Openhand Facilitator Spotlight - Tonya

1) Tell us a bit about how you first resonated with the Openhand philosophy and how this may have developed over time?
 

I’m glad you used the word resonate. Because that’s what it’s always been for me. A kind of resonance. A recognition that there’s truth here. And a realisation of the authenticity of this work.

 

This resonance started for me around 15 years ago, when I first met Open, at a London conference on spirituality in business that I was covering for a spiritual magazine I was editing (I’ve been a journalist all my life). I had this feeling of being ‘picked up’ from the room I was sitting in and almost ‘pushed’ (by benevolence) into the room where Open was running his workshop. There was resonance then – and he hadn’t even started Openhand yet! Later on, I would link to the Openhand site from my Little White Feather site, even though I didn’t yet really know what Openhand did… I could just feel the truth in it!

2) Why did you become an Openhand facilitator and why is this different from other training programs?
 

Hmmm. That’s an interesting one… I think I’m unique among Openhand facilitators in that I wanted to facilitate with Openhand even before it had a facilitator programme! Having been coaching and leading workshops of my own since I was 19, I got a definite ‘inner nudge’ to ask Open that, should he ever take on facilitators, I would be honoured to be one of them.

A couple of years later, he began his first facilitator course and I was invited onto it. So I suppose I must have been one of Openhand’s very first facilitators!

How does it compare to other courses? I’m not sure really, but I would certainly recommend it for bringing out your most profound gifts as a facilitator – gifts that you perhaps didn’t even know you had!

3) How would you describe your work and what are some of the challenges you have encountered and overcome?

I have always been an intuitive and, I think, a bit of a mystic. I seem to have a role helping star souls - and anyone who feels they have a unique mission to fulfill (big or small) - to find their soul’s unique gifts and create a life that fully expresses them. I have developed the Soul Gifts Programme, an annual programme starting December 6th (and Openhanders get very special rates).

I also find myself working with men to help them birth the divine masculine on the planet – and I work closely with twin flame energy, so do quite a lot of work with couples.

4) What makes you unique as an Openhand facilitator?

I suppose it’s the way that I engage with people: first by connecting with the soul and then being shown the way through the layers.

I’m quite an interesting mix in that my energy tends to catalyse people’s spiritual path, yet at the same time I am quite empathic and a ‘sensitive’ (I can often sense or ‘read’ karmic blocks and areas of density that can be preventing the soul freely flowing as well as information on where we need to focus to clear karmic blocks, entities and implants).

I will often feel a block energetically, emotionally and sometimes even physically and, especially when my client is not yet able to fully feel it themselves, I will often process the energy that we are working with through my own body and field, which can be quite an energetic process!

5) Tell us about an event in your life that has been deeply inspirational.

It’s challenging to pick one, but if I had to, I’d choose my rather dramatic ‘transfiguration’ in 2010, synchronistically just a couple of weeks after I got involved with the Openhand work. I remember dragging myself round the house – my heart felt literally too heavy to walk! I was encouraged, within, to cancel my work commitments, close the curtains and go to bed. My whole system ‘blew’ and I became filled with light.

I remember my friend Jenny having gone away for a two week holiday knowing me as one person and when she came back it felt like I was an entirely different one! The experience changed my life and it felt at the time that it was what I had worked all my life – and perhaps many lifetimes - to experience.

6) How do you like expressing yourself?

I would say that I love to communicate through the spoken and written word. So I love giving talks – I gave a talk on living your life purpose in Berlin last month, for example. I enjoy just walking into a space and seeing what wants to move in me – what wants to be said! I love the surrender in that! I will often prepare what I feel to say beforehand, but then let it all go at the last minute and just see what wants to come.

Being an author, journalist and long-time magazine editor, of course I love to write! I wrote my first novel, Learning to Live: Because There’s No Highway Code for the Game Called Life, an inspirational love story about the journey of ascension, when I was 19 – and I hope to finally publish it next year (first-draft mock-up of front cover attached below – a work in progress).

