Meet Stephanie Shipper

Stephanie Shipper is a Coach with 33 years experience. She supports bright, creative/talented, & often driven spiritually-minded professionals who know that their life has a Greater destiny & potential (beyond just a paycheck!) She specializes in strategizing and finding breakthroughs with the Hostage-takers (Reactions) who commonly assault those who have something special to bring the world.

She is also a dedicated distance bicycler who loves to ride with the wind in her hair, a kayaker, and a former New Orleans chef.

Why Work with My Hostage-takers?

I challenge you to find me more than one bright, creative, driven man / woman who don’t have Hostage-takers (Reactions) that play with their potential, their sense of humor, and their peace of mind. Everything looks great on the outside, yet behind closed doors, they struggle with taking their gift and potentiating.

Spiritually minded men and women like you know that they came here to do more, be more; they know that they are more and have more to offer… So why aren’t they doing it fully?

Are you at the point where you are ready to step beyond the Hostage-takers in your way, and grow a strategy that allows you to be the amazing, fully potentiated person with a Greater Destiny & Potential you were born to be?

You have arrived at the right moment and I welcome you into a unique coaching that will take you to the center of your dreams.

About Stephanie Shipper

For the past 33 years I have worked with the complex relationship between people with enormous Divine potential and the Hostage-takers that assault their full success.

My mission in life is live up to my Divinely given potential through helping as many people as possible to do the same! Having lived through many of life’s impossible situations… I personally know that you can look the Hostage-takers (Reactions) in the eye and beat the Hostage-taker at his own game!

It is my honor and delight to help spiritually-based professionals recognize and conquer their Hostage-takers so that they can fully engage their Divinely-intended potential and achieve more professionally and personally.

I have thousands of hours of study, decades of experience working with clients, degrees, certificates and other impressive qualifications. What I am most proud of however, is the life I have lived, the struggles I’ve moved past, and what I have been able to example for others as a result of a huge measure of perseverance, grit, and Divine grace.

How Did I Get Here?

“Deep in my heart, I do believe…that we shall overcome (with grace and grit)!” Black Spiritual

I grew up with incredibly courageous people. My parents owned Alabama’s largest weekly newspaper and were on the leading edge of the Civil rights movement. Our dinner table was always filled with southern writers and prominent civil rights leaders. At the age of 10, I witnessed my father refuse to run a full-page ad for a Ku Klux Klan rally. I never fully understood until my later years how incredibly dedicated my parents were to human freedoms.

Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 on the Selma to Montgomery March.

The mantra I heard again and again at the kitchen table was; “Stephanie, what are you going to do to change the world today? It is your personal responsibility.” That mantra has stuck with me my whole life and even now is a constant reminder of what I do and why I do it. My parents never asked whether we were going to change the world for the better…the only question was how soon are you going to do it? 

Growing up in the heart of the Civil rights movement in Alabama…I saw many freedoms granted to so many people. Yet, what I witnessed was that many people remained imprisoned. Not by outside forces, but by their own fears, traumatic reactions, & limiting beliefs.

I especially remembered the words of Nelson Mandela, “If I walked out of prison after 22 years still hating the people who had imprisoned me, then I was still imprisoned.”

Nelson Mandela. Photo by Emi Deborah.

It was possible to have the right to vote, own property, express yourself, and go to school….but if you hated yourself and others, and saw your limits as your life, then you had no real freedom or lasting personal success; you still fell short of your Divinely-intended potential.

Seeing this helped me to realize that there are Hostage-takers (Reactions) constantly at work within us all…Equally attacking all genders, races, and people of all educational levels, rich and poor alike. It doesn’t matter how good and bright you are, where or how you were raised, or what freedoms and privileges have been given to you. Everyone has internal Hostage-takers (reactions). I call these the Hostage-takers.

I’ve had my own very real and emotional interactions with the Hostage-takers. My Hostage-takers have attacked fiercely and frequently throughout my life. These interactions have helped me to form a very effective foundation for conquering the Hostage-takers that confront every human. No one is without traumatic reactions, fears and limitations.

As a college sophomore, I met and married my first real love. Unfortunately, our marriage started out with no money, no life experience, and no coping skills. Our blissful beginning soured quickly after 3 children. I was walking on eggshells, deeply afraid of my husband’s next outburst, trying desperately not to set him off. When he finally hit me, I knew there was nothing to do but get out.

As a result of the 5 years of fear…I learned what it was like to live in shame and self-doubt and to question my gifts and capabilities. I sought help to put myself back together and raise my kids. I could work, had the freedom to make choices, but I had become imprisoned by my traumatic reactions to the things my ex had said and done. My fear and shame became my Hostage-takers.

Finding the Way out of My Prison/Going towards the Light

Divorced, a single mom of three in New Orleans in my mid 20’s, I was determined to reclaim my full sense of self and committed to doing my part to change the world. I enrolled at Loyola University in psychology, believing this was the path to helping myself and others overcome our Hostage-takers. I quickly realized that psychology was all about what was wrong with people (diagnosis) and very little about resourcefulness.

Seeking something better I attended a 200-hour clinical program at the Gestalt Institute. There I came to the conclusion that more insight about what is wrong equaled less freedom. In other words, the more people know about what was wrong…the less resourceful they became in achieving their Divine potential.

At this point I met the founder of NLP and a well-known Ericksonian psychologist. They both deeply believed and taught that you heal people through their resourceful states, not their problems. Dr. Erickson taught that you must address the Light (what’s right) within a suffering person, not the Dark (what’s wrong) in order to achieve wholeness and recovery.

Through applying these principles and seeing the amazing results… I understood in all parts of me that this was the path to helping others to overcome their Hostage-takers. By speaking to what is right in people rather than what is wrong, it turns a floodlight of resourcefulness and blessing on inside of them. It helps them to clearly recognize the Hostage-takers (the darkness) that is working against them. I learned that the Hostage-takers cannot continue to take root or thrive where Light shines! Light dispels darkness.

I spent the next eight years of my life studying this way of working with the “Light” or what is right. I went on to do eight years of training internationally in NLP. I am one of 139 professionals internationally licensed as a Trainer.

After many years of working on the mind, I learned that if I really wanted to change people’s ability to succeed I had to have a battle plan not just for their mind, but for physical health and energy too. So I became a Consulting Kinesiologist and a Certified Trainer of Kinesiology.

In the past year my work has moved to an even more effective level by adopting the Brain-Based Trauma Release work called Havening, founded by Dr. Ronald Ruden, and explained on the Home Page.

This combined marriage of unique learning and experiences has given me the ability to help others in a way that very few can. The simple approach is always the best and I bring all my experiences, education and study together in a straightforward method to help you overcome your Hostage-takers. Thirty three years later, I am blessed to see the results.

What I Do

I help spiritually-based professionals recognize and conquer their Hostage-takers so they can live out their Divinely-intended potential and achieve more professionally and personally.

Our work together is all about overcoming your personal Hostage-takers; helping you to get unstuck by healing your relationship and responses to the Fears, Traumatic Reactions and Limiting Beliefs that are holding you back from your Divinely destined achievements.

Introduction PDF

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Clinical Resume

You can also view or download my full professional credentials.