Welcome to Restorative Healing Haven

I'm Monica, a Certified Holistic Complementary Therapist, Reiki Master, and sound healing practitioner. I'm also an ambulatory wheelchair user living with PTSD, autism, hEDS, and POTS. Before this work, I spent years as an NCIDQ-certified interior designer, and I've also been a caregiver. This isn't a wellness brand built on top of someone else's theory. It's built from lived experience: chronic illness, disability, neurodivergence, trauma, and caregiving, and from learning what real healing support looks like when your body and nervous system don't follow the rulebook, whether you're the one needing care or the one providing it.

Disability advocacy is the foundation here

Trauma-informed care that ignores disability isn't actually trauma-informed. Nervous system regulation looks different in a body with chronic pain. Healing looks different when your energy isn't consistent day to day, or when you don't fit the assumptions people make about what a wheelchair user looks like or needs. That's why disability advocacy, accessibility, and chronic illness education aren't tucked away as a side topic, they run through everything on this site: the blog, the classes, the community, and the way sessions themselves are structured and paced.

If you're disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, a caregiver, or navigating burnout and trauma in a body or life that doesn't get to "push through," you're going to find content here that speaks to that directly, not around it.

Where to start

You don't need the right words, a diagnosis, or a clear plan. Pick whichever door feels right today.

Read something. The blog covers nervous system education, chronic illness and dynamic disability, accessibility, and pieces of my own healing story. This is the easiest, lowest-pressure place to start.

Learn Reiki.Reiki classes are live and open for enrollment. Learning Reiki is a way to build a sustainable, low-cost self-care practice you can return to on your own terms, especially useful if you're managing fatigue, chronic pain, or limited spoons.

Work with me directly. If you're looking for 1:1 support, Mind-Body Trauma Integration, Integrative Reiki, and Sound Healing are all available. Sessions are intentionally limited each week so I can offer real, sustainable care rather than rushed appointments.

Find community

The Haven, our Discord community, is a space for nervous system support, chronic illness, disability advocacy, and yes, gaming. It's accessible by joining our newsletter, and it's a good way to find people who get it before you ever book a session.

A note on what this is and isn't

This work is complementary to psychotherapy and medical care, not a replacement for it. You're welcome here exactly as you are, no diagnosis or explanation required.

The Restorative Blog
What Nature Has Always Known About Healing
What Nature Has Always Known About Healing

Your nervous system was shaped by nature long before it was shaped by anything else. Rain, birdsong, ocean waves, fire — these aren't just pleasant backdrops to life. They are the original medicine. Here's the science behind six natural phenomena, and how sound healing brings that medicine indoors.

Ambulatory Wheelchair Users and the Insurance Maze: It's Here
Ambulatory Wheelchair Users and the Insurance Maze: It's Here

After six months of insurance approvals, lost faxes, and paperwork I had to chase down myself, my wheelchair finally arrived. But delivery day didn't go as planned, the fitting wasn't perfect, and walking out the door I already knew some things still needed to be fixed. Here's the honest version of what getting your chair actually looks like, and what it felt like to finally use something made for my body.

Ambulatory Wheelchair Users and the Insurance Maze: The Evaluation
Ambulatory Wheelchair Users and the Insurance Maze: The Evaluation

Getting a wheelchair should not require this much labor from a disabled person. In Part 2 of my wheelchair journey, I share what the mobility evaluation actually looked like, how I advocated for a specific chair that fit my real life, and what happened when the paperwork process fell apart all over again. If you're navigating something similar, this one is for you.

When Help Doesn't Feel Helpful: The Emotional Weight of Managing Care
When Help Doesn't Feel Helpful: The Emotional Weight of Managing Care

Getting help should reduce the weight you are carrying. But for many disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent people, caregiving support can quietly become another thing to manage. In this post, I share what I have learned about the difference between help and real support, why boundaries matter in care relationships, and what it felt like to make a hard but necessary decision in my own life.