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Awaken to Alternatives: Autism, Hankins, NY (2025)

03/22/2024

I’d love to hear your experiences with equine therapy 🐴 ❤️

03/15/2024

To Train or Not to Train My Unicorn? (Our Autism Journey: Part 1)

It takes a lot of deconditioning to do what I just did.

“Autistic children thrive with structure, routine, and predictability,” is what the research says.

Stepping into my power, I say, “Not this autistic child. Not my son.”

For those of you who have been following Tristan’s journey, you’ll remember the developmental progress we experienced when we first broke free from the monotony of normal living. After a winter marked by regression, and hours upon hours trapped within a house because the weather outside was just too hostile for us, we broke free and drove to the ocean - spending 6 weeks in South Carolina in February and March 2022.

Within hours of leaving, Tristan was laughing hysterically. Looking out the window, viewing the new scenery as we drove through states along I-95, his brain began to reawaken.

Each new experience forms new synapses in the brain. Anyone who researches the internal components of autism know that these children have issues with neural pruning and dead synapses in the brain. I’m not sure how travel affects this, but I know I see incredible developmental progress each time we leave.

Then, the negative ions of the ocean touched him. Negative ions heal the body of free radical stress, decrease inflammation, and calm the central nervous system.

The sun provides Vitamin D in a way that supplements just can’t. His body only processes vitamins and nutrients from organic food, which is why I work so hard to cook each meal from scratch, to avoid contaminants, and why I spend so much money on Purium. That line of supplements and shake mixes has changed our lives and when I can’t afford it, I feel the effects.

Fast forward to the present - we tried public school for 5 weeks. I started the process just after we moved, during a period of regression, but it took almost three months for the school district to accommodate him. This is the process for a student without an updated IEP.

I met with his principal before Christmas break. They did not yet have a teacher for the classroom he would be in. The principal was one of the kindest women I had ever met - we share an interesting connection with Saint Elizabeth, the first American born saint; she is credited with starting the parochial education system. She experienced unspeakable lost but went on to build a healing village and to help many. I felt ok with sending him.

I tried to quiet my concerns about the cleaning chemicals, the electrical transformers directly across the street, the Wi-Fi, the cell phone radiation, and all of the issues I have with public education.

For five weeks, Tristan willingly and happily went to school each day. Most weeks were only three day weeks due to snow days and gang violence that shut down the district but he got up and got dressed each morning and I drove him with a smile on his face where he was greeted by people who loved him.

Our days after 2 pm became difficult for all of us. Tristan often came home in a state of distress and started exhibiting alarming behaviors. He refused to leave the house after school so we could no longer go for walks as a family, to the trampoline park or aquarium, and I had to run all of my errands with Troy and Ember before he came home. Still, this allowed me to work on my candles while he was at school and I was told to expect things to get worse before they got better.

And then came February 9th. Tristan got off the van in a state of extreme distress, running from me, eloping, dangerous behavior for a child in the city, and he continued a high pitched scream that lasted 5 days. I contemplated calling 911 because my stress level got so high and eventually my former partner took him to our old home which always reset him. This time, however, he was much harder to soothe and the screaming continued in the place where he always felt safe. When he returned, he clearly communicated to me, with words, that he did not want to return to that place.

I had looked through his planner and communication log and there was no incident of recognition that could have caused this. No fire drill, no fight with another student - just “Tristan had a rough morning, but his afternoon was better,” or something like that.

It took me a while to process all this. It triggered the guilt and the pain of Tristan’s injury by modern medicine - again, I failed to protect him.

I had to get away, to go to the ocean to find clarity. Throughout this trip, I fully expected to send Tristan back.

I’ll share more about the realizations that happened once we made it to the ocean, and my decision to return to a life of alignment, a life that some people view as ‘unstable’, but now - it is time to start breakfast for my unicorn children. 💕

Thank you for witnessing 🙏🏻

03/13/2024

Let’s catch it wild, and then soak it in poison! Once you go down the rabbit hole of researching what is in our food supply to save a sick child - and learn what is legal here vs what is banned in Europe and why - you really become so mindful of what you put in your body.

