Heart to Heart Relationship Recovery Institute Announces New Show!!

Welcome to Heart to Heart with Leif and Kristen Burkhardt – Hanson talking with guests about the diversity they face in their relationships. Listeners worldwide will hear courageous and inspiring stories from … couples about how they personally battled circumstances such as: alcoholism, addiction, domestic violence, Infidelity, long term illness, previous divorces and so much more!

By overcoming their own unique set of circumstances, Leif and Kristen know first-hand how these issues can either destroy a marriage or make it stronger. They believe that by going out into the community and sharing honest and intimate heart to heart conversations enlightens’ people to the possibility of healing their own problems. They will also discuss how the effect of life coaching, clinical hypnotherapy, building and relying upon a spiritual foundation was the difference between success and separation for their marriage!            

The subject matter that will be covered is what happens when one of the individuals in the relationship has any of the following circumstances either before the relationship started or it developed during:

• Alcoholism
• Addiction )drugs, sex, love, etc.)
• Abuse
• Chronic/Long Term Illness
• Infidelity
• Domestic Violence
• Unable to Set Boundaries/Unable to Speak your Truth
• Had Had a Divorce, or a Few Divorces
• Is part of a Step Family
• Has Low Self Esteem/Self Worth

Have you or anyone in the immediate family come down with a long term sickness/sudden health change?

• Cancer
• Heart Attack
• Autoimmune
• Alzheimer’s
• Parkinson’s
• Stroke
• Etc..

One or both partners have a history of:

• Sexual abuse
• Childhood abuse
• Sexual assault
• Domestic violence
• Anger issues
• Lying/Narcissistic tendencies

Additional thoughts:

• How did faith play a role?
• What happens when these issues come up and have you handled it?
• Did anyone receive counseling?
• Are they still ongoing?
• What is the residual damage?

Other topics that may be intertwined:

• Have you been divorced and is this a second, third, or more marriage?
• Blending families where one of the new members has any of the above issues?
• Is there ongoing problems with the ex-spouse, the children?
• Is there/ has there been domestic violence in the home?

Show Agenda:

Each show will have different guests with a different topic.

There will be the opportunity for listeners World Wide to call in and participate and share their stories or learn how to make changes within themselves. This will involve intimate conversations between Leif, Kristen and the couple regarding the situation:

• What was it?
• Who was involved?
• What was happening during this time?
• What were your thoughts, fears, actions?
• What made you decide to get help, what course did you take, how did you feel about that?
• How are you now, what has changed, what are you still working on?
• What is your outlook, what words of wisdom do you have for others in a similar situation?
• Plus much more!

Join Heart to Heart with the Hansons weekly at 7 pm Sunday Evenings, click on the link right below us:

http://radio.hearttoheartrri.com

If you’re interested in being a GUEST on the show please click on the link below to go to the Heart to Heart website for the show application!

Heart to Heart Relationship Recovery Institute

http://www.hearttoheartrri.com

 

 

 

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Relationship Coaching

As Leif and I really step out into this ministry we are seeing more and more of a need for Relationship Coaching. SO MANY couples are in crisis right now be it financially, physically, emotionally, sexually, spiritually, etc. The past 5-6 years for most of us have been exceptionally difficult because of the economy and the amount of loss many of us have suffered. While we have been busy trying to repair our credit, our lives, our families, and our careers we haven’t done anything about our marriage or partnership! We just don’t put enough emphasis on it and think that it will all work itself out in the end. That end MAY be divorce court!

By NOT acknowledging what IS happening, right now, will end you up in divorce court. I know, and so does my “new” husband because we are both divorced. It isn’t anything I would recommend for anyone unless you have a situation that obviously calls for it. If you think you have experienced loss with the economy and your career, it fails in comparison to what you loose through divorce especially if you have children.

