How “The Radiant Life Project” Was Born
How “The Radiant Life Project” Was Born
By Kate King
The Radiant Life Project was born from a decades-long series of events that ultimately crash landed me directly in the depths of the most profound burnout I’d ever experienced. All of my life I’ve been known as a busy worker bee with ambitious drive and an uncanny ability to manifest pretty much anything I imagine into reality — even seemingly impossible feats. My particular access to high achievement delivered many incredible opportunities and experiences to my life, and paired with hard work and rigorous training, it landed me in a highly successful psychotherapy practice with a waiting list and a full caseload of private-pay clients.
For 15 years I worked proudly and skillfully with the hundreds of clients who filtered through my practice, helping them with everything from mental illness to postpartum struggles, from difficult life transitions to removing creative blocks, and much more. I felt generative, energetic, and deeply purposeful in my work — until I didn’t.
In 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, I found myself feeling the harsh affects of burnout that left me unrecognizable as the person who so buoyantly thrived as a clinician for so many years. After working on the frontlines in a global crisis that affected every single person alive, I experienced what so many mental health providers, doctors, nurses, and countless other essential workers in various industries found themselves riddled with — stress symptoms like insomnia, hypertension, adrenal fatigue, anxiety, depression, and other signs of burnout. I was among this flood of workers who’d overworked ourselves to an unhealthfully burned crisp during a time when our efforts seemed crucial for the collective well-being. Never in my lifetime had I seen such disarray, rapidly declining mental health and safety, and prominent signs of real trouble on both the individual and collective scales. The demand was great, and I felt compelled to answer it until I was rendered absolutely empty.
I felt disconnected and depleted. I was unable to access the empathy and compassion that normally channeled through me, and I struggled to source enough energy to make it through my daily sessions. My sleep was derailed, anxiety spiked, and lifestyle customs like hydration and diet slipped drastically.
As if the stress of our two businesses wasn’t enough, my husband and I also had our two young children (ages 5 and 7 at the time) home from school and inconveniently remote learning from our kitchen table. It was a lot. A lot a lot.
Months passed, and the kids finally returned to school covered in masks. It baffled my brain that we lived in a world where masking children was essential for their safety. On a cold December morning I huddled with other parents while dropping our kids off at the bus stop. The bus puttered off, but two neighborhood friends lingered. It was almost as if they could sense a desperate part of me that was reaching out for help. Beyond my control, tears fell down my cheeks in icy trails as I shared my state of my burnout and fear for my health. Our toes and breath turned to ice in the cold, but those two women stood with me in solidarity and support. Together we devised a plan that sparked radical change.
I walked home that morning and initiated what ultimately became a five-month sabbatical from my clinical practice where life as I knew it dramatically changed.
Throughout my years as a clinician, it’s always been important to me to “walk my talk.” By this I mean that I apply the same methodologies and practices I teach clients to my own life. It only seems fair that if I ask my clients to deeply dive in and investigate and transform through inner work, that I do the same. With this same intention I entered my sabbatical — curious and motivated to closely explore how I’d become so unwell. I was determined to implement all possible measures to intentionally regain a sense of healthy vitality.
I nurtured my weary nervous system with sleep, time in nature, and energy therapy. I processed creatively through writing and art, and in deep conversation with trusted loved ones. I engaged in psychotherapy with my own therapist, shed many tears, and came to more than a few revelations about large and small-scale changes my inner system demanded.
Throughout the entire process I wrote when I felt moved to. I was unsure at first what I was writing, but with time words became lines, lines became pages, pages became chapters, and chapters became a book. The Radiant Life Project: Awaken Your Purpose, Heal Your Past, and Transform Your Future came to life as the how-to manual I felt called to offer society for profound, sustainable inner healing during the pandemic and beyond. One realization I uncovered during my sabbatical was that I needed to reach more people than I could in my private practice alone. A book was the perfect solution — financially accessible and self-paced — to fan the eclectic synergy of my clinical expertise and my personal experience into the masses for both individual and global healing.
Writing The Radiant Life Project, even in the wake of burnout, was one of the most meaning-filled experiences of my life. Each day I carved out time for writing, editing, structuring, and channeling light and insight into the pages. I felt connected to something larger than myself as I funneled everything I knew about therapeutic inner-healing into my manuscript.
I didn’t have a literary agent — no traditional publishing house had ever heard of Kate King the author — but I knew on a certain level I still can’t explain that my book would find a home with a publisher. Seemingly everywhere I looked, everyone I talked to (including my own family members), nay-sayers and well-meaning know-it-alls told me I wouldn’t get a book deal without having millions of social media followers or a mind-blowing platform. I was warned to stop writing and exclusively focus on building my following, as though nothing but becoming a social media celebrity could manifest my goal.
I became like Teflon and let everyone’s opinions and projections slide off while I continued my streamlined process. Though it shocked everyone else when I received an incredible book deal from a reputable publisher, I wasn’t surprised in the least. I felt the power and importance of the book I wrote, and I knew on a level I’ll never be able to explain that it would radiate into the world as an accessible help and support resource for anyone who needs it. And so it is.
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Kate King is a licensed professional counselor, board-certified art therapist, radiant life coach, published author, professional artist, and creative entrepreneur. She expertly teaches a unique transformational healing strategy that integrates science, psychology, creativity, and spirituality. Her new book is The Radiant Life Project: Awaken Your Purpose, Heal Your Past, and Transform Your Future (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Nov. 1, 2023). Learn more at theradiantlifeproject.com.
Category: On Writing
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