Radically different personal journeys led coaches Robin Carnes and Nancy Montagna to the Positive Psychology work of Dr. Martin Seligman. Yet when they heard him speak at a Washington, DC conference in 2003, they were both "on fire," so excited they could hardly wait to go home and sign up for the training that ultimately led to the creation of Pathways to Happiness.
"We were totally smitten," Robin reports. "We were drawn to his focus on what makes human beings thrive, rather than the more typical orientation of 'fixing' people. I work as a coach and Nancy is a therapist, but we both prefer seeing what's good in people and drawing that out, rather than looking for problems."
"I had come to a positive approach on my own," Nancy agrees, "but this new movement in my profession makes me proud to be a psychologist. Dr. Seligman and other researchers are studying the best in human beings. They are defining that best in ways that are valued in all cultures and religions, and showing us how to bring out that best in ourselves and others. "
Robin Carnes, MBA
Looking at Robin Carnes today, you would not think "welfare mother." And yet Robin had a rather circuitous route to happiness. She ran away from home at 14, got married at 15, had a baby at 16, and divorced at 17. As a high school drop-out and single mother, Robin became, not surprisingly, very depressed. "I remember sitting in my little kitchen, feeling desperately unhappy, completely immersed in this idea that this was all someone else's fault," she recalls. "But one day I had this realization that it was all up to me. I could live the rest of my life thinking that somebody should fix this situation, but in fact nobody was going to come in and make this all right: everybody was living their own life, and I had to live mine. That was when I started to dig myself out." So Robin went back to school and got her GED, and at age 20 married a doctor 19 years her senior. "We had a stormy, unhappy marriage for 13 years," she recalls. During this time, Robin began her spiritual journey. She attended Harvard Divinity School, but found that the school was very much about the intellect, and very little about the heart. "Definitely not for me," she decided. She got very sick during the first semester, and knew it was time to leave. Robin wanted to become a social worker, but her husband wanted her to have a more financially rewarding career. So Robin enrolled in a joint social work/MBA program at Boston College. When she graduated, she decided that she wouldn't be a very happy social worker. So she used her MBA training in organizational development to start working in the corporate world. Ironically, this career enabled her to earn enough money to leave her unhappy marriage. Eventually, Robin moved to Washington, DC, re-married, and rose to the position of a managing partner position at the firm of Cook Ross. As a management consultant, Robin's clients included AT&T, The Discovery Channel, Data General Corporation, and Prudential Insurance. But after nine years of corporate work, Robin decided that she wanted to focus more directly on her spiritual journey. "I told my husband I needed a three month hiatus, and that was nine years ago," she says. Robin became a yoga teacher certified in the Anusara tradition, and teaches Yoga Nidra, a form of body-centered meditation, at Willow Street Yoga in Takoma Park, MD. With coauthor Sally Craig, Robin also researched and wrote Sacred Circles: A Guide for Creating Your Own Women's Spirituality Group. Since its publication in 1998, Sacred Circles has been used as a textbook by many pastors, youth group leaders, nurses and community workers to create honest, effective communities. Robin has presented numerous workshops around the country at venues such as the Washington National Cathedral and Omega Institute. Now working primarily as a psycho-spiritual teacher, Robin was trained and certified in positive psychology coaching by Dr. Martin Seligman, widely considered to be the founder of this burgeoning field. Robin is now happily married and lives in Silver Spring, MD. She is the proud grandmother of Skyler Johnson Reid, who contributes enormously to her happiness. |
Nancy Montagna, PhD
Compared to Robin, Nancy's life might look more conventional. She has been married for 39 years, and has had a private practice in clinical psychology for 25 years. But appearances can be deceiving. "I became a therapist because I didn't have a clue about how to be happy," she says. "When I was in my twenties, I thought that somewhere in psychology someone must know something." Her early experiences with a therapist were not encouraging, however. "My therapist sat behind a big desk, ten feet away from me, and my chair was riveted to the floor," she remembers. "One day he smiled at me, and then he admitted that was a mistake. He took the blank slate thing much too far!" In her search for better answers, Nancy left her job researching bacterial genetics at a pharmaceutical company and eventually got a PhD in psychology. "In graduate school I defined my mission as learning how to be a human being so I could help myself and others." she says. When she graduated from college Nancy was headed for the Peace Corps. She applied and was assigned to Thailand. However by then she had met Don, and chose to get married instead. She promised herself that one day, late in life, she would do something to help people in developing countries. "I married my husband at 22, but in a way we didn't stay in the same marriage. There were several points where there was no going back: what was OK before was not going to work in the future. We had to learn from our mistakes in order to move forward. We manage to save other people a lot of grief by telling them what it took us years to learn!" Nancy is the mother of two grown children, adopted from India. In 2001, at the age of 58, Nancy started studying Spanish. By 2004 she spoke it well enough to lead a week-long training in Paraguay. She did this as a volunteer with International Partners, a group that seeks to connect American resources such as money and expertise with the needs of people in developing countries. Nancy's particular focus has been to train leaders in a program that is effective with domestic violence offenders. "Part of my passion about this happiness work comes from pain about the state of the world," Nancy says. "Many of the most privileged and gifted people live as if they think money is the main goal in life. Now we can say, with the backing of science, that money has no effect on happiness once a person's basic needs are met. Loving relationships and feeling part of something greater than ourselves will have much more bearing. I do feel that this deeper and scientifically accurate understanding of happiness is what our culture needs." Nancy's training includes psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Gestalt, Core-Energetics (which integrates physical, emotional and spiritual approaches), cognitive therapy, emotional intelligence, and brief therapies such as hypnosis, EMDR, and NLP. Nancy offers trainings several times a year in various aspects of emotional intelligence. In addition to her work in Latin America, Nancy has been Volunteer Coordinator of the Helping Hands Craft Sale, a project that raises funds in order to empower hungry and homeless people. She is an active member of the Washington Ethical Society, and enjoys hiking, dancing, yoga, gardening, singing, improvisation, and, especially, the beauty of nature. She is interested in health, in prehistory, and in ancient history. You can read more about Nancy's professional work at www.nancymontagna.com. |