There’s also a bit of a wild dancer in me and a soulful singer.

 
 

7) What’s your favourite film and why?

I’d go for an oldie – German filmmaker, Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire – reminding us that there is always benevolent help available to us in a whisper. I’ve always loved It’s a Wonderful Life for the same reason.

The inspirational Field of Dreams has also always had a special place in my heart and also the little known Steven Spielberg film, Always – perhaps because the veils between this world and the next have always been thinner for me than the next person and they kind of fit my reality!
 

8) If you only had one day to live how would it be?

Just like today.

9) Is there anything else you would like to share with everyone who is reading this now?

Just a reminder that, though life is challenging for most of us right now, this is a truly magical time to be living on Planet Earth. All the resources in the universe are available to us! Let’s wake up to the opportunity!

And, if anyone is feeling powerless or downtrodden, I’d encourage you to dig a little deeper. You have all the resources you need inside you. I’d also vouch for the importance of always using our inner compass – the ‘inner tuition’ – as the reference point.

 

In workshops and in coaching sessions, people are often keen to ask for my direction and guidance. And I always do my best to throw it back to them: ‘What do you feel is the right way forward?’ ‘What feels true for you?’ We’re so keen to give our power away! In my way of seeing things, it is when we truly accept responsibility for our lives - and reclaim our self-sovereignty - that we truly grow and can become all that we truly are at core.

 

Tonya has a limited number of free ‘breakthrough sessions’ available in November and December for Openhanders interested in her Soul Gifts Programme or 1-to-1 work. Please fill in your details here.

 

(in interview with Openhand Community Coordinator Aspasia)
Here's what's involved in becoming an Openhand Facilitator

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Hi everyone

On what feels like a new dawn for humanity, to me (after yesterday's 'great conjunction' in the sky), I wanted to say thank you for all your truly beautiful comments and messages of support on this facilitator spotlight. And please feel free to keep commenting... I'd love to hear from you, either in the comments stream below, on my Facilitator Network Profile in the Community tab above, or via my own Little White Feather website or FB page.

This is a truly incredible time to be alive, isn't it? And, on the inner planes, there is an extraordinary opportunity to be had for awakening and finding gold through the inner work we do. I have myself found Openhand's Bow really helpful for clearing any density that has come up in past weeks in the run-up to the Solstice.

On the outer, it feels like a time to feel into the new beginnings that are being invited for us all in this 'new dawn'. To me it's also a time to forge new pathways and plant new seeds in the new energies that are now coming in! It's like the soil is more fertile as a result of these new energies. Look forward to seeing what you create! With much love, Tonya <3

 

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Hi Tonya
What a truly lovely sharing! We have been working together (and playing) for nearly four years now, after your profile came up on the facilitator network and just resonated with me. I think it was your sense of humour and lightness of heart that spoke to me first – I will never forget trying unsuccessfully to get the volume working on my insanely old laptop on our first Skype meeting and having to write things down and hold them up to the screen to communicate until we sorted it out. You were incredibly patient then and have continued to be ever since!  Smiling face with halo
I have been through two Soul Gifts Programmes (about to embark on the third) and found them both to be amazing experiences – I have been through some very deep shifts and am now effectively doing what makes my heart sing – writing. The programme is designed in such a fluid way, but really does offer a great deal of support which I have found invaluable. I would say that anyone who perhaps has that sense that something is missing from their life or unsure of their life purpose, would find this programme beneficial for gaining clarity about their soul gifts. Definitely recommended! Pray   Soul Gifts — Little White Feather
 
On a personal note, you have been such an incredible support Tonya and have held the space for me every step of my uncomfortable journey and helped make it fun along the way too. You have a great gift of knowing exactly where to shine the light and get to the ‘nitty gritty’ quite quickly, so there are no hiding spaces!
 
You have become not just a fabulous mentor and coach, but also an incredibly dear friend.
Love you Oodles Two heartsSparkling heart

 

In reply to by Heather Mudie

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Ah, thank you so much, Heather. It is so heartwarming, in this work, to get appreciations like these (means so much!)

