We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paty ‘Mariposa’. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paty ‘Mariposa’ below.

Hi Paty ‘Mariposa’, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

In 2013, I moved to Nicaragua after graduating with my dual Masters’ in Social Work and Public Health. I had also completed my Usui Reiki Master/Teacher certification yet had no idea what my plan with Reiki would be. The purpose of moving was to work with a non-profit agency as their project manager helping with emergency service trainings and support. I had been working with the agency for the past two years as an intern and made the decision to relocate once I graduated. While I was there I casually offered Reiki to friends as I was still learning and gaining confidence. After a few months in Nicaragua, the position with the non-profit fell through and I was left without a job. I decided with the support of local friends who helped business start ups, to launch Mariposas Holistic Healing. Through my business I was able to provide individual services of bridging counseling, coaching, and energy healing sessions to assist people who were struggling with challenges Western medicine wasn’t able to assist them with. I also began teaching Reiki in Spanish, thus sharing this beautiful gift with others. I co-facilitated my first Reiki infused retreat that same year in Costa Rica. I decided to return to the US after 6 months in Nicaragua and eventually returned to Miami as a caregiver for my mom who was having negative reactions to her cancer treatment. After she passed, I focused my energy on helping my father adjust and continued to expand my practice. I’m currently based out of Miami yet travel often and work with people all around the world in English and Spanish. My business will be 12 years old in August of 2026. It’s been a learning opportunity throughout the journey, especially with mindset and confidence. I’m thankful for that turn of events and I’m grateful to be a proud business owner and have a freedom based lifestyle.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Paty “Mariposa” Hernandez, and I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Trauma-Informed Usui Reiki Master Teacher, holistic wellness and spiritual coach, and the founder of Mariposas Holistic Healing. I support heart-centered professionals-especially helpers, healers, therapists, nurses, social workers, and sensitive souls—who are tired of running on survival mode and are ready to come back home to themselves and their spirituality.

I bridge western clinical wisdom, nervous system care, and eastern medicine tied with spiritual connection because I truly believe healing becomes sustainable when we address the whole person: body, mind, emotions, energy, and spirit. I felt called to this journey through lived experience, devotion to personal and spiritual growth, and a calling to serve since I was a child.

As a social worker, I’ve spent years witnessing how trauma, stress, burnout, and emotional overwhelm show up in real life as patterns we carry in our bodies and relationships. I’ve also seen what happens when people are given tools that are actually accessible, compassionate, and aligned with their humanity. Tools and a support system that don’t shame them for struggling. Tools that help them soften, regulate, and rebuild trust with themselves.

Reiki came into my life the year my sister was diagnosed with cancer. She opted for alternative healing which at that time in 2009 I had no idea what it meant. She introduced me to chakras, Louise Hay, conscious language, raw food, and so much more. It was a struggle understanding her perspective from the lens of a social worker. However, it was through a social worker and colleague at my local Unitarian Church that I learned Reiki. I had hoped while learning Reiki that it could be the solution to help my sister. However Reiki taught me over time that healing isn’t only about insight, especially when connected to spirituality. It’s also about safety. It’s about the nervous system. It’s about the moment your shoulders drop and you realize you can breathe again. It’s about learning to listen inward not with fear, but with steadiness and self-trust.

Over time, I became passionate about teaching Reiki in a way that balanced my Western education of understanding the holistic system. This balance would also include trauma-informed, grounded, and empowering support especially for people who have felt “too sensitive,” “too much,” or like they have to over-function to be worthy. The other side of the balance would be my Eastern education of energy healing that works without logic and is based on using subtle forms of receiving energy such as through sound, sight, and intuition.

Today, I offer experiences that help people transform stress and trauma into inner peace through practical and soulful self-care.

My offerings include: Trauma-Informed Reiki trainings and certifications (including Reiki classes and mentorship for practitioners who want to serve with integrity and confidence. My signature program called Root and Rise with Reiki which offers the Reiki classes and individual Reiki and coaching sessions for nervous system regulation, emotional healing, and spiritual realignment.
Reiki infused Retreats and immersive experiences along the East coast and internationally focused on Reiki, self-care, reconnection, movement, ritual, nature, community, and deep restoration.
Community-based events like Reiki shares, sound healing, and healing circles, because healing is powerful.
Reiki Reawakening Retreats and Rekindle Reiki 21 day virtual program for Reiki practitioners to return to their practice with confidence.