Donation-based nutritional healing sessions [no one is turned away for an inability to pay] - learn about plants and herbs that help your body to detox from this, simple dietary changes you can make to feel an overall difference in your health, or how I mitigated the problematic symptoms of autism in my child by changing our lifestyle. Distance via Zoom or in person in Scranton.

Please share if you feel called 🙏🏻

01/29/2024

I’m so grateful to those of you holding and supporting me through my dark times. A lot is coming to the surface to be healed. I’m sorry to those I am losing touch with, I’m focusing on my children and calming my nervous system. I pray for healing. I pray a prayer of gratitude for the beauty I can *still* see in my life, amidst the current suffering and pain - knowing soon, this will all lessen. The burden will be less and there will be harmony. I call it in. Thank you for witnessing 🙏🏻💗 I truly would be lost without the support of this community. I love you deeply.

12/12/2023

I want to take a moment to write a post on friendship -

This woman has altered my life in such incredible ways. She has supported me through so many trials and tribulations, I so admire her passion and the work that she does with her farm {Bethel Pastures Farm Bed & Breakfast}, the healing energy there, and the little push she gave me to succeed, the strength to believe in myself and the assistance that I needed when I needed it in the kindest and gentlest of ways.

It was in the early fall she offered to harvest some of her zinnias with me, so that I could use the petals for my candles - the healing energy of the farm directly transferred into them, the feeling is quite strong - we definitely should have harvested more of them - and this experience gave me the serenity I needed to succeed.

So many people have pushed me to succeed, I have had such a huge community of support holding and loving me through the hardest period of my life and Rochelle is one who helped me to find the rhythm I needed to thrive because of her, her family, and their land…she is one of the those who inspired my candle line:

Wander and Heal Reiki infused Soy Candles

Created with ingredients foraged from healing locations throughout my life, places that I’ve been where the energy feels different, calmer, more deeply healing; and places I will visit with my children - our healing journey, our quest to find ourselves - to live a life outside of the ordinary.

I’m grateful to her and all of you for witnessing my journey. Thank you 🙏🏻💋

11/07/2023

Love EFT tapping and Maria I has helped with many shifts in my life

04/08/2023

Gut Healing for Autism: Gluten free and Dairy free is Not Enough

Within their first two years, many autistic children begin to limit their diet to breads, milk, crunchy wheat products, cereals, and sugary yogurts. This creates abnormal and unhealthy conditions within their stomachs, particularly with their gut flora--bacteria involved in digestion and immune function. The sugars in these foods and the chain reaction they create allows harmful bacteria to thrive while destroying healthy bacteria, essential to the child's wellbeing.

Candida, an overgrowth of yeast and harmful bacteria, begins to thrive, and these harmful bacteria cause intense cravings for more of the damaging food that created them and allow them to thrive.

There is an overwhelming amount of research promoting a gluten free, dairy free diet for autistic children, and because these children have intense food sensitivities, well-meaning parents like myself often rush out to buy gluten free, dairy free breads, crackers, cookies, and cereals.

With these changes, there may be some improvement due to the elimination of extremely harmful peptides in wheat and dairy that autistic children just can't break down, but overall, there are many more steps involved in healing the gut of an autistic child, improving their health, and eliminating the problematic symptoms associated with autism. The gluten free, dairy free processed foods are still converted into sugar, and the harmful conditions in the stomach prevail.

This is why I have worked so diligently on Awaken to Alternatives: Autism. You won't find this information in a doctor's office, insurance does not cover a functional nutritionist, and many parents just don't have the time or ability to research and implement the lifestyle changes necessary for their child to succeed without a container of love and support.

