The Crystallized Vision

how gem & tonic was born…

It was January 2019… I had just discovered toxic mold in my home, a church I had transformed into aa healing sanctuary for the community. I had spent 2016-2019 creating a healing center for the community, only to find out my sanctuary was “too toxic” to breathe in. A pipe had burst underneath the floorboards, and since we were partially underground there was a major flood that damaged our sanctuary beyond repair. I was barely healthy enough to move out and I felt alone, abandoned, betrayed, and in despair. I was also recovering from a traumatic camping trip where I was caught in the woods during a storm for 3 days and had to cross a rushing river to save my life. This event triggered deep childhood trauma of being abandoned in high surf, along with being exhausted from nearing the completion of my doctorate program and subsequently recovering from acute hypothermia. I was exhausted and on the verge of autoimmune disease, and I could feel it, that my life was leaving my body. I knew if I made it back through the scariest time of my life, I would promise to give back somehow.

My roommate at the time had a personal in home hyperbaric oxygen chamber and I began to get treatments in it regularly. I came back to life each time, along with community offerings of somatic trauma healing, cupping, acupuncture, and detoxification practices such as a candida diet and custom Chinese herbs.

Two months later in March 2019, I went to a goddess retreat and did a journaling exercise on manifesting my vision. Till then, I had no vision of my dream healing center. I dreamed up a sanctuary I would want to go to in my condition. With tears in my eyes I read aloud a vision of a healing sanctuary for the rich and the poor that could have access to all types of therapies to restore the body if they were too weak to be able to on their own. This sanctuary would feel comfortable and take into account all aspects of preventative medicine long before chronic disease set in. It would feel like a home, and give people hope. It would have biomedical testing, and chinese herbs, oxygen therapy, and several practitioners that cared to help heal each other. We would be the leaders of a new health clinic movement and become the new model for preventative medicine. Then, I threw that paper in the fire as the group clapped, and my intention became smoke into the universe, ready to manifest itself. I watched the ashes float up to the sky, and my manifestation instantly unfolded.

In June 2019, I was moving out and sold my car, collectables, cashed in my rent deposit, and gathering my resources to bring this vision to life of a healing center with whatever I could scrape together. I began looking for the perfect place to start my dream practice and 12 hours later, I got the call from a friend that called me to tell me of an adorable yellow house that was being advertised as a medical clinic a block from her clinic. Within 48 hours I had the keys, and without knowing how it would happen, I made it happen! I asked Dr. Kaitlyn to join me in this venture to starting a real health clinic, and it began! We spent all summer paintong and transforming a former tattoo parlor into a bohemian sanctuary.

In August 2019 we opened Gem & Tonic with the help of our friends and family that helped us paint, remodel, and design all summer. Since then, we have slowly transformed the clinic as we have grown with it. With the 2020 lockdown, I took over the business as full time owner and dedicated myself to helping keep the community healthy, but with the new stress of the pandemic I started losing my hair and developed alopacia. My husband and I financed the Hyperbaric oxygen chamber as a way for me to regain my health during the pandemic and keep our immune systems thriving especially with increased stress. Since then my health has improved significantly and I have dedicated my free time to developing tools for others to help them heal.

I take pride in being a women owned & operated clinic that was built with community relationships. As the daughter of a 100% service disconnected war veteran, I see the suffering the world has experienced and I strive to bring healing to the hearts of those ready to see their other health options. I stand by our integrity driven model to raise up practitioners and make our medicine accessible so anyone that needs it has a place to go instead of wondering where to get answers on their health. I wanted a business that supported practitioners so they could feed their families instead of feeling like they were being used to build a business. I wanted to community that loved thriving together.

This business model was born from the darkest moments of healing and will continue to bring light and love to the world through pain that initiated me to feel the world’s pain. I hope to serve as an example to other healers in the field that are looking to take this model around the world for helping others and share my story.

I bring effective and well researched modalities to share with the patients of Gem & Tonic in hopes to share my inspiration and vision.

Thank you for being on this journey with me.

With love, Dr Heidi