Yeah. It’s been awhile.
I’ve go
t quite a story that I’m slowly still learning to talk about. It’s taken years and years of my life to feel safe enough to openly talk about some of things that I’ve gone through.
So I think it’s a perfect time to do an introduction and share my story with you xx
I think like all good entrepreneurs, there seems to be some kind of back story of resilience that’s inspiring. A story some of us kept quiet while growing our businesses and our brands as not to come off as not being relatable.
Or worse, unstable. But it’s 2023 now.
We’re telling out stories.
We’re walking our truth.
And we’ll taking inspired action to live our lives with as much authenticity, heart-but even more strength and grit than we ever have before.
What do I do?
Do I teach yoga?
What I do is so much more than yoga. The people I’ve met on the mats of my studio came from all walks of life. They met me after losing family members, losing children too young, and spending their last days in yoga as they themselves fought terminal illness. I met people just starting their journeys in life, to those desperately trying to learn about themselves. I met women in abusive relationships that feared to get out. Women just like me.
What brings us together in yoga is the healing, the curiosity and the compassion we are so desperately looking for within ourselves and from one on another. From dealing quietly with the monsters inside my own life living in domestic violence for 13 years, I know that yoga truly saved me. Saying that to someone who hasn’t experienced the hardships of life (yet) just won’t get what that means. And that’s ok. We meet people where they’re at.
The experiences I was dealing with allowed me to see people for who they were. The messages I gave to my yoga classes were the messages I was looking to hear from someone while going through unbearable trauma. I was healing myself through teaching yoga. What a concept.
So do I teach yoga?
Yeah I do.
But not in the ways you would often see in a class. Yes, I am trained in Hot Yoga, Foundational Hatha, Vinyasa Yoga, Yin and Kid’s Yoga. But I use the yoga as a catalyst to get to the inner healing. It is just one of the tools to get to the light, right? Which I guess is the point. But tell that to Western Culture. I teach people that you can heal your life. And yoga is just one of the ways.
Ok and what about the Nutrition?
I’m a certified Registered Holistic Nutritionist. How did that happen? Good question.
I still have my notebook from High School that says “Alternative Health Practitioner” right at the top of my list of careers I wanted to pursue. These types of careers don’t really fit the status quo though. And let me tell you, over the last seven years as a RHN I’ve received a lot of bullying (not from clients) but from Dieticians and other medical professionals.
I get it, a lot of people that do what I do sometimes allow the passion to overshadow the science. It’s an equal balance of both. Energy healing can’t be seen, but as Albert Einstein once said- “Future medicine will be the medicine of frequencies” My clients see results because I work extra hard to ensure my recommendations are delivered with research and backed by case studies. I work alongside my clients’ medical team as a support team alongside treatment. No one is playing doctor here. But I think we all get to a point in our lives and in our careers in Healthcare, that we see and value both western and eastern medicine. It all has a place in our lives. The balance is understanding when each are needed and being knowledgeable to know what is within and out of our own scope.
I live by referrals and have an extensive list of partitioners I refer my clients to that I know they need that I can’t provide or just know it’s not my expertise even if it my field. I focus on women’s reproductive health, hormone balance and digestive health.
Why I became a RHN
Through extensive research on trauma, I’ve learned that my pregnancy with my youngest child was incredibly stressful that resulted in excess cortisol to my unborn baby. Her immune system function has always been lower than normal and is always fighting different issues here and there.
At three years old, we had been fighting allergy like symptoms, and inflammation for years- with no help, no answers from any medical team. Something that is sadly not uncommon. I worked tirelessly researching as much as I could trying to help soothe her rashes, red eyes, and unbearable inflammation in her body. The research wasn’t enough, and I started looking up institutions that could teach me how to help my daughter. I came across the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. And three years later, while studying, running our yoga studio and smoothie bar, and breastfeeding- I graduated as a Registered Holistic Nutritionist. It was incredibly difficult balancing everything, but throughout those years, my daughter’s nervous system calmed, and so did her non stop flareups. This is why I got into Paediatric Nutrition.
From there, dealing with my own hormonal imbalances from stress and abuse, I started studying more and specializing in women health and healing.
It wasn’t until I left my marriage in 2017 that I really started to realize just how much stress played a role in our lives. How healing nature was. How necessary the long and painful process of unlearning was. It was then that I started carefully putting the pieces together of how words on paper just aren’t enough for a lot of people’s healing treatment. People like me.
And the trauma?
Trauma informed or healing centred engagement is something I am incredibly passionate and sensitive to. Experiencing trauma within my life, and then the trauma that trickled from it in the justice system, healthcare system (and on and on), I saw first hand how painful and unfair it was to deal with people who just couldn’t even comprehend the magnitude of what I experienced. Everything was so sickeningly unjust. I never want anyone to feel that way around me. My goal first and foremost is that my clients, my community, my relationships and me myself, feel SAFE, comfortable, included, heard, seen and accepted.
I was diagnosed in 2018 with PTSD. Something I’m learning with new research is actually C-PTSD. Complex Post Traumatic Stress or repeated exposure to trauma. PTSD changes your brain. It affects your understanding of yourself and the world around you, affects your sleeping habits, your relationships, your brain chemicals, and your ability to emotionally regulate. I’ve seen dozens of counsellors, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, healers and coaches. Healing was my top priority. But the work that needed to really be done needed to come from me. That process was long, lonely, exhausting and painful.
But I’m here.
I made it.
And here I am with you.
With a decade and a half of training, experience, relatability and heart.
To show you that there IS another side. The other side of healing. It’s a life I never knew to exist. And it would be a disservice to my community near and far to not help people going through similar experiences of what has helped me. Not just in trauma, but with everything a human being goes through in this lifetime, if I am able to help in any way.
So what is it that I do?
I do my best to take you out of the dark and show you that there is light. A lot of it. And I’m still trying to find the scientific terminology for what that’s called. I like to think there never will be one. And maybe that’s the point.
Light and love to you xx