I have created the very program I wish existed to guide me through the overwhelm I felt when I started my healing journey with Tristan 💚

04/07/2023

Picky Eating and Autism

It’s no secret that many kids, on the spectrum or not, are picky eaters and have aversions to healthy foods. This is in part because of the Standard American Diet (a diet high in processed foods), antibiotics, and pesticides. All of the aforementioned lead to a condition known as candida, an overgrowth of yeast in the gut, which penetrates into the tissues of the body, causing massive amounts of inflammation and allowing unhealthy bacteria to thrive.

Modern medicine will sell you on the belief that autistic children have food aversions because of sensory issues; to put all your hopes and dreams for healing your child on hold because of a myth is a false belief I am hoping to dispel for many parents. Healing your child requires a mindset shift.

My son is autistic. My son WAS a picky eater. He loved the crunchy, processed, heavily fortified unnatural foods that were feeding his candida and making him sick. He had temper tantrums, he had meltdowns, he was constantly stimming, lost in his own world, unable to make eye contact or communicate or follow any type of directive.

When I learned that nutrition could heal all of this, I knew I would stop at nothing to feed him a healthy diet.

The beliefs and the vibrations we put out into the Universe are amplified and attract more of the same. I believed my child would heal, and he did—RAPIDLY.

If you believe that changing your child’s diet won’t help, you don’t want to learn about the gut brain connection, or you CAN’T replace detrimental foods with nourishing ones, we are not the same and my page probably isn’t for you. But if you want to join me on a healing journey, and offer positivity and support both to yourself and to other parents like you, then keep reading and I’ll give you some hints.

Candida is a living organism that feeds on complex sugars--the sugars found in bread and added to almost all processed foods from ketchup to cereal. Once candida overtakes the gut, it causes intense cravings for more sugar, which can be unbearable in autistic children. Hence the “behavioral issues”…these children are experiencing extreme discomfort.

It takes a bit of research, but you can find healthy, whole foods alternatives to all of your child’s favorite foods. Here are some swaps you can make to begin the healing process immediately.

Chips and salty snacks for: Roasted nuts and seeds seasoned with spices and pink Himalayan or Celtic sea salt, tossed in organic olive oil. Table salt is full of toxins that exacerbate inflammation and contribute to microplastics in the body. Organic olive oil decreases inflammation and promotes brain health.

Frozen, prepared, or fast-food chicken nuggets for: Organic, pasture raised chicken, cut into bites, tossed in arrowroot flour and sauteed/fried in organic olive oil. Arrowroot flour is rich in potassium, B-vitamins, and iron, all of which are common nutrient deficiencies in autistic children. It is also an anti-inflammatory which promotes immune function and does NOT spike blood sugar levels or feed candida as gluten free flour does. It provides a nice crunch on chicken.

Convention bread for: Paleo bread or sweet potato toast. Lots of recipes available on the internet, my own personal collection coming soon.

Once you have a few healthy foods that your child will eat, repeat those meals over and over as you learn new ones. This nourishes your child’s body instead of filling up their belly with harmful ingredients. My go to recipe for Tristan was roasted chickpeas with roasted vegetables—there are ways to make all of this crunchy. I’ll post more info and recipes in the future.

***Awaken to Alternatives: Autism ~ a 6 week mind body spirit healing program with picky eating support…live classes begin April 10! DM me to begin your healing journey!***

04/07/2023

The Program I Wish I Had When I Started My Journey with Tristan

Awaken to Alternatives: Autism is a mind body spirit healing program for autistic children and their parents. This program was created based upon my family’s healing journey with my son Tristan, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 ½.

In the beginning, Tristan was unable to communicate his needs and desires, he was constantly overwhelmed and we struggled with countless emotional meltdowns each day, he was self-injuring, didn’t respond to his name or understand simple directives, and there was no eye contact-it was like he was lost in his own world.

We didn’t find the healing we were seeking with modern medicine and ABA therapy, so we forged a different path through gut healing and nutrition, detoxification, superfoods, immersing in nature as therapy, and shamanism, spiritual and energetic healing that not only helped Tristan in immense ways, but also helped to calm my central nervous system and release childhood and generational trauma.

