We gather together as professionals carrying the trauma of the thousands of spirits we have tried to help over the years...but our own spirits sometimes start to fall away, nearly out of our grasp.

We can even forget who we are and how we got here. Above all, we can forget the child we once were, before the world taught us not to believe in ourselves and in each other.

All of us carry such pain to these sorts of events, though we don’t usually show it. Over time, many of us forget why we got into this field, and the gift we have inside that drives us to do this work.

The Global Exchange Conference is here to restore that belief. We must remember who we are and what we’ve been through. None of us comes to this field who hasn’t lived through something incredibly painful. We are witness to human beings at the worst times in their lives. And we can help them because we know what it’s like.

This is the magic of what we do. These stories help us believe in magic again, and believe in ourselves again. They help us believe that some part of us is strong and triumphant and lovable - not in spite of our past but because of it.

We used to believe before the world taught us to forget. We need to Believe again.