Christine didn’t set out to work with prisoners but her intuition had other plans.

Christine didn’t set out to work with prisoners.

At the time she created this particular vision board, she was a full-time corporate coach, spinning far too many plates and knowing – deep down – that the pace was unsustainable. She felt poised on the edge of something important, you could call it a threshold moment, but hadn’t yet identified what deserved her full attention.

That uncertainty made it the perfect moment to create a new Intuitive Vision Board.  This one would become the fifth in her collection – and she is poised in March 2026 to make another in Marlow.    

She had already expressed interest in an American charity – the Enneagram Prison Project, which was using the Enneagram to support self-realisation among prisoners. She was seriously considering setting up a sister organisation, a UK-based charity to bring the work to the UK.  However, it would require a significant commitment and work that was daunting to contemplate. Yet as we explored the images together in a depth-enquiry following the workshop, a meta theme emerged strongly:  Prisons. Prisoners. Confinement.

These weren’t just obvious references to the new initiative. They were emotive, symbolic and, they were persistent. The images kept circling back in her mind, asking to be understood by Christine. 

Here’s what transpired next.

The West Coast call she didn’t expect

Within a month of completing her board, Christine was on a plane to California.

She had been selected as one of just five trainees to study the American’s approach to prison work.  And, inside none other, than the San Quentin State Prison, a maximum-security institution infamous for its execution chamber.  It was a blessing indeed that only days before her arrival, the governor closed that room for good, declaring: “No longer on my watch.”

Christine took that as a positive sign.  The prison was open to new and progressive ways of doing things to help its inmates reform and heal.

After three days of intensive training, she found herself standing in front of sixty prisoners, known as the Boys in Blue, each wearing a T-shirt in a slightly different shade of blue.  The sight of all this blue stopped her in her tracks. On her vision board were also neat, orderly balls of blue wool, lined up with quiet precision.  The image had come alive.

Christine describes those teaching days in San Quentin as “life-changing, miraculous, grace-filled and with so much love present in the room.”  On her board also, two angelic figures flank an omnipotent waterfall, which spoke to her of guiding others through the tangled, dark undergrowth toward the light. Only now did the metaphor fully land:  her role was to guide prisoners through inner brambles, past distractions, and towards emotional and psychological freedom.

And, just as importantly, was her willingness to be transformed by this journey herself.

When intuition speaks through symbols

The images on an Intuitive Vision Board rarely predict events literally.  They speak symbolically. Numinously.  They ask us to listen with imagination rather than logic.  They point the way towards meaning rather than define it.

Another image suddenly made sense:  Christine’s animal totem that had appeared at the workshop had been the eagle – a symbol of vision, power, and spiritual ascent.  She also made the connection that the razor sharp vision of the eagle was asking her to focus on this new initiative.  It is also happened to be the national emblem of the United States, where she now found herself – in the very place where her prison work was being instructed. 

Her intuition had been quietly, patiently mapping the way through the vision board.  And Christine, being the wise woman that she is, had decided to follow it.

A poet behind bars

During the workshop, Christine had also been inexplicably drawn to a black-and-white photograph of a man.  It didn’t “fit” into the rational plan in her head she was quietly harbouring, so she initially put the magazine back.  Later, an inner prompting insisted she retrieve it.  And so she did.

Two days after the workshop, she woke with The Ballad of Reading Jail echoing through her mind.  Instantly, she made the connection.

It was Oscar Wilde once a prisoner too, had come to her during the workshop. 

A playwright, a wit, a lover of beauty, he was imprisoned for his sexuality, betrayed by the father of his lover, and later exiled. The poem was written after his release, bearing witness to the suffering and humanity of incarcerated men.

Creating space for what truly matters

On her return from the USA, Christine’s work pattern began to change and more space for a new project began to open up.  This gave her the opportunity to  turn inward.

She nurtured her home. She decluttered her workspace.  Clearing, sorting, organising – mirroring the calm order conveyed by her vision board: the balls of wool, the suitcases, framed pictures, arches, elephants, antelopes. Everything finding its rightful place in the whole.  And alongside she continued to offer her care and attention to establishing the resources needed to bring the Enneagram to UK Prisons.

She reflects:

“Seeing and experiencing everything aligned has given me enormous motivation and support. By allowing many aspects of my old life to fall away, I’ve been able to focus on what truly matters – and make real headway with it.”

An invitation

Christine’s story is a powerful reminder of what becomes possible when we stop forcing answers prematurely and give the intuition the opportunity to speak – through images, symbols, and quiet inner knowing.

A vision board isn’t an example of a wish-list manifestation. It’s about deep listening.

If you sense you’re standing on a threshold too – spinning too many plates, feeling the pull of something unnamed, longing for clarity, my Intuitive Vision Board workshop provides a space to slow down, tune in, and let your own inner wisdom reveal its surprises to you.