Hi,
I'm Joan Linder, Author of "DESIGN YOUR LIFE- INSIDE AND OUT"
Yes, there is a way to design your life so that it works FOR you!
Using my special tools, I can help you find your Authentic Self, Love Yourself for who you are, and Live in an Environment that balances and supports you.
My passion has been to Create.....Inside and Out.
I think my life in "Interior Design began early on.
As a child, growing up on a farm in Iowa, without TV or friends nearby, my twin sister and I spent hours in Nature, playing in the rolling hills. A fallen tree became a house to play in. A hillside of ice created when water froze as it melted in ripples & swirls....became patterns in magnificent layers of ice resembling Marble. It was 17 below zero, but here were palatial rooms in a palace in a foreign exotic place! In the fall, with 14 trees in the yard, our job of raking the leaves, first became houses and apartments with many rooms. We lived in a 14 room Victorian Farm House. We had 7 bedrooms, so in the 11 years that I lived there, I changed bedrooms....often. In the summer it was the sleeping Porch. In the Winter I moved out of the North Bedroom, even though I loved the texture of Jack Frost on the windows. We had a closet that was so big, it had a closet, so one time that became a special 'playhouse'. And then there was the Magical Attic! with the stained glass windows in the dormers and the sunlight creating a beautiful old dusty space among forgotten antiques.....sure to delight any child. I don't remember thinking about not being wealthy, because we were rich in many ways.
My parents were divorced when I was 3. Growing up every night with a prayer that my parents would get back together created a yearning for a ‘family and a happy relationship’ for myself. Without a Father as a role model in our home, I’ve had a lot to learn thru the years. Following a divorce and raising four daughters as a single Mom, I was more determined to learn how to ‘get it right’.
I was devastated when my marriage fell apart. Coming from a traditional religion that I had been dedicated to, my world was turned upside down. I doubted God and was suddenly angry that my prayers had not been answered. I felt deserted by God. Thus started my quest for the ‘real’ truth and for a different God. I began with ‘Psycho Cybernetics’, Think and Grow Rich, Ye are Gods, and ‘You can count to Four’ and later studied Eastern Philosophies.
Realizing I was going to be on my own, supporting four daughters, was a sobering moment. How was I going to support myself! While others got a degree, I had kids.
I had one year of college but no real work skills. I wanted to do something I loved that could generate the money we needed. My process went something like…...if I could be anything I wanted, what would it be? Interior Designer surfaced. I acted as if……. and eventually became one.
Those were tough years, supporting four daughters on my own; working next to men & at half the money because I was a woman. To be successful at this career and adequately support my family, I decided I should go where Interior Designer’s had more opportunities. That’s how I followed the pioneers and headed West. With all our belongings in a U Haul trailer I moved across country to Ca…. to start a new life.
I started with a home study class from the NY School of Interior Design. My training was ‘on the job training’, working in different stores until I learned one aspect (draperies, Lamps, furniture, finally design Studios), moving to the next, and taking college Art & Architecture classes when I could. I had a knack for perspective and spatial design. I could take a small space and create a warm intimate space that looked and felt much larger than it was.
Working as an Interior Designer was a great satisfaction when I experienced seeing a house blossom into a work of art, expressing my Clients AND how my Clients wanted to be seen. I could see how it supported them. There was much more involved here than drawing a floor plan or selecting furniture. The depths of who they were as individuals, their psychology, and their dreams for the future were players in creating a home that nurtured them. I wanted to bring more into my Design work than ‘furnishing a house’. I wanted to create an environment that would make their hearts sing…..that would bring them health, wealth and loving relationships in addition to a beautiful space in which to live.
I had studied energy and I felt that this was a major factor in the way a home or office ‘felt’ when it was completed. I wanted to know more and to Give more to my Clients, so I began to study and use the elements of Feng Shui in my work. I wanted to come from being Scientific. Was this woo-woo? The results made a believer of me. (click here for testimonials)
Human Design gave me a tool to see my Clients as they truly were.....who they wished they were, their talents, their DNA and their life purpose....like a blueprint for their life. When I discovered that Human Design could help me unlock & live my full potential, to help me understand areas of challenge and wisdom, and to give up struggle and live in peace and joy, I was committed to adding that to my work by becoming a Human Design Specialist.
The work we love is often what we need the most. That was true for me. Coming from humble and naive beginnings in Iowa and Arkansas, I learned about homes; about buildings...the large and the small... and about people. I used to think that Interior Design wasn't 'Spiritual'. I found out that everything is Spiritual...Inside and Out!
With an insatiable appetite for knowledge, I have credentials in Interior Design, ASID, Feng Shui, Vastu, Energetics, IlluminEssence and workshops adnauseum. Beginning with The outside….Interior Design, then adding other modalities to my repertoire I moved further ‘Inside’. It is exciting, stimulating and satisfying beyond my dreams.
I look forward to working with you.
Love,
Joan
