My Story
This has been my journey thus far…
I'm an advocate of food as medicine and natural living, for the entire family. I am a Functional Holistic Nutritionist but my real schooling has come from my life experience.
As a young adult, I knew there was more to life. My teenage years were riddled with hormonal issues, severe depression, an eating disorder, many visits to the doctor’s office, and admission to the hospital, with no clear answer to why. On the outside, I appeared put together, as a scholarship student and elite-level athlete, but this was far from the truth. I was feeling uncertain about life and frustrated with my health. This was my original catalyst and why I became a nutritionist, way back then.
At the young age of 20, I left my small hometown in Northern Ontario, Canada, to travel and explore the jungles of Latin America, where my heart was captured by a local singer/performer (now my partner of 13 years). I fell in love, with him and the culture. In the meantime, I was diagnosed with a life-altering disorder, and told I’d be unable to have children, and would have to depend on pharmaceuticals for the rest of my life. I denied.
That was it, I realized. I had a new path. This is when my incredible journey started, into a life-changing, transformation as a holistic practitioner. I decided to leave my current University Dietetics Program and get a diploma in Applied Holistic Nutrition, a philosophy that resonated with me at a deep level. I wanted to focus on the internal mechanisms of why we get sick. More importantly, what could make us well? So I focused on taking classes on holistic nutrition and functional medicine to learn the causation of disease. I needed to change these health challenges that were ruling my life, and the lives of so many around me. I was struck by this powerful calling to help others. I realized that the vehicle for me to help others was going to be through natural health, and since that day, I have never stopped learning.
My pilgrimage to health…
I was drawn to a life that led me to explore and live in five different countries spanning from Central America to the Caribbean, learning the ways of traditional cultures and indigenous peoples, and then full circle back into discovering the roots of my own mixed ancestry.
It was only when I was displaced back to my Northern homeland in the so-called ‘developed world’ that I truly understood that something was seriously off, compared to the intact cultures that ate locally, had a powerful sense of community, and did not suffer chronic degenerative disease, remaining healthy well into becoming centenarians.
During the beginning of political unrest in Venezuela, we relocated to Trinidad & Tobago, and opened my Clinical Nutrition Practice from our home, and had our first child. A few years after, with our young growing family in mind, we moved to a smaller, slower-paced island, in the middle of the rainforest. The Commonwealth of Dominica—also known as ‘The Nature Isle of the Caribbean’, is where we opened the doors to Beyond Vitality Nature Camp, our family-run, off-grid eco-lodge, homestead, retreat center, and sprouting eco-village. Here I gave birth to my second child unassisted.
We were settled in our lush green paradise we called home, raising our children wild & free, with the art of simplicity. We imagined growing old here, with our children spreading their wings, and eventually coming back to live the simple island life, surrounded by grandbabies, family, and friends. I was quite a visionary!
I thought we had settled until the unthinkable happened…
I am a PTSD and complex trauma survivor.
On September 18th, 2017, Hurricane Maria, a catastrophic category 5 superstorm, completely devastated the island, along with our home, business, and livelihood.
It took everything along with it, everything but our lives. We survived the hurricane in our little red closet when everything around us crumbled to the ground. We were left stranded and living in our vehicle for a week, surviving off rainwater and fruit from fallen trees, which ended with a helicopter evacuation. Watch our full hurricane story here.
After a grueling few months living in the aftermath, with a plan to rebuild and a dream still alive, hope was slowly diminishing. Building supplies were yet impossible to source, water, electricity, and the internet took over a year to be restored, and illness took hold of us. We were separated by borders, the children and I evacuated to Canada, and their father back to his home country of Trinidad and Tobago. This was the most difficult period of my life! We were displaced and had to find home again.
A hurricane and aftermath living in survival mode, a near divorce, displacement, and a serious health crisis, life as I knew it was gone. I found myself at the deepest and darkest pit of my life, searching for new meaning, and the will to live. From pain and misfortune, we continued to move forward, believing that this was happening for us, not to us and that something great would come from the lessons.
