Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Zohman.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I began my employment as a chemist, working for a research and development company, testing resins for paper coatings. I got sick from the toxic chemical fumes. I have a sensitive body. For the sake of my health, I quit this job and my dreams of becoming another Madame Curie went up in smoke.
I investigated other work possibilities, but circumstances led me to a new Food/Restaurant/Hotel Management Program, at Bunker Hill Community College. I had a great time, safe from chemicals and in one year graduated with an Associate’s Degree.
My first position, in this new field, was at the Harvard Club as assistant to the function manager. It was fun but hard, organizing 9 parties, simultaneously on 3 floors and coming home at 4am. My feet cried stop! After 2 years, it was time to leave.
Next, I managed a cafeteria, which was mentally and emotionally stressful. I suffered with another kind of poison called toxic stress. Sensitive people can have physical symptoms from stress. This settled in my neck. I could not turn my head. I could not drive. I left the cafeteria, exhausted, and put myself in the hands of a wonderful chiropractor, who brought me and my neck back to life.
I was learning to care for myself. I went to various alternative healers and attended holistic health seminars. I decided to pursue a career in wellness, specializing in nutrition. Why not? I already told people how and what to eat. In addition, I had an emotional weight problem, which needed resolution. In 1983, I got a Master’s degree and a divorce.
The 70s and 80s were discovery years. I traveled from coast-to-coast, searching for knowledge, taking classes with the most respected holistic teachers and healers. I learned about life, death, past lives and using astrology as a spiritual road map. I experienced powerful epiphanies which enlightened me to the seen and unseen, to the conscious and unconscious. Life’s dimensions were larger than I previously thought. What I experienced changed my reality and beliefs from the inside out. Not so surprising, it was predicted by a numerologist year before.
The 90s were practice years. I was Certified in Hypnotherapy and became a Reiki Master. During the week, I worked as a traditional nutritionist for a doctor and a reproductive health clinic. On weekends, I morphed into an intuitive counselor, hoping that no one from my traditional world would see me. I read tea leaves in tearooms, and traveled with a psychic troupe reading tarot cards for businesses, financial firms, colleges, parties, in all the major hotels and in four different states. My psychic entertainment career lasted 15 years. The skills I developed have allowed me to share an intuitive and spiritual approach with clients and students.
I welcomed my LDN, (Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist) the Massachusetts Nutritional license in 2000. This was followed by an invitation by BCBS to become one of their nutritional practitioners. My private nutritional practice was quite different from medically trained dietitians or even Weight Watchers. I knew even then, we are all biochemically unique and need different diets. I learned kinesiology testing to determine proper nutritional protocols for each client. I focused on helping others with emotional weight issues and food sensitivities. We all improved.
Hypnotherapy was another passion for me. Trance and meditation were so easy and natural. I could help people while relaxing in trance. One of my specialties was past lives. I regressed hundreds of clients and taught hundreds of classes. I am familiar with 60 of my own past lives. Most of my lives were short. This is my longest life, which has been filled with challenges making me wiser and more experienced in the journey of life.
Some of our family, friends, clients and associates are those we have known before in past lives. It is not unusual to reincarnate in the same family. I am very fortunate to have 2 grown sons and 2 granddaughters, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting again. They have enhanced my journey as wonderful companions along the way.
Life has its ups, downs, twists and turns. It is through our specialized, personalized adventure, we learn lessons, we get experience, we fulfill our life plans. Over time, we attempt to be the best we can be in this life we have chosen, pre-birth. I planned to be a chemist like Madame Curie. Instead, I became a very wise teacher and counselor. Not a surprise. This was my destiny.
Has it been a smooth road?
I have had a winding life journey with many changes along the way. I was years ahead of my time. And I was able to transform from a fat food addict to who I am now. I have had practical career experiences and a practical education in mind body spiritual health.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Mind Body Therapies story. Tell us more about the business.
I am the business. I am the professional Licensed Holistic Nutritionist (LDN) and Certified Hypnotherapist. I learned to work with many different types of clientele in different localities with varied types of problems to be solved. Every time I felt knowledgeable and settled in one situation, it changed. From weight loss to eating disorders, to rashes, to panic attacks, to breathing problems, to sleeping problems to women’s problems, to digestive IBS situations to gluten, yeast, and food sensitivities and more. It was as if I was taking classes in each malady to learn. I can report, the clients got better and so did I.
I worked for a medical doctor, managed a cafeteria, and was a professional psychic. I taught in the 5 Northeast Hospitals, in Colleges, at Yoga Studios, and at Hypnotherapy Conventions. I use a holistic approach to nutrition, including traditional and alternative strategies. As an intuitive and a spiritual guide, I specialize in hypnotherapy, past lives, astrology and numerology, helping clients and students become the best they can be. This is what sets me apart.
When clients and students learn about their spiritual life journey and purpose, they can create and attain goals.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The Health care industry is a mess and behind the times. Other countries are ahead of us. We better wake up and catch up. Food manufacturers are ruining foods – earning more money as we become a sicker society eating chemicals. They are more interested in shelf life than human life.
Money is made when people are sick. Pharmaceutical manufacturers profit enormously. The Food and Drug Administration is aligned with drug companies and food manufacturers. Those with proven holistic Cancer cures get shut down. Cancer is Big Business. Greed is big business.
My personal experience with alternative medicine has been positive. Not so with Traditional medicine. I am happy to say Hypnotherapy, Acupuncture, Physical Therapy, Chiropractic and Massage are becoming more accepted along with other alternative remedies. Herbs, Homeopathy, Vitamins, Minerals and other inexpensive supplements are ignored by American medicine. Why? Cause they might work.
The Health Care Industry has to change – Health Insurance is too expensive. Insurance doesn’t pay for all medical expenses. We are a sick stressed society.
We need the basics. Good food, (no GMO’s) pure water, and healthy air. Drugs have side effects, GMO’s have side effects. People are becoming more sensitive to foods, fertilizers, drugs, sweeteners, wheat, produced with chemicals, which can make them sick.
We need to eat and live as naturally and as organically as possible, while staying away from toxic environments. We must become experts in our own health care and nutrition and know health is a mind body spirit situation. It is not just physical. We need more doctors to know that.
“All Disease Begins in the Gut”………….Hippocrates, father of western medicine
“Soul development should take precedence over all things” – Edgar Cayce
Contact Info:
- Address: MIND BODY THERAPIES
Comeau Health Care Associates
194 North Street
Danvers, MA 01923 - Website: www.mind-body-therapies.com
- Phone: 978-777-9911
- Email: laura@mind-body-therapies.com
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