Dina Kieffer

Hello, this is Rhonda from I’ll Walk with You. I am excited to introduce to you my friend Dina Kieffer.
Dina and I first met several years ago as a mutual friend invited her to a women’s retreat that I was facilitating. I instantly felt a connection to Dina as she is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has a career in helping others, and is married to a member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians. I am also an active member of the LDS church, a licensed mental health counselor and life coach, and My ex-husband as well as my kids are members of the Spokane Tribe of Indians.
Dina and her High School sweetheart have been together for 40 years and married for 36. They have 5 beautiful adult daughters and 11 grandchildren. She is also one of 11 children. Dina has a great love for her family and others. She was the 1st certified foot zoner and instructor in the state of Washington and has been
practicing for 24 years. Dina is also a certified spinal flow practitioner. Her passion truly is serving and helping others.
Just last week, Dakota, myself, and our spouses had the opportunity to visit Dina and have her work on each of us. It was such a beautiful healing experience that this weekend I will be taking other family members to see her who are experiencing a lot of grief at this time due to a recent loss in our family.
Dina shines light. Her loving heart comes through in all she does. During our conversation she talks about some of the hurt she has experienced due to the
judgement from members of her church congregation. She also talks about what it is like being white and living on the reservation. And she talks about choosing love even in the midst of the hurt. Her message is beautiful and we were honored to have her as a guest.
Thank you for Joining us for this Episode of I’ll Walk with You.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Hello, this is Rhonda with I'll Walk With You. I'm excited to introduce to you my friend Dina Kiefer. Dina and I first met several years ago as a mutual friend invited her to a women's retreat that I was facilitating. I instantly felt a connection to Dina as she is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has a career in helping others, and is married to a member of the Spokane tribe of Indians. I am also an active member of the LDS Church, a licensed mental health counselor and life coach, and my ex-husband, as well as my kids, including Dakota, of course, are members of the Spokane tribe of Indians. Dina and her high school sweetheart have been together for 40 years and married for 36. They have five beautiful adult daughters and 11 grandchildren. She is also one of 11 children. Dina has a great love for her family and others. She was the first certified foot zoner and instructor in the state of Washington and has been practicing for 24 years. Dina is also a certified spinal flow practitioner. Her passion truly is serving and helping others. Just last week, Dakota, myself, and our spouses had the opportunity to visit Dina and have her work on each of us. It was such a beautiful healing experience that this weekend I will be taking other family members to see her who are experiencing a lot of grief at this time due to a recent loss in our family. Dina shines light. Her loving heart comes through in all she does. During our conversation, she talks about some of the hurt that she has experienced due to the judgment from members of her church congregation. She also talks about what it is like being white and living on the Indian reservation. She also talks about choosing love in the midst of the hurt. Her message is beautiful, and we were honored to have her as a guest. Thank you for joining us for this episode of I'll Walk With You.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us for another episode of I'll Walk With You, the podcast where we have conversations about how we can all be more unified on our walk through life together. My name is Dakota Moses.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