The number one thing I see today with couples is the FEAR to to COMMUNICATE about your commitment with each other. I don’t mean just the basic day to day conversation, I mean sitting down face to face, and having a CONVERSATION with each other about your feelings, concerns, ideas, and where this is going. Not yelling, not blaming, not finger pointing, and making excuses but TALKING, albeit passionately, about what is important to you and how you feel. When was the last time you had a conversation with your other half and really asked how their day was and truly cared? Or asked what you both would like to do in the next year, or 5 years, or even Saturday night?

Instead, we turn to friends, co-workers, family, the delivery guy and anyone else who has an ear. Anyone that is able to tolerate us telling the same story over and over again about how unhappy we are with our partner and if they would just do this one thing every thing would be ok bla, bla, bla!! UGH! How many of you do this? I did, for 17 years…and so did my current husband for 20 years!! His best friend told him “Look, until you deal with this, stop talking about it!” Alrighty then….’nough said.

What’s wrong with that picture?

While many of those people mean well with their advice, however, do they have your best intentions at heart? Do they not like your partner and use this opportunity to infiltrate their own agenda? Are they after your partner and are using this all as helpful information? What is their own relationship status like, what makes then an authority? Be careful who you share your dirty laundry with because there may be people looking to start trouble. Keep your family business between you and your family, always.

Now, I know that our partners may not be easy to talk with and often a simple discussion turns into a screaming match. It’s because BOTH of you are exhausted and frustrated. Both of you are like a match and when the other opens their mouth that is the fire to spark it. What once was a simple hello can quickly turn into a giant F*** Y**! The same argument surfaces time and time gain with each of you yelling louder and LOUDER so desperate to be heard!! You both just want to be heard and acknowledged, and the other won’t budge…you both HAVE to be right..sound familiar?

Yet we live in the same house together. We may not be in the same bed or share meals but we are in the house still….so….there may be a chance to turn this thing around. If not, then let’s get that out in the open as well. No sense on sitting on a divorce if that is where your heart truly lays. Coaching can also be a safe place to bring it up AND you may find the other person has been feeling the same way. or, you may find that it is an open window to begin dialogue.

Being a divorced couple, we know first hand the stresses couples face. We both were in long term marriages, we both have children, and we both thought we would never get divorced yet we both were the ones to file for the divorce. We understand your plight, we understand the complexity and we have been through MANY circumstances in our marriages and with each other and can address certain private matters safely and discreetly. It doesn’t matter your age, sexual orientation, race, or religion we all face challenges.

In an effort to expand our business and bring awareness to the world about the power of COACHING we are offering 2 couples a unique opportunity to enter your partnership into Relationship Coaching! You and your partner are eligible to receive 3 (THREE) 90 minute coaching sessions with my husband and I for 3 weeks. This way both sides feel represented and it isn’t 2 against 1! That is ONE session a week for THREE weeks. If you are interested please read the following and apply! We will be accepting applications for the next 5 days until March 11 and you will notified by email by March 13 if you were selected.

The Program

Are you LIVING AUTHENTICALY in your current relationship? Being AUTHENTIC means being who you truly are inside and outside of your relationship. That when you are either with your partner or out in the world you don’t have to change hats, you can truly be your happy and expressive self! You encourage each other to grow and expand. You nurture each other and take interest in their interests. You’re explorative and want to be adventurous. Being AUTHENTIC is not stifling your partners growth or possibilities while learning to create your own.

Does any of the following ring true for you with your partner:

• Have a spiritual connection.
• MUTUALLY satisfying sexual connection.
• Happy, successful, and growing TOGETHER!
• Truly able to express your love FREELY and without reserve.
• Share common goals, plans, desires!
• Happy to see each other at the end of the day!
• Have a direction that you are going in!
• Building a strong family foundation.
• Encouraging the other to follow their dreams.
• Being YOURSELF in all ways!

Or

• Lack of spiritual connection to each other
• Your partner doesn’t seem to understand you.
• You feel scared to talk about your true feelings.
• You feel humiliated in front of your partner.
• Your sex life is not satisfying.
• There is no sex life.
• You want to experience new things and they don’t.
• One or both of you have had an affair.
• Your growing apart and in different directions.
• Bringing up the past, playing the blame game.
• One of you is chronically ill.
• Parenting differences.

