Coach Carisa's Story
I am Carisa Holmes, a Holistic Health Coach and Esthetician specializing in natural health and beauty. It is fulfilling and exciting work and I am so grateful for finding it. People often ask me how I got involved in the natural health field, and it is often difficult to give them the short version of the story!
So, here is the "long version" of how I came to be in this practice.
My entrance into the world of natural wellness was triggered by what many would consider a time of tragedy and loss. I lost my mother to brain cancer in the summer of 1999.
When she was diagnosed the previous year, I discovered there was little that doctors could do for her and began searching on my own for ways to help the body “self correct” and come back to its natural state of wellness.
I found some promising natural treatments and was eager to have my mother try them. She was also enrolled in a clinical trial for a more natural cancer treatment after her surgery, chemotherapy and radiation had failed.
Despite our best efforts, my mother died at the age of 52 in our home. My sister, my father and I all held her hands and showered our love on her, hoping to make her passage to the next realm an easy one.
Though the answers came too late for my mother, the difficult lessons we learned through my mothers illness and passing would act as an important life catalyst for the three of us remaining.
My sister actively works in the health and wellness field as a registered nurse. My father, the former junk-food-junkie, went vegan for a number of years and is still practicing natural wellness to this day.
As for me? My path into the wellness field had a few more bumps and potholes in store. I had learned much by studying and searching for natural therapies that would help my mother. I learned about nutrition and how our food supply chain and even the supplement industry is set up in such a way that it is easy to be sick.
Despite what I knew, I didn’t practice what I had learned.
I was addicted to the foods and food additives I consumed each day. I was set in my habits and didn’t yet have the motivation to change. I still ate fast food, lots of sweets and didn’t exercise enough. I drank soda and too much alcohol and rarely had enough water.
In addition, I was holding on to negative emotional states and had energy blockages in my system that went unresolved for years.
I was a ticking time bomb.
I ignored warning signs that my body gave me such as frequent heartburn and acid reflux, constipation, acne, chronic sinus problems and allergies. I dismissed them as “normal” since just about everyone I knew suffered with the same things. What I soon learned was that though these problems are common, they certainly are not normal.
Since I failed to heed the subtle messages my body was sending, a more noticeable sign was in order. In December of 2001, I became very ill. It started off as queasiness and a general feeling of malaise. It progressed to the point that I was nauseous all day long. I could barely eat and what I did eat came right back up.
After several weeks of very little food and water my body became extremely weak. I barely had enough energy to climb the stairs to go to bed at night. Sometimes I just stayed on the sofa all night.
I remember waking up one evening in a fog on my sofa, as usual. I looked up and saw on television that the ball was dropping. It was New Years Eve and I hadn’t even realized it. I was too sick to care about missing the party. All I could do was sleep.
I literally did not move from the couch for nearly 2 months.
I was unable to work and was in danger of losing the home I had just moved into a few months before. I had always been thin, but I lost an additional 15-20 pounds. I was skin and bones and my face had a sunken, gaunt appearance. I looked like the living dead.
I was broken mentally and emotionally as well. I was in a difficult romantic relationship at the time, and there was much unresolved pain around my mothers death that I had unknowingly buried. All this pain and negativity came bubbling to the surface when I was at my sickest and weakest.
Whenever I was awake, I would sort through emotions and thoughts in my head, trying to make sense of it all and resolve the things that were draining my energy. This was a very intense period of detox for my body and my mind. There were moments when I just wanted to give up; just go to sleep and never wake up.
Thankfully, after a period of time the mind fog and severe nausea began to lessen a bit and I was able to keep down water and some light foods. Within a few days, I was strong enough to leave the house for short periods of time. The crisp air and sunshine of early spring on my face seemed to clear away the last wisps of my mind fog.
I was inspired and I felt a surge of energy from a new task at hand:
I was going to get well!
I was determined to never abuse my body like I had again, and I vowed to reach my highest and best level of wellness using the knowledge I had gleaned through my mothers illness.
Slowly, I began stocking up on the tools that I needed.
I bought a juicer and started immediately reaping the benefits of concentrated nutrition. I began eating superfoods such as spirulina and clean, organic vegetables and fruit. I gradually began to gain back the weight I so desperately needed and the glow of life returned to my face.
