Interview with Caitiona Reed and Michele Benzamin-Miki

Caitriona Reed guides individuals to find their authentic personal power and vision, and mentors them to make it real in every aspect of their life. She has led workshops, trainings and retreats internationally for more than twenty-five years. She is a Master Trainer of Coaching NLP, Gestalt and Ericksonian Hypnosis. She has been authorized as a Zen teacher by renowned Zen Master and Nobel Prize Nominee, Thich Nhat Hanh. She is co-founder of Manzanita Village Retreat and Five Changes. Her experience as a ‘woman of transsexual experience’ has led her to the belief that the “big scary changes” we may be afraid to make in life – in our relationships, in our works and business – are in fact the keys to our authentic self-expression, spiritual and material abundance, creativity, and liberation. Michele Benzamin-Miki challenges her clients to come into the truth of who they are, helping them draw from their wealth of natural creativity, balancing vision with practical skills for deep transformation. She is a Master Trainer of Coaching NLP, Gestalt and Ericksonian Hypnosis and has led workshops, trainings, and retreats internationally for more than twenty-five years. She is also a visual and performance artist; and is one of the world’s highest ranking women in the martial disciplines of Aikido and Iaido Sword. She has taught meditation, mindfulness, creativity, and non-violence for organizations, schools, and within the prison system. She is co-founder of Manzanita Village Retreat and Five Changes. As someone of mixed Japanese and European heritage, she passionately believes that we can come into our beauty and power by thinking outside all the boxes that we have been squeezed into; and that authentic self-expression means integrating every aspect of your life.