Polk '77 opts for a distinct job

Hollis Polk '77 helps her customers see their futures — not the winning lottery numbers — so they can live better lives and run their businesses more efficiently.

As a self-described "clairvoyant/coach," Polk helps her clients clean out "mental clutter" and "emotional noise," guiding her clients through their daily lives and helps them with decision-making.

She has been coaching in northern California for 10 years, using her "clairvoyance" to advise her clients. "Other people use tarot cards — I don't do any of that ... I see images that are generally metaphorical representations of what's going on for them, although sometimes they're quite literal."

Polk also uses the tools she learned at Princeton as a civil and environmental engineering major and at Harvard Business School. Her degrees from elite schools have contributed to her credibility as a clairvoyant. She has also worked in consulting, retail management and restaurant management. "It's been a long trip and really gradual trip," she said.

"I really love [coaching], and I think I can make a much better contribution this way than anything else I can do because I have a unique set of abilities ... I'm also a real estate broker, but I'm not doing that right now," she said. "There are hundreds of thousands of real estate brokers."

Her friends agree that Polk's present career is an important one.

"[She's] very dynamic, a wonderful teacher ... She sees things very well; she's very creative; the students love her," Marilyn Gordon, director of the Center for Hypnotherapy in Oakland, Calif., where Polk teaches students how to develop their "psychic skills" and become life coaches, said.

"She is one of the most intelligent, insightful people that I know," friend Carolyn Brown '83, who also lives in Oakland, said. "She's uniquely able to establish credibility with her clients because she has just such a clear direct way of communicating. It's really obvious when you start to talk with her that she's just really intelligent."

She added that Polk "brings to the equation the intuitive abilities in a way that I really think works for people. Within more experimental circles, if you will, it's less common to find people with that kind of educational background ... I think that she brings that persona and that credibility in a way that I think is really useful," Brown said.

When Polk and Brown were at Princeton, opportunities for women in business were just beginning to open up. Especially for women, Brown explained, there tends to be a strong push towards traditional professions.

"As a Princeton student today, I would be really paying more attention to those [intuitive] capacities. I think Hollis' career shows that it's not an either/or. You don't have to put aside your intelligence to fully [utilize] your intuitive abilities. If you put it aside, I really think you do it at your peril."

"It's actually because of [a] Princeton friend that I started down on this road after I moved to San Francisco," Polk said. "I'm completely grateful to Princeton for that ... I really love what I do."