A holistic health practitioner and nourishment coach, Mary Ann Green melds modern science, ancient wisdom, personal experience and insightful senses into an artful practice empowering clients to discover and walk their most nourished path.
She believes all beings have an innate tendency towards wholeness. All beings have an inherent desire to live their fullest lives. However, Green knows that not all have the same backgrounds, experiences or skills to support wellbeing of body, mind and spirit.
Mary Ann Green, Holistic Practitioner (animals & people)
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I’m Mary Ann T. Green. The T was to distinguish me from my namesake mom. A college professor decided it stood for Trouble. That’s largely because I’m curious – ask a lot of questions and dig deep – and somewhat because unique experiences often occur to me and around me.
I enjoy reading, watching crime shows, yoga, meditation, being with loved ones, discussing esoteric topics and learning. I adore nature, dogs, and I am a true walker…rain, snow, wind, sun…I walk…with or without a dog to accompany me. I’m a writer by trade, story teller by heart and creative genius by spirit.
Service is something I’m passionate about. I want to LIVE my purpose and work in arenas where I can use my education, experience and hard-won lessons to help others, including animals. I’m also passionate about giving back and volunteer on numerous committees in my community.
I live in Columbiana, Ohio, USA, a small city nestled between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, where I grew up semi-wild and free (Gen X), but with a lot of responsibilities. Fun fact: Harvey S. Firestone of Firestone Rubber & Tire Co. fame, was born, raised and is buried here with his composer wife Idabelle Smith Firestone and members of their family…I’m passionate about this history.
I share a home with my person, Jay, and our English Cream Retriever, Harvey.
What makes me unique? Well, one is how my brain works. And, I suppose my quirky sense of humor.
Can you share more about your personal journey through CPTSD and disordered eating and how it has influenced your approach to holistic health and coaching?
I understand that this will be triggering for some individuals so if you are living with CPTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and/or disordered eating, please check-in with yourself before moving forward. Safety first.
For as much strength, curiosity and determination my family gifted me, they also passed along ancestral trauma, struggle/hardships, mental illness and dysfunction. I was sexually abused at a very early age, raised enmeshed with alcoholism and have experienced physical abuse by a relative randomly throughout my life.
I enjoyed a wonderful childhood in many respects, but secrets and lies were as common as the laughter and “I love yous.”
I wasn’t cognizant of the sexual abuse until everything crumbled when I moved to Florida in my early 20s. Self-preservation (CPTSD) led to very controlling behaviors around my food intake and energy expenditure. I was eating less and less, exercising more and more.
At 5’ 10”, I hit a low when my size 6 pants literally fell off of me. Family was visiting and I remember sitting on the floor in the bedroom too weak to get up for dinner and said aloud to myself “I’m disappearing….I’ll be invisible soon.” That was neither frightening nor comforting.
At some point, I recall telling my parents “something’s wrong”. I didn’t know what it was, but it was clear to me, and evident to all around me, even if they were unable to address or acknowledge it.
Somehow, I gathered the courage to ask my mom for help while my dad was loading the van for their return trip home. Unaware (I think), he came in, gave me a hug, said he loved me very much and told mom not too be long.
I don’t recall the words; I do recall the tears as she reached for the door knob AFTER I asked for her to stay and help me. Suddenly, I was on my hands and knees grasping at her ankles with some understanding that I was begging for my life.
In that instant, my life forever changed. My mother turned and walked out the door. I was left sobbing hysterically. (I can only assuming my dad thought I was ‘homesick’).
I don’t know how long I stayed there on the cold white tile…hours…overnight? I do remember dragging myself up, looking around the house through tears and, eventually, sitting down with a phone book. I didn’t have the words to know what I was looking for, but I knew two things: I had to find help and I was on my own.
The first place I called ended up having an in-patient program (they didn’t tell me for what, I was too raw and dazed), but it was a staggering $15,000 (1990s). I was working retail making $5-6 an hour. I was deflated, but continued to call around for a few days until I stumbled on a counselor who would take me on a sliding scale.
That started a life-long journey of healing that was far from ‘traditional’. Counseling and 12-step programs were affordable. Specialists were not. I got shouted out of an Overeaters Anonymous meeting (too thin, though I was binge eating, but also engaging in several forms of purging)… so kept searching. ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) brought more to light about the underlying cause of the struggle with food and I somehow stabilized enough to remember bits and pieces of the sexual abuse. To this day, I have not recalled the who, just more of the how.
