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

Natasha, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Broken Heals Inc. began as an organization to support women who had gone through dating violence, domestic violence and toxic relationships.

At the time of its inception, I had just left what would be my third toxic relationship and second experience of physical violence within a relationship, and I was looking for support. I had reached out to organizations within my city seeking support to deal with the abuse and was told that I didn’t fit the demographic or the criteria needed for their programming – I wasn’t jobless, I was either too young or too old, I didn’t have children, and I wasn’t fleeing in distress, and therefore it was suggested that I could figure it out on my own. I was desperately seeking community and was looking for someone to talk to, someone who could relate to my experiences, a community that I could grow, love and heal with, so I started Broken Heals.

It began as an online tumblr page where other abuse victims could share their stories anonymously and over the last 10 years it has transformed into hosting workshops and events, coaching one one one, and facilitating programming for other organizations.

Broken Heals is still a space for women to grow, love, heal and be heard after toxic relationships, but it’s also a place where women can gain a deeper sense of self awareness, unpack their relationships, and build relational awareness to practice discernment while existing in current relationships or choosing future ones.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Natasha Helwig and I founded an organization entitled Broken Heals Inc. where I work with women to grow, love, heal and be heard through unpacking their relationship with self and others.

I spent a decade or so in all types of toxic relationships. I’ve dated physically abusive men, extremely codependent men, and the cheating textbook narcissist men.

In 2012, I started Broken Heals, which was about a year and a half after leaving a physically abusive relationship myself. In the beginning I started by blogging – sharing my experience in toxic and abusive relationships – as well as hosting fundraiser events for other charities within the city of Toronto. I began to grow a following on social media and overtime was asked to share my abuse story publicly. I spent a year or so sharing my story and listening to other women’s stories of abuse and realized that I wasn’t doing a good job of protecting my energy. As much as I wanted to help ‘heal’ women, I was draining myself.

In 2016, I took a step back and did absolutely nothing for Broken Heals until I knew exactly how I wanted to repurpose it. I realized that at the nitty gritty of the abuse stories, broken relationships and toxicity, the common denominator amongst all these women and myself, was a lack of self love and awareness. I decided that I wanted to spend my time helping women take a deeper look at their relationships, at themselves and at their love for self and others to gain understanding and therefore be able to reconcile a lot of the baggage that they were holding onto. I started to host my own workshops, obtain my coaches certificate and go full throttle into helping women grow, love, heal and be heard.

I’ve hosted many transformative events where I bring women, and more recently men, into a space to facilitate discussions, storytelling and workshop activities. Many of our discussion topics are focused on love, sex, relationships and identity. I’ve also facilitated workshops for other organizations around identity, purpose and values, as well as quarterly host an online Broken Heals community and coach women one on one to help them build relational and self awareness.

I’m most proud of the fact that I have created spaces for Black women who otherwise don’t feel seen or heard in their lived experiences. Much of my work is focused on building sisterhood, communities and open discussion for Black women to share their relationship, work and life experiences.

Our next cohort begins this Fall September 2023, where participants will have access to an online course to support unpacking their relationships, discover their core values, and go deeper into relational and self awareness. They will be a part of monthly accountability sessions to create, innovate and rest, and they will participate in storytelling calls to be seen and heard – overall supporting all of us in building our own sisterhood and community.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe that authenticity and storytelling online and on social media is what helped build my reputation in the market. I have never shied away from vulnerability and I always believed that if I shared something, someone out there might relate or feel seen in the words – I also believe that in some ways, as the writer, we too want to be seen and heard, so in an effort to ‘find my own community’ I would share.

Through sharing my experiences online, I began to build a reputation that is centred around being that ‘down to earth, girl next door, she gets me and my ups and downs’ type of vibe, which only helped more when I stepped out as a coach and positioned myself as a support and guide to help you along your healing journey. I had shared many experiences and musings around my own personal journey of healing, my thoughts on love and life, and tips and tools that helped me, that when I said “hey I’m offering a program” the trust was already established.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Consistency is key. You don’t need to be sharing every single day but give yourself a target and hit that – for me it’s 3 times a week, and bonus if I share 4 times. I ensure that I write copy for a post to go out Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Prior to the new instagram accounnt I have now, my previous account was at 48,000 followers and I was sharing 3-4 times a week and I amassed that following over the course of 4 years. After being hacked I started a new page, and hit just under 10,000 followers in about a year or so – lately I’ve found myself taking a break from social media and it shows in the engagement and following as it’s gotten slower – consistency is always the key. I also focus primarily on one style of posts, so for me its primarily my writing. People resonate with my words and that’s what attracts them to following me, and again sharing my story, being both vulnerable and authentic, is what keeps people coming back to my page.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.natashahelwig.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/natashalhelwig
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashahelwig/
• Twitter: @broken_heals

Image Credits
Shubila K Photography