The Evolution of Spiritual Coaching

A Deep Dive with Debbie Pask, Creator of Rezinate’s Spiritual Coaching Course

In a world increasingly driven by technology and complexity, the role of the spiritual coach is shifting from a niche interest to a vital necessity for leadership and wellness. Below is an in-depth conversation exploring the "X Factor" of spiritual guidance, the importance of "dirt time," and why true transformation requires us to death off our old selves to be reborn.

1. The Role of the Spiritual Coach

What do you believe the role of a spiritual coach is in today's world? And why is this work becoming more relevant now than ever?

Debbie Pask: People ask me all the time, "What's the difference between a spiritual coach, a mentor, or a leader?" And the reality is: not a lot. It is still using the same principles, but we're dealing with more complex problems now in the world. We're dealing with people that have burnouts, breakdowns, dark nights of the soul. They've lost a bit of meaning and purpose. So I feel like spiritual coaching is about leading, mentoring, and coaching other people to really deal with complex challenges that are evolving as consciousness evolves. We're really drawing deeper into what we want as humans, how we want to live and be here. And you can't answer those questions from the limited ego or the mind. You need to deep dive into a higher level of individuals to get those answers, personal and heart-centered. So yeah, spiritual coaching, I believe, is the way of the future, whether you're mentoring, leading, or coaching.

"You can't answer those questions from the limited ego or the mind. You need to deep dive into a higher level of individuals to get those answers."

2. The Vision Behind the Training

When you designed this training, what was the bigger vision behind it beyond just teaching tools?

Debbie Pask: This training was designed originally for people that wanted to understand deep spiritual concepts of transformation. I found that people in very different careers, chiro, physio, talk therapy, psychology, counseling, energy healing, doctors, nurses, they needed some sort of deeper transformative understanding of how to guide people through change. Whether that's body changes, physical changes, dealing with illness, or dealing with toxic relationships. People didn't seem to have the right language, the container, or the understanding of what really drives change on a very deep transformative level.

So I found that over time, what I had learned and evolved with myself, I started to put into models and awarenesses to help people understand what is true change and true transformation. For example, you can't turn 13 unless you've "deathed off" 12. Or, you have to radically understand that we have a yin and a yang, masculine and a feminine to us. To understand transformation means that you need to know this language, you need to know these concepts that don't live in the lower mind; they live in the upper mind or the world of spirit or soul.

This was birthed out of lots of different career types needing principles, understanding, models, and ways to coach people through quite serious challenges. And of course, the more serious the challenge, the more evolved the metaphysical training needs to be. I don't believe there's a lot out there in the market that really challenges and brings through lots of different training around spiritual coaching, for example, the concepts of karma, death and rebirth, shamanic viewpoints, neuro-linguistic viewpoints, or philosophy viewpoints. When I studied philosophy at university and when I studied with shamanic cultures and went to different countries and learned these things, I saw these common threads, and that's woven through all of the work.

"You can't turn 13 unless you've deathed off 12... To understand transformation means that you need to know this language, you need to know these concepts that don't live in the lower mind."

3. Turning Lived Experience into Structure

You spent decades building your own approach. What principles guided you in turning lived experience into a structured course that others can actually learn and apply?

Debbie Pask: Having a structured course is the groundwork for any true learning. When I went through my corporate world training and when I started to be in a professional business long before I got into spiritual coaching and energy medicine, I realized how important it is to have a set of handrails and structures to learn, grow, and evolve with. You need the structure and the groundedness to learn anything.

But in terms of what to learn and how to learn, when I developed the coaching course, I was drawing on so many different inspirations, like the concept of Yin and Yang. If you understand Yin being the feminine, creative, intuitive principle and Yang being the masculine, the logical, the doing kind of energy, when you start to learn these principles and pull them together, you realize it underpins everything. It underpins us as a business leader, as a parent, as a sibling, as a friend.

I started to learn these principles through Eastern and Western philosophies, through shamanic training, through energy work, through connection with my higher self and spirit. I use them to underpin all of the work in a structured way. For example, I use the concept of the phoenix, the death and rebirth. If we're going to come through a big life challenge, part of us must die and go back into ash and then be rebirthed. I use the concept of the void, which is a place where everything in the universe and the quantum starts and finishes.