I'm Rhonda Monson. And our guest today is Dina Kiefer. Um, I had the opportunity of meeting Dina a couple years ago. Um, we have a mutual friend who invited her to one of the women's retreats I was putting on. And um in all honesty, Dina, like as soon as I met you, there was just, I just loved you. You have such a beautiful light about you. And then as I got to know your story just a little bit, um, that you're married to a member of the Spokane tribe of Indians and that you live on the reservation, then then I loved you even more because my kids' dad is a member of the Spokane Indian Reservation, Spokane Indian, and my kids are Spokane, and you and I have beautiful babies.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yes, and I I felt this kinship with you. Thank you. Yeah, I know I I connected with you as well really instantly. So that was an amazing retreat. I had no idea what I was getting into, but it was the best thing. So thank you. It's beautiful. And yeah, I love I love the podcast, what you guys are doing. Um I I guess it's been in me my whole life. So I appreciate that you recognize that my heart is just, I love people. That's that's what I I want them to feel that as well.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Absolutely. Um, we're not able to do video because it the for some reason it's just technology is not working with us in this moment. Um, but for those who can't see you, Dina, you Dina has like the most beautiful long blonde hair and blue eyes, and she's she's a very beautiful white person, and she lives on uh on the Indian reservation. And um I know for me sometimes when I would go out there, it wasn't sometimes it was a little hard. Um, and I love that I've never heard you ever talk about hard, and I love that all you ever talk about is just this sacred land that you live on, and I appreciate that so very much. And I would love for you to share with our guests just a little bit about what you do and what space you have created there at your home.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, so um, yeah, we have been, well, married for 36 years already, almost 40 together. That goes so fast. And so I was kind of the new, I'd say white girl, you know, when I moved up here with my family. I I literally was. Uh it's a very small rural area. So you, you know, you're everybody knows when somebody new moves into town. And um, as you stated, I didn't realize when my family moved up here, my dad was a beekeeper and we were coming up because the bees did really well, but I had no idea we were moving literally and it's hunters. So if you know where that is, it's 20 miles from the Spokane Indian Reservation. So um I had nothing, I had no idea what Native American was. You know, I saw the movies, and that's kind of honestly isn't that sad, but that's all I knew was, you know, the movies version. And so uh I was very open at sixth grade. I was young, and uh that's where I met my husband, and I was just always attracted to the dark skin and his handsome, you know, looks and um and then I just grew to love and yeah, this is home. This is we just moved back here and we did leave for a little while, but this has always drawn me the peace. The Native Americans have they're very connected in with creator, God. Um and I think, you know, I was raised LDS, so you know, I say God, but creator, it's the same thing. And I, yeah, I mean, I I think most would agree with that, but I love their respect for the land, for the herbs, for medicine, you know, because I'm that granola girl too. So I'm doing the natural as much as I can and learning and growing in that field and trying to help others, but there's a peace that's out here that I've lived otherwise, you know, I've lived other places. I've never felt the peace. There's a sacred holiness to the land. And I think it's the people. And yes, I'm the white girl here that some might, you know, look at and think that's kind of funny that I could connect so much, but I feel like the ancestors were very, very happy when we moved back here. You know, the spirit is just it's peace and beautiful. And people feel that when they do come here. And and so, yeah, I'm creating a space where people can come escape. Uh, when I say escape, it's not really like we we can't escape our lives, but come and get that rest and just um let the nature, let let mother let the healing happen here, you know, just come and connect and ground and reground and kind of get that strength back, right? So we can go back and yeah. So I've created the space. This is a dream of mine that I've wanted to do for honestly 20-something years since I started learning natural healing. And we've we've tried to get land and things, looking for a retreat space or just a space to do the healing stuff. And it's never worked out, and I never knew why. I mean, honestly, we thought we had it solidified and then come to find out it, and now I know it was it was never on the reservation, to be honest. It was not, and this makes perfect sense now. It all makes sense. I can see how his hand was in all of it coming into fruition now. So I just had to be patient and uh it's it's coming, it's here.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

So I love that so much. Um so when we're talking about this, uh Dina has created a they they bought land, they built their own house, and now she's also um built a little retreat center out there um for people to be able to use to retreat from heaviness. Does that say it pretty well?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

It does. I'm I'm a tree girl, so I mean the water's close. I love the water too, but the trees are just to me. I guess here's the thing. I came back here and I was in my worst health possible five years ago before when we moved here and built, and I was crashing. And I didn't realize when I picked my spot, I could have had a spot that was overlooking the water, like a half a mile down, or and it had no trees, or I could have been and it was beautiful. I mean, that view is gorgeous, or it was in the trees. I wanted to hide, I wanted to be in the trees and I wanted to ground. And I realized now what I was drawn to was just the the anchoring I needed in my own life, you know, the foundational like to ground. The trees are so grounding and healing and just beautiful that yeah, yeah. So you described it, I think, perfectly.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