Awaken to Alternatives: Autism is a culmination of all of those things.

When you enroll, you will receive a comprehensive gut healing protocol created by my dear friend and Functional Nutritionist & Gut Health Specialist Brittany Prince, which will teach you about all of the common underlying medical conditions associated with autism that modern medicine does not teach parents about, like leaky gut, candida, mold, mycotoxins, viruses and co-infections, and bacterial imbalances like SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth). You will learn why your child alternates between constipation and diarrhea and conditions such as IBS. And you will understand how all of these conditions along with the health of your child’s gut and immune system, affect his/her brain in terms of neurotransmitters, synapses, and inflammation.

In healing the gut and dealing with these underlying conditions, you can hope to see developmental progress and speech development as I did with Tristan, along with a decrease in stimming, sensory sensitivity, overwhelm and meltdowns.

On Monday nights beginning April 10 at 7 pm EST, for 6 weeks, we will meet as a community to offer support and encouragement to you and your child on your journey. These meetings will be facilitated by my loving friend, holistic psychologist, and Rewilding retreat facilitator Dr. Kristy Vanacore, who has over 15 years of experience supporting autistic children AND their families in the healing process, and myself (I am a nutrition coach for autism, a spiritual healer and Reiki practitioner and a mother who healed the problematic symptoms associated with autism in her child—my son is now thriving).

We will work to decondition the programming we receive from modern medicine and the school system surrounding autism and its classification as a disability, myths surrounding behavioral disorders, and teach you simple and enjoyable ways to care for yourself and your child aimed at regulating the central nervous system to feel calmer and less anxious, the importance of nature and the science behind its physiological effects on the body, and you will naturally begin to discover your child’s gifts and talents that are often hidden behind the false beliefs we hold after being exposed to these larger systems that are aimed at masking symptoms and forcing our children to appear “less autistic” in order to fit into the public education system.

You will learn to advocate for your child and you will be completely in tune with what is best for his/her development. These classes are live and will be recorded if you are unable to attend.
On weekends, you will have the option to attend live spiritual healing sessions, all of which are meant to serve as a form of self-care for the parent, to nurture your mind body and spirit as you walk the path towards healing with your child.

The healers and practitioners I have brought in as guests, and the modalities that they offer, have all been so helpful to me on my healing journey and supported me through times of struggle, sadness, or chaos, because let’s be honest, the path to healing is not always easy.
In these sessions, you will experience different types of breathwork, which are so calming to the central nervous system and helping to regulate the physical and emotional body, especially in those of us who have experienced trauma.

There is an offering of a breathwork ceremony with a gifted medicine man and shamanic practitioner that employs a type of somatic circular breathing that can have the same effect of years of psychotherapy in a single one hour session. This type of breathwork in a ceremonial context also strengthened my intuition in making decisions regarding my son’s path, knowing exactly what was right for him in terms of supplements, superfoods and adaptogens, and alternative therapies.

Other sessions include EFT tapping, which is supportive for anxiety and emotional regulation, which is so needed as a parent of a child with additional needs, chakra balancing and body scan to learn to work with your energetic field and your child’s, and Reiki and subconscious reprogramming.

You can see a schedule of these events linked below. Again, all of these are recorded and you will have lifetime access to the recording.
If this program sounds like the next step in your healing journey, I invite you to send me a direct message and I will get you all the info needed for registration. Sending love and blessings to you all!

04/06/2023

Early morning foggy walk 💚 I’m so glad I went against the grain, what is commonly expected and preached as “best practice” by modern medicine and public education and dedicated myself to homeschooling Tristan (and Troy, of course). Tristan’s former developmental pediatrician said I was doing a “great disservice” by homeschooling him.

Homeschooling is simple and natural.

