“The programming that I had from early childhood is that you are supposed to get a good job, get married, and have kids, but following that path didn’t make me happy.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I’m passionate about helping people develop a better understanding of themselves and their animals through intuitive guidance. My purpose in life is to make lives easier and more enjoyable for people and animals. I started studying metaphysical topics to learn to trust my intuition and found that I knew things that other people don’t know. I have always wanted to work with animals, so I focused on animal communication and have been able to learn so much from talking to them.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: The programming that I had from early childhood is that you are supposed to get a good job, get married, and have kids, but following that path didn’t make me happy. I had to release and heal from that old programming and forge my own path. I learned to care less about what other people think and design my own life.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Anything is possible. I had no idea my life could be what it is now. I found my purpose by exploring and trying new things. When I was interested in something, I took a class or read about it. What I have learned is that you don’t have to know where you are going to take the first step. Try something, join a group, ask a question, it can take you places you never imagined.
Q:What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism to me means owning your truth and being who you really are. We are taught to conform, but if we can love ourselves and live our truth, we can help spread love to the world.
Thank you for reading!
I offer animal communication, intuitive sessions for people, and teach intuition classes. Learn more on my website: www.intuitivedenise.com
Q and A with Katherine, born and raised in Chile, now living in New York, New York
“You will always be the problem and you will always be the solution.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: Hi, my name is Katherine Berland, and I am an intuitive-rich money mindset activator and manifestation mentor with a sole mission to help others heal from the past, align with the present, and surface profound clarity to manifest an empowering future. I feel very passionately and nothing makes me happier than helping other women cultivate a quality life filled with ignited purpose, passion, and fulfillment. From childhood trauma healing, rectifying money wounds, to manifestation mentoring that unlocks the powers of the mind, I find immense joy in delivering safe-haven sessions that give my clients the newfound confidence to conquer any obstacle within the 3D world.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I come from a very dysfunctional family. If you ask me, I really had a difficult life going through many painful experiences that I continued to perpetuate in my adult life with toxic and abusive relationships. I literally had to lose everything to start looking for answers for why we do what we do and how we can break away from suffering, lack, limitation, and unworthiness. I do not mention this in a victim place because I healed and break with most of my traumas and paradigms, but all my past experiences really helped me understand how life works, the power we really have, which ultimately led me to want to help other people break free from the illusion of the mind to unleash their true potential.
My mom was a very abusive, narcissistic person, and my parents got divorced when I was 11. My mom left me and my five-year-old sister with my dad. My dad was a great dad, but a very hard worker; he always left the house early in the morning and came back late at night. I became the mom of my sister at the age of 12 because nobody else could take care of us. It was confusing and tough. I started drinking and smoking at 12. I was a very rebellious child, bad in school, and had a lot of physical fights. I started feeling depressed, which led me to try suicide myself twice. I finished high school and started working at 17. I wanted to feel proud of myself, so I worked very hard at the age of 20. And I bought my first apartment at the age of 21. I had a boyfriend, a house, a dog a car, but something was missing. I was having everything that people said brings happiness, but I couldn’t feel happy. I was working the whole day just to pay bills, drink, and watch TV. One day I just started asking, “This is all? This is how I’m going to live the rest of my life?” So, it was then that I decided to do something. I quit my job, I left my boyfriend, and I rented my apartment. I moved from Chile to Florida. I didn’t know what to do and how to make money, so I started working as a dancer, I found happiness for a couple months, and I made a lot of money, but something was still missing and I couldn’t figure out what it was. After a while, I met the dad of my son, which was a love bomb in the beginning, and since I’d never received love, I fell in love with him so easily and ignored all the red flags. After a couple months, he convinced me to stay in New York and live with him. And I did. Then my visa expired, and it was then that he start manipulating me and abusing me. I lost all my money and even I lost myself. I lost everything. I was feeling like WHY ME? What did I do so wrong to experience so much negative stuff? Then I started looking at my son and thinking, “He is going to live the same life” and I just felt so sad. Then, I started asking myself, “What I can do to move forward?” and I remembered to start praying.
Now, with time, I understand that you don’t have to force anything. I forgive them. And I made peace with my past and especially with myself, taking full responsibility for what I do what I get and how I feel. Now, I love my family just the way they are. I lost a lot of people on this path. Now, I made new friends and people who are on this path of making the world a better place. I’m always connecting with nice and beautiful people. My health is 100% good, my relationships changed so dramatically, and I feel full of purpose. And I’m loving what I do.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Spirituality, mindset, and body, you have to find the balance in the three of them if you really want to live a happy, fulfilled life. Everything that you need is within you; you will always be the problem and you will always be the solution. If you had childhood experiences where you didn’t have the choice to choose about your life, now you have the power and it’s time to own it, and create the life that you want and deserve in this world. Doesn’t matter what you did or who you think you are right now…you are always worthy if have it all.
