On A More Personal Note…

My path to becoming a healing practitioner began with my own personal journey in recovering from health issues that prevented me from living my best life both physically and emotionally.    Although restoring my own health and wellbeing was not a simple straightforward process, it taught me a lot about the nature of healing.  It also opened my heart to understanding what it is like to be a patient looking to get out of pain both physically and emotionally, and to feel better so that I could continue to pursue what I loved doing in life. 

Generally speaking, I would say that I am a pretty healthy person yet my past reflects a hip and knee injury that easily caused chronic pain, migraines from an old injury to my neck, chronic digestive issues, anxiety, and insomnia. At the time, I was aware that these health concerns impacted my life but I really thought I just had to live with them.

On a physical level, I have always been into athletics and different outdoor activities – such as yoga, pilates, dance, mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, soccer, and many other outdoor activities.  While I would immerse myself into each of these sports, I found that these injuries often held me back from taking each of these activities to the next level.  I would continue to do it and would find ways to work around these injuries the best I could but I was always trying to “manage the pain.”  I found I had to be careful of how hard I could challenge myself as further injury had the potential of setting me back even further.  After hitting a point of frustration of feeling limited, I pursued a variety of holistic modalities, including acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, chiropractic care, and focusing on forms of exercise that allowed me to build strength in a way that decreased pain.  This approach worked in a way that addressed the root of my symptoms and the results were significant for me.  This was further reinforced after dealing with a bout of chronic fatigue after getting mono (the Epstein Barre Virus) as an adult.  Acupuncture and herbs helped me recover so that my energy was back up to what I was used to, allowing me to have the energy to get back to doing all of the things that I loved.  

On a mental health level, I had a life long struggle with anxiety and insomnia which also impacted my quality of life in a number of ways.  Again, I found that western medicine only offered solutions with medication that caused me to have a number of negative side effects that made me feel worse.  Personally, I found healing when I sought counseling from a therapist that took a heart centered and holistic approach to healing while also combining this internal work with acupuncture, herbs, and other holistic approaches to healing. 

I came to understand that Western medicine—while miraculous in its own right—had limits. I knew that complete healing would require more than just treating the symptoms. Being able to find treatment providers, that saw me as a WHOLE person and by addressing the root imbalances was a turning point on every level, setting me on a trajectory to find profound healing.

Now, I love to hold this space for my clients knowing that they don’t have to keep treating symptoms…they can have the solutions to get out of pain and get back to living their life.