How Awakened Lakeshore Came to Be: A Founder’s Journey from Healthcare Burnout to Holistic Healing

Awakened Lakeshore was not born from a business plan. It emerged from a pause —

and from listening closely when life asked for something different.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was working as an ICU manager while pursuing a

doctorate in nursing leadership. Like many in healthcare at that time, I was carrying

immense responsibility amid fear, uncertainty, and loss. Over time, the direction

healthcare was moving no longer aligned with who I was becoming.

I wasn’t just burned out — I didn’t like who I was under that level of pressure. The stress

narrowed me, hardened me, and pulled me away from myself. So I made a decision

that felt both unsettling and necessary: I stepped away. I paused my education, left my

role, and gave myself time without another job lined up. It wasn’t an escape. It was a

necessary pause — one that gave me space to recover, reflect, and eventually evolve.

That pause changed everything.

For the first time in years, I slowed down enough to reconnect with myself — my body,

my emotions, my inner life. During that time, I experienced my first Reiki session. What

stayed with me wasn’t anything dramatic or sensational, but a quiet internal knowing —

a sense of alignment and clarity I hadn’t felt before. Not a command, but a recognition

that this work mattered.

I followed that knowing thoughtfully. I trained in Reiki and reflexology, deepened my

meditative practices, and explored supportive modalities such as essential oils and

sound meditation with crystal bowls. Alongside this, I studied Human Design as a way

to better understand myself — my patterns, my energy, and how I’m designed to move

through the world. That personal exploration eventually became another way I now

support others through Human Design coaching.

After completing my training, I opened Meridian Wellness in a small rented space. What

began as a focused practice grew steadily, drawing people who were looking for

something more integrative — something that addressed the whole person, not just

isolated symptoms.

As the work deepened, it became clear that the next phase wasn’t about expanding

alone. What was needed was space for collaboration — a place where different

practitioners, perspectives, and modalities could coexist and support one another. That

clarity shaped the decision to move Meridian Wellness into a larger building and invite

other practitioners into the space.

As plans for a grand opening began to take shape, it became evident that this was no

longer just about one practice. It was becoming a shared space — a collective offering

rooted in presence, care, and connection. During meditation, the name Awakened

Lakeshore came through with steady clarity. I questioned it at first, but it remained.

Awakened wasn’t about striving or becoming something else; it reflected awareness,

presence, and being.

At its core, Awakened Lakeshore is grounded in the understanding that being human is

an experience — beautiful, layered, and at times deeply difficult. Growth does not come

from pushing through or bypassing what hurts. It comes from allowing ourselves to be

exactly where we are, without judgment or urgency to change.

Here, healing is not about doing more. It is about being. It is about creating space for

emotions that society often tells us to suppress — anger, disappointment, grief,

bitterness — and recognizing them as part of the human experience. When people are

supported in feeling rather than numbing, in listening rather than overriding, something

begins to shift.

What I’ve come to see is that much of the medicine lies in learning to meet ourselves

with compassion — not once we’re healed or whole, but exactly as we are. Not in spite

of our imperfections, but alongside them.

This work is about expansion. About learning to live authentically by allowing the full

range of what it means to be human — the beauty and the difficulty — to coexist. When

people are supported in slowing down, feeling what they’ve been carrying, and meeting

themselves with curiosity and compassion, they begin to reconnect with who they are

beneath survival.

It’s from this understanding — of presence, acceptance, and shared humanity — that

Awakened Lakeshore finds its purpose.'

Awakened Lakeshore is a space intentionally created to feel safe, grounded, and

inclusive.

It welcomes people exactly as they are — regardless of political beliefs, religious

affiliation, or identities of any kind. There is no prerequisite for belonging here. What

matters is that you are human, and that you deserve care, respect, and love — exactly

as you are.

We are here to walk alongside people — offering tools, space, and support as they

learn to listen to themselves and honor their own pace. Nothing is imposed, and nothing

is rushed. Each person remains deeply connected to their own experience.

In that meeting, growth happens.

Expansion happens.

And being — fully, honestly human — becomes enough.