What Happens When the Healer Inside a Therapist Finally Wakes Up?

What Happens When the Healer Inside a Therapist Finally Wakes Up?

There’s a quiet moment—maybe in the car after work, maybe mid-session with a client—where you realize something in you has gone silent.
It used to hum.
Now it aches.
What happens when the healer inside a therapist finally wakes up?

Let me take you back.

From Textbooks to Token Boards: The Professional Path

I started my journey at Central Michigan University, earning my bachelor’s degree in science with a major in Recreational Therapy. The idea of helping people by incorporating leisure and joy into healing felt so right. It was about making life accessible and beautiful for people with impairments and disabilities. I loved that.

After graduation, I began working in a mental health hospital setting. Those six months cracked me open in all the right ways. I grew fast. I witnessed mental illness up close. I learned empathy in a whole new dimension. I saw the gaps, the pain, and the resilience that most people never glimpse.

But I knew I was being called to work with children. When I landed a job in an ABA setting with kids on the autism spectrum, it felt like the stars were aligning. I adored those kids. Their brilliance. Their patterns. Their surprises.

I worked hard, and when my supervisors praised me, something inside me lit up. That validation became fuel. So I went back to school and earned a second bachelor’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis. I also completed my direct training hours, preparing for the next level.

But as I started a master’s program in ABA, I could no longer ignore the truth that had been slowly rising to the surface. I didn’t finish the program—because my soul was crying out.

I was burnt out to the core, sad, unmotivated, and the soul had been sucked out of me. There was so much stress I was dealing with on a daily basis—things that ultimately I had no control in changing. It was a vicious cycle of caring too much but not having the power to change things. There was also a severe lack of connection; it felt like I was a glorified babysitter.

I thought I had to be this prime and proper person—someone who didn’t swear, who didn’t show emotions, who always kept it buttoned up and professional. I was a people-pleasing professional. My job was to meet the goals and make the children's lives simpler, along with their families.

But I cracked.

What rose from that breaking wasn’t weakness.
It was truth.
And it had glitter on it.

I remembered the other life I had quietly been building.
The Riverside Gypsy—my soul project, my art, my portal into another way of being. I had been selling my creations for a year already. Crafting with intention. Pouring my energy into beauty.

So I leapt.

I left my salaried career and returned to retail, taking a $10/hour pay cut.
Yes, it hurt. My ego, my bank account, my sense of linear progress.
But you know what hurt more?

Staying in a job that cost me my joy, my health, and my soul.

That leap made space for my natural gifts to rise—creativity, intuition, sensitivity.
I wasn’t just reacting anymore. I was creating.

I became a Reiki practitioner. I learned how to manage and protect my energy, how to cleanse what clung to me, how to read between the lines of language and tune into what lives beneath behavior.

The shift was night and day:
From an observational, analytical therapist focused on modifying behavior…
To an intuitive healer diving deep into emotional energy and soul wounds.

Now, I can express myself freely. Cry if I need to. Laugh loudly. Swear if I feel it.
I can wear flowy skirts, let my hair down, and not worry about it being grabbed or spit in.

And it’s not about abandoning my past—it’s about weaving it into something richer.

Funny thing is, the science didn’t vanish. It transformed.

Reinforcement theory and intention setting? Besties.
Understanding learning patterns? A superpower in energy work.
My therapist brain still whispers wisdom, but it’s held by something softer, wiser, and more expansive now.

I’m still helping people. But on an individual, soul-nourishing level—one that honors their whole being, not just the behavior on the surface.

 

Recently, I stumbled upon an old journal from my time at the autism clinic. Flipping through the pages, I found a single sentence that stopped me cold:

"I crave to work in an environment where I am valued as an equal, where we can all grow together, and where I can truly thrive."

Reading that now… I want to wrap my younger self in the biggest hug. She already knew. She already felt what wasn’t right and dreamed of something more.

And today—I get to say: You made it.

To my soul family, my friends, my partner, and the community that saw the spark in me before I even fully believed in it myself:
Thank you.
Thank you for proving that space exists.
Thank you for reminding me that I am worthy of it.
Thank you for helping me find my home.

A Love Letter to the Ones Still in the Fire

If you’re reading this and feeling the weight of your soul-crushing job…
I see you.

You’re not weak for wanting more. You’re wise.
You’re allowed to evolve.
You’re allowed to say, “This is no longer for me.”

It might mean a pay cut. It might mean weekends. It might mean rebuilding from scratch.
But it will also mean breathing again. Laughing again. Feeling like you again.

And listen—what is for you will never pass you by.
The universe is not cruel. It’s patient.

In Gratitude and In Power

I am endlessly thankful for my past—for the education, the clients, the stories, the training.
They shaped the healer I am today.

But I no longer measure success in credentials or case notes.
I measure it in energy, authenticity, and the freedom to be.

To those walking the path between burnout and rebirth:
You’re not alone.
You’re just waking up.

And when the healer inside you fully arrives?

Oh, it’s going to be magic.