Hey There! 

As a 17 year old in high school, I remember feeling completely unsure of what I wanted to do in my life, at least as it related to a career. My friends were planning to attend college to pursue nursing, teaching, or business and I still felt like all I knew was I wanted to help people. I remember the exact moment The Lord placed Equine-Assisted Counseling on my heart – I was helping my family out with the horses at our local county fair (something common in little Burton, Ohio) when my dad asked if I ever wanted to do anything with horses. It hit me right then – “I don’t have to be a counselor who just sits and talks with people – I can be a counselor who MOVES and talks with people; a counselor who combines the outdoors, animals, and intimate relational connections. I told my dad that day that I would likely pursue a counseling career to make this dream come alive.

After 4 years of college, 3 years of graduate school, and 26 months of clinical residency, my dream (or what I know now to be The Lord’s calling for me), has adapted slightly. I got married to a man who never doubted my dream and always reminded me how risks are to be taken cautiously, but taken nonetheless – I am still not sure I could have found the bravery to start a practice and develop new programs without his support. In February, 2022 I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and Hashimotos thyroiditis. These diagnoses, strangely enough, were an answer to prayer and answers for endless amounts of questions I’d been asking about my health since 2016. Living with chronic illness has given me a heart for others struggling to find answers, or to support those who have answers, but those answers have changed their entire life, sometimes not for the better. It has also encouraged me towards functional medicine and recognizing how the mind, body, spirit, and world around us really are so connected. What I wrote in these two brief paragraphs is only part of my story, but it’s the part I think is necessary in understanding Virginia Valley Counseling & Restoration and how gracious God has been in creating it. I believe a listening ear is a passageway for peace, and I hope to be just one of many of the listening ears in your life. Thanks for reading. 

Olivia