Iyanla Vanzant
Iyanla Vanzant is a bestselling author, inspirational speaker, lawyer, spiritual life coach, and television personality known for her work on the Emmy-winning show 'Iyanla: Fix My Life.'
Background & Expertise
Iyanla Vanzant has emerged as one of the world’s most influential voices on emotional healing, spiritual development, and personal transformation through her extraordinary journey from trauma to triumph. After experiencing childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, and the death of her daughter, Vanzant rebuilt her life—earning a law degree, becoming an ordained minister, and developing holistic approaches to emotional and spiritual wellness that have touched millions through her books, television programs, and speaking engagements.
Vanzant’s expertise in mental and spiritual wellbeing comes from both lived experience and extensive professional training. Beyond her personal transformation, she holds a J.D. from the City University of New York Law School, has studied various spiritual traditions, and is a certified spiritual life coach. This combination of personal resilience, formal education, and spiritual practice gives her unique authority when addressing the interconnection between emotional health, spiritual grounding, and life fulfillment.
Signature Concepts & Methodologies
The Work of Inner Vision
Vanzant’s comprehensive approach to identifying and healing core emotional wounds through specific reflective practices and truth-telling processes.
Spiritual Technology System
Her framework for applying spiritual principles to practical life challenges through daily rituals and mindfulness practices.
Forgiveness Protocol
Vanzant’s step-by-step methodology for releasing resentment and trauma through structured forgiveness practices and perspective shifting.
Divine Alignment Process
Her approach to decision-making and life planning through connecting personal choices with spiritual purpose and values.
Emotional Surgery Technique
Vanzant’s system for identifying, extracting, and healing toxic emotional patterns that limit personal potential and relationship health.
Books & Thought Leadership
- In the Meantime: Finding Yourself and the Love You Want
- One Day My Soul Just Opened Up: 40 Days and 40 Nights Toward Spiritual Strength and Personal Growth
- Peace From Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through
- Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts
- Host of the Emmy-winning television program “Iyanla: Fix My Life” on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
- Founder of Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development, training spiritual life coaches and practitioners.
- Regular contributor to publications on emotional healing, spiritual development, and personal transformation.
Speaking Style & Audience Experience
Vanzant delivers presentations with commanding presence, spiritual depth, and therapeutic insight that creates transformative space for authentic emotional work. Her speaking style combines the oratorical power of spiritual tradition with the precision of therapeutic intervention, creating sessions that function simultaneously as inspiration and treatment. She excels at creating safe environments for confronting difficult truths, using her own vulnerability as permission for audience emotional authenticity.
What distinguishes Vanzant’s keynotes is her ability to facilitate genuine emotional healing within a group context—moving beyond motivation to catalyze real-time breakthrough and insight. She creates powerful moments through directive compassion, often addressing specific audience members whose experiences represent universal emotional patterns. Attendees consistently report experiencing both emotional release and practical clarity following her presentations, with many describing her work as more impactful than years of conventional therapy.
Ideal Audiences & Event Types
- Women’s empowerment conferences and retreats
- Spiritual and personal development gatherings
- Mental health and wellness organizations
- Trauma recovery and addiction healing communities
- Relationship and family therapy providers
- Organizations seeking emotional intelligence development
Recent Focus Areas
- Building trauma-informed approaches to personal and community healing
- Developing spiritual practices for navigating societal disruption
- Creating frameworks for authentic truth-telling in relationships
- Implementing forgiveness methodologies for both personal and collective wounds
- Advancing understanding of spiritual dimensions in mental health and wellbeing