That's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. I would love to hear more about your work, about what it is that you're doing, what um some of your I guess your goal and your mission is, um what you feel called to. Uh I I would love to hear more about more about that aspect as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Yeah. Um, sure. So I do foot zoonology is the first uh modality that I've that, you know, a method that where I actually sit at your feet and work the nervous system and all the signals. You have a signal to every all the systems in your body that end in their in your feet. And everybody has these. It's not like um, it's kind of like the computer and a keyboard, and I'm down on the keyboard, which is your feet, and I can access all your systems. Um, and we're able to just kind of like I I see it as going in and switching on like a light switch in a house. You know, we're going in all these rooms where there's been a disconnect or a, you know, um blockage or something in the systems, and it shows up on the feet. And so I kind of go in and as I'm doing them with my hands, I'm sitting down there and we're just I'm not I I think the difference is from people think, oh, you know, I used to have people when I first started, they'd be like, show me, tell me all the bad. I mean, they want to know every little thing. And I've I am not the same as I zoner as I was back then because they they kind of train you to do that, right? If you ask me now, I won't say it because I I I know there's power in your words. So um I just go in and turn on the lights and it's it's kind and gentle. It doesn't have to hurt. There might be some sore spots, but it's about your body, just trusting your body, being holding that positive space that everything is healing, and um, you know, you're getting back into balance and just trusting the body to do what it already knows it can do. And so that's where that comes in. I love to help people um most come with high stress. Uh, I think everybody in this world right now is going through that. I don't uh kids, you know, I work on kids, um, infants. Um, it doesn't matter if you're 90-something years old. I worked on my grandma. She was 90, I think she was 99 actually, right before she passed. She had a stroke and I grabbed her feet and she loved it. And so I've seen some miracles happen. And not every every session is a miracle, as in you don't see these big, huge, you know, things all the time. I believe that's when it's meant to be, but but there's always positive that happens from it. But I've also seen miracles happen. Like I've helped 300, I quit counting to be honest, because it's not about that, but over a lot of babies um be here that were not able to have, you know, children um by working on the the both uh partners and uh as well as just there's there's a lot when you just I link arms with God. I feel like he allows me to get to be the instrument that I get to learn and grow as I'm touching their feet. I'm sitting down there and I visually like feel like the savior, you know. I know that might sound a little cheesy to some, but to me, how humbling is it to get to sit at the feet and to just send love to everyone you touch. And that's all. That's really all it matters. It doesn't matter what's blocked, they just need to feel, you know, heard, seen, valued, loved. And I just, you know, I want and and worth, and I just send that to them while I'm working on them and hold that space. And most people, some will have a release, you know, an emotional release. It doesn't always be. Most just feel lighter. They say, I just feel light, and you know, and that's what it's about, right? It's letting go, shedding the weight of the world of our own trials, our own things, and just so yeah, I mean, I'm one person. Um, I did teach it for years, and I I feel like I'm kind of being called to get back into that as well. Cause I do feel like every home, every family should have somebody that can do that, you know, do this for their family members. It helps with your immune system. It does all, you know, right? All kinds of things helps with circulation. So, anyways, so that's I hope I didn't it did that explain kind of my mission is to help. And I feel like now I need to go bigger than that. I never in a million years thought I would want to host like group stuff or retreat things, but I feel like God's pushing me out of my comfort zone to to share more, you know, because I'm one person, I do one-on-one, but now I feel like what I think or you think, right? We all think we everybody knows some of these things that we know and and they don't, and we need to just share.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

So I I love that, and I love that you're doing that. I love that you're sharing light and love. I I agree with you a hundred percent. The world needs so much more of it. That's why Dakota and I both felt like we needed to start this podcast. Um, you know, you know that um we had a pretty bad tragedy in our family this week, and I was debating whether or not we needed to reschedule. And Dakota's like, no, I think we still need to do it. And this morning when I woke up, I was like, um just really like, yeah, that's the whole purpose. That's why we're doing this, is because um we need we need love. Yeah, we mean we need love. Love is what heals, love is what um changes things. Love is what casts out darkness. Um and and so I again I'm really excited and happy and honored to have you as a guest because that is who you are. You you are love. Um so I I would love to hear um just what you have created as far as your property goes on the reservation.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah, so I don't really it's new. Like I said, it took me almost two years to to complete, but it's it's a a little two-bedroom, kind of a modern contemporary, you know, um space uh in the trees here, like I said, and then I've created so it's that is a rental that I'm kind of like Airbnb, but my my preference is to not just Airbnb. I just gotta kind of get something going out there and get it out there, you know, right now. But um my preference is I know in the next few years I'm hoping to have just it booked with just little like groups doing their own, like, you know, healing stuff, coming out and getting away. I have two teepees. There'll be two 18-foot teepees that I I already took them down. I only got them up for the weekend in uh October. That was my very first uh attempt. And I think I did okay at a retreat with a small group, and it was my birthday weekend, and I just my heart and soul, and I literally put everything into this. I just wanted to, even though we set the teepees up and then took them down in a week, you know. Um, so I have two teepees that are kind of bougied out, you know, on the inside. Uh, I have to say, you know, they're gonna have the queen beds with, you know, a little heat or AC in there and and stuff, but um, and on a deck. And so they're set up for sleeping in those two. And then I have a big one that's a 26 foot that I I realized when I had my two 18 foot I needed bigger when that we could do like sound baths or healing circles, medicine circles, just something to, you know, a space that would give us a little more room because we had about eight to 10 and we were kind of crowded in there when we laid down and tried to do it. So I have a 26, yeah, I have a 26-foot teepee that will go up this spring, and then that will give us a little little more space. And I'm just excited, I feel like there's a lot of opportunity here to um bring in the native traditions and culture. And I as you know, I'm married to native, but my husband wasn't raised, you know, with the culture. Like meaning he, I don't even think he went to a powwow. I could be wrong, but I felt like he didn't until we were together.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

