About Me - Where Clinical Expertise Evolved Into Integrated Healing
Hi, I’m Heather — Occupational Therapist, Certified Hand Therapist, intuitive healer, and founder of Healing Hands Therapy Center.
My work integrates clinical expertise with intuitive and embodied healing — supporting individuals in moving beyond symptom relief to address the deeper emotional and energetic patterns beneath pain, stress, and disconnection.
I guide clients through an Embodied Transformation Journey — helping them reconnect with their bodies, their inner knowing, and their authentic path forward.
Musician → Therapist
My path into healing didn’t begin in healthcare. It began in music.
Growing up, I only ever envisioned one future — becoming a musician. Music was my identity, my passion, and my direction. From the age of 10 I never imagined doing anything else. Until injuries entered the picture and then devastation that my career would not continue.
Suddenly, I found myself asking:
“Now what am I going to do?”
In what felt like a twist of fate — or perhaps something far more guided — I quite literally fell into Occupational Therapy.
I entered an OT program simply with curiosity about the field…
Received a scholarship to attend…
Thrived academically in ways I never expected…
And soon after graduation had a job lined up in hand therapy — even helping to start a musician’s clinic.
Looking back, it felt like the universe had been quietly orchestrating the path all along.
My Career
I started my career at UCONN Health Center where I specialized in upper extremity rehabilitation — working with injuries affecting the hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders.
I later earned my Certified Hand Therapist designation — a credential held by only about 1 in 7,000 therapists worldwide.
This advanced training shaped my clinical precision…
But over time, I began to see that treating the body alone wasn’t always enough.
The Missing Piece
Over time, I began to see that treating the body alone wasn’t always enough.
At its roots, Occupational Therapy is about helping individuals live meaningful, purposeful lives — supporting the whole person across physical, emotional, environmental, and spiritual dimensions. Yet modern healthcare often leaves little room for that depth.
Productivity quotas.
Limited time.
Multiple patients at once.
Minimal space for privacy or reflection.
I could feel that something essential was being left out — not because the system lacked skill, but because it lacked integration.
People’s pain carried stories. Stress. Transitions. Suppressed emotion. Liming belief. The stories we tell ourselves. Identity shifts. I became increasingly curious about what lived beneath physical symptoms. Why do “accidents” happen when they do? Why does tension settle in certain places? Why does the body speak when we haven’t?
The deeper I explored, the clearer it became:
For every thought and feeling we experience, there is a physiological response in the body — and often an energetic imprint beneath it. The missing piece wasn’t more technique. It was deeper awareness. It wasn’t about abandoning clinical work. It was about expanding it.
Root Cause + Intuitive Expansion
This curiosity led me to explore the root causes of pain more deeply.
Why do injuries happen when they do?
What emotional or energetic patterns live beneath physical tension?
How do stress, trauma, and identity shape the body’s response?
Over time, I became deeply aware that for every thought and emotional experience we have, there is a physiological response within the body. And often, beneath that response, there is an energetic imprint. As I listened more closely — both clinically and intuitively — I began recognizing patterns that traditional rehabilitation alone couldn’t fully address. Rather than separating clinical expertise from intuitive insight, I learned to integrate them.
My Current Work
Today, my work blends:
- Occupational & upper extremity therapy
- Body awareness and nervous system support
- Manual and craniosacral therapy
- Energy clearing and intuitive guidance
- Transformational coaching
- Identity and life alignment support
Supporting healing across physical, emotional, and energetic layers.
Beyond the Credentials
While healing work is central to my life — both for my clients and for myself – there’s lots more that I love and new things calling to be explored.
If I could do anything for work, I would still choose to do this. Healing, growth, and integration are woven into who I am. (Though if I’m being honest, I sometimes joke that I might add acupuncturist or licensed clinical social worker to my credentials someday — because I’m endlessly fascinated by how all these disciplines intersect.)
There’s always something new calling to be explored.
- I’d love to go back to school and add an acupuncturist and licensed clinical social worker to my tools in my toolbox.
- If I won the lottery tomorrow, I’d still do what I do BUT, I’d buy a large piece of land on a lake or river and rescue as many dogs as possible.
- I feel most at peace in nature – especially by water elements.
- I’m deeply committed to my own spiritual growth and expansion –it is a lifelong journey!
- Bucket list of things to learn/do: learn the cello and dobro, take a silversmithing or pottery class, take a tap dancing class (no recital..LOL), camp at as many state parks as I can before my exit point comes.
- And, maybe run that full marathon I’ve always been thinking about!
Credentials:
BFA, BS, OT/L, CHT
- BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
- BACHELOR IN FINE ARTS
- CERTIFIED HAND THERAPIST
BFA, BS, OT/L, CHT
- AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HAND THERAPISTS
- AMERICAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY ASSOCIATION