We had the good fortune of connecting with Dawn Cogliser and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dawn, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
There really is no short answer this this question. It has been a long, sometimes painful, but always rewarding in the end, process. Healing Mama Wellness was born in the early 2000s shortly after the birth of my first child. My family lived in New Jersey at that time. Prior to becoming a mother, I worked in the corporate world with all of its demands. I also had a part time business as a Shiatsu practitioner. I loved having a Shiatsu practice. It provided me with not only a balance to the corporate grind, but also provided me the opportunity to provide this healing art for women who where living with the scars of trauma, myself included. With Shiatsu, I was able to reconnect people to their bodies in a gentle, supportive way. Unfortunately, my first pregnancy was considered high-risk, and the fact that I was completely exhausted resulting in putting my Shiatsu practice on hold. As a family, we had made the decision that I would stay home with our children. It was really what I wanted because I did not want to miss one moment with my babies.

While changing careers from working outside the home to now working inside the home was my idea, I started to feel lost. Loss of a career, identify, and loss of self-care. I was then diagnosed with postpartum depression.

I found myself struggling a lot in those early days of being home alone with my new baby. I was given resources to reach out to if I was struggling with things such as breastfeeding or other baby related issues. But I was not just a new mom, I was a new mom in recovery from addiction. I struggled with addiction starting in my teens when I used drugs and alcohol as a means to escape the realities of being abused, forgotten, and unhoused most my life.

I had been in recovery for about 2 years at the time of my first child’s birth. The demands of motherhood and lack of healthy sleep in those early days impacted my mental health and threatened my sobriety. I tried to find connections with other new moms in recovery but there was no one in my area, or so I thought.

I just had a feeling that there were other moms out there like me, but they were afraid to reach out for the fear of stigma around addiction. I knew something had to change. I started seeing a therapist who worked out of a local healing arts center. While sitting in the waiting room I noticed they offered a lot of groups for people living with addiction, although I did not see groups for moms. I remember wondering if they might have offered one in the past but no one attended for fear that their secret would get out. It was in that waiting room that Healing Mama the newsletter was born. I took my first sample copy with me to my follow-up therapy appointment and asked my therapist to introduce me to the person who ran the center. She did, and I pitched my newsletter idea which was very well received. I not only had the green light to place the newsletter in the center, I was offered a sponsorship from the center to cover the printing cost. Each issue featured self-help tips for women in recovery, along with the feature story from a mom in recovery. These Healing Mamas could publish their stories anonymously, which they did at first but then they started submitting their photos. We were coming out of the shadows at last!

During this time, I gave birth to two more children which took more of my time and I gratefully gave it. I had also connected with an amazing homeschooling community. We spent a lot of time together playing in parks, the forests, and annual camping events together. I loved watching all of the children playing in nature. Life was getting better in many areas. And the Healing Mama business went dormant.

What did not go dormant was my deep love of nature. I began hiking and loved it. I was outside on a trail as much as I possibly could be. The further I could go the better. It gave me a new level of love for the forest. To this day I still love the feeling of being off-grid, deep in the belly of mother nature. There is something so healing about connecting with nature.

As life moved forward, our family experienced financial troubles when my husband lost his job. This changed the dynamic of our family and was what prompted me to re-enter the work force. I had always had a desire to help others and a passion for helping women in recovery so I decided to slowly start attending college working towards a degree in nursing. My goal was to be able to provide services for marginalized communities to include services for people struggling with addiction.

Academia has never been easy for me. My nomadic lifestyle in my youth left a void of education. While I did manage to graduate high school, I was a C student at best. As I worked my way through school, I took a job in an entry level position in healthcare. Once I was accepted to nursing school I was able to start advancing my job titles. I graduated with my ASN, then my BSN then I made the bold decision to continue onto my MSN. This decision would take my family on an epic life journey together from the East Coast across this great nation with a stop on the Navajo Nation where we lived while I completed my clinicals to our current home in Oregon. Each journey has also brought me closer to nature through my love of hiking.

