Heart Solutions Counseling, PLLC       469-589-4793

My Story

My passion for Science

I remember so strongly that when I was in 5th grade, I wanted to be a doctor or a scientist. 

I had this really great teacher Mr. House. He lived on my street, and we had him and his wife over to dinner, and I remember his wife had braces. They were so young, and just exuded a joy and enthusiasm that was contagious. This was in San Diego, and Mr. House also worked at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. One day he brought in this dead bobcat for us to dissect, and a lot of the girls were running from the room with kleenex over thier mouths, I guess from the smell of the formaldehyde or something, but I loved it. It was fun. I had a microscope and the science was just so interesting to me. I loved looking at things in my microscope, and in elementary school, it was before all that girl stuff about math and sceince set in. I was really good in school. I loved math and science, especially science. I think the part about wanting to be a doctor was about that too and also about helping people. I think having a teacher who was passionate about it, who just acted like this is a fun, cool thing - a dead bobcat that I just happened to get my hands on because I have this other really cool job - made it really neat, so I was excited to learn. I remember he pulled out something from the body and said, "look how lacy this is." I thought that was great.

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Breaking The Pattern of A Chronic Issue

Fast forward to my adult life. When I was 31, I was in an pretty stressful relationship and living in a moldy house, and my whole system collapsed. I developed severe sensitivities to everything. Mold, paint, fragrances of any kind, grass, tress, cooking smells. I basically became allergic to life. I ended up having to leave my job and eventually my home in Austin and moved to a "camp" for people with environmental illness outside of Dallas. ​

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I still had my interest in science and I wasn't working so, like many people I met with this condition, I had time to research ways to heal. I saw doctors who specialized in my condition and prescribed nutritional supplements and preservative-free allergy shots. I altered my diet. I prayed, I meditated. I worked on my emotional issues. This combined with avoiding most environmental toxins helped, but I was still on disability and living isolated from society.​

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Then finally, I found some fascinating science that I could really sink my teeth into. I learned about neuroplasticity and how our brains can be rewired to create healthier responses to triggers. ​I read books about it and listened to speakers on YouTube, and was sure this could help me, but didn't know how to implement it on my unique set of problems.

Then someone told me about a brain retraining program specifically for people with environmental illness. I brought the trainer to Dallas, and a small group of us spent 3 days learning how to give our brains new modes of sensory input – verbal, physical, and visual - each time they repeated the stuck pattern of hypersensitivity. On the second day, I remember going to the park with the assignemnt of practicing the exercises 100 times. When I was done, I could feel my brain buzzing, and I knew something was going on in there. I remember it was fall and for the first time in years, I enjoyed the smell of fireplace smoke in the crisp, cool air. 

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During that time, I was also participating in conference calls where the facilitator would work with people using principals of unconditional love and acceptance. I witnessed people's connections in their brains change when they felt loved and accepted in the face of admitting things that were often quite painful. I participated in the calls for a few years until I finally got up the courage to go to a weekend workshop being put on by the author of the principals that was being held in Dallas.​ While holding me in his arms like a baby, he told me that I thought I had to be sick, but I didn't. I actually got to be happy and live life. When he said that, I saw an image of the life I had been living away from everyone and everything and then one of being a part of the world again and feeling loved and connected. That seemed like the happier choice, so I believed him.

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After the workshop, I stayed in the home of one of the participants. I agreed not to ask her to change anything in her environment – perfume, cleaning products, laundry soap etc. Every time I got afraid of a smell, I had to call someone and tell them I was afraid. This wasn't easy, but I kept doing it, and it worked! It became clear to me that I had transferred past fears from my relationship and other things to smells. Within a few short months, I had moved to Dallas into a regular apartment and had rejoined society. My symptoms didn't go away overnight, but I now knew they weren't going to kill me.

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Discovering The Power of Accelearted Resolution Therapy​

I returned to working and eventually landed a position at a nonprofit working with cancer patients. Because of my own experience with life-altering illness and having to depend on government programs to meet my basic needs, I found I was uniquely qualified to bear witness to the fear and pain of the patients I worked with. I was humbled and moved by people's willingness to trust me when they were at their worst and put their hearts in my hands. 

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During that time, I got trained in Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) and began using it to work with my clients. The effects were profound. The first client I did ART with had witnessed the traumatic death of loved one to cancer and had lost the ability to hear their loved one's voice. I saw my client go from being curled in on themself in devastation, to literally bouncing in their seat with joy like a child at the end of their first ART session. I witnessed the power of how eye movements and creative visualizations could help people rewire their brains quickly and effectively.

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This is what led me to start a private counseling practice. I want to get ART out there to as many people as possible, to bring the possibility of healing without having to retell all the horrible details of their trauma to people whose lives have been turned upside down by stress, fear and illness like mine was.