I deconditioned myself from the false belief that my children needed to learn from a curriculum chosen by administrators who don’t spend time in classrooms.

I deconditioned myself from believing I needed to check off a list of “standards” set forth by the state.

I deconditioned myself from believing that strangers entitled “therapists” would be more successful at teaching my child to communicate, to develop his motor skills, and to develop cognitively.

✨I decide what is important to teach my children—to find joy in each moment, to connect to and respect Mother Earth, to hold compassion for others, to garden, to cook, to reconnect to the ways of ancestors.

✨I embrace the active role my children play in self-directed learning. I observe their interests, passions, and talents and create ways to further develop them.

✨We cook nutritious meals together and spend time in nature, disconnecting from EMFs and electricity, allowing for their brains to develop naturally and their bodies to thrive.

We enjoy each and every day and are so grateful for a simpler way of life.

04/05/2023

Information Session with Dr. Kristy Vanacore about our upcoming offering Awaken to Alternatives: Autism, a mind body spirit healing program for autism children AND their families. Dr. Kristy is a holistic psychologist with over 15 years of experience working with autism. She works to support parents and their children in the healing process, reframing false beliefs about autism and its classification as a disability, educates about underlying causes of symptoms with roots in gut health, inflammation, and toxins in the body, and supports parents in embracing their child for exactly who they are! So honored to be in collaboration with her.

The program also includes an entire gut healing protocol created by Functional Nutritionist and Gut Health Specialist Brittany Prince and weekly self-care/spiritual healing sessions for parents to integrate and release trauma, calm the central nervous system, and decondition false beliefs and patterns of behaviors.

04/04/2023

Candida and Autism

A large component that affects the development of autistic children and contributes to selective eating is candida. Candida is an overgrowth of yeast in the stomach lining, which develops roots that press into the tissues of the stomach, creating extreme discomfort and inflammation throughout the body.

Candida develops and grows as healthy bacteria in the gut are killed off by antibiotics, heavy metals, pesticides, or processed foods. This allows detrimental bacteria to thrive and throws the entire body off balance.

Candida contributes to emotional meltdowns because autistic children live in a state of chronic discomfort and inflammation that they are often unable to communicate to their loved ones. It also contributes to developmental and speech delays, because the body utilizes an unnecessary amount of energy for digestion, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, which increases stress hormones, and neural pruning is inhibited within the brain.

The presence of candida often creates intense food cravings for crunchy, processed foods, which are high in sugar, and milk—both of which further feed the candida and overwhelm the entire body.

As we take slow steps to change the diet of our children, replacing these detrimental foods with nutritious choices, the cravings decrease, the body begins to heal, and the child’s food selections widen.

This was my journey with Tristan. As a nutrition coach, I specialize in recreating healthy version of the unhealthy foods that autistic children love. I have created healthy options for chocolate plant-based milk, a breading for chicken that is high in B vitamins (which are often deficient in autistic children), and crispy chickpeas (a great source of fiber and protein), just to name a few.

DM me to begin your healing journey!

04/04/2023

Autism Awareness Month: The Internal Mechanisms of Autism

Developmental pediatricians and psychiatrists rely on DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition) to define autism. Within this limited construct, there are two main “symptoms” ~ deficits in communication and socialization and restricted interests/repetitive behaviors.

My child is diagnosed with autism, but none of this applies to him. In the beginning, our lives were difficult. He struggled with emotional outbursts/meltdowns, and equally as heartbreaking, he was lost in his own world – no eye contact, no attempts to communicate, did not respond to his name, did not play with his brother or his family.

According to the developmental pediatrician, our only hopes were ABA therapy (which was a nightmare) and prescription medication. Lost in a world where my child was labeled “deficient,” “disabled,” and “developmentally delayed,” my life was consumed with anxiety, fear, worry, and anger…why me? Why my child? I just wanted to him to be happy.

