror and recognizing that I'm only focusing on the traits that I don't like and on the physical that doesn't make me feel fulfilled, then what else is there to explore there?

 And that's where my journey of self love ends in a work started because I could see that I was tearing myself apart, and that was a pattern that I had seen my whole life. And seeing that pattern, I recognize whose voice is this? Whose voice is this? Is this really my own voice? Because I'm perceived as someone who's very confident, and I believe I love myself, but yet there is this very, very harsh in a critic. And with time, I recognize that that voice was disempowering me, was making me feel small, was not allowing me to step into my full power, was really holding me back from my full potential. And the more I became aware of that voice and I gave that voice, love. 

And I gave that voice space. I didn't I didn't do what I used to do as a child, which was, like, Okay. If I don't like something, ah, just brush it to the side. Now you can get over that. That doesn't feel nice. That's not, you know, we don't wanna deal with that. Instead, I did the opposite, I sat with it. I spoke to it in a kind way. I used to call Hermione Helene, and sitting with her, and just saying, hi. 

What are you here to teach me? Let's have a conversation. Like, I hear you. I can see you. And with that recognition and awareness, it's almost like I gave her the permission to break down and soften. And the more I softened into that, the more I could see my emotions and what was blocking me from feeling fully confident, not just pretending I was confident, but to actually feel embodied, to feel empowered, to feel confident, to feel just to feel more of me is how I was describing it.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:13:20]:

So how did you start hashing this inner critic. Obviously, you've mentioned that you started going into an internal dialogue with a part of you that had a negative output, a negative mindset. Who was that person that you were speaking to?

Hélène Ioannides [00:13:46]:

An older version of myself.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:13:48]:

And that also

Hélène Ioannides [00:13:49]:

-- It was also the voice of my mother. It was something that I heard over the years that made me just feel more critical of myself of where I needed to be, although I felt very empowered, and I was always given the space to be me within a society that was so limited, but that also confined me.

 It sounds like a paradox, and it's very ironic, but I was given the space to be me, but within a box. So it was more than what society was accepting of growing up in a very small country, but it was a lot more than what most people were permitted to be within their household.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:14:37]:

A lot of people would characterize you as being snobbish or distant growing up. And, I think it is important here to communicate to our viewers. From where exactly does that come from? Yeah. Because allow me to elaborate a little bit over here because most people might view it as, oh, she thinks too high of herself. She's too full of herself. What is your take on this? Hey, guys. Thank you for watching. If you're enjoying this video, do not forget to hit the subscribe button. It would mean a lot to us.

Hélène Ioannides [00:15:29]:

I think there are 2 very important points to raise here. I think that being a bitch and being a soap was my superpower. And I think that allowed me to have very clear boundaries with people. I knew who I liked, and I knew who I didn't like and who I would get along with, and I made that very clear. So it took out a lot of the noise from my life. 

There was no questions around it. Whereas most people were trying to be liked by everyone, I was quite comfortable with being liked by the people that I felt were important to me. I didn't have this need to be loved and accepted because I already knew that I was being rejected by most people. 

Perhaps I was doing the rejecting, so that gave me more clarity. However, Looking back at it, I know that was a defense mechanism to keep me protected and keep my emotions safe. Which, obviously, somewhere along the line, I did not feel protected and safe and supported either within the society, within, you know, around the people, my school, and therefore, I built this image of myself.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:16:47]:

This persona.

Hélène Ioannides [00:16:47]:

This persona, but this persona served me so well. Because I knew where I stood. And with that, that's when a lot of people looked at me and said, she knows who she is. She looks confident. She is confident. What is it that gives her this ability to speak her mind? Why does she not give a shit what people think?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:17:09]:

It's amazing what you say because you've mentioned boundaries here.

Hélène Ioannides [00:17:12]:

Yes.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:17:12]:

And I think this this is something that a lot of people neglect. Their social interactions. And at some point, you do have a dependent self. You're independent in your ways. You're safe. You feel safe. But also you understand that there's something here bothering me or this someone, I don't feel safe around.

Hélène Ioannides [00:17:41]:

Are you talking about?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:17:42]:

To open up? I'm speaking about other people. Other people or the or or your your younger version of yourself. Now My next question to you is, which were those steps that you took that made you fully integrate your persona of what you might have been projecting to the outside world And obviously there, there was this this split because there was something else going on inside of you, you were putting out an image of yourself that was making the inside of you feel safe.