I accepted a position as a Nurse Practitioner in Oregon in 2014 and my family made its way further west to Oregon. I fell deeply in love with this new wilderness that surrounded me. I spent every moment I could out in nature when I wasn’t working. I backpacked through the back country both solo and with groups. I became wilderness first aid certified and had goals of becoming a wilderness healthcare provider.

My work in the field of nursing has been focused on working mostly with marginalized populations to include those living with addiction and mental illness. As a Nurse Practitioner, I began to incorporate nature prescriptions (yes, it is a thing) into my daily practice. Patients were reporting back such great outcomes that I knew I was on to something. During that time, I completed additional training as a certified health coach as a means to provide additional support to my patients. It was refreshing to make the connections between health coaching and natures benefits. It felt like I was putting together this beautiful 1,000 piece puzzle of my life and I was loving the image that was starting to appear. Each step I took was another piece of the puzzle.

Then came 2016. I was on one of my favorite hikes. I was familiar with this trail and frequented it often. Rugged back country was my happy place. But this hike was different. I noticed small physical changes. As I was heading back to the trail head I had to stop frequently because my left leg felt like it was dragging. As I sat on a rock trying to massage my leg I noticed the toe of my shoe was all scuffed up even on the top of the shoe. These marks were new from today’s hike. When I got home, I chalked it all up to maybe being dehydrated despite my appropriate amount of fluid intake. I went to bed early figuring I would feel fine the following day. It actually took me 2 days to recover from that hike. The hike I could previously do in half a day with no issues. I knew something wasn’t right, but I was too busy with work to slow down and really figure it out. I continued to hike as much as possible, perhaps denying the obvious decline in my ability until I could not deny it anymore. By that time, I had developed a tremor in my hand with a slight loss of strength in my hand. My left leg was getting worse and it took me 4 times the amount of time to recover from hikes I used to do without breaking a sweat.

My primary care provider started a work up, was concerned about the findings, referred me to a neurologist for further evaluation. Unfortunately, the neurologist left the practice part way through the work up and I was told I need to be “re-assigned” to a new provider and it would be a long wait to be reassigned. Then in March of 2020 Covid happened.

The stress of working in healthcare during a pandemic can NOT be understated. I felt as though my decline in health got sped up into a time warp. The symptoms I experienced on my left side were now progressing to my right side. I noticed that the more stress I was under the worse the symptoms got. I was grateful to get the call to schedule an appointment with the new neurologist but quickly let down when told I had been scheduled with the wrong neurologist. It was again another wait, and yet another new neurologist, and more workups with no obvious answers and I was worsening. Then came the call in the spring of 2021 from the neurologist. He said he was sorry to inform me that I had Parkinson’s Disease. After the call I requested a second opinion which I would receive later that fall.

Shortly after my first diagnosis I had attended an information session for something called Forest Therapy though an organization called Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT). I resonated with everything I heard. It fit so beautifully with my long-term goals of working as a nature-based guide. But between the global pandemic, and my new diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease it was just not something I could pursue. Or could I?

A year passed before I would make the decision to register with ANFT to become a Certified Forest Therapy guide. In that year I found a neurology team I was comfortable with, started on medications which have helped greatly and even explored various activities geared towards people with Parkinson’s. But I missed being in the forest. I couldn’t change the fact of the pandemic, nor could I change the fact that I have Parkinson’s.

What I could change was my relationship with nature. And that is just what Forest Therapy has given me. Becoming a Certified Forest Therapy Guide was one of the best decisions I could have made for my own health. The training provided me with new ways to connect with nature through slowing down and experiencing the forest through my senses. My body, and my mind needed that more than I had realized.

While I was still working through a pandemic, I was becoming aware of the decline in the mental health of many of my patients. More often than not, changes to their physical health closely followed the downward spiral. More and more, people were holing up inside versus going outside and enjoying their lives. I needed to find the missing puzzle piece to help them regain their health.

