About Louise and Gary
We founded Shared Choice Center as a means of reaching out to others and sharing what we've learned in our 30 years on the spiritual journey as students and teachers of A Course in Miracles and how we used the idea of "shared choice" in our marriage, relationships with others, in our work, and personal inner healing.
Our expertise is in helping you navigate the “promises and pitfalls” of the spiritual journey by offering specific guidance that also translates into how you can more quickly and easily achieve your spiritual goals as well as your personal, relationship, career or creative project goals.
About Louise
Since early childhood I've had a longing to know the deeper reality of the soul and to find answers to the age-old questions people have asked since the beginning of time: Why am I here in the world? Who created it? What's the purpose of life? Why is there so much suffering? When I was four years old, I had my first mystical experience that showed me there is a greater Reality beyond the material world.
I spent the rest of my life trying to fill in all the unanswered details that would allow me to believe in a loving God--one Who was not insane--Who could give a rational answer to explain how cruelty, suffering, injustice, and death could come from a truly loving and perfect Creator. I found the answers in my study and practice of A Course in Miracles and it totally changed my understanding of the nature of God and the power of the soul to create a separate existence. It always showed me the way out of whatever fear and misery I was in by pointing me back to my Self for the source of inner peace, deeper meaning and new perception that made my world right again.
From my first reading of this amazing psychological, spiritual and mystical text in November of 1977, I felt an immediate sense of coming home to a spiritual clarity and psychological truth about the nature of mind, spirit, and God that captivated my attention then and continues today to inspire and support deeper understanding and Self-discovery. After intensely studying and applying the Course for about 8 years and experiencing some profound changes in my own life, I was inspired to adapt the principles to my work with children. Drawing on my training and experience as an early childhood educator and daycare center director, I founded my own holistic childcare program in SE Minneapolis. It was an amazingly transformative period for me and the children and parents with whom I worked. As an offshoot of those ten years, I developed a childcare philosophy that honors and supports the emotional and spiritual development of kids while providing a parallel path of transformation for parents and child care providers. (see Shared Choice Philosophy of Child Guidance).
When Gary became ill with multiple sclerosis, I closed my childcare program and went to work full-time in the business world, applying the same universal spiritual principles of ACIM to the hectic corporate workplace environment I was involved in. During this ten year period I continued to write a column on Raising Children for the "Holy Encounter" publication, became immersed in the spiritual inner-looking process Gary was developing (see About Gary below), weathered financial hardships, the care and passing of Gary's elderly parents, and the ups and downs that come with critical situations. All very challenging yet perfectly suited for fostering deeper transformation and emotional and spiritual growth!
Drawing on a lifetime of transformative practice and wanting to be of service to others in a way that reflected my spiritual interests, I left the corporate world and became a certified Life Coach and spiritual mentor. I’m passionate about helping individuals, couples and parents learn to access the inner wisdom and transformative power of their deeper spiritual identity for breaking free of the past, healing relationships, and raising spiritually aware children. Inspired by a life-long belief in our inherent spiritual and mystical nature which I believe is already accessible at the earliest ages, I’m excited to help others integrate tried and true spiritual principles into everyday practical application.
Louise Frechette
About Gary
I’ve been a passionate explorer of the inner realms of the mind and soul since childhood. From those early years and throughout my life, I've had a number of psychic and mystical experiences, including two NDE's, all of which directed the course of my spiritual journey and continuing investigation into the deeper nature of mind, ego and spirit. In addition to my spiritual practice of the Course, I enjoy studying transpersonal psychology, consciousness research, and quantum physics.
In 1977, when Louise and I discovered A Course In Miracles, I was excited about learning more about it because what it was saying mirrored so closely the mystical states I had experienced earlier and what I was learning about my own ego.
My spiritual journey took an unexpected turn when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996. Out of my struggle for emotional and physical healing, I developed an inner looking process that involved bringing the unified Self into areas of my subconscious and re-imaging the unhealed body/mind aspects. As a result of further development with the process that included shared inner states of awareness with Louise, I experienced dramatic improvements in my physical health and a deeper communication with the divine Self that continues to guide and inspire me. Out of my shared healing journey with Louise and a lifetime of practice and study was born the idea for the Shared Choice Center which I'm excited to be a part of.
Gary Arnold