Why Coaching and not Therapy?

In certain circumstances traditional therapy does have its place. Relationship Coaching works differently than traditional therapy by not concentrating on the past but how do we move forward from here! The PAST IS OVER and we can’t go back and change it! So let it GO! If both members are willing, Relationship Coaching can help breath fresh, EXCITING life into a tired, worn out union! Traditional therapy keeps us in the “why”. Coaching is about action and we don’t care about the ‘why” we are concerned with the “how” and the “what”? How do we move forward and what steps do we take? That is coaching.

Directions

If you are interested in turning your current relationship around please send me and email at kristen@sacredcircleministry.com  with the basis if the problem you are having, your concerns and your desired result. This will be for 3 90 minute sessions, for 3 weeks. You both will be required to be present and have a desire to DO the work – no matter how dark and messy, and be willing to be vulnerable. BIG changes are going to occur! We are primarily looking for couples who would seriously benefit from this experience but could otherwise not afford it. To find out more about Leif and I and how we Coach visit us at www.scaredcircleministry.com and learn how we can help you!!

Thank you and Blessings Abound!

~Kristen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You Become Who You Decide To BE!

WOW! This was very powerful for me~! Years of thought and figuring have been summed up in a matter of minutes. And I mean yyyeeeaaarrrsssss…..this has been the week of AWAKENING for Kristen. We go to a non-denominational church here in the valley every Sunday and the pastor had a very powerful message today, as always. He said that “We are the sum of all of our decisions”. We made a particular choice every step of the way in life to get to where we are right now! Every single step was made by us, calculated by us, decided by us, and fulfilled by us. “You are on the path to somewhere, when you are doing your path.”

I really let that set in. I can’t remember the exact analogy he used but it was similar to a man crossing the street and the series of events it took for this man to actually cross the street. Like taking a step, lifting one leg, then the other, turning right, turning left, etc. It was many small precise steps that equaled one large endeavor; crossing the street. He went on to say that is how our life is; we make very precise decisions to get to where we are today. To get from her to there, there is a series of events that have to taker place. There is no waking up and asking “How the hell did I get here?”  We know…we know how we got there. Whether be it using drugs, stealing money, or being unfaithful we made every decision. Whatever it is You/I/We knew EXACTLY what we were doing each and EVERY step of the WAY.  Even if we want to lie to ourselves and believe we were seduced or taken against our will, something happened in those events that we made a choice to be there, no matter how small. When we open ourselves up to even the smallest of opportunities we also open ourselves to the largest of circumstances. Good, bad, or indifferent. 

I have been in SO many predicament’s asking myself repeatedly either catastrophically drunk or agonizingly hung over:

• How the hell did I get here?
• What the hell did I do to deserve this?
• What the F*** was I thinking?
• What is wrong with me?
• Why do I do this to myself?
• Why does everyone hate me?
• God has it in for me!!

Ok, I’ll admit, even when I was sober I still asked some of the same questions…I’d be so overwhelmed with either guilt or surprise that I’d look for anyTHING or anyONE to blame it on. I’d blame my parents, my childhood, my ex boyfriend, a teacher, a bystander – anything to save myself from the stark realization that I have been the total demise of my life. I couldn’t stand to bear the fact that I could do this to myself. What was my motivation?Why would I create such a cluster****!! So much darkness, so much pain, and  so much self destruction….Why??

Well, for a long time I didn’t know. I’ll be honest up until Wednesday I still didn’t know. I thought I did, but after that hypnosis session on Wednesday I realized that it was the path I created was for my own lessons to learn, and the ultimate lesson was LOVE. In order for me to experience Love in it’s fullness and achieve the spiritual growth I desire, I had to work for it. Sometimes, the work is unpleasant yet everything worth having requires work we don’t quite want to do. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. I must have HUGE plans for myself in the Heavens after this life time because I tell you, I have done the work!

