Hello. I’m glad you’re here. 

Welcome to Second Journey Healing, a health coaching and consulting practice designed to help women – just like you – build resilience after chronic stress or personal trauma.

Everyone wants to live a more robust, inspired, and joyful life, but let’s face it – it’s hard to rise up when you can barely get out of bed. I’ve been there. Maybe like me, you tried conventional medicine without much improvement. Or you’re tired of pharmaceutical bandaids. You may even feel baffled about conflicting health advice.  

When you can’t go back the way you came

But hear me. It took the unraveling of my own health, hopes, and dreams before examining more closely the connection between stress-induced mineral loss and metabolic dysfunction, plus unresolved personal traumas and eventual illness. Your body keeps score. My clients are proof.  

My own health nosedived after two surgeries, several deaths of family members and close friends, especially my youngest brother to leukemia when he was just 44. By the time my brother died, I was deep in adrenal insufficiency, plus cardiac arrhythmias, panic attacks, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and agoraphobia.  No amount of sleep refreshed me; I ached all over. Test after test revealed little if anything, and medications made me feel worse. I was losing my hair, my patience, not to mention my faith in allopathic medicine. 

• Adrenal insufficiency/burnout
• HPA dysregulation
• Insomnia
• Hypothyroidism
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Atrial fibrillation/ tachycardia / bradycardia / PVCs
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Fibromyalgia
• Labile hypertension / BP spikes 
• Suicidal ideation
• PTSD
• Acne / scaly skin
• Hair loss
• Osteopenia
• Hormone imbalance
• Plantar fasciitis / Morton’s neuroma
• Joint pain
• Muscle pain 
• Tinnitus /ringing in the ears
• Glaucoma
• Depersonalization
• OCD
• Fear / Panic / Agoraphobia
• Iatrogenic illness due to wrongly prescribed benzodiazepines
• Histamine Intolerance

Surgeries:

• Hysterectomy
• Total thyroidectomy

Testing:

• Cardiac stress tests
• 30-day Holter monitor
• Echocardiogram
• Brain MRI
• Renal ultrasound
• Bone density scans
• Electromyography
• Sleep studies
• Pulmonary tests
• Thyroid needle biopsies
• Blood tests
• Diurnal 4x cortisol saliva tests
• 24 hour urine tests
• Tests to rule out pheochromocytoma (adrenal tumor)
• Tests to rule out Cushings disease.

I can’t even remember all the tests. A loved one called me hypochondriac because I’d seen so many different doctors. I called it desperation. In defense of the medical community, doctors are only trained to “see” what they’ve been trained to see. They match symptoms to a pill. Sometimes a condition is overlooked because “not known because not looked for.“

Under enormous emotional, metabolic, and psychological stress, something had to change. The journey back to health – in fact, the journey back to me – couldn’t happen until I took charge of my own health and decided to change my life. I started researching, thinking outside the conventional box, considering other options…and prayed.

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

About that same time, a local women’s advocate showed up in my life to rally for my healing and help me make practical changes in my life – as well as a health researcher/wellness coach and nutrition-based chiropractor who guided me, too. They became my ‘triage’ support team.

I was counseled, comforted, and guided back to health, which started with my introduction to HTMA, or hair tissue mineral analysis. This began to change my life. The hair test confirmed spot-on that I was a complete mineral desert: critically low across the board in magnesium, potassium, sodium, and calcium while normal serum blood tests showed “normal range.” It’s not enough to replete minerals; we need to address all the things that led to such depletion in the first place.  

In light of the HTMA results, my symptoms and emotional state made sense. A depleted person can’t make energy. The entire HPA axis goes offline without key nutrients and too much stress. A full iron panel pointed to excess unbound iron after years post-hysterectomy, and my adrenals had, indeed, flatlined. I was dysregulated due to years of unresolved stress, personal traumas, and taking all the wrong supplements without the knowledge of my particular metabolic type.

Through all this I began to see the importance of women (and their loved ones) learning to address core emotional issues, traumas, nervous system dysregulation – not just nutritional deficiencies alone. Our bodies are designed to respond beautifully to the most subtle changes. My flagging adrenals woke up, energy returned, my heart calmed down, and hope began to rise.

I didn’t ‘muscle’ through. However, I did prioritize working with my health coach to heal my imbalances, took my wellness seriously, and it clearly affected my mental outlook in a positive way. Heck, it saved my life. 

I want that for you.

Healing physically can become a time of inner transformation. I had to honor my own healing by pulling away from toxic relationships and naysayers, implementing radical self-care, and eating like my life depended on it. 

I felt so good, I went back to school! I realized my passion again: The healing arts. After all, I began this journey years ago as a hospital nurse because I wanted to help people. Now I really can. 

It’s my joy and calling to do what I love – helping stressed-out women experience new levels of health so they can rebuild their lives.  

To that end, I now serve as a holistic health and wellness coach, mineral consultant, and personal advocate for women. Some have called me a Functional Health & Hope Coach:

• Certified Root Cause Protocol Consultant, Mineral Metabolism, Copernican Institute (now RCP Institute).  
• Certified Holistic Health & Wellness Coach, International Association of Wellness Professionals  
• Studies in Naturopathy & Nutrition, Trinity School of Natural Health
• Licensed Practical Nurse, Athens Vocational College
• Certification in Crisis Intervention
• Stephen Ministry
• Trauma Support Specialist – plus, ongoing studies with Arizona Trauma Institute.  

My most valuable experience has been my own health journey. I came so close to giving up when doctors couldn’t ‘cure’ me. I came so close to giving up when it felt no one had answers. But the beauty rests in this deep resonance I have for women-in-transition, abuse survivors, and any woman in need of compassionate, healing  support. I’m constantly furthering my education, adding keys to my coaching toolbox so I can do my utmost part in supporting your health from the inside out.  

I’m here for you.

Thank you for visiting Second Journey Healing. Reach out if you have a question. I’m here to support you on your healing journey and would love to hear your story.