Reve Insiders is an exclusive network of global leaders, businesses, brands, professionals and creatives. Our 10 Questions Series is all about exploring what makes them tick. We find out how they are making a difference in the world we live in, or how they are making changes in their own lives to impact the lives of others.
This week, we interviewed Joan Menke Butler. Joan is a Psychotherapist Coach and Consultant. She helps women navigate major transitions and pivot with purpose by guiding them to blueprint, bridge, build, and harvest the next chapter of their lives.
10 QUESTIONS WITH Joan Menke Butler | Reve Insiders 2025
REVE INSIDERS: Joan, with over two decades in coaching and consulting, you’ve undoubtedly witnessed numerous transformations. Could you share a pivotal moment that solidified your passion for guiding others toward personal and professional fulfillment?
Joan Menke Butler: Yes, during COVID a woman I had seen years prior in therapy called me and said an attorney might be contacting me to access some of her old records because she was going through a workers compensation claim. She had been working in a leadership position in education. The political differences in how to handle the health crises in the educational institutions had taken a huge toll on her own well being. I told her I was working as a coach and consultant and she would benefit from the current work I was doing and to try it! She started to work with me and a month into the work she said her attorney asked her what she had been doing in the last month because he noticed how her focus had changed and how differently she was showing up. She was a month into working on the Dream Builder program and she had changed her focus to what she wanted for her next chapter of her life.
REVE INSIDERS: Transitioning from a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist to a Life Mastery Consultant sounds like a big career shift. What inspired this transition, and how has your background in clinical psychology influenced your coaching method?
Joan Menke Butler: For me it was the most authentic natural next step. I had spent years listening to individual’s and couples’ stories. It is healthy for all of us to tell our family story and understand how it has shaped who we are currently. I had many clients who wanted to move past their story and create a new life story for themselves. I spent several years learning how to most effectively teach individuals how to move into their next chapter successfully.
REVE INSIDERS: Your DreamBuilder Coaching Program emphasizes phases like Blueprinting, Bridging, and Building. How do these stages specifically aid individuals in overcoming limiting beliefs and aligning with their true purpose?
Joan Menke Butler: I tell clients to look at me as their mental health architect! Clients come to me with a thought or feeling of what they want to create next in their lives. My job is to help them create a crystal clear blueprint of exactly what they want next in their life. Once we have calibrated this next personal and professional vision, we work on bridging the gap between where they are currently and where they want to be. The bridging phase is about the mindset of what is currently in their thoughts, feelings, actions and results. This is the phase of clearing out the blocks to the dream, so they can achieve the success and happiness they are seeking. Once the blocks are recognized the building phase becomes a time of noticing what they are noticing, so they can continue to take inspired action toward their dreams.
REVE INSIDERS: In your experience, what are the common challenges people face during career transitions, and how do you assist them in navigating these obstacles to achieve their aspirations?
Joan Menke Butler: Paradigms: Paradigms show up as delay, distraction, dissuasion, defcon 1. The blueprint gives them a compass so when these paradigms come up – not if but when they come up – they have their compass to get back on track.
REVE INSIDERS: You collaborate with a diverse range of professionals, from pastors to financial planners. How do these partnerships enhance your approach to coaching, and how do you balance your relationships with your partners and clients?
Joan Menke Butler: When I first started my career as a Licensed therapist I was a member of Business Network International. These business groups represented many different types of business: from Attorneys to Doctors who were seeing clients that wanted/needed my services to supplement what they were doing. I think of it as a community supporting others in the community to be healthy, happy, and successful.
REVE INSIDERS: Empowering women during significant life changes seems central to your mission. Could you share a success story where your guidance helped a client embrace a new chapter with strength and grace?
Joan Menke Butler: Yes. I was referred a client by a divorce attorney. She was going through a challenging and complicated divorce with lots of issues to be resolved personally and with large assets involved. This is where, again, a crystal clear blueprint needed to be established to build the next chapter of her life. She needed to build her emotional muscle as she moved through the terrain of change physically, mentally, spiritually, and cognitively. This woman regained her confidence and self esteem, while doing it with strength and grace. She has successfully moved into the next chapter of her life and is very happy.
REVE INSIDERS: You mentioned that nature and movement are your passions. Do you integrate these elements into your coaching sessions, and if so, what benefits have you observed in clients who embrace this holistic approach?
Joan Menke Butler: Good Question. When we go through change our body will experience going from the sympathetic to the para-sympathetic system. The sympathetic system is fight, flight, freeze. The para-sympathetic system is rest, digest and create. Every coaching session begins by “Generating State.” During these few moments we do calming breathing movements that take us from the sympathetic to the para-sympathetic and we calm our nervous system to start our session!! Nature and movement is healing to all of us. I encourage my clients to take a few moments or more each day to go for a walk, go outside and enjoy a nearby plant or tree, or whatever movement calls to them.
REVE INSIDERS: Can you share with us the story of the Chinese bamboo?
Joan Menke Butler: In China they have this bamboo they plant in the ground and they water it every day and fertilize it weekly. The first two years it grows about two inches. The fourth year it shoots up eighty feet. There is a mountaineer who coined the saying: Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence. The roots of the bamboo under the ground are very strong by the fourth year, so when the winds come it does not blow the bamboo over!
REVE INSIDERS: With the rise of digital platforms, how have you adapted your coaching practices to maintain meaningful connections with clients, especially during times when in-person sessions aren’t feasible?
Joan Menke Butler: I am amazed myself how the world has been changed by digital platforms. I believe I have gotten more personal in sharing with my clients my own life struggles, and how I have navigated them. Perhaps with experience, training and age I feel more comfortable reaching across digital platforms to be more authentic.
REVE INSIDERS: Reflecting on your journey, what advice would you offer to aspiring coaches who aim to inspire and build quality relationships in their practice?
Joan Menke Butler: Aspire to get trained from the best. Never stop learning and growing yourself. Be authentically you. Know that nurturing a community of professionals, whom you trust and can refer to, will be an asset to you and your clients.
Get Joan’s latest book: The Power of The Pivot. You can also book a coaching session and learn more at www.relationshipcenterforchange.com