I’m ok with it now though, I Became Who I Decided To BE! I became HER in order to fulfill my life purpose. When I look back it all makes sense, and I have released the remaining parts of me that I was holding on to. I know this trip isn’t over but for the first time ever I am excited to be on it! I don’t worry like I used to. This week has changed me forever and for the good. I feel so grateful to be able to heal myself AND have a career that I can help others heal themselves! It’s a beautiful week!

I invite you to look at your life, what sense can you make of your it?

Who Did You Decide To Become?

In Light,

Kristen

 

 

Trust

How trusting are you in your life? Do you feel insecure and have low self esteem? Do you get jealous easily? Do you feel like you can’t believe what people tell you? Have you been cheated on and lied to? What led you to not having trust in your life? Would you be interested in learning how to get it back, even if it meant some hard work?

I have had problems with trust for as long as I can remember. I think it comes from my childhood and living in such an unstable environment. My father was an alcoholic and he literally drank every day of my life until I was 18 years old. I never felt stable, or secure, I always felt uneasy and not knowing what was going to happen next. Those memories haunt me until today. I say haunts because my memories feel like ghosts just hanging out that I can’t send back to the light.

Growing up a I had a few boyfriends but one guy became the love of my life as a teenager. I never really had anyone to love or say “I love you’ to me like that. I felt like love was something I would never experience so when he told me that he loved me I believed him. We were together for a few years. We were two peas in a pod and totally inseparable. Then he cheated on me, not once but several times. He even cheated on me with my best friend and probably more people than I care to know. I forgave him, and I forgave him again. My friends and family thought I was crazy but I thought if I loved him enough he wouldn’t cheat on me. I felt like it was all my fault. I did everything I could; I always dressed nice, I kept myself thin, I was athletic, I was very sexual and adventurous, and I always thought of him first. None of it mattered. He was a cheater and I found out that 30 years later he is still is….. and he has a 3rd wife.

I had a string of just less than good relationships that I am not even going to go into. But the final straw was when I dated another guy who was also an alcoholic he also slept with ANOTHER friend of mine. The hits just kept coming. I felt like the biggest LOSER God ever created so I packed up my stuff and moved to California. That’s when I really got into trouble, that’s when I really started with the drugs. I did not want to feel anything or anyone I just wanted to be as stoned, as stoned could be. No lie, I just packed it up and shipped it out. I had enough of Detroit and I was moving on.

I was lonely and desperate using drugs at an early age because I needed comfort. I needed a safe place to fall. I also looked to men for that comfort and while I was fun for them to play around with, they fell short on the commitment side. I truly was looking for love in all the wrong places. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong with these men!  What I learned later was the choices in men that I made, not what I did wrong. I was so far down emotionally I wasn’t in the right mindset to place value on myself. I didn’t know I was really a good person and deserved to be treated nicely and with respect. I thought I deserved all of the mistreatment I had received.

I kicked the drugs and came back to Michigan, and I met my first husband. Out of the frying pan and RIGHT into the fire. I thought he was my knight in shining armor, he was an older guy, good looking, had plenty of money and loved to party. I married him and while he was always faithful and never cheated on me, his verbal abuse killed off any self esteem and security I had left. After a few years into the relationship I felt so bad about myself I didn’t believe anyone would want me. I dove deeper and deeper into alcohol desperately trying to kill any nerve ending that was exposed so I would not have to feel any more pain. I would drink myself to sleep every night until I passed out, I couldn’t stand to be awake. There were times I still prayed for death because death would have been so much better.

After the divorce I had NO trust or faith in men or women. I didn’t have any hope in myself or even in my outlook. I was truly hope-less. I worked a job every day, struggled to feed my kids, and just still prayed for death because that would be the relief I so desperately needed from this life. Then things began to change. I met a man, who is now my husband, who had equally the same amount of damage but in different ways. We had a long distance relationship so we spent HOURS talking on the phone about our lives, our marriages, and our situations. Gradually, through sharing stores and developing a relationship we began to heal big chunks of ourselves.

Fast forward today and I am much stronger and healthier than what I was…except for one little thing. Trust. I still can not seem to let myself trust on a level that would allow me to live a much more meaningful life. I worry, I get in my own way, and I wish it would stop. I wish I could just wake up and ENJOY the day and not have these worries and thoughts. I wish I could feel more confident.