After 12 years, it wasn’t the initial culture shock of leaving my birth country that shook me, it was the reverse culture shock of re-entering into a place that felt so unfamiliar, so isolated, and so disconnected from the life I had built. Within my own healing journey, the more I spoke with people, the more I realized that here in the ‘developed world', we are expected to get sick - as young adults, after becoming mothers, or as we age. This was where I now stood myself. After a tremendous loss, recovering from the effects of trauma and PTSD, exhaustion, and struggling to care for myself, I was left wondering how I would ever have sovereignty over my own health, and be able to care for my family.
Mental Health as Wealth.
We hear that health is wealth. Because without our health, our ability to live life to the fullest drastically reduces, never mind our wealth. Our body is one interconnected system, and to optimize our wellbeing, we need to be healthy emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. When one of these quadrants of off, it affects all others. Mental health is healthcare. Without a healthy mind, we cannot achieve our true and optimal potential in life. Feeling depressed, anxious or overwhelmed doesn't rave us feeling motivated to get up and go to the gym, or prepare a healthy meal. But which came first, the chicken or the egg? When we don't take care of our physical health, we are more vulnerable and prone to mental illness.
For several years, I was debilitated by PTSD, and plagued by the accompanying depression, anxiety and panic attacks. My mental health struggled so much, which was compounded by the physical effects of trauma, living with the severe symptoms of Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Food Intolerances, Chemical Sensitivity and associated digestive distress and migraines. It affected my ability to take care of my children and work to support my family. This was a challenging identity crisis that had me questioning my worth as a mom, entrepreneur and overall person. I felt like a burden and that perhaps the world would be a better place without me.
It wasn't until I spiralled to my absolute rock bottom, to the depths of my being, the dark night of the soul. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I had to change my mindset from being a victim to a survivor. I realized that nobody could help me except myself.
Little by little, I worked on every aspect of my health - mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. It was a lot of trial and error, working with many specialists and trying lots of protocols and changing many aspects of my life.
Over the years, I built a toolkit that took me from merely surviving to truly thriving and optimizing all aspects of my life.
I continue to practice this lifestyle and continue to learn every day. I'm becoming the person I wish I had had in my darkest days.
Now, I can happily say that I have healed on all levels and continue to live my life as a survivor of PTSD, free from the symptoms of trauma and chronic stress.
Mental Health as Healthcare.
PTSD was just a part of me, but not the whole me. My Self was still there the entire time, undamaged, whole, and unaffected by my life’s difficult transitions, hurts, and traumas. Once I discovered that, I started to heal. I could live as a PTSD survivor, still struggle with my Highly Sensitive nature, but it no longer defines me or my identity. It’s just a part of me, and by embracing it, getting curious about it and giving it compassion, it soften its hold on my life and took on a different role - a role to share and help, an empowered role that it feels needed in, knowing that it is valuable, and that all the symptoms and struggles were just my body doing exactly what it was designed to do, what it needed to do to get my attention and release what it had held on to kept my system safe, when it didn’t have the resources and felt overwhelmed by life’s difficult events.
Do you want to feel great inside and out, mentally and physically?
Do you want the energy to play and be fully present with your kids?
Do you want to be sharp in your older years and protect your brain from degeneration like dementia?
Do you want to optimize your focus, productivity and creativity to achieve all of your financial goals with ease?
I'm eager to share what I've learned along my journey, which has taken me across multiple cultures and new chapters of life.
If you need help to weave in a sustainable, lifelong, integrative and holistic approach to managing your overall health, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual, you are in the right place.
Beyond Vitality is about moving beyond resilience - beyond merely surviving - toward a renewed, more radiant future. True healing doesn’t mean returning to who we were before, but transforming through our experiences to become stronger, wiser, and reconnected to our true Self.
I look forward to supporting you on your journey!
