How did I come to provide holistic psychological services, working with both children and adults, and running my own practice? I would say it is VERY rare for a school psychologist to leave a school setting, to become a licensed psychological associate and practice in the private sector.
You give up a lot, such as retirement, decent health insurance, a consistent salary, and guaranteed holidays off. I thought I would work in a school until I retired, as many do! After having my first child, who had her own mental and physical health struggles, I realized that the school system where I worked was still by and large doing a disservice to children with extra sensitivities.
I went to work trying to fight uphill against the establishment, with very little progress made. When I started researching food and its relation to mental health, I was lit up! I wanted to tell the whole world what I had learned regarding hidden food sensitivities, genetic mutations and supplements for brain health and anxiety.
I was at the very beginning of my journey then, but still had a wealth of knowledge to share. I shared this with a large group of school psychologists as well as some social workers and nurses. It was well received, even though this may have been the first they had heard of any of this. I also had an integrative pediatrician and chiropractor come to talk. Shortly after I wrote my first blog post titled “Food as Medicine” which was also well received. My daughter was improving and I wanted the world to know that there was hope if traditional behavioral interventions and therapy were not seeing the desired results. In fact, there is often a physiological underpinning to mental health struggles, that when cleared up can allow children to progress more quickly in their therapy.
Since I was so passionate I was telling friends, family, mom groups, teachers and parents of the children I was evaluating in the school system. And some of the parents wanted to try my suggestions! I was thrilled!! Until I got called into a meeting with my supervisor telling me that I had to stop sharing my nutritional knowledge with parents because they were asking the schools to modify lunches without an anaphylactic allergy noted on record. Even with a note from the doctor, the schools were giving major pushback. At that time I was studying the gut microbiome, fish oil, magnesium, probiotics, the negative effect of artificial additives/colors, excitotoxins, and a dairy free and gluten free diet.
I next took formal coursework in aromatherapy and then jumped full on into family and then community herbalism, mostly with an interest in the gut and mental health. I learned how to make my own salves and tinctures, and realized that a large majority of plants and their extracts help to calm the nervous system. Almost like the plants were put here to help us get through this human experience!
I then began researching integrative psychiatrists in town, and found Dr. Rebecca Valla, and she had the most amazing content on her website regarding her book recommendations. There were books for spirituality, collective consciousness, and past life experiences. I was intrigued to say the least, and felt drawn to the book “Trust the Mystery: Raising Self-Awareness through Questions, Quotes, and Quantum Wisdom” by Nina Shoroplova. I was hooked, I read it twice and took notes. My family started incorporating the knowledge and I was truly shocked at the rapid changes that were happening. My sleep drastically improved, I shifted my mindset by using positive affirmations, and began a practice of talking with my dog energetically. She was an old dog and appeared shocked that I had finally learned to communicate with her that way after 13 years!
Sometime during this process my oldest suffered a severe concussion, while at school in 4th grade, that rocked our world. She had been doing really well, finally started reading after her diagnosis of dyslexia in 2nd grade and her anxiety was down. It was a year of pure hell for both her and I. A full year post concussion she was still having ocular migraines, double vision, nauseousness with movement, and mood difficulties (likely as a result of the pain.) Herbs didn’t touch it and neither did any of the prescription medications.
I heard about an energetic medicine called Healing Touch. I told the practitioner I didn’t understand how it worked and in my mind it was all “woo” but I didn’t care, I just wanted to help my daughter. AND…that is where I actually experienced a gain as well! We did mother and daughter sessions and after one of my sessions my mental chatter in the evening was just gone. I laid down and fell asleep without re-analyzing the entire day. This is also where I learned that I was an empath, because as she was working with my daughter I could feel her moving the energy around and it was hitting me like waves! The treatments helped my daughter’s anxiety and helped repair our relationship which was strained at that time, but not the pain.
At one point I took her to see a neurologist and without doing any testing he looked at me and said it was probably hormones and she should go to therapy. I was truly disgusted with the traditional medical profession at that point. And was also disappointed that integrative medicine and herbal medicine weren’t touching the issue. And….that’s because it had turned into an energetic issue. I had asked the neurologist if we should try CBD oil or craniosacral therapy and he said it was a waste of money. Well…I’m happy to say I didn’t listen and she made amazing progress after a few sessions of craniosacral therapy with a very experienced practitioner that utilized multiple modalities. It was nothing short of magical to watch (the sessions and the results). I also tried CBD for her and she started sleeping much better and seemed less anxious!
I started wondering what would have happened if I had taken his advice and how many parents may have not even questioned him since he holds a degree of high esteem and was practicing at a well known hospital.
After these experiences I was researching everything “woo” and there began my love of the metaphysical. Synchronicities began happening rapid fire and all the right people came into my life to help guide us on this journey. What I can say now is that a mother’s love will stop at NOTHING to take her child’s pain away. My journey (and hers which occurred at the same time) down the metaphysical path led to so much learning and growth, that it will be an entirely separate blog!
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