About Holly
Holly is a full-time mom who is passionate about helping people stay healthy and thrive by owning their natural power to heal themselves. Holly is also a Certified Massage Practitioner who has been practicing Traditional Chinese Reflexology for over 7 years. She has taught Chinese Reflexology at Five Branches University, where she also studied Traditional Chinese Medicine for two years.
At the age of 25, Holly was in a car accident that left her with chronic debilitating pain that Western medicine could not fix. Through a personal journey of spiritual discovery and embracing the mind and body connection, she took command of her health and healed herself. She recovered sufficiently to bicycle 3,500 kilometres across Canada, over the Rocky Mountains, while learning how to ride a bike along the way.
Unfortunately, Holly failed to appreciate the connection between the heart and body. For 10 years after the accident, she ignored her life’s calling and worked in a high-stress corporate environment as an elite Internet industry professional. As a result, her health deteriorated rapidly over the course of a year to the point where she wondered if she was dying.
It was through Traditional Chinese Reflexology and honouring her heart that she was able to fully recover her health and thrive. Now, Holly teaches thousands of people how to heal themselves and follow their hearts to experience the mental, physical and emotional thriving that comes from living your life’s passion.
If you’re curious, here’s the whole story…
I love my life. I embrace my life’s purpose and I feel valued and appreciated. As a result, I wake up every day fully energized. I look and feel 10 years younger than my age and I’ve got tons of energy to run and play with my toddler and carry him around all day. At the end of my “work” day as a full-time mom, I feel alert and focused and have even more energy to pour into my second job, running my teaching and healing practice.
Despite revving at 100% energy all day, I fall asleep easily and sleep like a log. I don’t catch colds. I eat whatever I want. I don’t have any complex health routines. Amazing health is very simple and effortless for me. I know exactly what’s going on in my body and I can heal myself at the energy level before any physical symptoms show up. I honestly don’t think much about my health because I feel amazing.
However, it wasn’t always this way…
I’m actually a reformed workaholic. I spent over 15 years of my life working in the corporate rat race, overworked, unsupported, highly stressed and feeling trapped and resentful. I knew I was on the wrong path, but I ignored my inner voice.
When you ignore your heart, the universe has a way of intervening. At the age of 25, I got into a car accident. For two years, I experienced chronic pain and periodic attacks every few weeks where the pain was so intense that I wished I were dead.
Because Western medicine couldn’t help me, I had to open up to alternative healing practices. I tried everything from acupuncture and massage to craniosacral and reiki.
The real healing came when I made two significant shifts in my beliefs.
The first shift occurred when my boyfriend asked if we were still going to bicycle across Canada as we had planned before the accident. I was about to say, “No,” when I heard a voice inside me say, “If you say no, this car accident will define you for the rest of your life.” Thankfully, I listened to my inner voice and said, “Yes”.
The second shift came when I attended a movement workshop and the instructor told the story of how her ankle had been run over by a car. She released the emotional trauma from the event and after she left the hospital, her ankle didn’t swell up and was fine in just a couple of weeks.
Her story opened my mind. I had always thought that I would have residual pain from my accident, but I suddenly realized I didn’t have to live this way. My mind held the power to heal my body. From these two mind shifts alone, I was able to recover 95% from the car accident.
I wish this could be the part of the story where I learned to follow my heart…
Unfortunately, I listened to my head and went back to the corporate world. In my twenties, my body was able to handle the onslaught of stress and lack of fulfillment in my work.
I stayed healthy by maintaining a very complicated health routine, carefully scrutinizing what I ate, avoiding certain foods, following regimented exercises, and popping over $100 a month in vitamins and supplements.
When work got particularly stressful, things started to slip and that’s when my health began to fail. I had to visit the hospital emergency room three times, and experienced multiple infections and bizarre illnesses. Over the course of a year, my health deteriorated so badly that I wondered if I was dying. And the shocking thing was that I didn’t care because my life felt so purposeless.
I felt like I was barely hanging on…
Every Western doctor and specialist told me I was fine even though I felt like I was fading in and out of life like the ghost apparition on a TV show. The alternative healers gave me multiple treatments and remedies, but I felt like I was barely hanging on.
Finally, my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) suggested I see his Chinese Reflexologist. Ironically, for someone who was so open to alternative healing therapies, I was entirely skeptical. I asked, “Isn’t that where they rub your feet? How is that going to help me?”
My husband and I made an agreement that I would see his reflexologist for a month if he would see my naturopath for a month. The deal was on. The first time I received a Traditional Chinese Reflexology treatment, I was in tears. It was incredibly painful and according to the reflexology points my feet, all of my major organ systems were a disaster. I would never have gone back if I hadn’t made the deal with my husband.
Fortunately, I did. Over the course of a month, I noticed the points on my feet hurt less. Instead of wondering what weird ailment would strike me next, my health stabilized. However, I was still handing over the responsibility of my health to someone else, my reflexologist.
It wasn’t until the reflexologist’s wife asked me if I wanted to learn his amazing style of Chinese reflexology that I considered the possibility of owning the power to heal myself. I remember the moment very clearly. She knew I had bicycled across Canada and loved travel and adventure.
She asked me, “Wouldn’t you like to be able to carry your own medicine with you?”
She motioned to the reflexology stick in her hand and it was like a light bulb turned on inside me. I could take responsibility for my health and carry the power to heal myself in my pocket.
If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, I could initiate the healing process myself. And when I could get medical attention, I could continue to accelerate the healing process. I was ready to learn Chinese Reflexology!
Once I started studying Chinese Reflexology, my health got better and better. Within a year and a half of learning this powerful healing modality, I was feeling so amazing that I was training for a triathlon.
Even things that I hadn’t considered to be a health issue, resolved themselves. My irregular period arrived on schedule like clockwork. I slept better than I had in years. Two years after learning Chinese reflexology, I looked back and realized that I had not experienced a single recurrent pain episode from my car accident. I had recovered 100%.
Third time’s the charm…
I wish I could say this was the end of my story and I experienced amazing health from that moment on, but I have a particularly stubborn mind. Once again, I ignored my heart and went back to work in the high-stress Internet industry.
Once again, my health started to fail. Finally, I left and learned to follow my heart.
And now, I can say with a smile that my journey to find optimal health is complete. My health is amazing and I no longer follow a complicated routine to stay healthy.
Not only do I practice Chinese reflexology on myself and my family, I also teach it in person and online. I’ve taught thousands of people how to heal themselves. I’m exactly where I’m meant to be and it’s an amazing place to be. I followed my heart to stay healthy and thrive and it’s my passion to help you do the same.