Meet Laurin

Let me tell you my story...

 

As a child I was sick all the time. Flu every year, sometimes twice a year. Ear infections so bad and so frequent that I had both ear drums lanced at six weeks old, and was sent south to my grandmother for six weeks when I was six years old to try to stop the never ending ear infections that were now threatening my hearing. My tonsils came out when I was three. I had terrible environmental allergies (and my home environment always contained dogs and cats) and much later learned that I had weird food allergies (eggs gave me anxiety attacks!). My only route to wellness for a long time was our western medicine approach…pills, shots, surgeries.

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When I was twenty-one I spent several months in Morocco interning with an international development project and ended up with shigella dysentery. The bacterial infection and the strong antibiotics needed to get rid of it wiped out my already overworked immune system (fighting allergies for 21 one years was hard work!). When I returned to the US I was constantly ill, but I was lucky enough to find an unusual western medicine practice that took a holistic approach to my situation. I was introduced to supplements, a nutritionist, a unique approach to allergy testing (which actually taught me a lot about my symptoms…like the anxiety that both eggs and shrimp caused) and therapeutic massage for stress relief. After a year of working with this medical practice I was healthier than I had ever been, though the underlying immune system issues of allergies and asthma were not cured, just controlled enough to allow my immune system to recover.

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All of these early health challenges kept my attention on the medical community and for a while I thought I might want to go to medical school – the better to understand my own issues and to help others in the same situation. High school biology fascinated me. High school chemistry baffled me…not med school, then.

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That interest in med school returned during my recovery year after Morocco but I also learned about Public Health School and decided that it might be where my interest in learning about how to create health and wellness could be satisfied. I got my Masters in Public Health with a concentration in International Health (I thought I was heading back to work in Africa) and epidemiology (the data collecting and evaluating arm of public health). I fell in love with the new personal computers I discovered in the epidemiology department and I fell in love with my husband who wasn’t so keen on moving to Africa. Africa was out. The Public Health Service was under a presidential hiring freeze. I found a job I loved teaching others how to use PCs.

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Fast forward through wedding and starting a family. Our first child was incredibly healthy, though she developed a couple of weird allergies in her second year. Our second child was incredibly unhealthy from the get go. I ended up quitting my job to stay home with the kids. The oldest was in kindergarten by then, so my days were consumed with trying to get the youngest healthy. When the pediatrician and the asthma/allergy doc kept prescribing antibiotics, steroids, and stronger (with super scary side effects) asthma controlling meds to my two year old, I decided there had to be a better way.

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The Universe, via my dad, found us a consultant specializing in connecting people like us with vetted alternative care practitioners. We found Dr. Wu, an acupuncturist and herbal medicine specialist, trained in the rigorous Chinese health system, and who was a consultant at the NIH! After only two weeks of acupuncture and a daily specially made herbal tea my child’s immune system was suddenly working. For the first time he had a healthy glow and energy to burn. The asthma still required meds, but less, and not the one with the super scary side effects. A little nutrition advice from Dr. Wu – more red meat to balance the meds – brought on a growth spurt, and even more improved health.

 

This child’s food allergies were not changed, so we still had to be hyper-vigilant about that, but a robust immune system stopped the endless cycles of viruses, ear and sinus infections. I was fascinated. I saw Dr. Wu for my own allergies, and they were gone after a few acupuncture treatments, as long as I kept taking the herbal tea he prescribed for me and got what I came to call my twice yearly “booster shots” – two to three acupuncture treatments. It was a miracle…but the underlying immune system issues were still not cured, just better controlled.

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Then we moved away from Washington, DC, to get our son out of the air pollution that was a clear trigger for his on-going asthma. We had to leave Dr. Wu behind, but the move proved positive for the asthma.

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Fast forward again, through more stay at home mom-ing but with a new writing career under way, and my own health deteriorating under the stress of a long, drawn-out, and difficult menopause. Allergies were terrible again. I went on hormones to bring some sanity back into my life by damping down the horrible mood swings, debilitating hot flashes and night sweats — the sleep deprivation was worse than having an infant! My body felt like a constant battle ground. I developed asthma again, got sick regularly, including pneumonia one year that kept me doing nothing but resting on the couch for over six weeks, and nothing helped my immune system to work better. I even decided to get traditional allergy shots, but went into anaphylaxis sitting in the doctor’s office during the testing. I ended up in the ICU overnight. I was once more getting desperate to find something, anything, that would help bring me to a state of at least relative health.

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About this time, a friend recommended an intuitive healer that she had been seeing up in Northern Virginia. Desperate for help, I made a phone appointment with the healer. After one hour on the phone with her, my asthma was gone and it has never come back. This was in 2015. About a year later, I visited my friend and she arranged for an in-person appointment for me with the same healer. During that session my allergies disappeared entirely. I was interested. Actually, I was obsessed. I wanted to do this kind of healing myself. So I began a journey to learn everything I could and was lucky enough to begin to find a community of energy healers in my own hometown. I was also lucky enough to learn that I actually have a talent for energy healing. I can feel the energy of others and I can work with that energy to help create healing and wellness in them.

In 2018 I have reached a point where I was ready to step up into the light and say: This is me. These are my gifts. I want to share them with the world, to bring healing and wellness to others.

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Heartlight Wellness and the Heartlight Wise Women Circles and community are the result of my long journey and I look forward to working with many, many of you to help you find your own path to health, wellness, community, and joy.

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With love and heartlight,

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Laurin Wittig

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