So yeah, so you know, it was sad. That's kind of how uh I mean, he was raised on the reservation, but he didn't know a lot about the stuff that I feel like now we know, you know? Yeah, um, yeah. So we kind of had to learn it ourselves. I remember we would take our little girls uh up to the powwows and the culture and I would just feel the energy while they were drumming and singing, and it just I would cry. I didn't know what they were saying, but I could feel, you know, the spirit there. So um yeah, so I'm hoping to get the doors open to the, and I think I have the right connections to people that would share some of that sacred, you know, drumming and maybe some of that here as well.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

I I wish the camera was on because you would see Dakota with his eyes wide, nodding big time. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

And I and here's the sad thing, Dakota, you're native. So you under I I don't know why I feel like it's scary that I'm afraid of judgment of someone going, who are you? you know, with the blonde hair and the white skin and you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

I was just going to ask you about that. I actually have two questions, so that was a perfect little segue into into uh two of my questions. So I know that there can be um an environment of judgment towards people with white skin and uh uh in in traditional spaces. And understandably so, you know, we can't turn a blind eye to uh to the genocide and the appropriation and the um just the heinous things that have that have happened uh at the hands of of white men and women and um in the name of Christianity as well. Um but I know that there can often be raised brows at the least, and um and just blatant anger and and hatred towards um people with white skin who choose to practice traditional traditional medicine or traditional healing modalities or um traditional music or uh rituals, things like that. Um and so my first question, I suppose, would be what have what have you faced in your journey um as far as I don't want to say necessarily discrimination, but use that word of raised brows. What kind of raised brows have you faced um being a white woman um in this more naturalistic healing space?

SPEAKER_01 21:45

And I can honestly say I mean when we first got married, I remember going up to the main hub kinda it's uh well the net uh you know where you get service. And and things. And I was, I believe I was pregnant. So I I didn't know where I was going. And I remember that was my first experience of of getting kind of the runaround. Like I I realized after they had sent me these. Um I'd went to like three or four different offices where the native women kind of just, you know, I walk in and they would look at me and just be like, who are you? You know. And uh I'd be like, Well, I'm looking for the like the clinic. I mean, it was or something. This is a while years ago. Now it's pretty labeled up there and stuff. But I was looking for a certain office I can't remember. And uh they'd say, Oh, that's over, you got to go here. And then I went there, and I swear it, whether it was meant to or not, I got the runaround and no one was very friendly. I always feel like I get kind of looked at and you know, at first, if they don't know me and and they don't know me, right? I feel that judgment or that kind of uh raised eyebrow you said. But I can say I actually over the years it changed when I learned the zoning. I was still I we had lived out here, we were still living out here before we moved off the reservation. Um, and I was just getting started and working on it's kind of funny how it's like I feel like it's not, it wasn't even my somehow my my word got out there that I helped somebody get pregnant, right? On on the reservation. And um, and that just went. And so I had quite a few people actually kind of be like, either whether they were just curious or interested, and I still feel like I get that kind of, or but then they come and I think then that all goes away. They they connect, they meet me, they you know, give me, they trust me. Um, I was actually asked, it's been for probably 10 years, I would go out to the native uh, oh, the native clinic in Spokane, and they had a a diabetic program. And I had zoned one of the women up there, the head women in the in the office over the diabetic program. And she actually would pay me to come and work on all the native diabetics. They would get free sessions from me through their program. And you know how intimidating that was too? Because I'm going in meeting all these, I mean, they're natives, right? Like it men, women, and then I walk in and here I am, white girl, but I instantly share my heart. Like I have I've been raised, you know, around on the reservation with my husband, my kids are native, my grandbabies have more than half are are enrolled. So I know this life, you know, I am a part of it. It's not like I'm a complete outsider, but yeah, so I've earned the respect to be honest. And then I also traveled up there to the DSHS clinic, the Department of Social Health Services, where they each, I love the tribe, they give them an hour of self-care every day that they can go, you know, with pay. So they can go walk, they can go work out, they can go do things. Well, they kept me for I'd say 15, 10, 15, maybe longer, about 15 years. Yeah, because it's only been the last like maybe seven or eight that I haven't. Um, I would go up there once a week and just sit on the floor in offices. They'd kind of give me a space and whoever would on their break, they would take their lunch break and come and get their feet done. So I've I've made a a relationship over the years that I feel like with some, but you're right, instantly a lot still don't know who I am.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Yeah. You know, I I keep thinking, I hear I I'm listening to you talk, and and I don't know why I'm gonna share it because where it's where my mind goes, but I think of a a scripture story in in the Book of Mormon actually, and it's um Ammon when he goes to King Lamoni, and I hope I got names right because I'm terrible with names, but just that service. Like I'm here to serve, I'm not here for any other purpose other than to serve. And and I hear that in your story, and how coming in with that servant heart, coming in with I'm here to serve, I'm here to love, um, how that has just opened this door and this beautiful space of healing. And I'm sure for so many who've been hurt by white people, because as Dakota shared, I mean, that that's incredibly real, incredibly still fresh for so many of Dakota's family. And so I I think that's so beautiful that you just have this I'm here to serve, I'm here to love. Like, how can I help?

