The Healer

My Story

FAMILY ROOTS

My name is Christy Ouk and I am Cambodian-American. I grew up with immigrant parents who left their war-torn country behind to give their children a better life. They experienced the hardship of concentration camps and witnessed genocide. Growing up was not easy with parents who were healing from trauma, abuse, and grief. Even with the best of intentions, you cannot escape unhealed pain. As a child, I had no idea what they were going through and I did not have the ability to comprehend what was happening. My parents’ unconditional love was beyond any standards but their pain created a toxic environment, which I thought was normal for a long time. Mental and emotional health is not acknowledged within my culture and it continues to be a stigma. As the healer of the family and an empath, I unconsciously held a lot of space for them. Their pain became my pain, their worries became my worries, and their PTSD became my PTSD. It took a toll on my spirit and child-self and it would take years of living in survival mode before I became aware of the generational trauma patterns and dysfunctional relationships that I had inherited. This lead me down a healing path from self-destruction to self-realization.

SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Before I started my own healing work, I was trapped in Corporate America working long hours and burning out. I numbed my pain with substances, food, and toxic relationships so I would not have to face myself. I continued cycles of unhealthy coping mechanism for years until my spirit was broken. I had to hit rock bottom before I went through my “Dark Night of the Soul” or “Healing Crisis” - facing my shadow self, unearthing repressed emotions, and acknowledging the pain that I had carried for so long. It would take years of trauma work to unpack the heavy load and strip away at layers of unresolved issues to uncover my truth. Everyone’s healing journey is complex, individual, and challenging; mine was no different. I spent years diving into self-help books, counseling, meditation, mystic and holistic healing modalities to understand myself. I realized that healing is spiritual work and it never ends. When you heal yourself, you also heal your relationships with your family, partner, friends, and community. We are all connected in a web of patterns and cycles. It takes discipline to undo the unhealthy patterns and cycles that we learned from others before we can create new ones that actually work for our highest self. I continue to advocate for myself by creating healthy boundaries and working to heal the wounded child within. This allows me to release old patterns and behaviors, so that I focus my energy on loving and accepting myself in a healthy way.

FINDING MY MEDICINE

I was a healer before I became a healer. I had to heal myself before I could help anyone else. As a child, I was always sensitive to my environment and people’s emotions. Without the proper tools and boundaries, my sensitivity felt like a curse instead of a gift. Being an empath, you can feel more deeply, you can love more deeply, and you can also hurt more deeply. I have encountered so many wonderful healers and mentors on my journey and I am so grateful that they were able to give me guidance and hold space for me. It took many years for me to understand and accept my intuitive and clairvoyant gifts. This journey started with Acupuncture and Eastern Medicine school, which eventually lead me to also study Energy Healing, Sound Therapy, and Hypnotherapy. As a healer, I will never stop collecting tools. Through these modalities, I was able to find my voice and my medicine. I discovered that my sensitivity was not a curse after all, but in fact, a powerful tool to help hold space for others as they heal. I found my purpose in wanting to help others through their healing and share my knowledge and tools that I have collected along the way. The basis of all my tools is vibrational medicine and the understanding that everything is energy and energy can be transformed. Pain can be transformed so that we can find wholeness in ourselves again.