This week, the Disabilities Beat continues our series "Voices of Disability Pride" with a conversation about empowerment with Alex Jusko, a local life coach and psychic. Jusko discusses with WBFO's Disability Reporter Emyle Watkins his journey to life coaching, what his career entails, and how he incorporates diverse spiritual practices and his lived experience into his work. They discuss how empowerment can help anyone live an intentional life and reach their goals.
PLAIN LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION: WBFO's Emyle Watkins interviews Alex Jusko, a psychic and life coach about his career. Life coaches help people determine what stands in the way of their goals and how to move through those challenges. Alex discusses the importance of recognizing and addressing personal blocks to growth. He also talks about how he includes different spiritual practices and his lived experiences as someone with a disability into his coaching practice. Alex also talks about the significance of community, self-empowerment, and active listening in his journey. Lastly, Alex encourages people without disabilities to have an open mind as to what perspectives they value in our society.
TRANSCRIPT (SEGMENT)
Emyle Watkins: Hi, I am Emyle Watkins, and this is the WBFO Disabilities Beat.
One thing I love about covering the disability community is hearing the wisdom people have to share. This week, for our series Voices of Disability Pride, I wanted to speak with someone who combines his professional training, love of spirituality, and lived experience to empower people to live the lives they want to live. Here's my conversation with Alex Jusko, a local life coach and psychic who shares his advice on living with intention and an open mind. This interview has been edited for length and clarity, but you can listen to our full interview at wbfo.org.
Emyle Watkins: First, I want to say you popped up on my Instagram feed the other day.
Alex Jusko: Love it.
Emyle Watkins: I'm really interested to hear more about your work as a life coach and in spiritual consulting.
Alex Jusko: I love it. It's all about empowering the individual and giving them the tools they need in order to overcome their obstacles, whether it's something they're working on, they haven't just been able to start, or have a simple plan in order to develop that. That's what we do. We talk about what are the blocks in your life, your issues. It could be anything. The cool thing is we can address it in such a way that gives the person the ability to empower themselves to say, "Okay, I've done this. Now I can go on to that. Now I can move on to the next thing." It's really cool.
You develop this relationship of watching a person grow as you meet with them. It's wonderful because you give them the ability to recognize that they're the most powerful beings in their life, and that's really, really cool. I love doing that.
Then I also incorporate spiritual modalities into that and incorporate energy work and things like that, too. That's really cool. We talk about that as well. It can vary depending upon the day and what the person needs, but it's really, really cool and really empowering in that way.
Emyle Watkins: Is it rooted in any specific spiritual practice or do you work with anyone of any faith background?
Alex Jusko: I work with anyone with any faith or not. I've worked with agnostics, I've worked with atheists, I've worked with all sorts, so I can really apply this to anything because it's not about the faith, it's about how they see themselves in accordance to the universe they live in.
Emyle Watkins: You have a background in psychology, right?
Alex Jusko: Correct. I have a bachelor's degree in psychology.
Emyle Watkins: How does that inform your work?
Alex Jusko: I think it's fair to say we all use psychology every day or our lives. We just don't realize we do. That's kind of how that applies. Most of my work is more based on the spiritual and less on the academic, I would say.
Emyle Watkins: I guess I'm also wondering, as a person with a disability, I know that my lived experience informs my work. I'm wondering, does your lived experience impact or inform the work you do or the clients you choose to work with?
Alex Jusko: Yeah. I mean, I would say that everybody at some point in their lives has felt like, "Oh, am I doing the right thing? Am I in the right place? Am I where I'm supposed to be?" The fact of the matter is, growing up, I felt that way a lot.
I felt like, "Oh, I don't belong. I'm worthless. I'm a monster. I'm this, I'm that." By the nature of my journey through life and through spirituality specifically, I learned how to empower that part of me that was like, "Yes, you can. You can do this," and you can build off that and make yourself into a really strong, powerful being that allows for growth and expansion in such a way that it may not be the same as everyone else, but it's still your progress and it's still your life. In that way, you can see yourself as somebody who's making progress, even if it's not in the way other people see you. It's in the way you see yourself. By virtue of that, you see that reflected in the world around you.
Emyle Watkins: Wow, hearing everything you say is just so insightful. Do you have a community of other people with disabilities who also do this work? Or do you have any advice for other people who are maybe interested in this career path?
Alex Jusko: Absolutely. There's a lot of connections. Buffalo has its own spiritual niches for sure. We have our own communities. I've met a few people with disabilities, but not many yet, but I have met a variety of people. I would say that a lot of them are very warm and welcoming for the most part, which is wonderful. I even work... Every Sunday I work at Rising Goddess in North Tonawanda. They're a wonderful community, and it's a wonderful place to come together and talk about anything you want to talk about, let your freak flag fly. It's a place of encouragement and acceptance, and that's what I love about that place and what I do too, because I'm all about accepting where people are, wherever they are at that time.
Emyle Watkins: Do you have any advice for people who might be interested in following this career path?
Alex Jusko: One of the things I would recommend is getting into or getting a certification in life coaching for sure. As well as just exploring and being open to people's belief systems and all the things that are out there. There's tons of material out there as far as books and YouTube videos and just everything. Just start exploring and see what resonates with you the most, and then go from there. Work with what makes you feel the most empowered and the most powerful.
Emyle Watkins: Are there any certain skills or people or perspectives that helped you get to where you are today?
Alex Jusko: Absolutely. One of the first things I would say specifically, especially for life coaching, active listening is super important. Being able to take a person and sit there and say, "Okay, my attention and my energy is completely devoted to you right now in this moment." Acknowledging the fact that you are literally there to just be with them and to be a part of their process, and to give them that ability to recognize that there's somebody there that's 100% there with them in their process.
Beyond that, like I said, I have various modalities. I read tarot, I read energy, things like that. That's very individual to me, but it's part of my process. It's part of what I do. It's definitely part of that. Just having the ability to be open to a variety of beliefs, that's super important as well. That's part of that as well.
Emyle Watkins: I'm asking everyone who I'm interviewing for this series, this question, but, I'm wondering if you could give advice to a younger you or another person with a disability who just got started on their own journey of self-advocacy, what would you tell them?
Alex Jusko: Keep going, that you're doing awesome, and that, honestly, there might be dark days, but truth of the matter is there's always the day that follows after. Don't worry about all the darkness that you might see because there's always light at the other end of it.
Emyle Watkins: That's beautiful. I think with the Disabilities Beat, we talk a lot about things that maybe are unfamiliar to people who don't have disabilities. What do you wish non-disabled people understood about our community?
Alex Jusko: Good question. I think one of the things I would say about that is that perspective comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms, in all ways both cognitive and physical and all of that. Neurospicy, all of it. That we should just be open to all different kinds of perspectives instead of just the standard able-bodied perspective. I think there's beauty in all kinds of direct experience in that way, and we all need to just honor that instead of discriminating, "Oh, this perspective is better than this one, that one's better than that one." It's about seeing the world in a universal way that allows for the ability for people to be seen, whether they're... Regardless of their ability or disability. It doesn't matter. We all should just see each other as equals, regardless.
Emyle Watkins: You can listen to the Disabilities Beat segment on demand, and view a transcript and plain language description for every episode on our website at wbfo.org. I'm Emyle Watkins. Thanks for listening.
BONUS: Listen to the full interview