Q:What does feminism mean to you?
A: I think feminism is the concept of equality as humans.
MORE FROM KATHERINE:
I love what I do and am always seeking ways to advance myself both personally and professionally to share that knowledge with others. However, when I am not working, you can often find me meditating, dancing, traveling, enjoying the zen of the beach, studying about human behavior, the mind, the universe, and of course one of my favorite things to do is spending time with my amazing kid.
“Art can give us strength to carry on, courage to push through.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I am passionate about empowering, uplifting, and bringing joy into people’s lives through art.
During the lockdown, I started a series of paintings called Urban Queen.
Initially, I gave up my studio and planned to relax at home for a month or so. I was planning to do all the things I never have time to do like reorganize my wardrobe, read, and drink cocktails on my terrace. It didn’t last long.
One day I read an article in Forbes magazine about the seven women head of states and how they dealt with the pandemic. I started thinking about all the women in lockdown, all the unsung heroes, and the women who are leaders in their own way, whether it’s in their home or in their community.
I had an urge to paint these women, so I set up a home studio and ended up working 12-hour days for two months straight. I took over the living room, and my family got used to fending for themselves.
Through my paintings, I want to bring every woman into the spotlight who runs her household, raises her children, puts up with her boss, looks after her health, and shows the strength and courage in her everyday life. I started sharing my art online and the response I had from women all over the world was incredible.
Art has the power to move people at a very deep level and women connected with the paintings in a way I didn’t expect. I had hundreds of messages from women telling me what these paintings mean to them and how they make them feel. Stronger, powerful, self-confident.
A deeply moving experience was talking with Kristen, a nurse on the front lines in San Francisco. She was working crazy hours, doing loads of overtime when the hospital needed her, only taking breaks and resting in her car when she was on call.
We messaged each other and spoke a lot. She told me, “I’m scared, inspired, and empowered, raising girls during this time! These paintings spoke to me on such a deep level as a nurse on the front lines and mother of two daughters. Seriously, these paintings blew my mind on so many levels.”
This expresses what I paint for: the power of art to lift our souls. It reminds us that we are magnificent beings capable of doing so much good in the world. Art can give us strength to carry on, courage to push through.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I grew up in a totalitarian communist regime where ‘freedom’ was nonexistent and food shortages, fear, and persecution was part of the daily life.
I hated the system that imprisoned my grandfather, I hated the fact that everything was grey.
When I was about 12, I saw a book on Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. I was so moved by the art, the colors, the beauty that I decided there and then that if I can get out of the country, I would leave and never come back.
That chance came when I was 18 years old, so armed with big dreams and a bag full of clothes, I made it to London, UK, all by myself.
I wanted to finish my education, so I was going to college during the day and working evenings and weekends. It was then when I discovered painting.
I thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. I would stay up really late at night to finish my paintings assignments. However, the mentality I grew up with was that of the ‘starving artist,’ so instead I pursued a career in fashion where I thought, worst case scenario, I can get a job as a seamstress.
Instead, at the age of 25, I opened my business, a fashion label that expanded rapidly selling in 300 boutiques all over the UK.
Time passed, I fell in love, got married, and had our daughter. In 2009, my family and I moved back to my native Romania. This was now a totally different country I didn’t recognize.
Liberated from communist regime, the country was flourishing and exciting. I started an interior design business that made six figures in the first year.
Still, painting was something I was called to do all my life, so I started painting again, at night time and during the weekends. In 2013, I was invited to exhibit in Miami, during the famous Art Basel. That was all I needed to get me to pursue my long life dream.
Shortly after, I walked into my office and told all my staff that I would be closing the business in order to pursue a career as an artist. I was 40 years old! It was a bold, crazy move and what followed was a few years of really hard work.
As a self-taught artist, I made a point on working extra hard on my technique as well as finding my artistic voice. And still, I didn’t feel “worthy” unless my art was validated by the “art establishment.” When my family and I moved back to the UK in 2018, I got the validation I thought I needed by working with some well established art galleries, exhibiting in central London, selling my art to important collectors.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Life is about constantly learning, growing, and evolving.
Painting the Urban Queen series has taught me my latest lesson: I don’t need the art establishment to validate me or my art. I am a queen and I wear my crown with pride.
At the same time, my biggest lesson that I’ve learned is that “I am on Purpose.” I have been searching for purpose, for the best part of my life, and asked myself many times, “How can I live on purpose?” I think Urban Queen has provided me with the answer. When you are passionate about what you do AND you serve others, you are living with purpose.
Q:What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism is reestablishing the balance between feminine and masculine. It’s recognizing and honoring our differences.