But then I come back to really simple stuff like the higher and the lower mind. Not everyone realizes we have a lower mind, a limited programmable mind that's boxed and programmed with what we know when we grow up, versus the higher mind, which is like a spiral that accesses universal intelligence that goes far beyond the limited programmable mind and up into soul level, spirit level, self. When you start looking at these powerful principles and then you can deliver them in a structured, grounded way to learn as a coaching model, you end up accessing a massive multitude of knowledge that's far beyond just what we know as humans.

The reason I know they work is after 17,000 coaching and healing sessions, I've seen them work in a live environment. It's not like this makeup theory. I've actually utilized it in a live environment, embodied it with people, and seen the incredible results that come out the other side.

"If we're going to come through a big life challenge, part of us must die and go back into ash and then be rebirth."

4. Creating Confident Practitioners

What does it take to create practitioners who are truly confident and capable, not just inspired during training?

Debbie Pask: I think a lot of us have learned growing up at school that to be confident and capable, we just need to be really good at everything, put on a brave face, and be courageous. And that's just not true. Those are parts of it, for sure. But to be confident and capable means that you are really immersed and excited and lit up by the work because anyone that's excited and passionate will actually grow and develop into the work.

The other thing that's important is being in a community of people that are like-minded. If you hang out with runners, you're going to become a runner. If you hang out with other spiritual people, coaches, healers, you become that ethos, you live and you breathe it, and you ask those weird and wonderful questions. It becomes your identity. So being confident and capable isn't about just skills, although that's really important. It's about owning your identity as that.

When you live and breathe something often enough, you just become it. And then there's not this weird imposter syndrome trying to be something. You just are it. There's a tipping point eventually when you've done enough sessions, shown up to enough classes, and you're hanging out with the community of people that you love, being guided by true mentors. It's a tipping point where you just are that rather than trying to be that.

There's a really beautiful term in spirituality called the "I AM." A lot of people don't understand what the I AM presence is. They've heard about it, they kind of know it's part of the higher self, but the I AM presence is simply a matter of saying, "I am. I am a healer. I am a coach. I am spiritual." And having the physical, metaphysical presence of just "I am." As soon as people get to that point, they become that. Confidence and capability aren't even questioned, you just are. There's no room for the limited inner critic to doubt because you've gone to a level way beyond where the mind will ever take you.

"There's a tipping point eventually... where you just are that rather than trying to be that."

5. Consumption vs. Guidance

What's the biggest difference between someone who consumes spiritual content and someone who becomes a trusted spiritual guide for others?

Debbie Pask: Becoming a trusted spiritual guide for someone else means that you've embodied the work. You've up-leveled yourself and you really know what it's like at a cellular level to feel and be in that space. That's why any training that you should ever do should follow a formula of four key steps.

1. The Topic: What's the data? What's the theory?
2. The Application: What's the context of that in a case study or how do I put that into a grounded, real-world context? We're not interested in just connecting to the higher self because that feels great; we're looking for wisdom to a life challenge.
3. The Embodiment: I've embodied it for myself. I've utilized the tool, the model, the meditation. It's dropped from an intellect level down to an emotional, down to a cellular level.
4. The Transference: By being in the energy presence of another, being able to impart that on an energetic field level.

When you meet someone that feels really great and wise, you can feel those vibes emanating, and that's transference. When that person gives you wisdom or courage, you know that they've felt it deeply within them. There's a truth and an honesty. That is what a true spiritual guide is, someone that's deeply up-leveled themselves.

There's a really beautiful term in Indigenous cultures called "dirt time." Have you done your dirt time? Have you been out in the dirt and played with it, felt it, embodied it, and gotten dirty with the work? I think that true spiritual guides have gotten really dirty with the work. They've been out there, they've embodied it, it's been through their field and their system. So when they hold someone else in that space, they know exactly what they're doing and they know exactly how that person is feeling. True spiritual guides turn data into deep knowing wisdom.

"Have you done your dirt time? Have you been out in the dirt and played with it, felt it, embodied it, and gotten dirty with the work?"

6. Becoming Industry Leading

In your opinion, what makes a practitioner industry leading and how do you develop that standard in a training environment?

