What if healing wasn’t meant to be done alone? What if the strength we seek is already within us, waiting to be nurtured in the right community?
For a long time, I thought strength meant handling everything on my own. Doing it all stoically, in silence, behind closed doors. Over time, I’ve learned that true strength isn’t found in isolation, but in connection. True personal growth happens when we allow ourselves to be seen, to be heard, and to be supported by people who understand. That realization became the foundation of OakRoot Human Experience (HX). Not just as a community, but as a belief: The Human Experience, Evolved.
BREAKING THE CYCLE OF SURVIVIAL
OakRoot HX is deeply personal. It is born from my own lived experiences – the struggles, the losses, and the moments that forced me to grow. For most of my life, I was in survival mode. Keep going. Push through. Don’t stop long enough to feel. That was how I lived. But survival isn’t the same as a life well lived. In my late 30s, I finally started facing what I had spent years avoiding. I stopped numbing, stopped outrunning my past, and started taking back what was mine. That shift – choosing to reclaim instead of just endure – is what led me to create OakRoot HX.
I know what it feels like to lose yourself. To fight for your voice, your identity, your future. And I also know what it means to get it back. That’s my purpose – to plant seeds of knowledge so that others flourish in their journey to become the best version of themselves. Over time, this purpose became even clearer: to create a space where women who have survived trauma don’t have to heal alone. Healing doesn’t happen in seclusion. It happens in safe spaces, in real conversations, in the quiet understanding that we don’t have to carry it all by ourselves. OakRoot HX is that space where we come together to lift each other up, to rebuild what was lost, and to step into the lives we were meant to live.
STRENGTH IN STORMS: THE WISDOM OF THE LIVE OAK
The name OakRoot HX is no accident. It comes from one of nature’s greatest teachers: the southern live oak. These magnificent trees don’t survive hurricanes and storms by standing alone. Under the ground their roots are entwined just beneath the surface, forming a vast, unseen network of support. But their resilience isn’t just in their connections, it’s in their design. Their trunks spiral, allowing them to bend without breaking. Their leaves curl inward to let the wind pass through, reducing resistance and making them stronger.
Healing is the same. Support matters, but resilience also comes from within. Like these trees, we are stronger when we stand together, but healing requires more than just support; it demands an active commitment to grow. It requires bending, adapting, and showing up for the work. You have to want to heal. You have to lean into the process, to do the work, to reclaim what was taken, and to emerge stronger than before.
I have faced many storms in my life, more than I’d like to admit. Have I bent just like the oak, absolutely. Have I found strength in connecting with others rather than breaking, yes. Teaching me that resilience isn’t simply about enduring – it’s about being held up by the right people at the right time. That’s the foundation of OakRoot HX. Healing as a shared journey rather than a solo expedition where we thrive together in the strength of shared wisdom and unwavering support.
FOLLOWING THE CALL: HOW NEW ORLEANS BECAME HOME
New Orleans isn’t just a place I moved to – it is a place that pulled me in long before I got here. For over 20 years, I felt it calling me back, though I couldn’t explain why. It wasn’t just the music, the people, or the history. It was something deeper. It was the land itself. The live oaks stretching their branches over Uptown streets. The Tree of Life in Audubon Park, standing steady, its roots woven deep into the earth.
The first time I stood beneath those trees, I felt it - a quiet knowing, a sense of belonging. These trees had seen storms, weathered centuries, yet they never fell. They endured. And standing there, I understood why I had been drawn here all along. I saw myself in them. I saw the women I hope to support. And I knew, this is where I needed to be. Not just for my own journey, but to ground OakRoot HX in a place that understands resilience, reinvention, and belonging.
New Orleans does not ask you to prove your worth. It does not demand that you change to fit in. It welcomes you as you are. That is the spirit I wanted to carry into OakRoot HX – a space where women don’t have to earn their belonging, where they can arrive as they are and know they are already enough.
This city, maybe unlike any other, pulses with resilience. It’s been knocked down time and time again. When the storms pass, New Orleans remains rooted in its identity, strongly protective of its traditions, and above all else fosters an unshakable sense of community. This is where each remarkable, beautiful woman is celebrated for being unapologetically themselves. Where belonging isn’t something you earn, it’s something you already have.
That’s the same philosophy that courses through OakRoot HX. You don’t have to prove yourself to belong here. You don’t have to earn your worth. This community admonishes the idea that you, a uniquely beautiful woman, has to become someone different. Every woman who enters this space is already enough. My goal is simply to reconnect you with who you’ve always been.
A New Way to Heal: The OakRoot HX Experience
I learned the hard way – through trial and error, through figuring out what helped, what didn’t, and what actually made a difference – that healing is different for every woman. That’s why OakRoot HX isn’t about one way to heal. Some women need quiet reflection. Others need conversation. Some find clarity through creativity, movement or unique shared experience. There’s not a single path, only the one you choose to walk down. I am creating a space for that. Whether it’s self-guided reflection, community support, or deep, immersive work, healing happens here, on your own terms.
Healing is about taking the first step and while that can be overwhelming and scary, this community is built firmly on planted roots waiting to pass down wisdom like seeds. Where the value of authenticity, the desire to heal and the willingness to transform ensures we all grow into the women we were always meant to be.
Here, your story matters. Here, your growth is nurtured.