Hélène Ioannides [00:18:23]:

Mhmm.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:18:23]:

And how did you manage to merge this to into one into becoming this solid figure that you are today, which were the steps or the practices.

Hélène Ioannides [00:18:32]:

With a lot of work, a lot of hard work. I think A lot of the time we look at people and we see where they're at and we think, oh, they must have always been confident and they must have always known what they wanted and that that inner power comes naturally, but in fact that comes from a lot of discipline, a lot of introspection, sitting with yourself for hours, which is something that I experienced several times in my life. 

So going back to when I went through depression throughout my studies, and I spent so many hours within my room, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Why was I thinking the way that I was thinking? Who was I becoming? How are my habits forming me? Eating really bad foods, drinking a lot? 

And Discovering that I didn't feel like myself in this oversized, overweight body, And the second time that felt like a huge part of who I became was when we had to move to Saudi. And I moved there with the idea that I was going to be working in real estate and finance because that's what I had just finished, and you got a job there.

 But moving there, it was such a male dominant society that there was no way that I could work in that field. It didn't feel like there was room for that. And having spent so many hours by myself within 4 hours. Keep in mind we didn't have kids then. You work work a lot. That's when I I I had to sit with myself. I had to sit and think, well, who am I?

 How does this society work? What does the culture here look like? And what does that say about me? If they have this way of functioning as women and this society and this religion says, this and this about how they need to behave, but my culture and my upbringing says something completely different Where do I stand? 

What are my values? How do I wanna represent myself? So with all of these thoughts and time alone came a lot of awareness and understanding as to who I was and perhaps what I was doing on this earth. And what was my biggest purpose?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:21:20]:

Your service to society. So just to kind of sum up what you've just set here and combining with what you said before. Growing up, you were quite popular. You had, and people admired you. 

Hearing your school friend, they they say that you were one of the most attractive, girls of your year. And and people used to admire you. And this solitude in Saudi Arabia, when things that you've built in your home country were taken away from you. You were really left with your pure essence of who you were. And you were like, okay, if people are taking away from me, my fame, my wealth, my

Hélène Ioannides [00:22:14]:

-- Status. --

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:22:14]:

my status.

Hélène Ioannides [00:22:15]:

My leadership because I'm no longer, I don't have the permission to be the woman that I can show up as in Cyprus, then who am I?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:22:26]:

How did you start discovering who you were and your service to society?

Hélène Ioannides [00:22:34]:

Initially, it started with fitness, with working on my body, with Connecting to my body because through fitness, I would get into a meditative state. My mind was clear. I would feel empowered, I would feel strong. 

I would feel that god universe, whatever you wanna call it, has given me a gift to be able to experience this. And with that experience, I would get a high. I would get a high to life, and that's exactly how I but myself out of depression. That's exactly how I would get myself out of a negative mindset when I lived in Saudi Arabia.

 When I went through postpartum depression after having Celeste, it was the discipline, the consistency, and the focus that I had to the promise I had made myself. The promise I had made to myself that I would show up for Helene every single day no matter what she felt like, it wasn't about, do you feel like working at it? It was no. It was like, you made a promise, and you were gonna stick to it. 

And with that promise and me showing up for myself, I found myself again. The part of myself that I had lost. And I rebuilt myself and that confidence and that power within my body and to have the ability to experience life and gratitude for life. And The connection to my body, the connection to my body is so important. I feel that movement healed me.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:24:14]:

Absolutely. So hearing you now speak, I understand that what exercise has given you back it's, your self esteem. Yes. And speaking to my therapist about it, he told me that because while I was filling up this application form, certain questions, he asked me, do you understand the reason why I have asked you if you exercise? 

Because he told me that discipline discipline and just your non-negotiables showing up for yourself on a daily basis. It could be initially for your body because most of us, we start exercising for our outside goals. But with time, you realize that you exercise for your inner self for how exercise makes you feel.

 And the way you show up every day for your inner well-being. In fact, gives you self love and self esteem What other practices do you,

Hélène Ioannides [00:25:22]:

Live by?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:25:23]:

Live by or teach your clients to live by.

