It’s as good a day as ever for a formal introduction! Hi! I’m Katie.
In my recent past, I’ve become a certified clinical hypnotherapist with the ACHE, taken loads of advanced yoga teacher trainings, completed an additional 500 hours for meditation teacher training, and become a reiki master.
I spend most of my time trying to be the best mom I can be to my two boys, Ryder (7) and Jones (5). I’m a wife, sister, and friend, and I try to be a better person each day while accepting that I’m not and never will be perfect.
I am a life-long student, and a huge part of my journey has been healing from a traumatic childhood. These days, I’ve found little need to revisit the distant past, but since I find myself in the work of helping others to heal from similar traumas, I think there is value in sharing my story. I need you to know why I feel qualified to talk about overcoming trauma. Not only have I studied, I’ve lived it. And while no two paths are the same, I want all those tip toeing down the path to understand that if I can find my way to healing, wholeness, peace, and happiness… anyone can. And the sooner you realize YOU are the only knight in shining armor coming to your rescue, the sooner you can get here too.
From the outside, my family looked perfect. Lovely house, safe neighborhood, parents still together… a stay at home mom, and a dad with a great job. But those lucky circumstances did little to protect me from the sickly festering of the abuse that ate at my family from the inside out. My brother, 4 years my senior, (allegedly) sexually abused me to varying degrees for a large portion of my childhood while my mother (allegedly) ignored countless obvious cries for help. By the time I was in middle school, I had long accepted that no one would help me and there was nothing I could do about it, so I just stopped trying. At 13 I had my first (allegedly) narcissistic, emotionally abusive boyfriend who weaponized my secrets, and by the time I was 16 I was daydreaming about suicide daily. I would’ve done anything to “keep the peace,” and that twisted form of self violence was probably the only reason I didn’t act on the suicidal ideation—I didn’t want to hurt my mom. That codependent, self-sacrificial attitude continued up to, and beyond, my “secret” coming to light in the immediate family. From the time the abuse was given a face and a name, and for the next 8 years, my mother worked hard to keep my sister and I quiet, complacent, and brainwashed into believing that it was not only “not that bad,” but beyond that… totally normal.
At 25, 6 months pregnant with my first, and halfway across the country from the only family I’d ever known, I made the decision to walk away from my mother and her narcissistic tendencies forever. To my surprise, the rest of the immediate and extended family went with her and my sister and I found ourselves alone and in the dark… only the warmth from each others interlocked hands, my husband by my side, and the tiny wiggle in my belly to help me feel safe, supported, and brave enough to keep going.
I’ve come to a place of acceptance, understanding, integration, and yes, even forgiveness for my birth family but it took a lot of work and a very long time to get here. Looking back on my first 18 years, I was completely unconscious. Zombie, or autopilot are two words that feel fitting. My 20s were spent desperately trying to pull the shattered remains of my heart from all corners of the earth and blindly stitch them together with a dull needle and not a clue of how it was supposed to look or feel. But in my later 20s, and definitely by my 30th birthday, I felt….new. I felt as if my life were truly just beginning, and now that I had done all this processing, I was finally safe to figure out who I was.
I found healing in the physical practice of yoga but it went so much deeper than that. I started taking trainings and embracing my spiritual path, and soon, as I leapt, stepping stones would appear. The call to make a difference in the world, even in the smallest way, has always resonated deeply in my soul. However, my path has highlighted that absolutely no one can do this work for another. It has to be you.
My job is to take you by the hand and show you where to look with a gentle but firm guidance so that YOU can heal yourself. But you don’t have to do it alone. I’ve experienced many phases of healing including not speaking to shouting it from the rooftops, trying to make toxic relationships work to complete estrangement, over-identifying with my identity as a survivor to accepting and releasing, and more. So one thing you’re never going to get from me is judgement. I’m here to meet you where you’re at.
With reiki, yoga, meditation, and most importantly hypnotherapy, we can quickly get you out of these painful patterns and into a life that is full of a deep sense of peace and contentment. But you have to be ready.
It’s you. It’s always been you. If I can get to the other side, so can you 🖤 when you’re ready, just reach out. I’m here.