Story
THE SHORT STORY
I'm a trauma-informed counsellor, life coach and holistic nutritionist with 15+ years of experience in health and wellness, but my real schooling has come from my life experience.
Since Beyond Vitality’s inception in 2011, my wellness practice has grown and travelled with me, operating over the years in Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Canada, Costa Rica, and now Mexico. Each place has shaped Beyond Vitality’s evolution and deepened the way I support integrative and holistic wellbeing.
THE LONG STORY
This has been my journey thus far.
As a late teen, I knew there was more to life. My earlier 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.
My love for travelling began with my parents. They brought my brother and me on our first family trip outside of Canada—Disney World. But it wasn’t the rides or the magical world of Disney that captivated me; it was those first words of Spanish I heard, the lizard in the parking lot, and the vastly different flora and fauna that blew my mind open. Then came Mexico, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Our travels went further and further off the beaten path, and that gave me the courage to spread my wings.
At the young age of 20, I left my small hometown in Northern Ontario, Canada, to travel solo and explore the jungles of Latin America, where my heart was captured by a local singer/performer (now my partner of 18 years) in Venezuela.
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
Freedom was Calling.
I was drawn to a life that led me to explore and live in five different countries spanning from Latin 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 I opened my Clinical Nutrition Practice from our home in 2011 - Beyond Vitality Wellness. We also had our first child.
THE NATURE ISLE
Back to the Land.
In the midst of this journey, a pivotal chapter unfolded when my family and I moved to the Commonwealth of Dominica in 2015.
A few years later, 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’. There, I gave birth to my second child unassisted.
In the heart of the Caribbean, Beyond Vitality Nature Camp was born—our beautiful, family-run, off-grid eco-lodge, homestead and retreat centre. Surrounded by lush rainforest, 365 rivers, abundant wildlife, and panoramic views of mountains meeting the ocean, it became a sanctuary for nature connection, community health, and transformational retreat experiences.
We were settled in our lush green paradise, we called home, raising our children wild and 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!
Then, the worst shock trauma of my life came.
Everything was destroyed. That moment became the catalyst for profound grief and loss, but also for immense growth and evolution, which I could not see clearly - yet.
I thought we had settled until the unthinkable happened…
THE EYE OF THE STORM
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 gruelling 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.
You are not alone.
Even with all the work I’ve done, years later, it’s still often difficult for me to watch and anticipate the impending devastation that natural disasters create as the warnings come up on the news and my feed blows up on social media. I guess the algorithm has carefully tracked my story.
A little red closet, our bubble of protection, helped my family and me survive Category 5 Hurricane Maria those years ago.
May everyone find their bubble of protection in the face of natural disasters.
That horrifying night in the eye of the hurricane split our life into a ‘before and after’ event that we still feel the effects of today - so long ago, yet the body remembers.
It was that night that catalyzed the beginning of my path as a trauma-informed counsellor.
I now understand trauma not only through professional training but through my own lived experience—tracing patterns back through my family line, learning from distant ancestors, and slowly rebuilding from the inside out.
When the headlines have passed, the support decreases, and the world goes on, the acute stress may have diminished, but that’s when delicate care is most vital.
Three months, six months, one year later - if you or a loved one needs integrative mental health support from someone who understands the complexities of PTSD in women firsthand, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
I’ve been there. You are not alone.
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
A Clean Slate.
As work-from-home, multicultural and homeschooling parents of two spirited children, we were already living an uncommon life. We came from two very different backgrounds from countries on opposite sides of the collectivist and individualist scale, merged as entrepreneurs, and have children at home all the time, which has kept us on our toes and taught us a great life skill - resourcefulness!
Yes — being displaced and experiencing trauma was life-altering and intensely difficult. It is an experience we will probably continue to unpack for a lifetime. And yet, at a certain point, gratitude began to emerge through those moments of grief and pain — the moment when I started to see a light at the end of the tunnel. That darkness helped me to remember the light.
Being without a home created the time and space for us to return to our roots and spend meaningful time in our home countries, giving the kids a chance to be closer to their grandparents. It also opened the door to a beautiful life adventure — five years of worldschooling, and slow travel across several countries and continents as we began the journey of finding home again.
Choosing this out-of-the-box lifestyle has been one of the most rewarding decisions of our lives.
It’s also been one of the hardest.
We know all about having more dreams and to-do lists than we have time for, the need to work smarter, not harder, experimenting to find cost-effective ways to keep our family healthy and put nourishing, whole food meals on the table, while maintaining a loving connection and playing with our children!
How do you balance everyday workload with having a healthy, intentional home life?
I wish we could tell you we’ve solved all of these problems and have the 5-step method to the perfect, healthy family. We can’t.
No one can tell you exactly what your family life should look like. Part of the point is that this is your body, your unique path. Your family’s incredible, uncommon, daring life.
Beyond Vitality is a place for unique families like ours, and like yours. We aren’t miracle parents. Far from it. Our kids get sick from time to time, we have those teary homeschool days, and we get into ruts.
But we’ve been on this journey a long time, so we can share the knowledge we’ve gained along the way, through trial and error, and our real-life experience, with real food, real challenges, real solutions, and real triumphs.
FAST FORWARD TO NOW
Generational Healing
This transformative period guided me onto my path as a trauma-informed counsellor, and it sparked a pivotal shift in my work toward integrative mental health and generational healing. Beyond Vitality evolved alongside me, becoming a more adaptable, internationally rooted practice that could support others through deep transitions while staying grounded in its core purpose: restoring balance, reclaiming vitality, and creating pathways for healing across generations.
The past decade has been quite a journey…
What the Future Holds
Today, Beyond Vitality continues to unfold into its next chapter with the emerging vision of the Beyond Vitality Wellness Centre, a dedicated space for integrative mental health, somatic care, trauma-informed support, and holistic wellbeing.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
I would love the chance to support you further and connect with you on a deeper and more personal level.
I’ll share new offerings, recipes, updated health solutions, and behind-the-scenes snippets…