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Yeah, no, thank you. I I feel like God brings me the right clients and the right, He handpicks them for me, you know, and so it's it's been a blessing, honestly. I would say 80% of my life g giving service has been to the Native American. That's yeah, to tribal members and to um and I'm sad because I'll be honest. Can I just share a little honest here? My heart hurts a little because I have more to give and I'm waiting. And it's like, okay, God, you want you brought me back home. Like I'm here and I still feel like more aren't coming. And I know I have to trust that. I'm surrendering. That's my big thing. I've learned a lot is he's always got me and it's always his timing. But I feel it, that's why I say it's about a few, I still still gonna be some some time before I'm fully received. And I may never be fully received by everyone, and that's okay, right? That's okay, that's life. Yeah, but I'm I'm feeling that a big like something's gonna open with you know, something here, and someone's gonna realize my heart is genuine and authentic, and I absolutely just can't wait to share, you know, in the healing. Because this does affect my family, it's generational, right? 100%. So as as we heal, we're healing our past generations and we're healing our future generations. And I love, and that's what I'm like, I'm being called to this, but I know I'm helping my husband change and shift things, you know. Um, he's he's he's yeah, he's an amazing man. He shines his light in a very dark, you know, he's in law enforcement and yeah, and then being on the res. He's the chief of police here, so he sees generational stuff. I remember him coming home many times and heartbroken with uh, you know, he's arresting people now that he used to arrest, you know, their grandparents, and you know, so as you see the the the core, right, of how how things, how we believe and how things stay in a generation for a long time. And so I know though, I've seen the opposite, I've seen the healing that can happen that we can reverse. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for sharing that. I I couldn't agree with more with your sentiments about just trusting in God's timing and knowing that there is so something that is so much greater and so much more um bigger than yourself, but also mission, uh a mission that you feel called to and recognize that it's just not time yet.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

And exercising that patience.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Um it's a it's a tough road, but it's you know, Dakota, I have to say it's it's it's opening because I was worried I wanted to set these teepees up in the respectful way. That's how that's how intentional I am, right? Like I'm like, I can't just go throw up a teepee. I mean, yeah, I I told you I made it kind of bougie on the inside, but you know, I mean, we're not sleeping on the ground, okay, but it's not, um, but I I wanted out of respect, I know the door has to, you know, I know these things. And I asked my husband, he's like, I don't know. I'm like, come on. I and so I, you know, I know they're supposed to face east and you know, and how many and what they represent, you know, this. And so I was I was so excited that my husband was able to get one of the native tribal members um that puts up tons of teepees. He was so excited to come down and he didn't judge me. He he saw me, he put he doesn't know me. Him and his friend came and they showed us and they helped us set up our teepees for the first time. And and he offered to come drum. So beautiful. I have the doors opening. I see the things coming, and I'm so grateful that they can look at me and not, you know, maybe that was honestly my own thing, but I did feel a little of that judgment. I still do, you know. Um like I said, I go out, my husband's very in the community. I don't, I stick to myself. I stay, you know, I stay in my home and and I work from home and I just love people one-on-one like this. I don't get out as often as he does. He's in the middle of all that, he sees it all. And so when I do go out with them, it's like I do get looks like people are like, who, you know, some don't know, some don't even know who I am, who his wife is, you know, haven't seen me yet or met me. But but most do now at this point. We've been together long enough. Um, that yeah, and I feel the love, I feel the respect though, from from a lot of people, actually.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

So I hope it can keep so much because there is so much goodness. Like when um Dakota's dad and I first started dating and stuff like that. Just I I loved the powwows, I loved the drumming, I loved the sweat lodge, I loved the just there's so so much goodness.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

The culture is rich.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

The culture is rich, and it's beautiful, it is beautiful, and and and there's generational trauma. There's just generational trauma and so much hurt. And so I just with with everything, I just thank you for for the work that you're doing, for being there, for living there, for wow.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

