My Story: Why I Founded HEAL Together

When I was between the ages of 11 and 16, I was exposed to a significant amount of crime in my neighborhood as well as I experienced several significant losses. At the time, childhood PTSD wasn’t commonly recognized and it was a diagnosis exclusively for military personnel. I was diagnosed with depression and began seeing therapists off and on throughout my life.

As I grew older and immersed myself in trauma-informed care, I began to understand the truth of my experiences—I had lived through chronic trauma and had been misdiagnosed for many years.

This realization fueled my passion for making healing more accessible and to help children and adolescents who need the kind of support that I did not receive as a child. This led me into the field of school social work. While I poured myself into supporting students, I also witnessed how deeply unsupported educators often are. At many schools, I frequently found myself in near-constant crisis mode, conducting suicide and homicide risk assessments almost daily. Then the unimaginable happened: a student died by suicide. That loss shook me to my core. It made me realize how fundamentally fragile we all are and how we need each other to keep going through the challenges in life. It emphasized to me the importance of community support when handling pain and grief.

While school social work was stressful, I was also undergoing fertility treatment—a four-year journey that opened my eyes to the emotional toll and lack of mental health support for women and couples in the perinatal space. The hormonal changes during fertility treatment, pregnancy, and postpartum can dramatically affect a woman’s mental and physical health, and yet these needs are often overlooked. With firsthand knowledge of this experience, I became determined to support others through it with empathy and understanding.

And with my 5 year-old, I feel like I am constantly trying to figure out how to raise him to be smart, make healthy choices, and be kind to people. I know how difficult parenting is first hand as well as the burden many mothers feel in raising a tiny human being, the most precious and important job we will ever have.

After the last round of burn-out that I experienced in the school system, I knew it was time. Time to step into a different space to support others, where I am allowed to focus on what I am good at and love to do - helping people grow and find joy in their lives.

That’s when HEAL Together was born.