
Everything is connected, everything. I realized this years ago when I went through a traumatic experience which affected me mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I experienced the dark night of the soul and my body was breaking down. I was a ‘healthy person’ who ate organic vegetarian food, exercised 6 days a week, practiced yoga and meditation for years, so things did not add up when my health was deteriorating fast.
I had an abusive childhood. There was neglect, emotional, verbal, & physical abuse. It was horrible. After I left and was on my own at 19, I thought I was done with negative live experiences. I felt life handed me 10 people's trauma in my childhood. But I was wrong. Years later, in my thirties, I experienced another traumatic experience that woke up all my childhood trauma that I had not resolved or healed from.
This traumatic experience took me to my knees. And I realized traditional talk therapy was not enough. I did not understand why. Through my graduate studies, I thought I had learned all that I needed to know to help change the lives of my clients. At that time, I had been practicing therapy for 10 years with positive results. But through my personal experience, I knew something was off.
My intuition pointed me to begin studying Neuroscience and Nutrition. I was having health issues from the trauma so it made sense to learn what was going on inside of me. I saw doctors but they told me nothing was wrong with me and wanted to put me on pills. I said no f-ing way. So I studied Nutrition which led me to the gut-brain connection and I started seeing pieces to the puzzle. Then I studied Neuroscience and more pieces came into play. I then studied Epigenetics and together with my Psychology background, Nutrition and Neuroscience, everything came together. I was finally able to fully understand what was happening to me regarding my emotional, mental and physical health.
I started Acupuncture and saw a Naturopathic Doctor. I also sought help from an Integrative Health Practitioner. I had a team of professionals helping me to diagnose my issues. Together, they, along with my therapist, helped me to heal from the inside out, without pills or drugs. And from my studies, I understood how everything was connected. I changed my already healthy diet to an even more stricter diet to reduce inflammation. I changed my meditation practice and included deep breathing to balance my nervous system. I continued yoga but added in other exercises to help stimulate neurotransmitters in my gut and brain. I read a lot of books and listened to hours and hours of podcasts. I became obsessed with my healing journey and was fascinated in how I could incorporate all of this into my therapy practice.
It took almost 3 years to feel better from the traumatic experience and I am still not 100% healed. And it’s taken me all of my adulthood to slowly heal from my childhood traumas. But I had to focus on all parts of my body and my life, not just my thoughts and emotions. That’s the important part I want everyone to understand. Everything is interconnected. If you want to heal or improve your life, you can not just focus on one area. You need to look at the whole picture, your body, mind and soul.
My healing only took place after I evaluated all parts of my life and this is what I do with my clients. Understanding our emotions and thoughts is very important, but also evaluating what we eat and how we move our bodies is just as important too. What we eat affects our feelings and moods. Exercise does this as well. I can explain the science in more detail on a future blog post. Meditation and mindfulness plays a huge part as well. My Holistic Approach helps my clients to rewire their brains, reframe their thoughts, reevaluate their habits and patterns and live more fulfilling lives.
I am not glad I had to go through so much adversity but I am grateful for the lessons I have learned and accepted that it has made me who I am today, a strong, resilient, happier and more fulfilled person. And that’s huge. We all strive for this in life. I believe the Holistic path is the way of the future and I’m so glad to be part of the first Psychotherapists to practice this with clients.