Adviser of the Month: Elyssa Desai

Congratulations to our Adviser of the Month for June, mindset expert, speaker and coach, Elyssa Desai.

Elyssa always wanted to be a therapist. However, a lack of confidence in her abilities held her back from diving in. She explains:

“When I finished university, I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do even though I had this inkling to be a therapist. I did not feel confident in doing it, in studying and taking on other people's emotions.”

But when it comes to a calling, there is also the element of timing. A decade or so into her professional career, Elyssa finally felt ready, unable to shun the urge any longer. She continues:

“Where I'm at in life and having gained experience over the last 10 years, I've been able to grow as a person and learn so much about myself.

“I started coaching in 2019 and through it, I realised that I have the capacity to hold people's feelings and emotions. It was through getting my coaching diploma, which was a shorter process, that I realised I had a real love for learning.

“Becoming a therapist was always at the back of my mind and every six months I would get this urge to be a therapist. I would Google it but felt quite overwhelmed by the whole process.

“Fortunately, I was able to speak to a family member who was a therapist. She advised that I start a short course, which I did at the beginning of last year. As soon as I was on the course, I thought I've got to do this. I suddenly had this light bulb moment, where I thought, the five years were going to happen, whether I was studying or not.

“I started my Psychotherapy Masters in September 2023, and it has been amazing, but I still have four more years to go.”

Elyssa has a huge interest in the unconscious mind, helping individuals harness its power. Her podcast, What Am I Doing With My Life? With Elyssa Desai, normalises not having it all figured out and is in its second season coming out this month.

Advice for people who want to follow in your footsteps

Starting a Psychotherapy Masters is about learning how to be a therapist and is a deep dive into your own challenges. It brings so much awareness as to who you are as a person.

If anyone is interested in becoming a therapist, I would say it's as much about learning to be a therapist and supporting others as it is about really working on yourself.

I will be in weekly therapy for a minimum of four years and probably for the rest of my life now. If anyone’s interested, I would say, are you prepared to go on that journey?

Since starting in this field, has it changed your perspective of the industry?

When I'd experienced therapists, I felt they knew everything, and I would just go with it. However, I've realised that challenging your therapist is good and where you can get the most learning.

Therapists are just human beings, and they are going to make mistakes as well. Before, I may have put therapists on a pedestal but now I admire them more because I recognise the work they will have done on themselves to get to the point of supporting others.

What is the biggest misconception about hypnotherapy?

Some people can be quite wary of all the control that a hypnotherapist would have over them.

I can't speak for every single hypnotherapist out there, but when I am doing a session, I'm not in control of you. I'm making positive, empowering suggestions but it's up to you what you take on board. It can be incredibly relaxing and transformative, especially if you find it difficult to switch off.

People don’t realise that we're in and out of that trance-like state throughout our lives. Take driving as an example. Have you ever driven somewhere but can’t consciously remember driving there? Yet, you are safe and in control. Often your conscious mind doesn’t have to be alert and your unconscious takes over.

I'm absolutely fascinated by the mind and how things work.

How can you support small businesses?

I coach self-employed people and do one-on-one sessions. My real focus is helping individuals achieve their version of success, whatever that looks like.

I help them overcome their mindset blocks. I work with the unconscious mind, using hypnotherapy, and helping them connect the dots of what is going on and where they want to get to.

Watch this webinar to learn how influential your thoughts are and how to reframe negative ones:

What are the most common issues clients come to you for? 

The biggest one is a lack of confidence in themselves. A big part of the work I do is around limiting beliefs, which are the stories we tell ourselves.

Beliefs are at the root of everything we do; they impact the thoughts we have, the emotions we feel, the actions we take. We all have beliefs, empowering and limiting.

When we take that leap to start a business, that's often when those beliefs can rear their ugly head. There's a whole list of limiting beliefs and my work would be to help individuals recognise what those limiting beliefs are and overcome them.

How has Enterprise Nation helped in your business journey? 

I came across Enterprise Nation under a year ago and did a few Lunch and Learn webinars and some social content. I love being part of the community!

Hosting webinars has given me the opportunity to practise sharing my message and delivering content in an online format. The great thing about the adviser membership is that you can trial doing workshops for an audience interested in your topic with the support of Enterprise Nation. It lets me trial different formats or topics before rolling it out to a wider audience.

Watch this webinar to find out how to step outside your comfort zone:

Tips for small businesses that are starting out 

• Recognise that feeling, fear is a sign that you are doing something new, but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it. It's just new and outside your comfort zone

• Recognise your limiting beliefs. Ask yourself a simple question, what do I believe about myself?

• Create a folder, on your phone or a physical folder, where you save snippets of positive feedback. It is easy to focus on the negative when you start a business. This folder can be really helpful to come back to

• Be patient and trust that it will all work out. Wanting everything to happen right now can put a lot of pressure on you. Take the perspective that you get to do everything and achieve everything you want. You need to know that it's going to happen at the perfect time, and you’ve got to be patient on this journey

• Especially in the beginning, when a client doesn’t want to work with you, it has nothing to do with you as a person, if you are good enough or your future success. It just means they don't want to work with you and that's completely OK. You have to trust that you will find someone that is better suited to your offering

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