In my heart, there is a shift that's that's changing the the age group of people coming from the reservation, from the tribe for healing this last year has has really shifted. Um, I can say it's so sad. There's been like I don't even know these families. Like I said, I don't know all of them. I know I know a few that have lost young youth. We had a lot of deaths on the reservation this last year, a lot of youth and car wrecks, and like you're talking 14 to 18, you know, 16, 17, like right, just young, still in school and multiple. We just got hit. I don't know if it's just because I live out here now, but I feel like hard, more than normal. And the grief and the loss and the the what's happening, I'm getting the families, like of the youth, like the siblings of those that are one came and then she shared with multiple. And I mean, I'm just they're coming, they're coming. And I then I went, it just hit me the other day. I'm like, this is I'm gonna tear up. This is what I have been praying for. The generational healing is the youngers are coming, and these guys are spiritual giants. Let me just share. They are, they have gifts they don't even know about yet. And I get to sit here, you know, and and I get to encourage those gifts, encourage them to share. You know, they're having dreams, they're having, you know, feelings, they're having the and but I'm able to help kind of validate and support as they're going through this grief. But they are I don't think I I hope I think I think we're having a huge shift of this this healing is coming. It's already, it's happening. Yeah. They are way stronger than we give them credit for. I don't even know. I wish I could tell their parents, like, do you even know how special these kids are? Like the fact that they're even here coming to get help and work on these things, and then let alone the things that we share, you know, while we're working on each other. I say work on each other because they are they're helping me. They're helping me. Um, but yeah, it's amazing. It's happening, it's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

I couldn't agree more. I I certainly see and feel just the an incredible shift uh happening within just the greater collective of of humanity, really. Um it really is a beautiful and awe-inspiring thing to be a part of and um to bear witness to. My other question that I had um is what your experience with the relationship of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been um as I guess a more traditional healer and um and like you said, with being more naturopathic in your approach to life and um just who you are as you as you're being in a culture that doesn't necessarily align with that, um, outwardly at least, um, and culturally, I'll say. Um I'm really curious, very, very curious to hear what your experience has been.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

Well, my experience has only been my experience. I know many LDS I don't want, I don't like to use the word healers, but practitioners, right? Because I always believe we're not the healer. I mean, I think we're all healers. Yes, let's just say that. I do. I think everyone is a healer. You are all so I feel like I'm yeah, that's a hard word for me to take ownership of, but I we're instruments in God's hands, creator, but we are all healers. And amen. So yeah. So I I don't want anyone to ever take credit away from where it's due. I don't claim that. Um, but with that said, I've known many, um, not in my area. I feel always I've always felt alone. I've always felt like I was the first foot zoner in the United St or in the United States, not that in the Washington State.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

Wow, you're really good groundbreaker there.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

I'm a big girl, you guys. No, I'm sorry, I apologize. I meant the Washington State. I was the foot first foot zoner. Um so and then the first huge. Yeah, it is because there was only 13 of us in the United States at the time I got certified. And and then I was the first uh instructor as well. And I mean, mind you, this is 20, what, 23 years ago, but still I've always had I've always kind of felt alone in that area alone, just learning it and doing it. But then in the church, so that's where I met. When I would go to these, it would it would be all LDS people, like 90% of these classes are all LDS, but they were never in Washington State, right? They're in Utah, they're in Arizona, they're uh Montana, you know, Idaho. I would go to these these trainings or these classes and stuff. And I was like the minority kind of, yeah, I was the one working on not LDS people. I was the one working on Native Americans. And when I would share, you know, my stories or working on people with addictions, and they would look at me like, why do you keep working on them? I mean, I got that from I couldn't, I kid you not. They would say, Why do you keep working on them if they're just gonna go back and you know, use or whatever? And I I I was shocked that that was even because in my mind, why who why would I not? Yeah, you know, like why would they not be deserving of the same um love and treatment? I don't care, but they would be like, well, then I also was able to help people get pregnant more. That must have been a gift I feel like Helling Fathers blessed me with, because I thought everybody knew how to, you know, was having these success rates. And then they'd be like, What are you doing? And so I would share um with them, and mind you again, that's I don't guarantee anything, but it's it's been a it's been a good thing that I've been able to help a lot of people with. And so I would share that. But to me, that was my first kind of like, oh, it's not normal. Not everybody sees the way I see, you know, and loves the way I love, I guess. Like to me, it's it's not a question. You don't earn the respect or, you know, you give it to everyone that walks through your door. You give it to everyone that comes to you. They're coming to you, I believe, for a reason. And so that was a struggle. And then so I went and I'd come back and I would not work on LDS people and they'd all get, I was kind of sad. I thought I was missing out because all these people live together. So they would trade and work on each other, and I always just had myself. Well, so then I never had people to trade. So I would come back and I would just give, give, give. No one to work on me, you know, just always keep working on others, giving, giving. Well, then now um I had a kind of another experience uh a few years ago. I think Rhonda knows that's when I came to your retreat. I was broken. It broke me. It broke me because my I had just prayed at the beginning of that year. That was what, 2023? And I asked Heavenly Father to make my heart bigger, like to love more deeper. Like I already, and that's funny when I say this. I thought, oh, I have love in my heart. I know I'm a lover, you know. But I asked him to even show me more, like I wanted more, I wanted to love more people. So guess what he does? He shows you how to love people that misunderstand you, that hurt you, that betray you, that um judge you unrighteously. That that's what I went through with the church. My my new my new bishop was a uh friend of mine, a dear friend of mine, I thought. And um, I still think, but it just kind of hurt. He got just freshly called as the bishop and he's young and he's in the medical field. So I think that doesn't help that he was against what I was doing. And I was in the young women's program and I was um told I was uh to stop teaching. I they didn't release me. I just had to sit there for two years. Um and I was told not to to teach and share stuff anymore because he thought it was borderline witchcraft. So he didn't even ask me what I do. He never came and never got a session. So I had to learn. I got my my prayers answered because I can honestly look at him now with nothing but love. He just he doesn't know. He just doesn't know what he doesn't know, right? And he's doing the best he knows how, but I can, but it did hurt. And I had to go through that that judgment of all I did was like uh muscle testing and had a very spiritual experience with the girls about how your power of your thoughts and it matters more what you think of yourself than what others think of you. So isn't that funny, ironic? That's the lesson that I was doing on a Wednesday night, and we did a little muscle testing where I had them all send negative energy up to the girl at the front of the room and showed how her arm went weak, and then I showed send love and how her arm went strong. It's kinesiology, it's science, it's not woo-woo, right? Yeah, and so I just got to make sure I say that because some people, you know, don't know that. And so I was, and then I was thrown the book of the policies, say don't go to energy healing, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it was it was ugly. And then people that I thought were my friends were talking about me, and no one came to me and was asking me what I even did or said. It was actually a beautiful lesson. There was tears, those girls all had tears in their eyes by the end of the lesson. And I just thought, how, but I know now I needed to go through that that judgment, that fear of what others think, or I would not have built my retreat space. It empowered me, it actually empowered me to not care because I know I'm right with God, and that's all that matters.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