I particularly like what you said about 'knowing exactly where to shine the light and get to the 'nitty gritty' quickly, so there are no hiding spaces'. Thank you!

Yes, we started off in 1-to-1 work, didn't we - and quickly moved on to group work together and the Soul Gifts Programme and then Shine Your Light! (for anyone who is reading, this is our six-week Soul Gifts taster programme, which starts in Sept/ Oct). And some of the highpoints of our work together, for me, have been at our annual Soul Gifts Retreats in Glastonbury. Those have been such beautiful memories.

Looking forward to many more months and years working together, if that's where the flow takes us!

Wishing you well in the run-up to the Solstice and over the festive period

With love, Tonya

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Hi Tonya,

So lovely to read more about your early journey with Openhand. I had to smile at the I wanted to facilitate with Openhand even before it had a facilitator programme bit, that just feels so you, somehow. Perhaps it's that clarity that Margaret mentioned, and the knowing, inside, of where the soul is guiding. Bringing forth your own soul's gifts. Wink Emoji

Speaking of, and for everybody interested, I've done the Soul Gifts programme twice now, and it's been an amazing experience every time. I went through pretty big internal shifts every time, coming out feeling an entirely different person. So, yeah, I can totally and highly recommend that programme! For the shifts and for gaining clarity about our own soul's gifts, for the support in bringing them forth and the "3D skills for 5D people", which are definitely useful for doing just that!

And also - Tonya, can you believe it we've been working together now for almost four years? Yeeeaah, it's been such a journey. And it feels right to use this opportunity to say thank you, for those years, for your support, for holding the space for me to dig through pretty big "uuuugh"-type things, for making me feel safe enough to do so, and for bringing me out again every time - with jumping around or beating up cushions or making funny noises (rroooo-rrooooo!!). Thanks for being there with me, and for me, every step of the way. HeartStar EmojiHeartThe Sun Emoji

Last but not least - I'm really looking forward to next year's Soul Gifts programme! Can't wait to see where it will take me this time ... Angel Halo

With love,

(Heike)

 

In reply to by joyous sparks

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Hey, Heike (Joyous Sparks)!

Heartfelt thanks for your sharing. I am so touched!

It has been such a joy too working with you over the past four years (and yes, I can't believe it has been that long)!

It has been quite a journey, hasn't it?! You have always brought the very best of yourself to our sessions (and group sessions in the Soul Gifts Programme) and always been prepared to go right to the heart of the issue - and often beyond! And that has made the experience an absolute pleasure for me. You have had some extraordinary breakthroughs along the way... a great testament to how much of yourself you bring. And always prepared to make animal noises when the moment invites it... he he! Always a bonus! Angel HaloHeart

So excited that you're going to be joining us on the SGP for the third year running. Can't wait to welcome you and introduce you to the new group that's forming now in the ethers.

With oodles of love and all blessings, Tonya Praying Emoji x

 

 

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Hey Tonya - it's great to see your spotlight here. Wow - haven't you been through such a lot with Openhand. I have many powerful memories of all the breakthroughs you've made on the various gatherings - and I'm aware also of the tremendous private inner work over the years too. Awesome Thumbs Up Signvoltage emoji icon

What's been particularly inspiring, is the sense of lightness and humour you've mantained throughout, and that lovely celestial connection which simply won't be dimmed by the density!

It's no suprise that you'd enjoy the film "Field of Dreams". I found it an inspirational metaphor for our spiritual work too. So often when embarking on the path of being a facilitator, the question arises, "how will it work?" and "how will I be supported?" But the truth is, you just summon the courage to do what you know in your heart is right, whatever the risk, and then trust that the Universe will breathe under your wings. And so it shall be!

Here's a beautiful clip from that movie to inspire all. Thankyou for your involvement in the Facilitator Network and Openhand over the years Tonya. It's been a joy to connect with you, and long may the Openhand involvement continue....

