Welcome to my blog, Radiate! I am the owner of Ray of Light Wellness which was started in 2017. People often ask me why I started an online practice. The truth is I feel many aspects of my career and my personal life led me here. When I was a senior in high school I volunteered at a nursing home. When volunteers visited the residents there it really made an impact in a group of people that were lonely and had tremendous difficulty leaving their living environment. It was around this time that I decided I wanted to study mental health. It seemed like everyone in my personal also had such complex emotional needs. I wanted to understand origins and patterns of behaviors. I wanted to be a mental health investigator, someone intrigued by studying behavior but also someone who could help other people make connections that would foster personal healing. I knew both in my personal life and also in my volunteering experiences that active listening and providing comfort alone meant a lot when people felt helpless, hopeless and lonely.
Throughout my time studying and interning I worked in multiple settings with a variety of age groups and cultural backgrounds. After I graduated from my masters in 2010, I started working as an in home therapist. I hated driving in bad weather, from town to town, always in a hurry, but I did enjoy meeting people in their homes. In people's homes they were comfortable. They were in their element. I learned and saw so much more about them than I would have known had I just met with them in an office setting. For a few years after this I did work at both a clinical setting and school setting but it was whenever I scheduled a home visit that I believed I got the most valuable information that would help me make therapeutic connections with clients.
Then in my late 20s I went through a very difficult time in my life when all my beliefs and skills were put to the test. I became chronically ill and badly disabled with a rare condition that was hard to diagnose and few people knew how to treat it. I had to stop working for a period of time. I was in severe pain and I had many nights I could not sleep. It was during one of those nights that I thought of the name Ray of Light Wellness. I would lay down in bed and close my eyes picturing myself surrounded by darkness finding a healing tunnel of bright light to enter. After practicing this guided imagery many nights I told myself I would find that ray of light for myself and when I learned how to I would help other people find it as well. I thought of an online practice because when I was at my worst I would have loved a practitioner or any healer to come visit me at home rather than to have to step into an office when I was not feeling well. I also was not sure how much I would physically heal but I knew I wanted to work. I absolutely love my profession and I am so grateful to have found what I feel brings me purpose.
Ray of Light Wellness has truly been a ray of light in my life and I hope that light is contiguous for all of my clients. Although darkness during hard times may seem all encompassing and insurmountable it can not and will not be as powerful once a glimpse of light is found- with light comes energy,with energy comes healing. In my personal healing journey, integrative medicine saved my life and played a huge role in how much I have been able to heal. I felt called to study integrative medicine after this and also to teach others who are open to alternative therapies and lifestyle approaches. I was able to accomplish certification as a mental health integrative medicine provider and now I am able to do so many things I felt called to do and passionate about, proving that when we commit to taking control over our lives the darkness can not keep us lost. The light can and will find it's way back to us.
Radiate is another passion project of mine where I can blog about the things that make me excited about health, healing and mental well-being. I am an outside the box thinker and if you are open to challenging your thought process and expanding your knowledge about wellness than you will enjoy this blog. I strive to help people find their light in order to shine and to feel renewed energy. Radiate looks at the connection between the mind, the body, and the soul and how we all have the power to heal ourselves. Are you ready to radiate?
