On Thursday at noon, participants from three countries 一 the United States, Canada and Finland 一 logged into a Zoom conference hosted by intuitive counselor Beth Green. As faces pop up on the screen, Green and her husband James Maynord greet each person by name. A few minutes after 12 p.m., the weekly support group “Spread Peace Around Coronavirus” begins. As the session kicks off, Green has no idea where it will go. Instead of planning in advance, she uses her intuitive guidance, developed over the course of an unusual life, to give people tools to cope with these unusual times.
Green was born in Brooklyn, New York, with a hereditary condition that left her physically weak and housebound for much of her life. At age 15, her health took a turn for the worse and she was mostly bedridden for a year and a half while she finished high school. Left alone in the family house, her attention turned inward, heightening her natural tendency toward introspection.
Perhaps this internal focus explains why in the 1980s Green “out of the blue, truly, started to hear this inner voice,” directing her on everything from what to eat to what house to buy. At first Green thought she was going insane. She was a staunch socialist and atheist with no background in spirituality or religion. Yet, as the voice proved accurate time and time again, she recognized it as powerful intuition and gained “the confidence I needed to help people.”
Since then, Green has offered intuitively-guided counseling, creativity coaching and workshops that train participants to connect with their own intuition. “I just connect to the deepest aspect of the person… it’s a very powerful form of counseling,” she said. She’s also written six books on spirituality and livestreams her show Granny Rocks TV on her Facebook page twice a week and her improvisational piano music, Dreams of Peace, every Thursday at 7 p.m.
When the coronavirus landed in the U.S. this winter, Green recognized the need for additional support. “I could feel that so many people can’t get counseling now because they don’t have the money or they’re afraid that they won’t have the money,” she said. A month ago, she and Maynord started “Spread Peace Around Coronavirus.” The hour-long support group is scheduled to run every Thursday at noon through May 28. It is free to all, but participants must register in advance. Like everything Green does, the sessions unfold spontaneously, but so far have included guided meditations and trances, neuro-linguistic exercises and the opportunity for participants to share their experiences with the group.
Green recognizes fear and isolation as some of the biggest challenges people are currently facing. Physically, we are afraid of getting sick, losing loved ones or losing a job. “There’s also the fear that the status quo will be decimated and that we have no vision of what the future could look like,” she said. And in the midst of social-isolation, we have nothing to distract us from our fear and less of the social interaction we often turn to for comfort.
Despite the challenges, she hopes to see a positive cultural shift post-pandemic. Green believes it is highlighting the need to replace competitive, ego-based attitudes with “oneness and accountability.” In our interconnected world, you can’t buy immunity for yourself while the people around you are sick. “The idea that we are one as well as individuals is the key shift in consciousness that we all need and the coronavirus is bringing this in our faces,” she said.
To cope, Green encourages people to recall their strength, focusing on “a moment when you were able to face something you thought you could not face, even if it was the smallest thing.” She also urges people to limit media that’s fueling their fear and get their mind off their worries by helping others. “Anything you can do to help in any possible way, focus on that.” Green is staying busy following her own advice: visit her website for more information on her weekly support group, livestreams and counseling services.
