WHATT…WHATT…WHATT…WHATT…If you start signing Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, we’ll probably get along pretty well. No, I’m not talking about thrifting, although I could write many a blog on my thrift shop adventures. WHATT am I actually talking about? Wellness, Holistic, Alternative Treatment and Therapy Fair that is happening in the big town of Wooster, Ohio, on Saturday, March 26, 2022. This brainchild of mine sparked on a drive one Sunday afternoon, where I was contemplating our world, my school work (#doctor2026), and conversations that have been happening with clients. The question of how do we shift our focus to health and wellness, and ways to take care of the mind, body, AND spirit? And the idea of the WHATT Fair was born.
My experience with holistic wellness has been quite a journey. I was diagnosed in 2000 with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It’s not fun. In my quest for relief, the doctor prescribed a medication that I decided not to take (that’s a whole another blog-spiritual intervention story). I’m thankful I trusted my gut on that one, because it was pulled from the market several years later-it caused people’s intestines to calcify. Being a therapist, it’s really not cool to be leaving a session with a client because you have to go to the bathroom. It’s also not cool to shit your pants. I happened upon a Reiki training, and thought, this sounds cool, I’m going. This was back in 2007, when Reiki wasn’t real well known, and people considered it woo-woo. Learning how to use it was a lifesaver. I could keep my hand on my belly to comfort the IBS spasms, and the urgency to go lessened so I didn’t have to bolt to the bathroom.
Fast forward to 2014…the IBS was acting up more, and I went to have muscle testing done to determine if there were particular foods that was setting it off. Gluten. Changing my diet helped some, but I like to eat, and it was challenging again because there wasn’t a lot of good options for gluten-free at that time. Then, I just happened to sign up for a hypnotherapy course…
It was through learning about hypnotherapy, the mind-body connection, and having peers’ practice on me, that I finally found relief. The session where I addressed the IBS, I learned I was carrying secondary trauma in my gut. By the end of the session, it felt like someone cut 50 rubber bands off my belly. Since that day, the only time I have digestive reactions is when I eat too much fatty fried foods, so basically never.
I was fascinated. Being a therapist and having to work through my “stuff”, I thought I had. However, the situation that caused the secondary trauma was deep, and at the time I couldn’t process it at a conscious level, and it got stored in my gut. The hypnotherapy allowed me to connect with and release it. It also intrigued me to going on and completing an over three-hundred-hour training program in hypnotherapy, because what it did for me, I wanted to share with others.
I quit my job in December of 2019 after twenty years of being a therapist. I was moved to doing more holistic wellness and connecting the mind, body, and spirit. There is so many things we can be doing to help ourselves heal…which is also why I’m now working on my doctorate in mind-body medicine. All the different avenues of wellness intrigue me. Client stories of healing have fascinated me. It’s why I do what I do. And now, it’s time for the WHATT Fair. To share many different avenues of wellness, holistic, alternative treatment, and therapy. Come join us on Saturday, March 26 from 10-5. Relax, listen, participate, eat, learn, and have fun!