I even cleared my home of typical, toxic home care products and began making my own skin care products.
During this time of cleansing and learning, I noticed incredible changes in my energy level, body function and even my mood. I was full of life! My body was healthy and I was so inspired by my new-found passion that I found it difficult to be in a bad mood.
One of the most interesting and exciting changes I noticed was in my skin. I had suffered with severe cystic acne and acne vulgaris since I was about 10 years old. I tried every medication, every prescription and every brand of snake oil known to man. They all failed miserably.
Not until I approached my skin issues from a whole person perspective, from the inside out, did my skin respond.
In addition to changing my diet and lifestyle habits, I was obsessed with learning about wellness. I spent long hours at my computer or with my nose in a book learning about nutrition... the human energy system... anatomy... organ function... microbiology...
The skin was the organ I was most fascinated with and that was a big part of why I became an esthetician.
I was more intrigued by the human body than anything else!
I lugged books with me everywhere I went. I was the girl sitting at home on a Friday night reading clinical abstracts for fun. Sometimes I would study for 10 or 12 hours at a time, not realizing the time had gone. Thank goodness my dog would interrupt me to be fed or I may have grown roots right where I sat!
I was in a state of flow.
I knew I had found my passion and life purpose because 12 hours spent learning about the human body went by like 15 minutes.
For several years, I devoured information with an insatiable hunger. I also devoured supplements, superfoods and just about any other natural wellness product that I could get my hands on.
My quest to heal my digestive issues quickly snowballed into an all out War for Inner Peace!
I learned how to release energy blockages, receive messages from outside my conscious mind and melt away stress and tension. I worked diligently at clearing my chakras, eating well, creating positive thought patterns and anything else I thought would help.
I read like books were wine.
I ate algae and seaweedand sought out the help of energy workers and alternative health practitioners. I did it all. If it was out there and it could help me evolve, I was going to give it a shot! Nothing was too strange or inconvenient or expensive for me to try.
Through these years of intensive research, I found that the solution to health problems is best described as a 3-point system of cleansing, avoidance and nourishing, or C.A.N.
C- Cleansing the body of parasites, toxins, energy disruptions and accumulated wastes
A- Avoiding pollutants, toxins and unhealthy foods and behaviors, and
N- Nourishing the body with organic foods, superfoods, oxygen, natural healing therapies and clean, alkaline water.
My friends, I did get well. SUPER well. Since that monumental illness years ago, I have rarely been sick at all, and certainly not to the extent I was before. I have experienced deep and lasting healing and my health continues to get better each season.
Now keep in mind: this is coming from someone who got strep throat and multiple colds and flus every winter, most times using up all their sick days and even some of their vacation days because of illness. I suffered with constant sinus infections due to my unrelenting allergies and was very well acquainted with acid reflux and digestive problems.
I was always sick!
Despite how good I feel now, I am still in a transitional phase. I am still healing at deeper levels every day. Every time I do a spring or fall cleanse, some other little “insignificant” health issue magically vanishes and I feel a surge of energy and inspiration.
This is the way we are born to feel!
The events of my personal wellness journey inspired me to help others by introducing them to my holistic approach to health. I decided to become a Holistic Health Coach, to guide others through the same process I stumbled through on my own for so many years.
From my life experiences I gained important knowledge about the best tools, techniques and practices for natural healing and rejuvenation. I also learned what to avoid as some “natural” therapies are ineffective, marginally useful or even downright dangerous.
During my time of great healing and learning, I found that much of the information available about health was misleading or contradictory. I decided to find out the truth, and share it with those who sought it. So, I began to write.
Countless articles, marathon editing sessions and consultations later, my writings evolved into CoachCarisa.com and the wonderful products and services you will find here.
My life experiences and knowledge make me uniquely qualified to help others create higher states of wellness for themselves.
Because I have already gone through the frustrating, expensive and time-consuming trial and error process, I am able to offer my clients the best that the holistic health world has to offer.
I have already done the difficult work for my clients. My health programs outline everything you need to know to get started on your path to wellness.
The myths are busted... the hype is erased... and the truth of how to become well is neatly laid out in plain English.
Are you ready to take that first step on your own road to wellness?