Hélène Ioannides [00:25:27]:

The practices that I followed and still stick to are essential to my self esteem and self care as well as self love. These are very important to me because they remind me every day who I am. And these practices included a range of them. 

So journaling, and just writing out my thoughts and my feelings as to where I'm at every single day and to recognize that some days are great. And some days, I'm not feeling like myself, but that's okay and to give myself that permission to also feel into those days without giving myself the, how do I wanna say it? 

Without giving myself the, without punishing myself that I need to keep going because to me, it was considered a punishment. If I didn't give myself rest, rest was essential for me. Not so much physically, but to give myself permission to take days off. And when I would just take days off of lazing around, as we would call it, those were the days that I would have the most creative thoughts come through and be able to truly see where I'm at because while we're always doing things, we kind of get lost in that process, whereas when you have time to sit back and self reflect and journal those thoughts out and give yourself permission to have shit days, then you're also allowing yourself to grow. 

Absolutely. So journaling was one of them. The other one was meditation. Meditation has been so essential to my life. I I don't know where I would be today without meditation. Meditation, I must say, started differently. For me. Meditation is perhaps a couple of things to me. It's when I paint. When I'm painting and I'm creating an artwork, which is something that I don't share a lot, but I love to paint. 

When I'm in that process, I'm in a meditative state. When I'm working out, and I have my music on full blast. I'm in a meditative state. And with time, I taught my body to also learn how to sit still, and that is a skill in itself, which when I catch myself not practicing enough, I need more practice on it to be able to to implement those practices and to be dedicated to them on a daily basis because we forget. It's like every day we have to restart. We have to restart who we are. And the more we implement and have a structure and routine to our every day, you are remembering who you are. 

You are remembering what gives you power, what makes you feel empowered because your mind will take you everywhere. Through the phone calls, through the admin work that you have to do, through picking up the kids. But when you are dedicated to those practices, You are reminding yourself, why have I come on this earth? What am I here to do? What is my plan for today? How do I feel? And you are realigning yourself. You're constantly changing that frequency. You're constantly remembering. Okay. This is what I'm here to do.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:29:22]:

Wow. Wow. So this is absolutely so essential because if we allow ourselves to get dragged into responsibilities stories in our head. Playing the victim complaining. We tend to forget the why we can to for we tend to forget the intention of our calling in this life. And that's when kind of depression hits, and that's when people feel unsatisfied with their life. 

But what you're doing you're reminding yourself on a daily basis how to keep track of your dreams and where you're heading in life. And this is also one of the reasons why you have managed to build such a huge success around you. Not only professionally wise, but also within our family. Because you keep that vision and that direction alive within each one of us.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:30:27]:

I thank you for that. Now you said before that you went to Saudi Arabia with the scope of working in real estate.

Hélène Ioannides [00:30:36]:

Yes.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:30:36]:

And eventually, you fell into into fitness.

Hélène Ioannides [00:30:40]:

Yeah. I didn't fall into fitness. I remember I remember a woman coming up to me working at in gym and asking me to train her. And I thought, me, I'm not qualified to teach. I'm not qualified to to to train you. Although I had been doing that, you know, I had been working with other people in the past with regards to their body, but when it came to making it official, I really thought that it was important that I went and got certain qualifications and I remember flying to Dubai every single weekend to get accredited to learn more about the body, the anatomy, the muscles, yeah, just learn more about why I was doing what I was doing.

 Although I had the technical skills, because I had been working on my body for so many years. I, you know, since 13, I was a volleyball athlete, and then I transitioned into the gym. But technically, I felt that I knew what I was doing, but in terms of knowledge, I felt like I needed more of a solid foundation. So I dedicate a lot of time, energy to investing in myself. And understanding more about this field, personal training. 

And The more I worked with women in Saudi Arabia, I realized that people needed structure and discipline Because the level of obesity is so high worldwide, but particularly in Saudi Arabia, most women would come to me and they wanted quick fixes. When I would say, well, we have a 1 year plan, and we're gonna sit down. We're gonna do this, this, and this. 

