Pastor, Certified Grief Recovery Specialist and Authenticity Coach

My name is Mueni Wambua. My journey to become a Pastor and eventually a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist and an Authenticity Coach was not necessarily a straightforward one. It is one fraught with twists and turns that require more of an inner conviction and faith that logic and rational.

However, that does not in any way make any less fulfilling, intriguing or challenging.

Having worked in corporate world for close to 15 years in different capacities, I finally took a plunge and went into self-employment. Interesting enough, I found that most of my clients were either churches or para-church organizations that needed my expertise in one area or the other. At that point and time, I was mainly offering research and training & development services.

Having been a Christian, I also became very aware of the need to serve in my area of passion and calling because I was very keen to live out my purpose. I am convinced that as human beings, we are created to fulfill a specific purpose in our lives. And I began to hunger for that purpose.

My first stop was the Personal Development Institute where I undertook 14 week Transformed and Renewed Minds program that helped me to discover what my purpose was. I was able to articulate that I exist to help people discover, uncover and recover authenticity.

The next step was to do the DISC Personality profiling by the same organization to then be able to have deeper insight on who I am and also understand how best to be able to express my purpose. That was a very eye-opening task as it comes with a detailed 50 page report on yourself! Indeed to this day, I regularly make reference to it.

By this point, after prayerful consideration, I had clarity that God was calling me to serve in a church. I submitted an application for internship in my church but after considering the work that I had already been doing with and for them, they instead chose to hire me as a Pastor.

This was extremely intimidating and yet exhilarating in equal measure. It felt like being thrust in the deep end. It was a rich learning experience and it was also rich to see how my years of Customer Service and Sales came into play not to mention the many on the job trainings I had received in my years of service. In the time of transition from employment to self-employment, I had also pursued a Higher Diploma in Counseling Psychology.

My passion was mainly driven by the desire to see people come to the realization of who God would have them be. I was particularly moved to work with people in different seasons of loss and coupled with my own personal grief experiences and a greater quest to be able to minister with greater understanding, I pursued certification from the Grief Recovery Institute (USA).

This was particularly handy as I did a lot of benevolence work but also got to realize that the there are up to 42 incidences that impact the human heart at the level of loss of a loved one. This knowledge helped me to serve with greater understanding. I was also heavily involved in the area of counseling at different levels.

In 2017 August, I chose to go back to school to advance my Psychological training and thankfully, my employer was able to offer me a scholarship.

At the beginning of 2018, I began to get opportunities to speak and train in different places and that was when I registered an organization so that I could have more structure in my activities. It was also during this time that I came face to face with the glaring reality that those that have gone through divorce, separation or even in need of clarity about their unions did not really have a place to go and were seemingly a forgotten lot even within most churches.

This led me to develop The Well, which is a 10 week program that helps them get to a place of healing and recovery from their losses and create new communities even as they launch forth into a new normal.

As an Authenticity Coach, my work is to help people navigate the changes and challenges they encounter in a manner that is true to who they are, protects their dignity and honors God.

It indeed remains a privilege for people to entrust you with their deepest emotions and this cannot be entered into lightly. One must at all times be very away of the responsibility and power that people give to you at their most vulnerable times.

It is also important to note that this work can also be very emotionally taxing and therefore self-care is of utmost importance. Find ways to consistently nurture yourself because ultimately, you cannot pour from an empty cup.

There are different streams of generating an income which include having one on one client sessions, group debriefing therapy sessions, speaking and /or training engagements.

While the services I offer are not free and we are also living in a time when there are more people looking to turn to professionals for help, there must be a greater motivation beyond money to pursue this line of work. Incidentally, I have found that because this work has also changed my mindset, when I operate from an abundance mentality, I regularly take on those that may need my services but are unable to pay for one reason or the other.

I do this because I hold a very deep conviction that you can never outgive God, while I may see a none paying client today, I may get a corporate gig that more than compensates my free service. However, since this is not your regular job, you may be called upon at odd hours and it can be very disruptive to people who prefer a regular routine.
When all is said and done, the pay for what I do is out of this world!