 

Nature is the missing piece! Nature is where I go when I am stressed out, not feeling connected, and just struggling with my mental health. I just have a new relationship with nature, and maybe this could help my patients.
Let’s face it, people are more stressed today than ever before. When we are stressed, the cortisol (stress hormone) levels remain elevated which keeps our bodies in the “fight or flight” mode which is over-activity of our sympathetic nervous system. Since we live such stressful lives, our bodies do not shift to the “rest and digest” mode, which is our parasympathetic nervous system, which helps our minds and bodies to relax and heal. Chronic activation of our sympathetic nervous system causes worsening of chronic health issues.
Our busy lives are a key driver for the higher rates of chronic illness than we have ever seen before. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average American spends 93% of their time indoors and only 7% of their time outdoors. The impact of such a large nature deficit directly correlates with chronic illness.

According to the CDC, six in ten adults in the US have a chronic disease and four in ten adults have two or more.

I know first-hand that the outdoor industry has not always been accessible to everybody and it is often the people who find barriers to outdoor activity that need it the most. I rekindled the fires of Healing Mama Wellness as a way to increase representation and bring forest therapy to my community with a strong focus on people in recovery, although everyone in the community is welcome.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What sets me part from others is Authenticity! Aside from my professional training and experience, I am a person with lived experience. Healing Mama Wellness is about being my authentic self, healing myself, allowing myself routine access to nature, and knowing that I am perfectly imperfect just the way I am. I am transparent about my journey, struggles and all, because I want others to understand they are not alone. I want EVERY BODY to have access to nature. Nature provides me with the space to reflect on things going on in my life and determine if they are moving me closer to, or further away from being my authentic self. When you are alone out in nature, there really is no external judgement. For example, if I am alone on a hike, the only negative commentary is often in my head. I call it the “evolution of the hike”. When I first start on a trail, I am full of thoughts such as “what are you doing out here,” “you can’t do this” and similar negative head chatter. As the hike progresses, I realize that my authentic self, the woman who has overcome all those early years of adversity, was built for this! By the time my hike is over the trail has reminded me that I do belong there and that to live my authentic life I need to remain connected to nature. The next step is opening the door for others to feel the same authenticity in their own lives.

When I started Healing Mama Wellness it was a grassroots attempt to connect women in recovery. When my life demands increased, I put it on hold and thought about giving it up all together. Yet, something deep inside would not let it go. I had an innate connection to the concept of Healing Mama Wellness because I knew that I NEEDED it! During this time I began to spend more time connecting with nature to help me stay balanced. When I went into healthcare, I realized that there was a huge community of women in recovery who also needed connection to others and nature! Women who are trying to do their best to keep their heads above water with all of the demands in their lives. It was during this time that I knew for sure that Healing Mama Wellness was my calling. It has not been an easy journey, but it is my journey and I wouldn’t trade it. When challenges arrive I take them one step at a time and one breath at a time.

I want the world to know that even though the challenges of life can impact our health, we can implement small changes in our daily lives to lessen the impact of these challenges. We can strive to restore balance in both our body and mind. I believe that what we focus on expands and if we focus on improving our health and use the tools that nature provides, we can raise the health and wellness of not only ourselves, but our communities as a whole.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My best friend Sherry has visited me here in Oregon from her home in New Jersey and we spent the majority of that time in nature. Deep in the canyons, where we laid on dirt trails and laughed, to the rivers edge to play in the water. I would take any friends who come to visit to the beautiful forests we have here in Oregon and let them gently explore these beautiful areas through all their senses. That is the best souvenir I could offer anyone.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family for always supporting me and playing in the woods with me. Sherry Perkins, my best friend for many decades for her unwavering support and encouragement. The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. The founder Amos Clifford, and my Guide instructors Ronna Schneberger and Ken Quendag. I would also like to recognize Guide Sari Telper for her kindness and guidance.

Website: HealingMamaWellness.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing_mama_wellness/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/healingmama/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealingMamaWellness

Image Credits
Dawn Cogliser

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