They would lose interest. So in my mind, I thought, what's the best way to present this to them? In a way that makes it seem that they can do it, that it's easy, that it's tangible and that they can also have the same success results as other clients of mine have had the success that I've had with my own. Journey with my body, you know, having being 10 kilos overweight, losing that, getting into fitness, understanding who I was, connecting to my body. So I came up with the idea of doing boot camps 6 week, fixes

Hélène Ioannides [00:33:17]:

combine nutrition with exercise. In a setting, This is very key in a setting that they could come out of their own shell. So I set up a space where we had loud music, lights, neon lights like these, and it felt like a disco. It felt like they were coming to have a party, so it was fun, but also really beneficial to them. And when I realized that initially they would walk in and they were just so depleted. 

I remember just their postures. And then they would, you know, just face the floor and walk in, and you could see that there was no life in them. But then when they would leave the session, there was this. It's like they had turned into these beautiful butterflies. 

With confidence with the way that they stood. And when you would see the transition from the beginning to the end of the 6 weeks, I realized that it was It was not fitness I was giving them. It was access to something way bigger than what they even understood.

 It was an inner transformation. It was understanding themselves, giving them permission to be themselves, giving them space, to express themselves and to tap into a level of confidence they had never experienced. They would finish the boot camps, and they would say my sex life has improved.

Hélène Ioannides [00:34:57]:

They would say, I love looking at myself in the mirror. I don't even know who I am. So with the transition and the transformation of their body came so much more, and that's when I realize that, okay, these are not physical boot camps. 

I'm life coaching here. Thank you so much for watching this episode. If you'd like to dive deeper into your own personal development and tap into your most authentic self, you can book a one on one session with me. You'll be able to find the details in the description Here below, I look forward to chatting with you. 

I am taking their life to a next level. I'm empowering them. I'm uplifting them. I'm elevating their lives, their sex lives, their relationships, their relationships to themselves, the way that the world perceives them, All of that was so important to them, what dress they would wear to go to an event and how everyone would praise them, say, well, what have you done? Like you look good, but the glow, where did you get the glow from? You know? 

So that's what's Fitness was that transitions into empowerment coaching and embodiment coaching where women was shown. I was working with them to show them away on how to really embody love, accept, and heal the relationship they had with themselves. In order to know who they are and show up in a way that other people will look at and say, fuck. Who have you become?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:36:45]:

That's very interesting. That's very interesting because what I see there is that you provide a space for expression, a space where people would come, unwind, grow, improve their self image, get the right chemicals flowing within their body so that their slouchy shoulders become upright. 

Their posture was changing. And all these micro adjustments that we're doing on our daily lives, and we sometimes we neglect them. Play such a huge role, smiling more, standing straight, because even there are so many studies that show all this about how the biomechanics of our body relates also to our psychology. So has been a fascinating journey leading women to all these transitions. Which are those traits that make you unique as a therapist?

Hélène Ioannides [00:37:52]:

Okay. What makes me unique as a therapist? First of all, I don't consider myself a therapist. I don't like titles. And I have gone through many transitions of figuring out what I want to be called. But I feel that that is so limiting. But for people to understand what I do, I have named myself an empowerment and embodiment coach.

 And the uniqueness that I bring to the table is the relationship we have to our bodies, the understanding of our own mindsets and how we can program ourselves in such a way to feel empowered. And What really makes me unique is that I've given myself permission to be myself fully. And I see that when people are around me, it's almost like they have that permission too. And I see that through the work that I'm currently doing that I have transitioned to doing women circles and women's retreats and holographic sound healing, which has all been about healing the feminine. 

And going back to being in Saudi, that was such a stepping stone for to understand what women needed, not just in Saudi, but Worldwide, that it was about holding space for them. Giving them permission to be themselves and how each person is at a different level. And that's not higher or lower, but there are different phases in their lives where they need a little bit of a push in this direction, a little bit of a push with their relationships, a little bit of a push and support with their careers. 

And with every one of those stepping stones, when I used to work in Saudi, I got the opportunity to also work with the royal family. And get an insight into their world and understands what's They were truly looking for and how they needed. They needed more empowerment. They needed to understand themselves on a deeper level. 

And the ones that were willing to, I'm willing to put in the work and do the coaching with me were the ones that We're able to have much more successful relationships, successful businesses, better sex lives, and With that process of understanding that working with women, because in Saudi, I could only work with women.

I understood that while I was healing myself in this process, I was also healing the feminine I was healing other women that were going through the same process because we're all walking each other home.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:41:10]:

Wow.

