2024 Women to Watch
This year we showcase over 80 South Australian women to watch throughout the year. From business, to careers, arts to science. This year’s selected women highlight the depth and diversity of the women in our state and also the vast array of opportunities to develop a business or career in South Australia. Find our more about our inaugural Women to Watch initiative here.
Soul Essence is my passion, my dream and my purpose.
Everything I have learned has helped me on life’s journey and I want to share it with my clients. My dream for them is a life filled with love, joy, peace and happiness and I am honoured to support them with this. I am a Social Worker, NLP Master Practitioner, Clinical Hypnotherapist and a Universal and Quantum Consciousness Facilitator.
Like most people, I’ve lived a life of ups and downs. A couple of times my life has turned on a 10-cent coin and gone in a direction I could not have imagined. It was as if someone took the movie script I had written of how my life was meant to unfold and had rewritten the ending without asking me if it was OK. Studying Counselling, then Social Work and NLP, Time Line Therapy® and Hypnotherapy was my saviour. During the training much of my healing took place when we practiced the modalities on each other, and this healing continues today.
I am so inspired by what I have learned and the changes it has made to my life. I love talking to clients about what they want to change in their lives and how together we can make it happen. Releasing and clearing the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, grief and loss or trauma and PTSD, and restoring physical and emotional well-being is something I achieve with all my clients.
// Favourite inspirational quote
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
// Let’s get to know you
I am a Social Worker, NLP Master Practitioner, Clinical Hypnotherapist and a Universal and Quantum Consciousness Facilitator. I worked in schools as an SSO with children with learning difficulties and special needs from 1994 after having my own kids. During this time, I did lots of training including Cert III in disability work, suicide prevention training and a Diploma in Community Welfare specialising in counselling.
My husband and I divorced in 2008, which led to me being a single parent, giving up the family home and needing more than part time SSO work so I applied for and won a Case Manager role with a homeless service. This led to me starting a social work degree, part-time and studying externally, at 46, taking 10 years to complete it. I was almost finished my degree when I stumbled across NLP Practitioner training in 2016. This was life changing for me. I completed Master Practitioner training early 2017 and then started my business. At times I have run workshops, teaching Reiki, manifesting and vision boards and self-care. In 2021 I received a grant to run a full day workshop for women around emotional health and self-care. I had expected no more than 10 people and had to close bookings and change venues when I got to 35. This was a pretty big thing for my little country town especially as it was still in covid times.
I’ve continued to grow myself, working with my own business and personal coach, joining networking groups, presenting community and business groups, completing a Diploma in Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy along with Quantum and Universal Consciousness training. All of these gave me more tools to use with clients. After sharing spaces with naturopaths, beauty therapists and a yoga studio I moved into my own space in August 2019 and continue there today. My life is taken up with running my business, personal growth, caring for and spending time with my family and taking care of my home, garden and pets.
Some interesting facts about me:
• I’ve had 5 Personal Breakthroughs on different issues. I’ve since changed the name of this to my Soul Harmony Emotional Wellness Program as I have incorporated several other modalities into it making it even more comprehensive.
• I’ve lived in an off grid solar powered home on 60 acres of mallee scrub, building a home where we did a lot of the work ourselves.
• I love learning, even when I say “no more workshops” – I find another interesting one!
• Learning to play the piano is on my bucket list
• INFJ is my Myers-Briggs personality results, 1% of the population are this type
• Favourite holidays include NZ ziplining in the forest, a houseboat on the River Murray, Darwin with my daughter and her family and I love beach holidays with my daughter and her girls. I went to Darwin to meet up with family last year and am looking forward to a trip to Cairns this year. I’ve got the travel bug.
• I drive a manual car and love it.
• I’m an animal lover, a doggie person. I have 3 dogs, chooks and numerous birds at my place.
// What makes you a Woman to Watch for 2024?
I’m spending a lot of time focusing on my own growth as well as that of clients. I am working with clients with more complex mental health needs and learning and growing from the experience. The more I grow and learn, the more interesting my work becomes as I attract people with more complex emotional and mental health problems, they want help solving. I am growing into being more professional in the business sense by accessing branding photography, attending networking groups and learning more ways for myself and clients to find closure with difficult life situations.
My business is in a continual process of change and innovation. As I grow and learn, so my business evolves, new modalities are introduced, and I move into working with more complex and interesting clients.
// What is your goal or intention for the year ahead? And how are you going to achieve it?
I plan on increasing my client list and reconnecting with people who have worked with me before. I’m doing this with networking, social media, and other forms of lead generation to attract people interested in my Emotional Wellness Program. I want to reach more people, especially women, to help them live happier and more peaceful lives.
I’ve also developed my Soul Harmony Coaching Program for people who have completed the Emotional Wellness Program and are motivated to continue their growth and healing with monthly appointments and take it to a new level. I am still determined, after 8 years to finally reach the point where I need to register for GST. Yes, I’m still working on that. I had thought it would happen sooner, but circumstances have meant not yet. I will get there, if not this financial year then next year.
// What would being a Woman to Watch mean to you?
It would mean recognition of the importance of what I do supporting people with emotional and mental health, the results I get for my clients and the effort I put in every single day.
I see too many people, especially women, putting themselves and their emotional health last. Recognising my work will raise the profile of emotional and mental health and encourage more women to take care of themselves. Self-care is not selfish, it’s important and necessary and makes women better versions of themselves, able to enjoy happier lives, be stronger in business and better partners, mothers and supports for their friends. Everyone wins.
// What would you like to see for the future of South Australian women and girls?
I would like to see more opportunities and recognition of micro and solepreneur businesses and of older women startups. I was 55 when I started my business and with times the way they are, still have not earned enough in a financial year to register for GST. I refuse to give up, that’s not an option.
Get in touch with Jo-anne:
LinkedIn: Jo-anne Cain
Website: www.soulessencetlc.com.au
Check out all of the incredible Women to Watch for 2024 here as their profiles are uploaded throughout the year.
To become an SA Woman Member, check out our Membership Options here.
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