We were lucky to catch up with Hannah Stinson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

A defining moment in my life was when I was diagnosed with liver disease in 2019. This diagnosis came 2 months after I decided to stop drinking alcohol, a decision that was a catalyst in my healing journey as I was a functioning alcoholic for over 10 years. Being faced with a life long disease that affected such a vital organ of my body only made me more dedicated to my journey of sobriety, despite how difficult it was to grieve a lifestyle that I had used to protect myself for so long. Over the next few years, I dedicated my energy to healing my trauma because that is what led to my addiction in the first place, I worked as an Addictions Counsellor at a long term residential treatment centre that focused on Wholistic Care, treating the root of the addiction (healing the trauma) as opposed to treating addiction as a disease. Being surrounded my others on their sobriety journeys, despite the differences in stories, made me feel empowered and gave me the encouragement to continue to choose myself.

Throughout my journey with liver disease, I have been presented with initiation after initiation (I like to see challenges as initiations into a more evolved version of myself), the biggest was having life saving surgery in October 2021 when 4 of my tumours became life-threatening. I had open abdominal, liver resection surgery (they cut me from the centre of my chest at my breasts down my abdomen to my belly button and across my entire right side torso) to remove the tumours, it was a 4 hour surgery and I was in the hospital for a week after and then a 6 month recovery following that.

That time off gave me a new perspective on life because I was given another chance at life. And this perspective reminded me that what we are not changing, we are choosing. And in that moment I chose myself, I chose to invest everything into my healing journey and heal not only my liver disease but my endometriosis as well.

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.

I am Hannah Stinson (she/they), an Akashic Record Guide, Womb Healer & Ayurvedic Doula in training. My journey into the spiritual and sexual health & wellness fields was not linear, if anything it was cyclical, which makes sense because we are cyclical beings. When I was young, I was introduced to the world of reproductive and sexual health because of my dad’s work in the AIDs community. At my dad’s place, it wasn’t unusual for me to see magnets on our fridge about sex, condoms, genitalia and/or menstrual cycles. Reproductive and sexual health was talked about just as much as brushing your hair and flossing your teeth. Little Hannah didn’t know that their childhood learnings would be part of their sacred soul path.

As I went through my own cycles of life, I found myself falling in love with fashion and ended up doing my Bachelor of Design in Fashion Communications at Toronto Metropolitan University (formally Ryerson University) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This program was everything I needed and more to set me up for success as an entrepreneur – even if I didn’t know it then. After I graduated in 2017, I dabbled in marketing, web design, communications, project management, social media direction, and teaching therapeutic art. It was teaching therapeutic art that brought me back to my innate gifts as a healer.

Soon after I switched directions and started working in Addictions and Mental Health, this was when I worked as an Addictions Counsellor for 2 years before the pandemic hit in March of 2020. During that time, I trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Focus Centred Art Therapy, Non-Violent Crisis Intervention, Suicide Prevention and working with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

After March 2020 things changed and I had to resign from my job at the wholistic residential treatment centre because of my health complications as I worked in a high risk environment. This was another defining moment for me as it allowed me to reflect on my journey and take a deep dive into entrepreneurial-ship as a Womb Healer.

Over the last 3 years, I have become certified as a Spiritual Life Coach, Therapeutic Art Life Coach, Moonologer, Advanced Akashic Record Guide, Reiki Healer (Levels I, II and Master), Yoga Teacher (200hr), Trauma Healer, and now I am training to become an Ayurvedic Doula specializing in postpartum care. I have taken courses and trainings in Astrological Herbalism, Chakra Balancing, Medical Intuition, and Womb Health and Wellness.

As a Womb Healer, I take all of what I’ve learned through the above and my own lived experience with healing my endometriosis, cervical dysplasia, chronic pelvic pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, painful intercourse, chronic fatigue, sexual trauma and more; in to the work I do with my clients so I can meet their specific needs and help them heal lifetimes of blocks, both from this life, past lives and ancestrally.

I support divine beings in re-rooting their lives to create a sustainable foundation, healing & rewiring their nervous systems, healing & transforming their cellular DNA, eradicating their chronic illness and chronic pain, healing their ancestral lineages, healing the root cause of trauma, emotional distress, dis-ease and so much more. Doing this DEEP soul level work is what allows my clients to BECOME and BE conscious creators of their lives because they are in alignment – mind, body and soul.

I have helped my clients with healing their infertility, chronic illness / disease, the root of their trauma, emotional disturbance, energetic blocks, relationships with themselves / others, sexuality and sensuality, relationship with their bodies and cycles – periods and inner seasons, to name a few.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As a chronic illness warrior, resilience hasn’t been a choice, it has been a necessity for womb healing and ultimately my womb awakening.

Living with endometriosis – a chronic invisible illness for most of my life – made me believe that I was destined for a life being “the sick girl”

But my soul knew that this was the life where I would miraculously heal a disease that I was told I would live with for the rest of my life, that would keep me bed ridden, that would keep me from succeeding because of the pain, symptoms and depression. This was my womb awakening.

My Womb Awakening has not been an overnight process, it has taken most of my life. Most of my life to get to a place where I no longer spend weeks at a time bedridden from pain so severe it made me black out. Most of my life to get to a place where I no longer have to worry about a flare-up taking me out for more than a few hours at a time. Most of my life was living in pain ALL of the time, I truly didn’t know what it was like to have pain free days. I struggled with indigestion so bad that I would starve myself in public situations because I didn’t want to worry about getting sick while out. I was barely able to enjoy pleasure & intimacy because sex was painful. I couldn’t get through the day without at least 1, sometimes 2 or 3 naps because of my chronic fatigue and insomnia. These symptoms, which seemed endless, along with societies ableist narratives, I fell deep into victimhood.

This victimhood was the only narrative I knew, like a broken record, it played as an endless mental loop – “you aren’t good enough because you’re sick”, “you’re a burden”, “you won’t be able to succeed”, “you won’t be able to create steady income because your illness causes instability”…these were the thoughts that consumed me.

Healing my victimhood was a catalyst to healing my endometriosis.

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

Our karma is our dharma and when we harness this, there is nothing that we can’t do, success is inevitable.

I believe that our lived experience trumps all else, that what we have gone through – the challenges, the hardships, the initiations, the illnesses, the heartbreaks, the trauma, etc. – is what we’re here to teach the world. Training, knowledge, certifications, school, courses, all of that has it’s rightful place and I LOVE learning so I am all for expanding our consciousness and mental capacity…

AND I believe that our pain is our purpose and when we allow ourselves to surrender to what our pain has to teach us, the wisdom it holds, we are able to heal ourselves and then heal others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.healingwithhannah.ca/empoweredmystic
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.with.hannah/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/healingwithyogihan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healing-with-hannah/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcNavqoRE8tpswMYPOPYN6w
• Other: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1777439701?ref_=pe_41291580_475834480_E_301_dt_1

Image Credits
Photographers: Kimberley Ernst, Fadiya Sheikheldin, Kaelen Gilroy