It’s understanding that vulnerability, sensitivity, intuition, creativity, and nurturing are very important qualities the world needs. They are not weakness as we were raised to believe.
We don’t need to be like men. We need to connect to our own inner feminine qualities and lead from there.
Q: Would you like readers to know anything else?
A: I would say honor yourself.
Women are used to doing everything for everyone else first, and we leave ourselves last.
I am also guilty of that sometimes, and it’s something I’m still working on.
To me, honoring yourself means working on your mindset, learning to appreciate what’s important in life, being grateful, being inspired, treating yourself, and most importantly, loving yourself. Find the Queen within!
“Some of the most important changes happen internally, in ways no one else can see…I’m drawn to the spaces people don’t always talk about—the quiet, the complicated, and the deeply human.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I’m passionate about storytelling—both the kind that comforts and the kind that unsettles.
Writing became that space for me during a difficult six-year period of my life.
I started writing letters to myself as a way to process what I was going through, and over time, I realized those words weren’t just mine.
That’s how Letters to Women Like Me came to life—out of a need to create something honest for women who feel deeply but don’t always have a place to put it.
At the same time, I’ve always been drawn to the darker side of storytelling—the psychological layers, the questions of identity, memory, and what shapes us. That led me to write Chalk Drawings, a psychological crime thriller that explores patterns, obsession, and the idea that what’s unseen can be more powerful than what’s visible.
What connects everything I write is a fascination with what people carry—emotionally, mentally, and sometimes silently. Whether I’m writing something soft and reflective or something tense and suspenseful, I’m always trying to understand that space.
Right now, I’m continuing to build both sides of my work—growing the Chalk Drawings series while also creating more reflective writing for women. For me, it’s not about choosing one path or the other. It’s about telling the full story of what it means to be human—both the light and the shadow.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: My younger years were fairly grounded and shaped by a strong sense of responsibility early on.
I graduated high school and went on to attend college for a time, but life began to take me in a different direction, and I didn’t complete my degree.
While that wasn’t the path I originally planned, it taught me that growth doesn’t always follow a straight line—and that experience itself can be just as valuable as formal education.
I’ve always been someone who observes deeply and feels things in a quiet way.
Even when I wasn’t writing, I was paying attention—to people, to emotions, to the small moments that often go unnoticed. Those early years helped shape the way I see the world now, both in life and in my writing.
Looking back, I realize that my upbringing and experiences gave me a strong sense of resilience and independence.
They taught me how to navigate challenges, adapt, and keep moving forward even when things didn’t go as expected. Those lessons have stayed with me and continue to influence not only the work I do, but the stories I tell.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: One of the most valuable things I’ve learned is that not everything in life needs to be figured out right away.
For a long time, I thought strength meant having answers, pushing through, and holding everything together. But I’ve come to understand that real strength is quieter—it’s allowing yourself to feel, to pause, and to be honest about what you’re carrying.
I would want others to know that it’s okay if your path doesn’t look the way you thought it would.
Growth isn’t always obvious, and healing doesn’t happen on a timeline.
Some of the most important changes happen internally, in ways no one else can see.
I’m drawn to the spaces people don’t always talk about—the quiet, the complicated, and the deeply human.
If there’s anything I hope people take from my story, it’s this: you’re not alone in what you’re feeling, even if it seems that way.
There is value in your experiences, even the difficult ones, and there is strength in continuing forward—at your own pace, in your own way.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism, to me, is about recognizing the unseen weight women carry and creating space for them to feel, speak, and exist without having to prove their strength.
Thank you for reading!
Let’s connect!
Comment below.
Check out my psychological thriller here: Chalk Drawings
“… if you give your body proper nutrition, your body can heal itself.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I am a shareholder in a hardware company and, because I invested early in life, I was able to retire at the age of 36.
I’m passionate about building a legacy with my Ardysslife business, helping families thrive through a healthier lifestyle, and to building a strong team for a wealthier lifestyle.
I’m interested in building a large clientele with getting them into nutrition, [products] made from fruits and vegetables to help the body heal itself. I also help them reshape their body without diet pills exercise or surgery, instead getting them to wear the reshaping garments made by an orthopedic surgeon.
I am currently working on getting a store front in my country so my team and customers won’t have to pay for shipping and have easy access like having the package shipped to their doors.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I grew up in the tropical Nassau, Bahamas, with family and faith.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Something valuable I have learned if you invest in a positive and lucrative business, it pays off.
I also learned that if you give your body proper nutrition, your body can heal itself. I was diagnosed with high cholesterol and within two weeks of being on the products, I didn’t have to be put on medication.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism means alot to me. I believe gender-based discrimination needs to be eliminated.
I feel there should be social, economic, and political equality between women and men; women should have the same rights as men especially if a man wants a woman to go fifty-fifty with the bills in the home.
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