Rosemary Cunningham “is a healer, complementary therapist and money and business coach for empath and sensitive women! She has had her own business for thirty years and her personal money challenges started when she left her job with a regular income. She no longer felt safe and from then on she started to create debt.”
“Rosemary helps empath women make peace with money, heal past patterns that are keeping them small and stuck, own their worth and thrive, while doing something they love! She also runs Winning Women International, a community for heart centered business women.”
How has your relationship with money evolved over the last couple of decades?
I discovered money coaching in 2012 when I was looking for an extra income stream. I came across this money course for women and I signed up. Being a healer myself, I knew as soon as I started listening to the course that it was incredibly powerful and could really heal people. This is when I realized that money wasn’t simply there, it was an energy, such as health or marketing: By directing our energy, we can affect how it flows to us.
I have worked with many people over the last ten years and nearly all of them have happened to be women. Some of them have quadrupled their income, and others have gone on quickly or steadily to create extremely powerful businesses.
When I start working with someone, I ask them to write down their money story. As children, our brains are like a dry sponge, and we have no filters. We absorb everything we hear and this becomes our beliefs and our unconscious mind. I allow people to examine what was modeled to us as children and see how that is still affecting their life today. Our seven year old self is still in charge of our decisions. You wouldn’t give a seven year old your car keys but they are running your finances!
Once awareness comes to the surface, we can start to go forwards and do something about it. This can involve working with the little child who is still in all of us. I have conversations with my little Rosemary when life is challenging. Then I can parent that part of my self, love her unconditionally as I wish I had been when I was small.
I have experienced the roller coaster of financial highs and lows. My attitude towards money has radically shifted since doing that very first course. One thing I am certain of is that financial ‘success’, whatever your definition, comes down to a sound and healthy self-esteem.
Why does money play such a consuming role in our lives and society?
Money is part and parcel of our everyday lives. Try and avoid thinking about money even for a few hours. It’s impossible.
However, I believe that much has been created by the system we live in to control people. It is part of the Patriarchal system, and it does a ‘wonderful’ job of keeping people small, low, scared and dependent.
This control that revolves around money stems back to our childhood even, where we were perhaps told we weren’t good enough, where the fear of losing money was installed, where the wealthy expected to be wealthy as adults, and the less well off (even subconsciously) expected to remain the same and have a lifelong struggle in this domain…Patterns are created and moulded at very young and tender times.
What are the core principles of a money coach and what are the most common themes that continue to surface?
The most essential part of the process is establishing what modeled us as children. This stays with us all our lives, unless addressed, and runs deep. It is our frame of reference. Money is for most people a very serious matter, but for my clients, they learn that their relationship to money can be fun and creative. They have more choices than they think they have.
Often, people, particularly women, are afraid of being rejected and criticized by their peers because of being wealthy. This is more common than we think.
Interestingly enough, it is often culture-based as I discovered during lockdown. I was working with a group of women, one of whom was Native American Indian and whose culture can typically frown upon accumulation of wealth to the point of rejection. Another, a Hindu lady, whose culture is completely the opposite and encourages wealth.
Poverty and scarcity (stories of a yonder generation who lived through a war for example) are huge themes that often come to the surface, Tall Poppy syndrome is another (not wanting to stand out from the rest and be rejected or ridiculed) and deservability…
Do you only work with Women starting a business or do you coach women from all walks of life?
I work with women from all walks of life but there are often common themes. They are always very heart centered and sensitive women. They all want to make a difference and help people. Unquestionably more and more women want to make a difference through their work.
The traditional patriarchal concept of success being about acquisition of money is being turned around. Success now equates having more choice on how we spend our time. Spending more time with your family, being healthy, having fun, time outdoors, travel and even growing your own fruit and vegetables.
Why the connection with women particularly?
I didn’t start out this way, and in fact my background of nursing and counseling involved working with both men and women alike. Only when I started the money coaching course did I start to work with women as it was specifically tailored women’s needs which are certainly different to men’s needs.
I think women are much more curious about healing in general, and I think women have just been naturally drawn to me and my work more than men. This is also the Age of Divine Feminine Rising. Female energy is definitely rising on the planet and never before have we experienced this astounding number of women starting our own businesses, female politicians, leaders and corporates.
‘Feast to famine’ seems to play a recurring role in many of our lives, particularly in these modern times. What words of advice do you have?
I think it ultimately comes down to what is inside each of us, and our ability to make peace with money. Some internal introspection is required, whether this be reading a book, or whether it turns into a long and convoluted journey.
When we really understand that money is energy and we can make peace with money, we can honor and understand ourselves and our past. We can finally acknowledge who we are and be our authentic self. Self-worth is key to financial worth!