Debbie Pask: When you become an industry leader, it means you've got a bunch of things going for you. The first thing is you understand what your X Factor is. It's as simple as that. You can learn all the skills in the world, but to be an industry leader, it means that you've tuned into your own individual X Factor. And your X Factor lives way beyond the mind. It comes at a soul or a spirit level where you know what your unique signature is, your soul signature frequency. It basically means you understand your niche, where you sit in the market, and how good you are at that. That is not ego; that is an internal "I am" presence of confidence.

The second thing is clearly understanding your path and purpose. It's about choosing your own unique path, not following anyone else, not competing with anyone else, just going about your work in a beautiful connected way. I think a lot of us are too busy looking at competitors or influencers and finding those holes and pockets of doubt.

The final part of being industry leading is to learn and evolve with people that have a higher level of awareness and skills than you. It's like up-leveling. Don't go lower, go higher. Choose mentors or communities that challenge you, that stretch you, that teach you things you don't know. Some of the best moments in my life have been working with masters in their craft. When you're working with mentors that really up-level you and are open-hearted and already know their own X Factor, that's when you become a real industry leader. 

"Your X Factor lives way beyond the mind. It comes at a soul or a spirit level where you know what your unique signature is." 

7. Safe but Practical Transformation

How do you create a learning space where transformation can happen safely while still keeping it grounded, practical and professional?

Debbie Pask: Keeping a course grounded, practical, and professional means that you have the structure and the way of working that ensures everyone learns in a style that suits them. But when you're dealing with spiritual topics or transformation, things are going to come up. Old traumas will come up, challenges to the ego will come up. We call these "fractures" or shadows, the parts of us that are weird or unaccepted.

In the training that I offer, we aim to have small enough classes where, when things come up, there's a beautiful heart-centered group of people. We don't let anyone in our school that's competitive or undesirable. We coach live in the sessions. I am actually helping people work through their fractures, being witnessed by a group of people that are heart-centered and knowing when to challenge someone out of their comfort zone enough to get the healing, but not so much that they fray at the edges.

Every single thing we teach comes back to how that works in your everyday life. We look at confidence issues, burnout, toxic relationships, trauma. We look at everything in an everyday life situation of "what is keeping people awake at 3 a.m. in the morning?" and how can we apply one of those coaching tools to move past that challenge. It's grounded because we're talking about real-life stuff. It's spiritual because we're applying spiritual principles that take you out of your fractured state.

"We look at everything in an everyday life situation of what is keeping people awake at 3 a.m. in the morning and how can we apply one of those coaching tools to move past that challenge."

8. Embodying the Work

What do believe people must embody before they're ready to guide others and how do you support that development during a course?

Debbie Pask: One of my biggest skills is to identify what's unique and incredible about people. I see beyond the limitation that they feel they have, and I see into their spirit and their heart. One of the things that I think people need to embody to be great at spiritual coaching is to really understand who and what they are, what their X Factor is, how they show up, and how they like to work.

Every single class is designed to get people to a state where they feel uniquely authentic to how they want to show up. People that do our training come from all different backgrounds, corporate, physio, medical, law. We encourage that you bring all of you into that work. We want you to love all parts of your journey in life and show up as you, and then layer these tools on the top. Everyone will have a different recipe. Whatever they've come with will bake into whatever we're doing, and then you'll end up becoming a unique version of yourself.

That's really what we're here to do: become a unique version of us, to use all of our past experiences, both positive and negative, and mix them with some of this incredible spiritual wisdom to bake ourselves into a unique recipe that only we can replicate.

"We want you to love all parts of your journey in life and show up as you and then layer these tools on the top." 

9. The Power of the Container

What kind of shifts do you constantly see in students when they commit to a structured container rather than trying to figure it all out alone?

Debbie Pask: We are not designed to live life alone. I heard this really beautiful quote once: "We are each birds with only one wing and we can only fly by embracing each other." I got that on a very deep level. We are meant to be in connection.

When we become communities or form circles, circles being one of the strongest shapes in the universe, several things happen. First, as they learn and express and are heard by others (witnessing), it brings a stronger level of learning. Second, when we are in group energies, our "octave" is higher. When people get together, our frequency goes up, and our ability to take in information and healing grows. Third, there's this beautiful reflection. We're all part of oneness. So when someone brings up something, it's a part of ourselves being reflected back to us. If someone is annoying you in a class, it's showing you something dysfunctional about yourself that's unresolved. If someone shows you something you love about them, you're seeing a part of yourself that you already love but haven't acknowledged.

