About
Lauren Winterholer
My Story
I haven't always been a healer-- not the way I am now. I started off in the intense realm of non-profit social services and put my whole heart and soul into the work, in varying capacities, for a decade. I worked with survivors of domestic violence. I supported pre-teen girls in developing emotional and social resiliency. I wrote grants and organized volunteers and gave trainings. I moved to southern Africa and connected resources to women and girls affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The work was intense, and beautiful, and humbling, and exhausting. Yoga, meditation, and my Buddhist study was all that kept me tethered some days. In 2007, as my work in Swaziland drew to an end, I felt a shift. I was proud of the work I'd done but I needed to take a different, more emotionally sustainable approach to my idealism.
During a month-long visit to Thailand I fell in love with an intriguing piece of the traditional Thai healing system, Nuad Boran, and received a solid introduction to the art at the reknown Watpo School of Traditional Medicine in Bangkok. Then I set myself to the task of completing two incredible 200hr yoga teacher certifications. My journey as a healer had begun in earnest. I amalgamized my studied styles into a teaching that is at once playful, compassionate, meditative, and structurally sound. Gradually, I was able to incorporate bits of Nuad Boran into my yoga teaching, which was already rich with hands-on assists and energywork.
In 2012, although I continued to teach yoga classes and workshops, I paused a bit to focus on my young children, but the work continued. I connected with my littles through compassionate touch and kept connected to myself through mindful breath and time spent in the woods and fields.
In 2015, kids in tow, I immersed myself in a life-changinging residential training program under Ma Homprang Chaleekhana at Baan Hom Samunphrai healing center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Since then, I have been privilidged to return for another month-long immersion. The final piece that I feel really rounds out my practice happened congruently: the herbal remedies I was making for my family and friends turned into a grounding passion. Plant medicine lent itself so fluidly to the path I was already meandering down and I wanted to pull it more into focus. Having loved the beautiful balance of evidence-based herbal theory and the appreciation of folk remedies embraced by Maria Noel Groves at Wintergreen Botanicals, I dove into a year-long study of herbalism with her in 2016.
And so here I am in 2018, a decade into my practice and almost 1000 hours of training tucked in my belt. I'm excited to be a part of the wonderful Seacoast alternative healing community and passionate about sharing my unique combination of modalities. It is my goal to connect with individuals who are ready to effect healing in themselves and simply need a catalyst. My practice draws from the ancient arts as well as current research and I find it incredibly exciting to see the changes that can evolve when space for emotional and spiritual healing is provided in tandem with solid system support for the physical being.
Lineage
I would like to express deep gratitude and humility to the healing knowledge of Maw Samunphrai, Homprang Chaleekanha. Although I have studied at WatPo and with other incredibly gifted healers, the soul of my practice is from Maw Hom. She is a passionate herbalist and among the first Thai Traditional Medicine Healers to be fully accredited by the Thai government and Ministry of Health. Her knowledge and unwritten lineage stems from her grandparents and the family's reverence for Shivaga Komarapaj, for whom all Traditional Thai Healers respect deeply. It is by grace that I have been able to spend months with her as a student in her healing oasis amid the busy hustle of Chiang Mai.
Certifications
Memberships
