When I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in 2018, and experienced other brutal symptoms related to systemic chronic inflammation, asthma, and allergies, I found the combination of western medicine, including medication drug therapy, nutrition, psychotherapy, and alternative medicine (naturopathic and functional medicine) to be extremely helpful in managing primarily the physical aspects of my conditions.

However, these modalities were not enough to address the psychosomatic, spiritual and emotional imbalances resulting from what I was told were chronic health diagnoses.

The fact that I could be told “my blood work is normal”, and that I’m in remission, all while feeling extremely tired, achy, lacking digestive fire, experiencing daily headaches and dizziness felt lonely and frustrating. My social network got smaller and I didn’t have the energy to feed other aspects of my life outside the physical. I was in survival mode.

For the first time in life, my body/mind/spirit made me slow down from the rat race, which also made me face the realities of how some early childhood trauma, and learning/processing diversities have affected my life and ability to connect to others and fail to thrive.