I have found great strength much improvement through Hypnotherapy, in particular Subconscious Intervention. By way of hypnotic trance I was actually able to go back and have a conversation with my father and ask him questions about why he was the way he was. I found our he was doing the best he could based on the information he had at the time. He had his own problems in childhood and he truly was acting out of what he knew. Just like I did, I was drunk almost every single day of my kids lives until they were 16, so I understood. I also learned that the men in my life who hurt me did so because I allowed it. I had co-dependency issues, love addiction, alcoholism, and I was a mess! I hug out with people who were in the same boat as me.

Thee are so many healing possibilities with Hypnotherapy! If you are ready to take a step forward in your life and begin to look at these ghosts you have hanging around, Hypnotherapy offers so many different ways of achieving that. Please visit my website at http://sacredcircleministry.com and look into the Hypnotherapy area. You can learn ways to release those feelings and gain incredible insight into your life. No matter how far down you are, and I was down, you can get back up again, you can have a beautiful life!!

The damage did not get there over night and it will not leave over night. I know there are many of you with stories similar and much worse than mine. I believe by sharing my stories I will show that there are ways to get better, ways you may not have ever thought about. If you or someone you know is having problems moving forward in life, please send them to my website! Thank you!

In light,

Kristen

 

Love Addiction with Co-Dependency

I heard it in the movie Juno that the best you can hope for is to “Find someone who loves you for exactly who you are.” Maybe it’s slightly paraphrased but you get the point. Isn’t that what we all want? To be accepted and loved for who we are; good, bad, or indifferent? How many of us go searching in all the wrong places for that? Or try to change ourselves to fit into the mold of what someone else wants? I mean, really think about it and your past experiences in relationships. How many people did you actually date that were interested in you for exactly who you were and didn’t have some kind of personal agenda?  I’m sure there are a few of you who have been blessed early in life with finding that ‘once in a lifetime’ partner and I applaud you, sincerely! I’m glad you haven’t had to experience the heartaches and disappointment many of us have felt. I know I have dated some guys that….for lack of a better term were TOTAL LOSERS!! I don’t even know what I was thinking sometimes. Onward….

I dated men that weren’t emotionally available, I dated men who didn’t like women very much. I dated men that didn’t even like themselves very much. In my first marriage I ultimately married a guy like that. I thought, love was all I needed. I believed that if I found the right guy that everything would be ok. I thought I could change him and once we got married we would have this happy little family and all the bad stuff will go away. I put up with so much bad behavior from my boyfriends and then my first husband that I cringe just thinking about it now. I loved the feeling of falling in love; meeting that new guy and having that connection, and I would look for it often. The only time I broke up with someone was because I already had another guy in the wings. If I got broken up with I’d be on the hunt that night looking or a new love so I would feel better. I was highly codependent; thinking that I could fix any man with any kind of problem if I loved him enough. I believed I could change into what ever he wanted.  But I never received any love back and couldn’t figure out why that was. I would ask myself “What is wrong with me?” Am I too ugly? Am I too fat? Am I not good enough? I thought that if I became the perfect person that they would have to love me…..I thought love was the answer to everything and that if someone loved me enough and if I loved them that nothing else mattered.

I lost friends, rejected my family and lost interests in things that mattered to me. I allowed their world to become my world and took on behaviors that weren’t mine. I exchanged the person I was for the person they wanted me to be. I changed my style, my hair, my weight, and my image. I thought that if I were just “good enough” they would love me. When I was rejected (which was plenty of times) I took it to mean that there was something wrong with me, not that possibly the guy was a total a-hole, but that I had the problem. Can you imagine? Maybe some of you can resonate! I hurt so badly inside during these times, I just can’t believe that I was so desperate. I sacrificed my career, education, and chances to travel. I just lost any part of me that made Kristen who she was and I did it on purpose! I was out of control and my friends were just sick of me and my drama. Crazy with a booze bottle….that was me.

