Essential Living

My name is Victoria Harshall.  I am a Wellness Advocate, a Photonic Therapist, a Health Coach, including Pre and Post Natal Health Coach.  How I got here was a rather indirect route.  I have always been interested in natural health and wellness.  I even wanted to go to med school or even to vet school as I always wanted to help people and animals feel better.  However, that was not in the cards for me at that time.  My parents were not in a position to pay for my schooling for something like that.  Because I had skipped grades when I was younger, I had graduated high school younger than most.  At that young tender age, taking on so much debt for school loans seemed too overwhelming to me.  Therefore I decided against med school and just decided to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Human Development.  It seemed to still be in a healing field.  

 

My last year of college required me to do a practicum.  I was working at a Youth Development Center with young people who had strayed off a legitimate path to success.  During my tenure there, I was requested to spend some time in the Maximum Security Unit. There had been some negative events happen that had infuriated the locals who wanted to close the center.  The Center needed someone both female and small in stature to successfully survive working the Maximum Security Unit to testify at the Senate Hearings in order to support keeping the Center open.  It seemed that I might fit the bill.  (This is important to future events in my life.)
 

Upon graduation, finding employment in my field was all but impossible.  I was able to get a job as a drug counselor taking on clients that were ordered there by the courts.  (Meaning that they don’t really want to be there.)  That was really not what I wanted to be doing and certainly the money was not even enough to sustain me at a level above the poverty line.  In an effort to survive, I took what was available and ended up as the first female supervisor for a foundry.  In other words, I was a foreman.  Again, not what I had planned.  Working in the foundry in many ways was not much different than working in the Maximum Security Unit of the Youth Development Center:  everyone was testing me to see where “over the line” was for me.  But the money and benefits were good.  

 

As my life moved along, I bought a farm, raised horses and rabbits, married, had a daughter and divorced.  All the while, I tried to live a more natural lifestyle.  I often read Mother Earth Magazine in an attempt to learn more about natural living and health.  I tried to take care of all my charges:  daughter, horses, cats, dogs, rabbits and even chickens in the most natural methods I could find.  I grew fruits and vegetables, dried herbs, raised turkeys and rabbits for meat.  I was a regular little old homesteader.  

 

As I worked in an industrial environment professionally and “homesteaded” privately, I saw my share of bumps, scrapes, bruises, colds, flu, cancers, and addictions.  It seemed to me that there should be a more natural way to heal than always using synthetically produced chemicals.  I still had yet to find the magic potions though. Even though, I had used herbs and teas and tinctures with some degree of success.  

 

Fast forward through moving to another state to join a car manufacturer, and another farm for seven years.  I was fortunate enough to find a mostly like-minded husband to share life on the farm and the raising of my 10 year old daughter.  Then an opportunity to move to Europe with another car company came along for us.  A much too good to be true of an opportunity to ignore.  This again brought me face to face with natural remedies and natural healing as the European philosophies around health are more focused on organic and pure living.  This had a profound impact on both my daughter and my view of healthy.  After six years in Europe, it was now time to repatriate to the USA.  Since my husband and I both worked in the automotive world, Detroit seemed to be the logical location where I spent several more years in the field.  

 

During this time, my very first horse I ever had was beginning to show signs of his advanced years.  Since I was also in the process of training a young mare via Natural Horsemanship, I was exposed to Photonic Therapy.  (See the Photonic Therapy tab for additional information). It was exactly what my old horse needed to assist with pain relief.  I became certified in administering treatments.  Another step in my natural healing journey.  

 

It seemed that each stage of my life brought new remedies and new points of view on natural health.  During this time in my life, I learned about natural hormone balancing and healed myself of potentially losing a breast through the use of bio-identical hormones.  

 

Due to the natural aging process, along with the exposure to many xeno estrogens (adhesives on carpets, chemicals in cleaning supplies, plastics whether they are water bottles, food packaging or plastic everything in our society), my body became estrogen dominant.  I began having a lump rise and recede in my breast.  We watched it for months.  I also was quite an emotional wreck.  We chalked it up to the normal peri-menopause / early menopause changes along with an extremely stressful work environment.  My current doctor decided we needed to do a lumpectomy but first we should do a biopsy which would occur in his office.  During the procedure, my husband was there holding my hand and trying to make jokes to keep my focus on happy things as opposed to being poked with extremely large spring-loaded needles.  My husband asked him “Will she be able to play the piano after this procedure?”  To which the doctor replied that it would not interfere at all with my movements of that sort.  Which I then replied, “Oh that’s great, because I have never been able to play the piano before!” I think that is what caused the actions that happened next.  (Not really).  Thank goodness his office was in the local hospital.  During the biopsy I shared with him that I was extremely nauseous and it felt like there was a knife in my back.  To which he responded, “Oh SHXT!”  And started barking orders to the nurse to obtain a portable x-ray machine along with getting me down to the OR.  Apparently he had punctured my thoracic cavity and collapsed my lung.  Not a good day.  Upon waking up in the recovery room, I went home with a 4”x5” pump taped to my chest to inflate my lung.