You know, that's so beautiful and so powerful. I think every person we've talked to, um, not just on the podcast, because this is still so new, but just in life at the retreats, I get to talk to a lot of people in my work as a therapist. I get to talk to a lot of people, and I think I I I don't even think I I know that it really is through the heart that we become better. We become more whole.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Yeah. I was threatened that he might take my recommend away. So I'm telling you, I was too he was gonna go to the stake, and the stake never met with me. No one ever, you know, met with me. But this is what was said to me as he stops a sound bath session. we were getting ready to have um on another mutual night that the kids asked me to do and share about natural healing and he stopped that and he was like no and then um i just yeah i just feel like god needed me to i was willing to i didn't do anything wrong you know what i mean i knew who i was i know what my path was i knew that i was the spirit was there i knew it was out of fear i can see that but it still didn't make it okay but i was able to love god i wanted to leave i was in another boundary and i could have we just moved i could have gone to a different building and or a different state right but i stayed because every time i prayed god said i need you there like even if you're feeling like you're checking a box and you're just show shining your light yeah and i'm not even allowed to speak he needed me there to just send that energy there because it wasn't Christ like energy it was very not it was very judgy and the opposite and so that makes me even more empowered of i don't want anyone like i said my whole life i feel like i don't want anyone to feel how i felt and you know it's okay we have different beliefs we have different um and guess what now he blessed me this is the miracle this is i gotta share the ending here yes he blessed me with the last year i kept i might i kept going why am i still here i can't serve i can't i'm going on my wednesday nights i'm just like feeling like i'm just useless right and um i get a call right before christmas um last December no a year now we've been here a year we're doing a special group meeting in the new group in the new stake that I'm in they asked me if we would be willing me and my husband to serve there's only six of us that meet in a home and the love and the spirit that is in that home with six of us is it it makes it just like I cry every time I go I'm like and yeah I'm teaching there and I'm feeling loved and respected. I'm teaching the old testament you know I'm beautiful and there's so much symbolism in that so I'm a big symbol I believe in symbolism you know Native Americans yeah symbolism like when I say eagles I mean there's so many symbolisms we can see with so many things but I have been blessed to be able to still to not have to give up serving in my church and being flipped to nothing but love and feeling so valued that I've never felt in any church. That is where the Christ spirit that's where it should be in every building but we feel it right there. It was such an answer to prayer he blessed me in ways I didn't even know were even possible because it's not a common thing you know to be able to meet in a in a group like that we're just we have the sacrament we have everything there's no no primary no nothing but we spend our we I share my testimony every time we get a teach we I mean you know what I mean I've grown so much from that now from two years of being kind of gagged and silenced and not feeling valued.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