I explored nutrition as a tool to help recover health, heal leaky gut and feed biological cravings even as I practiced yoga, meditation and journaling to soothe the traumatized child and teen, ease my broken heart and weary soul. I was the queen of self-help books, tapes and free lectures.
I will say, we often overlook the impact of trauma on the body, especially decades ago. I was prone to mysterious illnesses and injuries when the CPTSD was triggered. Of course, I didn’t know that then, and spent 5 years in foot casts, dealt with monthly migraines and developed intense allergies.
I share these details instead of so many others because they were punctuation points in the journey. Truthfully, I only realized that my exploring; researching; being so desperate I’d try anything; studying herbs, oils and crystals; healing work; yoga; breathwork; trauma; Reiki, etc., had made a difference when I started the leaky gut protocol with a nutritionist who was also a healer. The all-liquid diet didn’t spin me out. In fact, the program gave me such a strong base, I later became certified as a Pn1 Coach.
None of us are perfect. We don’t have to be. We just have to create a sheltered space and feel safe to heal. We have innate wisdom hidden under layers of hurt, suffering, fear, anger, rage. Today, I have the tools, resources and desire to help others on their journey so no one ever has to feel as alone as I have on and off throughout my life. I’m here to ensure folks have the ‘short’ path to wellbeing…that each discovers and walks their most nourished path.
How do you integrate modern science and ancient wisdom in your practice to create a comprehensive approach to health and wellness?
Naturally. Science continues to reveal what our ancestors understood…everything is energy. Change the frequency, change reality. The heart, gut and head all have brains…health is body, mind and spirit. Trauma/emotions are stored in the body resulting in symptoms, even illness, and no amount of medication can cure that…you have to feel/release to heal.
It’s only been the last 80-100 years that we’ve pushed science AS medicine. Prior to this, as research continues to show, herbs, food as medicine, essential oils, breathwork, meditation/prayer, movement, energy work, frequency were used in combination to address dis-ease at the root and restore wellbeing of body, mind and spirit.
Folding in new data and high-tech tools like red light therapy and frequency devices are simple ways we can maximize our natural tendency towards health and wholeness.
What specific challenges or experiences led you to explore such a wide range of holistic modalities, and how have these modalities impacted your clients' lives?
Necessity, curiosity and the belief we can heal have guided me. The need to care for myself, my parents (who had chronic health issues) and my companion animals all led me to different modalities because standardized care wasn’t working for us and that didn’t sit well with me.
I studied herbs when my dogs had cancer. I explored nutrition to address disordered eating and resulting leaky gut. I dove into essential oils when my father lost his leg to MRSA (a deadly staph infection) – and nearly his life – becoming allergic to every class of antibiotics. I learned Reiki to support my senior dog (Duncan). I connected with Healy when glaucoma drops stopped working and I had no options left.
None of this was easy, largely in part because at the time I started all this, the internet was not a resource and few, if any, providers were knowledgeable in disordered eating, letting alone complex trauma. I spent a significant amount of time at health food stores gathering information and reading books. Then, trying various libraries and book stores. I took courses by mail with Clayton College of Natural Health and went to hear lectures at churches, chiropractor offices and such when I could afford to do so.
This was hunt and peck, explore and discover, trial and error. By the time I started truly delving into essential oils, the internet was becoming a resource for holistic health information. This, coupled with working with a nutritionist who also understand mind/body connection, steered me into Precision Nutrition’s program as a client. Fast forward a year and I was studying to be a Pn1 Coach.
Then, came coursework in Animal Massage (online) and Animal Reiki to supplement what I was doing with Sir Duncan…he literally guided my hands to where he needed them. That certification inspired me become certified as a Reiki Master in the Usui tradition. Currently, I’m working on a Pn Level 1 Sleep, Stress Management & Recovery certification while delving deeper into Healy frequency devices for animals and humans.
These are the highlights. I only share them to say that this path has been never been easy and continues…most likely indefinitely.
I’m offering what I have learned because no one should have to experience the horrors I have or the struggle in finding current, accurate, relevant information.
Illness doesn’t happen overnight and it never impacts only one part of our existence. So, neither can nor should wellness. A comprehensive approach provides hope, options and empowers my clients to take an active role in their own wellbeing (or that of their pets).
While some enjoy fully restored health, others co-create peace of mind and ease in their bodies, balance in their lives, or a deeper sense of Self. Clients, including the animals, feel seen, heard, accepted and develop a sense of personal empowerment.