 

It was a few days after that event that Dr. Pamela Smith, a world renowned bio-identical hormone expert came into my life.  She discovered that I suffered from an extreme case of adrenal fatigue. My adrenal glands were flat-lined which put me at risk for a stroke as well as the crazy hormonal swings that I suffered and exposed everyone around me to as well.  ;-0) She helped me start the journey to balance my hormones naturally and I have never had a lump or tender breasts again.  I am a very big fan and supporter of natural bio-identical hormone balancing.  

 

Professionally during this time, I was active in developing and implementing adult learning activities.  I love teaching.  However, due to the economic times, it became apparent that it was time for me to leave the car company and start my own consulting business.  One of my early consulting jobs took me to my parent’s hometown.  It was great to be able to spend more time with them and be able to do my job at the same time.  It also allowed me to closely observe my mom after my father passed.  It became apparent that it was time for Mom to have support.  Either assisted living or coming to live with us in Michigan.  She was not too keen on the assisted living idea so we moved her to our house.  In the beginning, I could leave her for a while and she would be okay.  I was even able to consult during the day shift at a local hospital for about a year.  In 2014, life took a different turn when I became my mother’s full-time care taker.  She has Alzheimer’s.  Now my ability to travel and run my consulting business was no longer possible.  It is right around this time that I was introduced to pure therapeutic Essential Oils.  What a blessing that these oils came into my life.  They support me in staying grounded and present with my mom.  They support her in holding onto as much of her old self as she can.  She will be 90 in one month and for someone with Alzheimer’s, she is doing amazingly well.  

 

In the fall of 2013 my then 14 year old Siamese cat developed Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the bladder.  It is an extremely aggressive cancer that the vets gave her only a few months to live.  Even with chemo-therapy, I might only gain an extra month.  I decided what have I got to lose by trying to assist her with the oils.  Cats are very sensitive to essential oils as they don’t have the needed liver enzymes to be able to break down the oils in the same manner as humans or other animals.  Therefore extreme dilution and dosage must be observed.  I researched many sources to come up with a protocol for her.  Much to her General Practitioner vet and her Oncologist vet’s surprise, we were able to provide her a good quality of life for just under 12 months since diagnosis through the use of Chinese herbs and Essential Oils.  There were even times, that we almost thought we might eliminate the cancer.  But this cancer basically has no known cure and is ruthless.  Still, we gave her almost a year with us.  

 

The oils have become a welcome daily addition for our family.  My husband reaches for the lavender for burns, cuts and blisters on a regular basis.  I use the grounding blend to stay grounded, cardamom to flavor my coffee, a homemade blend to slow thinning hair, a homemade sleep salve to shut my brain off at bed time, just to name a few.  

 

It was around this time that I also decided to increase my schooling and become a health coach.  I researched health coach options and decided on Dr. Sears.  He is well known in the field and has been coaching people to healthier lifestyles for a long time. My daughter is a doula and childbirth educator and after listening to her rather passionate rantings over the years, I also gained an interest in maternal health. This prompted my desire to further my leanings with Dr. Sears. I am now both a general certified Health Coach along with a certified Pre-Natal Health Coach.  

 

Lately, I have added Juice Plus (see the Juice Plus tab for more information). Along with the daily vitamin supplements, I have added Juice Plus to my regimen.  For the past few years I have been plagued with synovial cysts and other joint issues.  But since I have combined the Juice Plus with my other supplements my joint issues and synovial cysts are improving.  Stay tuned to see how this turns out.

 

So what do I offer others?  I love to work with others on their health improvement journeys. It can simply be nutritional information and advice or sharing supplement options. I can support or help you support your animals health through Photonic Therapy or essential oil use. I also teach classes on how to use the oils for humans, how to utilize them with horses, cats and dogs as well as how the oils can support a healthier office and any number of class options (natural cleaning option, how to stay healthy on a trip, etc).   When combining the oils with Photonic Therapy, you have a very powerful one-two punch. I have finally come full circle and fulfilled my wish to help people live healthier lives thru natural means. Won’t you join me?