So yeah so it's a good ending it's a good ending I love that so much I think that so often um when I'm in my own whatever pity potty whatever it is those days where I'm like I don't want to whether that be interact with other people whether that be see my clients whether that be go to church whether that be no matter what it's those moments of I don't want to and I'm always so thankful that I do it anyway. I that's actually been a thing for several retreats I've put on is just do it anyway and I'm so thankful I do it anyway because there's so much good there's so much good if we continue to do it anyway. And I love that you you never gave up it would be easy so easy just to be like you know I have my relationship with Christ and that's personal and I'm just gonna worship in my own home. I'm just gonna you know do my own thing but the fact that you show up Wednesday nights and feel shut down and don't feel like you can be you but you still show up and now you're like now I have this beautiful ending to this story.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

Yeah yeah yeah he put me in uncomfortable I look back in my life and I realize how many positions that I feel like I've been put in uncomfortable positions like that to grow and learn to get out of my comfort zone and to um be more Christlike and to love more. And each one teaches me how to love more there's nothing anyone could bring to me that I would look at them and even bat an eye. You know like I think there's that's how we are supposed to be right that's looking through the savior's eyes.

SPEAKER_00 48:55

That's that's why we're here. Yeah absolutely I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_03 48:59

Yes yeah oh my goodness my heart is full I am teary-eyed I am so thankful for you and your friendship what a I feel honored that I know you and and so honored that Dakota's getting to know you a little bit and we were definitely gonna come out and see you.

SPEAKER_01 49:24

Girl you and me are gonna be best friends yeah I agree amen I would love for you to have some kind of special connection here you guys's family is amazing you're such a light with what you're doing your podcast like it brings so much just I don't know unity and love and that's what we need and I'm so grateful for you guys and meeting you and yes I can't wait let's make it happen for sure soon soon okay yeah I guess just to kind of wind down and and wrap up in your words in summary how do you believe that we can all be more unified on our walk in uh through life together and what do you want uh sorry I didn't mean to interrupt and what message would you like people to take away from hearing your story uh I don't know if I know how to put that into words to just if you are afraid of something ask just ask you know um keep your mind open I feel like too many people we we are raised a certain way or we're taught certain things from life and experiences but that is that is not the big picture. So you have to kind of keep that lens of there's always another there's always another layer another view that you can um get if you're just willing to open your mind and your heart and to to just receive it may not be what you expect. It may be something I love that it may be even bigger and better, you know, than you can even imagine. And so that's kind of how I try to look at every day with gratitude and just like I may not understand this but yeah it could be something you know that teaches me something bigger and better. And it doesn't mean you're gonna be exempt from trials. We're not gonna be exempt from heartbreak unfortunately or hurt right but that's anything we might be subjected to it more. I agree I agree no Dakota you're right I feel that I think that yeah some of us will be challenged even more and I've already seen the next layer of that coming at me and I I can recognize it. Yeah I can see it already I know what's happening and I can't stop it. That's the thing I try to move through it and just not hold I can't hold the negative so I just hope that people would be open non-judging and loving and just just for I guess give grace. That's one of my favorite words is grace.

SPEAKER_03 52:12

Me too me too I I share it with friends all the time give yourself grace give others grace like we just need so much more grace in this world give the person who belongs to a different political party grace.

SPEAKER_01 52:24

Give you give everybody like we need more everybody needs grace. Like you're you're gonna want that at one point you may not know it but you're gonna want that in your life and you need to be able to understand what if you don't know what it means no go.

SPEAKER_03 52:38

It's so beautiful the grace that we are given and the grace that we can give and when everybody can give grace can you imagine the peace and the love yeah you know because he's the ultimate grace giver yeah our savior yeah yeah so I don't know if that's in a nutshell that's what I wish everybody could ha have and and see in others is the love and give grace thank you for that beautiful invitation thank you yeah welcome you welcome it's a joy I love you and thank you for joining us and I'm gonna give you the biggest hug when Dakota and I drive out there to come see you. Absolutely don't wait too long.

SPEAKER_01 53:32

I'm not I'm not it it will happen the end of this month or the beginning of March we'll we will be out there I love it all right thanks you guys for doing what you're doing I appreciate your your time and and your trust in me.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

Of course Dina thank you so so much for joining us and for so vulnerably sharing your story and sharing your light with us and with our listeners um just from the bottom of my heart thank you so much for all that you are doing truly truly thank you you are changing the world and uh I I think that it's a good reminder for all of us to remember that each of us has the power to to change the world we can all be the change that we wish to see and um I think it's just incredible what you're doing. So again thank you thank you and thank you all to listening uh today for tuning back in with I'll walk with you until next time remember that we love you so so much. Remember your light and remember that you can be a force for good we love you. Have a beautiful day