Everything I create is designed to help Reiki practitioners and lightworkers come back to a felt sense of wholeness so they can live, serve, and lead from an inner current instead of constant output. Many of my clients and students are the ones everyone depends on. They’re capable. They’re thoughtful. They’re successful on paper. But inside? They’re tired, overwhelmed, and often burnt out.

Common things I help people move through:
*Chronic stress, tension, and burnout
* Feeling emotionally overwhelmed, numb, or disconnected from joy
* Overthinking, people-pleasing, and difficulty setting boundaries
* Nervous system dysregulation;sleep issues, irritability, shutdown, anxiety
* Feeling spiritually disconnected or unsure how to trust their intuition
* For practitioners: feeling “not confident enough” to share Reiki, speak about energy, or lead in a way that feels grounded and ethical
* For heart-centered business owners: wanting success without sacrificing their wellbeing, spirituality, values, or authenticity

I help people shift from: surviving → regulating → reconnecting → leading from alignment.
There are many Reiki practitioners. There are many clinicians. There are many coaches.

What makes my work different is that I don’t ask people to choose between being spiritual or being grounded.

I hold both.

I bring the lens of a clinician the ethics, the trauma awareness, the respect for scope and nervous system care and I also honor the sacred, intuitive, energetic aspects of healing that so many people feel but don’t always have language for.

My clients often tell me they feel relieved because they don’t have to “perform healing” around me. They can be honest. They can be human. They can bring the unexplainable experiences, the grief, the sensitivity, the fear, the hope… all of it.

I’m also community-centered. I build containers where people feel supported, witnessed, and strengthened. Because healing is not only what we do in private; it’s also what becomes possible when we feel safe enough to be seen. I’m proud that I’ve built a body of work rooted in integrity and compassion and that I continue to create offerings that genuinely serve the real lives people are living.

I’m proud of my students who go from doubting themselves to confidently offering Reiki in ways that are trauma-aware and empowering. I’m proud of the retreats and spaces I create where people exhale for the first time in a long time and remember who they are underneath the roles they carry. I’m proud that my brand Mariposas (butterflies) Holistic Healing stands for transformation which attracts many people. For the butterfly moment: when you realize you are allowed to change, evolve, and choose yourself without guilt, however many times it takes.

If you’re new to my work, these are the main things I want you to know:
1. You don’t have to be perfect to be worthy of healing. You just have to be willing to begin and want to practice with loving intention.
2. Self-care isn’t selfish. It’s nervous system protection and it’s a daily priority. It’s how you stay connected to yourself in a world that constantly pulls you outward.
3. Your sensitivity is not a flaw it’s information. With the right tools, it can become your greatest strength.
4. Healing can be both practical and sacred. You can have structure and spirituality. Ethics and intuition.
5. You don’t have to do this alone. Community matters. Support matters. Being held matters.
My purpose is simple and lifelong: to help create a more healing world connected to spirituality by supporting the people who care for others so they can care for themselves with the same devotion they give away that’s trauma-informed.

If you’re ready to come back to your center, regulate your nervous system, trust your inner wisdom, and build a life that feels aligned, I’d be honored if you’d choose me as your guide.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

I am successful in my field and profession because I embrace the role as an eternal student. I’m constantly reading and researching pertinent information along with new tools to help my clients and Reiki students. I also remain humble by knowing there’s still so much to learn and I don’t know it all. I’ve stayed in my business due to faith and trust within myself even when I didn’t know the next step to take. I’ve also stayed connected with colleagues and have an incredible support system.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Until late last year in 2025 I had a business partner running self-care retreats. We met in undergraduate school and have been best friends since. We hosted our first retreat in 2013 while we were both living in Central America and were impressed by how it went. We decided a few years later to create a business together focused on Reiki infused retreats. We led a few international retreats and a few in Florida throughout the years. We led virtual retreats and even had an online membership. We decided to part ways last year as we noticed it was becoming more challenging for her to travel as she has a family and a brick and mortar business. We also noticed that our business relationship was negatively affecting our friendship and so we decided one of them had to go. Our personalities and how we worked together began to shift into too many differences. I’ve continued to lead retreats and she continues to support me as a friend and support system for that I’m grateful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mariposasholistic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariposasholistic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariposasholistic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stresslesswithpaty

Image Credits

@mari