And for all those tuning in, and who resonate, do check out Tonya's Soul Gifts Program beginning January 14th with special offers for Openhanders...
Little White Feather...Soul Gifts Program

In reply to by Open

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Thank you so much, Open. It was great to revisit Field of Dreams through the trailer you've posted here.

It was the words, 'Go the distance!' that really spoke to me this time I watched it. I'd never really noticed them before. And that's really what this time is inviting us to do. Even though it's hard, it's like Custer's Last Stand... we're just starting to break through! Let's dig deep and all 'go the distance' and we'll be richly rewarded! Inspiring. I think I may have to watch the film again.

And it's funny, because a dear friend of mine - and an Openhander - mentioned Field of Dreams to me this very morning - and quoted the phrase 'Build it and he will come' to me, in relation to the Soul Gifts Programme you've linked to at the end of the article. Nice synchronicity!

It's been a joy for me being part of the Openhand family over these years. It's good to be part of such a beautiful worldwide network of souls! And the connection feels to be particularly poignant in these times of profound change. So thank you, from my heart! <3

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Thank you so much, Jen and Margaret. Your comments are very validating. Jen, I particularly like what you say about bringing my gifts into the material world - because that is, synchronistically, what I'm hoping to facilitate in others with the Soul Gifts Programme, starting December.

Margaret, thanks for singling out focus and clarity as qualities you see in me. It's quite a dance, isn't it, as a facilitator - we need the softer, divine feminine qualities of empathy, compassion and intuition to really connect with our clients and participants and bring out the best in them... yet it seems to me that we also need divine masculine qualities like focus and clarity to really ground what we are creating effectively in the 3D. It's all such a balance!

Warmest love to you both and all power to what you are birthing in the world. <3

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Dear Tonya,

It's wonderful to read you sharing about yourself. What most strikes me about you here is focus and clarity. I also feel like you are someone firmly grounded in "both worlds" - the 3D plane and the spirit world. It's such a gift to be able to bridge these two! 

You really got me at "reclaiming our self-sovereignty". It's probably where the main battle is happening at the moment. 

Lovely to get to know you better through this post!

All the best,

Margaret

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Thanks for sharing this peek into how you came to work with Openhand and all the exciting things you are working on. When I think of you, the words that come up are inspired, creative, enthusiastic, playful, open and free, bold and daring, trusting. I am also struck by the way you successfully bring your gifts to bare in the material world. Big love to you, Jen

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Aww, you guys. It melts my heart to read your words - thanks so much for the warm welcome! 

Open, thank you for posting the Field of Dreams trailer! Creating Little White Feather, the Soul Gifts Programme... - my life in fact - has been very much a 'build it and he will come situation' (he he). And yes, it's always been about putting one foot in front of another and doing what I feel called to do - no matter what the risk - and trusting... knowing that the universe will support... So I'm so glad you singled that one out.

Anyone feeling a pull to connect with me, please do not hesitate. It will be so nice to hear from you.

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Tonya! :) Such a pleasure to have connected with you for the first time at the shift intensive in Brighton. Thank you for sharing your amazing gifts with the world. You are truly a beautiful soul and a facilitator who brings together the qualities of deep inquiry, energetic immersion and expansive love.

I find what you say here expressing these qualities:

And, if anyone is feeling powerless or downtrodden, I’d encourage you to dig a little deeper. You have all the resources you need inside you. I’d also vouch for the importance of always using our inner compass – the ‘inner tuition’ – as the reference point.  

 

Love and solidarity x

In reply to by Aspasia

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Thank you so much for this, Aspasia. I really appreciate the acknowledgement (which I've only seen just now!)

It's so rewarding to be a part of the Openhand facilitator team (many of whom have themselves now become good friends to me) and part of this beautiful network of souls tuning into the Openhand website at this incredible time of great possibility.

If anyone feels drawn to be in touch, please do not hesitate. I'd be glad to be of service, either for 1-to-1 coaching or, otherwise, to help you bring some of your spiritual gifts more effectively into the 3D, via our upcoming Soul Gifts Programme (starting January 14, 2021). With many blessings to all.