Can you explain how your certifications in sports and exercise nutrition, Reiki, life coaching, and animal Reiki complement each other in your practice?
They blend naturally for me, perhaps because I developed the knowledge and skills to use in various aspects of my own life and found them melding together seamlessly.
Since we are complex and comprehensive beings, our wellbeing doesn’t function independently of our family, work, pain or pleasure any more than our minds function separately from our bodies.
My varied background, my personal experience and intuitive skills, allow me to see people and animals through varied lenses, gaining a broader perspective of who they are, what skills and abilities they have to address their challenges, gaps in self-understanding and how we can approach their desires from a more comprehensive perspective that addresses body, mind and spirit in practical ways.
Safety is a basic need. Without feeling safe, any work we do with nutrition, Reiki, life coaching, relationships, work, etc. is tenuous at best. Safety is not only built through trust and relationship, but using various tools to balance the nervous system, from Reiki to nutrition, breathwork and frequency to gentle movement.
Because of my background in nutrition, I know what we eat/drink directly impacts our energy levels, mood, how we feel and cognitive functioning which in turn affects our health, relationships, performance at work and life, response to stress and sleep quality – every aspect of our lives – which makes it a foundational component in some way in all I do.
For example, sharing how foods/beverages, supplements, essential oils and rest can support the body’s natural detoxification and restoration processes after a Reiki session provides clients (whether human or animal) another layer of support that enhances outcomes.
What advice do you have for individuals who are new to holistic health and are looking to begin their journey towards balance and wellbeing?
Start with something small, simple and sustainable.
Anything new, challenging, can overwhelm our nervous systems and leave us feeling less than safe. So, it’s also imperative to let providers know if you are new to the path, as well as your concerns, fears, limits and wellness challenges.
And, in return, I would say it’s our job as practitioners to meet clients where they are at, be open, welcoming, curious and truly listen to their concerns, hopes and fears. Also, to be honest with what they can expect from various offerings and provide clear, concise materials like Q&As before the first meeting to help reduce any anxiety.
How do you envision the future of holistic health and wellness, and what role do you see Nourished Path playing in this evolving landscape?
I envision holistic health expanding as science is reporting back to us what the ancients knew about frequency as tool for wellbeing. Since everything is made of up of energy, understanding how to enhance the frequencies for health and wellbeing safely is the path forward.
We’ve already made great strides in this area in the past few decades. There are hospitals and rehabilitation centers that have been utilizing healing touch and aromatherapy for years. Dr. Carolyn McMakin’s use of frequency with her clients began in 1996, after discovering a list of frequencies/health benefits from the 1920s.
Nutrition is more readily integrated in allopathic care through Functional Medicine, spurred by Dr. Mark Hyman and others. Additional leaders in the fields of medicine, science, spirituality, biology, physics and ancient wisdom, like Louise Hay, Marcus Schmieke, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Caroline Myss, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Dr. Gregg Braden and Dr. Joe Dispenza, have been and continue to show us deeper truths about health, healing, the power of our mind/beliefs and their impact on our biology (epigenetics).
As the general population begins to accept, then understand, the practicality of holistic offerings, they will spur a new, integrated paradigm of wellbeing for body, mind, spirit and life that will not only change our medical system to a well-care approach that supports our flourishing, it will shift the economy and increase the autonomy of individuals and families as we all find our health sovereignty. The first wealth is health. The rest will follow.
Nourished Path, I hope, serves several roles. Gate keeper – ensuring the door to this field of wellness stays open and that the path is accessible to individuals from all walks of life. Educator on “alternative” care and guide to assist individuals in unearthing their nourished path. Of course, a provider of next-level care to people and animals to enhance their wellbeing of body, mind and spirit.
I suppose, too, I envision Nourished Path as a way to keep the field growing through exploring what we now consider to be the ‘outer’ edges of wellness and serve as a constant reminder that we all deserve to live our most nourished lives.
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
I don’t think it’s one moment or incident. Academically, the Precision Nutrition Coaching certification was intense and satisfying to finish.
But, perhaps my greatest achievement is not mine at all, but rather the gift of working with animals. It’s less filtered and diluted by preconceived notions our human minds bring to the table.
The energy exchange is profound…it’s deepened my connection to nature and humanity while broadening my understanding of consciousness, communication and creation.
I’ve always believed animals are far more like us than we give them credit for and what I can now say with assurance is that they are far wiser than we are in many ways, communicate with us regularly and bring gifts to the world and our lives whether a companion animal, livestock or wild.
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