I obsessively scheduled appointments with speech therapists, special education teachers, occupational therapists, therapeutic play dates, and tried to buy into the recommendation that, come fall, it was in my 3 year old’s best interest to be whisked away from his mother and his home, to attend preschool with “typical” peers in the morning and bussed to a special education center across town that specialized in developmental delays for the afternoon.

It felt like I would be giving my frightened baby away to a system that did not understand him but claimed they were going to help him in some way that I, as his mother, could not. The vibrations within my body felt all wrong when I thought about this. I started having severe anxiety that eventually turned into panic attacks.

Luckily, the summer before all this was to happen, I found another path. I accidentally stumbled upon research about heavy metal detox and autism and our lives changed rapidly. Just as I had obsessively scheduled “therapeutic appointments” to keep us busy in hopes of helping my child, I began obsessively researching everything I could find about nutrition, detoxification, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, superfoods, and autism.

We stopped the chaos of traveling to appointments in brightly lit buildings with loud noises and overworked strangers who looked at Tristan as a checklist, goals to be checked off of a list, a child with limited hope and a lot of problems.

We started spending much more time in our kitchen and in nature. Tristan, even with a very limited diet, was always interested in food—the textures, the colors, and the smells. But we were so overscheduled that I often had no time to cook, we ate a lot of freezer meals (which I thought were healthy at the time because they were chicken or fish, what I believed were high quality protein).

Instead of grabbing fast food or eating a peanut butter sandwich on our way to one of the many appointments, we spent time cooking in the kitchen, packing picnics, and taking long walks in the forest, breathing deeply, walking barefoot, gardening in our backyard, and spending time near water.

Tristan’s recovery was rapid. Within days, the emotional outbursts ended. I realized this was not a behavioral issue-his doctor and therapists were wrong! This was Tristan’s way of communicating that the food he was eating was hurting him, causing inflammation within his brain and body, hurting his tummy, causing alternating diarrhea and constipation because his body could not process it.

Within weeks, Tristan’s eye contact returned, he started responding to his name, his interests and attention span broadened—the brain fog lifted and my child returned to the happy, cuddly little boy he once was. Within months, his speech returned and he began following safety directives.

Nutritional healing was just one deviation from the road of mainstream treatment of autism. The technical diagnosis is “autism spectrum disorder.” A spectrum is a condition of variability across a continuum without specific set values, so why is the treatment for ASD standardized to behavioral therapy and prescription medication for all? A disorder is a disruption of systematic functioning.

When we view autism and our children in this way, they will often fulfil these false prophecies.

04/03/2023

Leaky Gut and Autism

Leaky gut is a common health condition in autistic children that requires nutritional healing. A damaged gut lining allows food particles to leak into the blood stream, which will cause behavioral issues or an inability for the child to manage their own behavior.

This is because the body and blood stream recognize that these food particles belong in the stomach and digestive system, not in the blood system. Because of this, the child’s body treat them as a hostile invader, as it would any pathogen, bacteria, virus, etc.

The immune system is unnecessarily activated, utilizing much needed energy that should be used for digestion and detoxification in an attempt to process these food particles.

When the immune system is activated, the central nervous system is also activated, switching from parasympathetic (a state of rest, digestion, and healing) to sympathetic (associated with fight or flight).

Because our children already have sensory sensitives and the world outside their home is unpredictable and unaccommodating, they often spend most of their lives in a state of fight or flight. This floods their brains and bodies with unnecessary and detrimental stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline.

When their bodies are in this amplified state of stress, food is not properly digested. Vitamins and minerals are not assimilated. Neural pruning halts within the brain. Inflammation increases.

All of these components contribute to developmental delays, speech delays, stimming, self injurious behaviors, lack of eye contact, and emotional overwhelm and meltdowns. By changing your child’s diet in a way that promotes healing, the brain and body will recover. Our bodies are self-healing; we only need to provide the ideal conditions.

Looking for additional nutritional support? DM me to get started on your healing journey!

Awaken to Alternatives: Autism

03/22/2024

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