Personal Musings from a Grateful Vegan; And Why I Give Main Street Vegan Academy Five Cosmic Stars out of Five, by Sue Sullivan, VLCE, REAT 

Last summer when my BFF/twin sister and I were sitting on my couch talking about our vegan lives, I suddenly felt this insatiable craving to pay it forward. Having been a strict dietary vegan for five years, I just felt so driven to help anyone out there to experience the quantum leap in quality of life that my veganism had given me (I could never really express it adequately, therefore, I am not going to try here).

I’ve been a trauma therapist for 30 years now. And as much as I love the work, vegan coaching felt like a sacred calling. At the time, I wasn’t sure why. Since my training at Main Street Vegan Academy, I have come to understand that the exhausting mental process required of all of us as omnivores to justify species privilege (for example, our cultural interpretation of the lives other species as being less purposeful than those of humans) is the core source of trauma we are all experiencing as humans on this planet. Simply because we all know deep down that this makes no sense, and that it creates and perpetuates patriarchy, war, human enslavement, and every single hierarchical  “ism”.

So, I was just sitting there with my bestie by my side, saying, “How could I possibly become a vegan coach?” And after googling those words, Main Street Vegan Academy came into my life. Thank God.

I attended the class in New York last December and it literally changed my life. There’s only one word to describe the reason this training program so dramatically surpassed my (super high) expectations—authenticity.

Every day for one week, Victoria shared incredibly comprehensive (and fascinating!) information about the history of veganism, vegan nutrition, animal rights law, the vegan fashion industry, the role of the vegan coach, how to run a vegan business in a truly vegan manner, and other interesting aspects of vegan life and vegan activism. And I have to say that each and every topic was presented by amazing specialists. They all knocked it totally out of the park with their passion and incredibly engaging communication styles.

I must say that I am so happy to have experienced this with amazing classmates in the room every day! The shared passion created community energy that was electric and so inspiring!

My BFF/twin was so excited for me every night after class when I told her about my day, that she decided to fly in from Nevada to attend my graduation. She did this because she knew (as only a BFF/twin can) how sacred this event was for me.

After graduation, my sister told me that although she never could have pictured wanting to be a vegan coach before, she wanted to sign up for the next class and join me in my vegan coaching mission. She said she couldn’t wait! That is what I mean when I tried to describe the community energy of the class.

And I have to say I agree with her. It was truly life-altering. Even though I had already been vegan for five years and had made no secret about it, I truly felt as if I had walked out of my vegan closet for the first time after taking that class.

My sister is all ready for the next Main Street Vegan Academy class, whenever that may be. She has seen the difference in me since that wonderful graduation day. And as my “former wombmate,” she truly knows me better than anyone. So she knows it will be well worth the wait.

 

Sue Sullivan is an Expressive Arts Therapist from Lesley University with a passion for trauma healing. Since her mother died unexpectedly when she was 6 years old, Sue’s life purpose has been to facilitate healing from trauma for herself and others. Sue is blessed to be trained as a Child Parent Psychotherapist, a therapy model through which children and parents can heal together, and is registered with the Expressive Arts Therapy Association. It is her opinion that cleansing our bodies and auras from animal proteins is the most effective way to elevate our immune system through this corona virus outbreak. Sue can be reached by email at [email protected].