That group dynamic of being heard, listening, having mirrors all around us, and then all those beautiful, weird, and wonderful spiritual questions that come up, it's extraordinary. If you're too scared to ask it, your classmate will ask it. Being in a container is what makes healers great. You are literally learning at a faster, better pace.

"We are each birds with only one wing and we can only fly by embracing each other."

10. Identity Shift

What do you want your students to walk away with on the identity level, not just the skill level?

Debbie Pask: Identity is probably one of the most important things. That is that they become clearer about who they are and what they offer and how they can impact others. Because impacting others is probably one of the most beautiful things that we can do on this earth. Contributionism is the one way to get to lighting up your heart.

We've got two ways of being in this world: we can give back and make this world a better place, or we can take away and drain the energy. If you want to drain the energy of the world, get out of my class. But if you want to add to the value of the world, then the most important thing is to show up and to become confident and capable and powerful in yourself.

When you show up "regulated", and I love that word because most of us aren't regulated, we're anxious or stressed, when you show up regulated and clear and up-leveled, and you lift out of the limitations of ego and the drama playing out on planet Earth, you become a stronger, more powerful guiding light. You impact as many other people around you as you can. I call those people Agents of Change. When you come out confident and capable and centered, you're actually up-leveling the entire earth.

"When you lift up out of that [drama] and you become a stronger, more powerful guiding light... I call those people agents of change."

11. The Future of Spiritual Leadership

How do you think spiritual education is evolving and what does the next generation of spiritual leaders need to be equipped for?

Debbie Pask: I think that every decade we go through a spiritual evolution in consciousness. I have a theory on that: as AI and technology evolve, so does spirituality. They're on opposite ends of the polarity. So as AI and tech grows, it's forcing us to grow our own spiritual evolution and consciousness to meet and to have that balance in the universe.

The nature of our problems in life has become more complex. Rather than just relationship breakdowns or work burnout, now we're moving on to dark nights of the soul, or really craving that sense of purpose. We're starting to realize there's a quantum world out there and that everything we attract is created by our own energy and intentions. So we have to start evolving spiritually into understanding what karma is, what death and rebirth is, to meet the needs of the complex challenges humans are facing.

We are beyond just talk therapy. We need to evolve into layers of soul, spirit, and higher self to come to a deeper understanding because, at all different levels, we need these deeper tools to not get lost in the drama and trauma: wars, earth damage, cruelty. Viktor Frankl, in Man's Search for Meaning, said that unless we make the spiritual meaning out of things, we get locked and trapped in our trauma. We need to understand the deeper meaning of why we go through what we're going through. As soon as we understand the spiritual meaning, we free ourselves and realize we're beyond just a mind or a body. We have a deeper, longer connection that's way more powerful than this one limited lifetime.

"As AI and tech grows, it's forcing us to grow our own spiritual evolution and consciousness to meet and to have that balance in the universe."

12. Integrating Spirituality into Wellness

Why does anyone in a wellness, coaching-type profession need spiritual coaching as part of their repertoire?

Debbie Pask: If you're in the field of wellness, coaching, psychology, counseling, massage, chiro, physio, or naturopathy, you are helping to transform somebody. If you're working in bodywork industries, you know that back issues and body pains stem from emotional reasons and underlying causes.

Spiritual coaching fills in all of the gaps that you might not know in your profession. It helps you to understand why people are going through the challenges. For example, if someone is having issues with their digestion, you might realize that it's related to the sacral chakra (boundaries). If you have these coaching tools, you can be more effective with your work. You can create healing practices in between your sessions that massively ramp up the effectiveness of your work.

I feel like almost everyone in the wellness industry needs to have some level of the spiritual principles that are guiding people toward either healing or declining. Even beyond the wellness industry, I've seen leaders in big consulting companies and law firms take these spiritual principles into leadership, and they get better quality teams and better experiences at work. This work underpins pretty much every human connection and interaction you have.

"This fills in all of the gaps that you might not know in your profession... it helps you to understand why people are going through the challenges."