I began my journey into holistic healing about 9 years ago. While working in the fast paced world of high fashion, I had developed debilitating digestive problems due to constant stress and non stop travel: IBS, severe constipation, and constant bloated-ness were all a part of my daily life. I began to ingest heavy laxatives on a daily basis: herbal, over-the-counter, pills, liquids, and capsules. I joked that I couldn’t begin my day without my “laxative cocktail”. In addition to the 3-4 daily “cocktails”, I also took multiple suppositories and performed hourly enemas to get through the day. My body reacted with horribly dried skin, facial outbreaks, dark circles under the eyes, inconsistent weight gain & loss, and severe insomnia due to constant discomfort. I had lived like this for years.
On a visit home to SF one day, my mother suggested that I see a gastroenterologist to assess what was happening with my digestive system. At age 33, I went in for my first colonoscopy and was told by my doctor that I had completely disabled my digestive system with the toxic “cocktails”; he compared it to that of an 80 year-old sedentary woman, confined to a wheelchair, on a diet of soft foods. His solution was to remove my colon and attach a colostomy bag on the outside of my body within the next few months, which I would have to live with for the rest of my life. Being in fashion, this was NOT an option.
I began to do intense research on every known diet/ food regiment, and tried all of them to minimal or no results: South Beach, Carb-free, Macrobiotic, Master Cleanse, to name a few. I was already doing colonics to help relieve the discomfort of constipation, but did not truly understand the direct correlation between diet and colonics, until the therapists at Chakra 17 and Gil Jacobs introduced me to juicing, and the theory behind food combinations. As I was already a vegetarian, transitioning to eating raw was easy, but it truly unveiled its healing powers when I combined the diet with colonics.
My body immediately responded. My extremely dried skin was gone, my face cleared and restored its natural color, I had clarity of mind and felt boundless energy while eating less. Most importantly, I was able to fully restore the strength in my entire digestive system and escape the surgery of the colostomy bag that would have inhibited me for the rest of my life. I was so excited to find a healing method that was so natural and simple in its concept with such powerful results. I felt incredible; a friend who hadn’t seen me in awhile asked if I had undergone plastic surgery, since eating raw and colonics had taken years off my face and body. I began to tell everyone about my discovery. I started bringing raw foods to my photo shoots, drinking only fresh juices, and speaking to everyone that I had found the fountain of youth.
Deciding to become a therapist, for me, is fulfilling a passion I never knew I had; to help educate others about diet and the life saving effects of de-toxing through colonics. I feel that I have come full circle, where I was once a client, and now I am fully able to help others understand their desire to improve their health through holistic healing.
