Today we’d like to introduce you to Paty (Mariposa) Hernandez.
Paty, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As a young child, I was always drawn to helping others and enjoyed when I help them feel better, especially when they smiled. Growing up, I was always volunteering to help older adults, homeless shelters, and even volunteering at Parrot Jungle when it was in Pinecrest. I always felt so happy when I was helping others, no matter what I was doing.
I was 12 years old when life as I knew it turned on its head. In just one year we moved out of my childhood home, entered public school for the first time for 7th grade, and we were moving into an apartment far from the world that I knew. So many changes were happening all at once. Up to this point I had always been in private schools with a limited number of students. Now, I was entering a school with two floors and thousands of students. I was petrified.
A couple of months into the school year I was referred to a social worker within the school for support. Within a few months, I released my insecurities, made new friends, and blossomed in my now comfortable surroundings in public school. I thanked the social worker who was my strongest advocate during this time. Her support influenced me so much that when it was time to enter college I chose social work as the profession to dedicate my life to.
Now, 17 years later, I’m still proud to be a social worker and using my love of helping people in private practice. Apart from counseling, I also offer holistic health coaching and energy healing as natural stress release resources. I began to practice coaching and energy healing after another challenging time in my life, the announcement that my older sister had cancer and then her death less than two years later.
Yoli, my sister, opted to forgo chemotherapy and radiation to embrace a more natural and holistic approach. My entire family was blown away yet I chose to support her and learn about her decision. She was the first one who discussed the chakras with me, and the impact emotional trauma has on the body. Throughout her healing journey as she called it, she challenged herself to understand why cancer came into her life, what could she do about it, and how could she face the demons within her that were eating her from the inside.
In order to understand what she was learning, which was not discussed in social work at this time, I began to ask around where I was living at the time, Las Cruces, New Mexico about energy healing. I was introduced to Reiki a few months into the beginning of my dual Masters of Social Work and Public Health program. Then as time went on, I learned more about the chakras, essential oils, raw foods, and other types of energy healing. I was so fascinated and would spend hours talking with Yoli as we shared our findings.
Eventually, Yoli’s body couldn’t handle cancer anymore, and she spent her final days surrounded by family in Miami at home with our parents. It was May 2010, and I had taken a break from my Master’s program to be with her. Each day I would share Reiki with her and held her as best I could, both fearful yet trusting. I thank Reiki for getting me through this challenging time.
Now, the work I do and the business I established, Mariposas Holistic Healing, is in her honor. I’ve had the opportunity to assist others on their healing journey with cancer and other chronic health diseases to release the emotional blocks that are impeding their healing. Through the use of various therapies I offer, I can empower people to use their intuition so they can discover how to heal themselves using complementary therapies.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I began Mariposas Holistic Healing in 2013 while living in Nicaragua after I graduated with my dual Masters. Even though I had another job, people sought me out for counseling and Reiki sessions. A few months later I chose to return to the United States because I doubted my skills as an entrepreneur and my boyfriend at the time was going through a challenging time with Post Traumatic Stress. Once I returned to the states, I focused on helping him obtain his veteran benefits and improve his emotional health without addicting drugs.
A year after my return to the United States, my mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer in 2011, took a turn for the worst as her cancer returned and the chemotherapy medication she was taking had stopped working. I chose to live with my parents while my mother’s health deteriorated and focused on being her nurse, chauffeur, cook, helper, social worker, energy healer, and daughter. I had chosen to end my relationship with my partner during this time because it was too challenging to care for both.
It was a difficult decision yet I would never regret the beautiful experience being by her side the night she passed away. We grew so much as mother and daughter during that brief time.
For the next 2-3 years, I bounced around Miami and elsewhere trying to figure out what to do with my life. I continued to focus on my business yet I wasn’t fully committed and was nagged with self-doubt. I continued to hold onto the vision of my business I created in Nicaragua and worked with coaches to keep pushing me forward. Recently after attending a business workshop in Miami, I received a message in a meditation to stay in Miami and continue my healing practice.
Since then, I’ve been focusing on establishing myself as a stress release expert offering various techniques such as counseling, Reiki, color therapy, and Journey Dance to name a few. These tools help to release blocked energy usually found in unconscious trauma locked into the body that takes having support to really bring it out. I myself have received support from other practitioners for self-care purposes.
Please tell us about Mariposas Holistic Healing.
As of now, I’m the only practitioner within my business yet my goal is to create a mobile healing center, meaning partnerships with other healers that I know and respect their work. For now, I’m focusing on sharing my stress release techniques through group classes and individual sessions. As a Reiki Master/Teacher I also teach all Reiki levels so that more people can embrace their healing gifts and share it with others. My goal is to make my Reiki classes a certification program so others can continue to replicate the process.
I’m known in my community as Paty Mariposa, butterfly in Spanish, as I’m often seen around town at various events and often traveling to share my gifts in other locations.
I chose the name Mariposas because butterflies are symbols of transformation and their colors bring joy to people. I help people who are ready to come out of their cocoons of stress and take flight into the beautiful unknown looking for sweetness which brings them health and happiness.
The tools and techniques I offer are customized to each person because each pain is carried differently within the body.
I offer sessions in person and remotely via zoom both in English and Spanish.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I could start over, I would create more of a business plan and ask for help more. I’m happy though of the challenges I went through because they made me the person I am today.
Pricing:
- Journey Dance Classes: $25 a class
- Reiki Share: Love donation
- Free Discovery Call
Contact Info:
- Address: 195 Giralda Ave
Suite H Coral Gables, Fl 33134 - Website: www.mariposasholistic.com
- Phone: 305 680-5923
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: patylamariposa
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariposasholistic/
- Twitter: patymariposa
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mariposas-holistic-healing-coral-gables
Image Credit:
Mariportraits, Eric Limon
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