When I created this life coaching and hypnotherapy business I was so excited because I wanted to help so many people with afflictions such as mine. Yet as I began to lay out my business plan I saw just how screwed up in life I was. Truly. I mean, just look at my list of specialties!  How did I get this way? When did I loose my way in the world and end up with all of these problems? What kind of life plan did I lay out for myself before I came here because this lifetime has been a doozy. Maybe I am planning some kind of big  final exit. Maybe this is my last time coming around and I want to go out with a bang!! Yeah that’s it! I’m so glad I finally have a chance to heal my life, and heal those memories. It’s ok, because if I didn’t go through them I wouldn’t be able to help others who are suffering.

So what is Love Addiction and how do you know if you have it? It’s being addicted to that intoxicated feeling you get when you meet someone new and exciting! It’s that rush that someone finds you interesting and you find them interesting. It can be a sexual attraction, and often Love and Sex Addiction goes hand in hand much like Love addiction and Co-dependency. Here is the best description I found from Love Addiction Treatment Center:

*“While the desire to love and be loved is perfectly normal, the intoxicating feeling of being “in love” can be addictive for some individuals. If you’ve ever been in love, you know how powerful it can be. Suddenly your world is completely turned upside down. You feel an excitement – an energy, if you will – that makes everything seem new and wonderful. Some people describe it as feeling like they were walking on air. It’s natural to want this euphoric feeling to last forever.

Of course, most people realize that the wonderful initial feeling of new love doesn’t (and can’t) last forever. In healthy long-term relationships, the initial love gradually gives way to a more mature love – one that is perhaps less intoxicating and euphoric, but ultimately much more fulfilling and stable. For those prone to love addiction, however, the loss of that initial euphoria is akin to the crash that drug addicts feel when their drug of choice wears off. They crave the “high” and begin the search for another fix. Love addicts are no different, which is why they often go from one relationship to the next once the initial high wears off.”

Do you think you have a Love Addiction with Co-Dependency issue?

• Do you fall in love easily and quickly?
• Do you think that you are nothing with out a partner?
• Do you base your self worth on the fact of having a partner or not?
• Do you get jealous and feel possessive easily?
• Do you find yourself dating anyone who asks you?
• Are you always looking for your next relationship?
• Do you sabotage your relationships just so you can start a new one?
• Do you search for high risk partners thinking your love can fix them?
• Do you stay in unhealthy relationships because you believe your love is enough for the both of you?
• Do you equate sex to love?
• If you have sex with someone do you now believe this is a relationship?
• Do you have sex with anyone who asks, thinking it is because they like/love you?
• Do you believe you are unlovable?
• Were you rejected early in life from your parents or caregivers?
• When you go on a date you immediately size the person up for marriage?
• Do you sacrifice friends and family for your partner?
• Partake in activities you know are dangerous just to make them happy? (drugs, alcohol, sex)
• You loose interest in your friends, activities, and job?
• Do your friends and family cringe every time you have a new “relationship”?
• Are you mentally and physically exhausted at the thought of leaving a bad relationship?
• Do you tolerate physical and verbal abuse because you think you deserve it?

If any of these symptoms ring true for you, you may be suffering from Love Addiction with Co-Dependency. Hypnotherapy and Coaching truly worked wonders for me by getting to the root of my problems. I had very low self esteem and self worth. It made such a difference in my second marriage. I was already on the road to healing when I met him but going through the training enabled me to shed the remaining parts of me that were not healthy. My second husband and I have been working very hard on our issues because we want a healthy, stable, and rewarding lifestyle!

Please visit my website at www.sacredcircleministry.com for a complete overview of services to see how we may be able to help you! You don’t have to live like this, it may be hard work to transform behaviors but it is so much more rewarding. Relationships are meant to be an additive or a compliment to who we are, not something to change us. However, in order to find someone to love us for exactly who we are, we have to be ready. By being ready means being healthy and leaving the other baggage behind. Until we change we will live the same pattern over and over wishing we will get better.

In light

Kristen

*From www.loveaddictiontreatment.com