About Pam


 


May, 2015

Far from being ready to retire at 72, I am eagerly taking the seat of an elder longing to serve as a voice for the path of the heart and for a new brand of heart-centered leadership in this pivotal time in global history. In my fifth career, I see all my work as threads in a tapestry I’m weaving, which  has beauty and struggle in it, and fills me with immense gratitude.

The primary thread has always been about healing, finding deep meaning in life, and creating beauty. As a child I imagined one day there would be a scanner that would diagnose people like my beautiful bi-polar, alcoholic mother. So as a teacher, I was drawn to the kids who could not learn. As a photographer, I tried to make invisible qualities visible.

My primary learning has happened outside my degrees from Stanford and Columbia Universities, wonderful as those experiences were.

Trying to heal the pain in my own first marriage, I valued my own therapy and trained as a paraprofessional crisis intervention counselor. Curious about the connection I experienced between spirituality, creativity and healing, I created photography programs for learning disabled, brain-injured and gifted, and also exhibited my own work.

After a divorce I closed my studio in CA and turned to a decade of fundraising for the arts, higher education (Stanford and the University of AZ) and health care. Then, as a consultant to non-profits, I made my way back to personal development, training in spiritual leadership and as a spiritual director or mentor.

In 2000, a diagnosis of breast cancer was a turning point in my life that led me to the Four Winds Healing the Light Body School, where I trained for two years in shamanic energy healing and life coaching. I began a private practice, and also worked for 7 years at Miraval Resort and Spa, began speaking at cancer events, and shared my Sand Spirits Insight Cards, published first in 2002.

Wanting to help others conquer the fear that was part of my cancer experience and my life in general, I wrote the award-winning book, Flying Lessons: How to Be the Pilot of Your Own Life. It’s about earning my private pilot’s license at 56, and uses the metaphor of flight (and 50 of my aerial photos) to talk about the spiritual journey and give people a system for meeting any challenge.

A second bout of cancer, combined with various other physical challenges, have led me deeper into the path of the wounded healer. I study Heart Rhythm Meditation with IAM Heart, and teachers Susanna and Puran Bair, and now incorporate their basic practices into my teaching.

The heart-centered practices led me into working with a new metaphor related to seeing our selves and our path more clearly. In collaboration with my daughter, Laura Weaver, I work with  accomplished women in a small group retreat format called Lifting the Veils: Walking in Your True Beauty.

I am so fortunate to have traveled to many parts of the world like Central and South American, the Amazon, Africa, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Europe and Indian country in the U.S. I’ve been able to learn from and experience indigenous traditions not only from various teachers, but from shamans and ordinary people who I feel carry the key to the wisdom the world needs now.

I live outside Tucson with my lawyer-turned-mediator and fly fisherman, Jon Trachta. I have two wonderful daughters and five amazing grandchildren. I consider myself overly blessed.

And the journey continues!

 

Some Client Perspectives on Through a Different Lens:

“Great, useful information. Poised and powerful presenter.”
—Participant, YWCA Women on the Move Leadership Conference

“Pam Hale Trachta is a skilled leader, able to see through the surface issues to the heart of the matter, whether personal or organizational. She is able to thoughtfully and creatively help participants find solutions and new ways of moving forward. I find her work exceptional in every way.”
—Jeanette L. Renouf, Ph.D., Director, Tacheria: New School for Spiritual Direction

“Pam is a truly gifted healer. The result is individuals and organizations being more effective in reaching their goals. Working with Pam is a transformational process that supports the growth and development of individuals and organizations.”
—Donna M. Reed, Consultant, Tools For Achievers, Inc.

My session with Pam was the highlight of my stay.”
—Guest, Miraval Resort and Spa

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