Hélène Ioannides [00:41:10]:

We're in the same path.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:41:11]:

Such a beautiful statement. Such a beautiful statement. What has therapy done for you. Because for me, a good therapist is. And this is the only way for a therapist, what we call a therapist. Is if they do the work on themselves. 

Now I observe you what you do on a daily basis and admire your dedication and discipline. Something that I don't have at your level. What has therapy given you, though?

Hélène Ioannides [00:41:54]:

What's therapy giving me? Everything. Everything.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:42:02]:

What do you define by everything?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:42:07]:

What is your definition of everything?

Hélène Ioannides [00:42:08]:

There is so much that comes with that. It's given me direction. It's given me focus. It's given me the ability to be able to look at myself clearly, look at where I'm at, it's given me the ability to be able to empower myself, but also break down myself. In order to understand myself. And the more I understand myself and I understand myself as a spiritual being, have an assumed experience. 

The more aware I become of who I am. And how we all function. Within a society. And it's given me discipline. It's given me It's given me the ability to be able to work with using my fears to my advantage. It's helped me come out of my comfort zone and to understand that the voice that is self sabotaging can also be the voice that is your biggest cheerleader. 

Because there are moments in my life where I've let that voice make made me make me feel so small and disempowered that I was thinking about doing this podcast. You know, I was wondering if I even have the voice, the knowledge, to be able to use to Yeah. Just just be able to share. Just be able to share my life experiences.

 And I think I know that most of us have this voice inside of us that says to us, your story is not worth it.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:44:18]:

Although we could learn so much from each other and grow.

Hélène Ioannides [00:44:21]:

And everyone's story is so important.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:44:24]:

We're walking each other home.

Hélène Ioannides [00:44:26]:

We're walking other home. And in fact, that's exactly what it is. If we were each able to step into our most authentic selves and understand that your unique expression of who you are and what your passions are and what your heart is telling you to do, not what someone else did before you, but you follow what Stephanos wants. 

You follow exactly what Helene wants, whatever that is, art, singing, holographic sound healing, that as a package makes you, and the more you follow each calling, the more you become who you are and the more we each individually can bring our own unique expression to this world and to this and to this global phenomenon of just being more authentic to ourselves and understanding who we are because the more we give ourselves permission to follow those intuition signs, channelings that we have, then the more we give permission to the people around us to also be themselves.

 And I envision the world as a huge puzzle piece where each person is a puzzle piece. And the more We find ourselves the more we're able to connect to each other to create this beautiful final result. Where we are elevating each other. We're uplifting each other. We're empowering each other. To be whoever the fuck we want to be.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:46:16]:

Oh, to that. Prayer and a blessing to all the world. From your mouth to the world. You are the go to person when people wanna find their calling in life, get in touch with their internal voice, and declutter from the voices that they have accumulated from their childhood because this has also been your journey and you're channeling and you're transferring your inner journey, your teachings, what you've learned about yourself, also to the outside world with a variety of techniques that you have accumulated throughout the years. 

Now one last question for you. Was your partner? Also part of your personal growth.

Hélène Ioannides [00:47:17]:

Yes. Yes. Absolutely. But I feel that's a very, very deep discussion that we can definitely tackle on separate episode with regards to relationships because there is so much that we can cover with that and how we tear each other down, but also empower each other within that context, which has allowed us to grow together. We've definitely been on -- And we're still discovering. And we're still discovering. 

We are still growing together and just supporting each other. But at the same time, giving each other the space to be who they need to be and feeling supported in that journey of understanding where you were at. And how you wanna show up in the world. So, yes, you have played a major part.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:48:17]:

Of course, I did. Thank you all very much for watching us on this so that I got my validation that I needed. And, we'll see you on our next episode.

Hélène Ioannides [00:48:28]:

Thank you.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:48:28]:

I love you.

Hélène Ioannides [00:48:29]:

I love you. Thank you so much for watching this episode. It's been an absolute pleasure filming it for you guys. If you like the work that we putting out into the world, please make sure you like this video and you subscribe to our channel. It really helps the work that we do.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:48:44]:

And if you would like to follow our journey on our IG accounts, as well as learn more about our services, we provide everything for you in the description below. Thanks for watching.