If you’ve ever attended a Holistic Healing Fair in Ontario, chances are you’ve felt something different — something deeper than just a vendor market or wellness expo. That feeling is the heartbeat of one woman’s healing journey… a journey that turned personal pain into a province-wide mission of love, connection, and hope.
My name is Vanessa, and since 2016, I’ve had the privilege of organizing over 100 Holistic Healing Fairs across Ontario. But long before I ever coordinated an event, I was simply someone looking for peace — and trying to feel again.
My story began when I was just 12 years old. Instead of someone asking, “What’s happening to you?” — They had only told me there was something wrong with me. I was placed on medication and stayed on it for a full 10 years. For an entire decade, I didn’t realize that what I really needed wasn’t to be numbed — it was to be understood.
After years of being told I couldn’t come off the medication — that the only options were to adjust the dose or switch to a different pill — a doctor in Haileybury, where I was attending college, gave me a moment of truth that changed everything. When I sat in the hospital after being hospitalized, I pleaded to come off the medication, he looked at me and said, “I can’t tell you no.” After years of hearing the opposite, I was in complete shock. Together, we created a tapering plan: two weeks at half dose, two weeks at a quarter dose, and my final pill — almost poetically — landed on my 22nd birthday. That was the day I began the slow, often painful, but deeply rewarding journey of returning to myself. And that decision became the first spark that lit the path forward.
After coming off the medication, I began the journey back into myself — and it felt like a wild goose chase trying to discover all the alternative options available for mental health support. I explored everything from lavender for calming, guided meditations, to taking my first Reiki training, which opened the door to energy healing and gave me the first ever tool I could use for myself. The world of wellness was vast, and I was led from one place to the next, piecing it all together on my own. That’s why the Holistic Healing Fairs mean so much to me — they offer a one-stop experience where others can learn what’s available, feel supported, and explore their own path to healing, all in one empowering space.
Many years later, I moved to Sudbury, Ontario — a new chapter, but not without its challenges. I found myself at the Sudbury crisis center, sitting with a psychologist, crying and feeling fragile. I told him I didn’t want to go back on medication — and he didn’t try to push anything on me. Instead, he looked at me and simply said:
“You just need validation.”
Soon after, I had a Zoom session with my dear friend Ashley (our featured practitioner in April’s newsletter). She guided me through a hypnosis and Emotion Code clearing, and somewhere in that fragile but powerful space, she checked in and asked, “Why don’t you create an event?”
I was unsure and barely holding it together — but something in me said yes. Just weeks later, I had over 70 vendors blindly trust me and join, and over 1,000 people came to attend my very first Holistic Healing Fair in Sudbury. In that moment, I knew:
I wasn’t the only one who needed this. I wasn’t the only one desperately searching for something more.
Ashley’s guidance, love, and sessions completely transformed my life. They also released trapped emotions that healed me on deeper levels I can not explain. (To this day, her sessions still help me)
Since that day, the Holistic Healing Fairs have become a mission from my heart. I never went to school for event planning. I’ve taught myself every step, solved every problem, and shown up for every single fair since 2016. Not because it’s easy — but because it’s necessary for all the people I dream of helping.
Then came the pandemic. It brought a full stop to in-person events for two years, and like many others, I was faced with deep uncertainty. I had rescheduled 17 Holistic Healing Fair’s 3 times during the span of the pandemic. But during that time, I was also graced with something extraordinary — the birth of my daughter, Nova-Lea, during the second lockdown.
In a world that felt like it was crumbling, she became my anchor. Her presence reminded me daily of why I do this work. She gave me focus, love, and a new level of purpose.
That same year, I also poured my heart into creating something else close to my soul — my guided journal, Spark Your Inner Truth. It became a powerful tool for others walking their own path of reflection and healing. Creating it helped me reconnect with myself in the quiet when the world had gone still. Fun fact, I also did a podcast answering my own questions with an audience during the pandemic – oversharing, crying, swearing – you name it. It is vulnerable, raw and real, and has helped others along the way. It is called “Spark Your Inner Truth – A Seat With The Author”
Now, as the world has reopened, our community has returned stronger than ever. People are craving connection, healing, and a space where they can feel safe just to be.
I am forever thankful for the opportunity to connect with some of Ontario’s biggest hearts and most gifted practitioners — people who serve their communities from a place of genuine love and purpose. Over the years the Holistic Healing Fair movement has grown larger then I could have ever imagined. When you attend a Holistic Healing Fair, you can feel the powerful vibration our vendor community carries — it’s something that stays with you long after the day is done.
If you’ve been to a fair, you’ve likely seen me — I haven’t missed a single one. And if you haven’t yet, I hope you’ll join us soon. My dream is to see these fairs expand across Canada one day, reaching more hearts who need to be reminded:
You are not broken. You are becoming.
If one person can have an easier life by attending our fair and finding something that helps guide them, then my job is done.
To anyone reading this who might be in the middle of their own hard chapter — please remember:
I was once crying on a psychologist’s couch, not knowing how I’d get through the week.
And just weeks later while I was still held together by duct tape and a string of hope, I held space for 1,000 people to begin healing together. My life had changed and I didn’t look back, 100 Holistic Healing Fair’s later.
I 100% had no idea what I was doing, I trusted my steps and let go of the steering wheel.
You never know how close your purpose is — or how deeply your pain might one day become your power.
I’m deeply grateful to have this newsletter as another way to share the incredible wealth of knowledge, healing, and heart-centered tools that are out there. Between the Holistic Healing Fairs and this newsletter, I’ve been gifted with multiple ways to help raise the vibration of people I may never meet—simply by showing them love, sharing truth, and offering support on their healing journey.
My wish is that as you walk your own path, you carry that love forward—offering compassion to those you meet, and becoming a light for someone else in their time of need. Together, we can build a community rooted in healing, connection, and the belief that even in our hardest moments, life can be beautiful—and we are never alone. Always choose kindness.
Thank you for being part of this journey. Thank you for believing in healing. And thank you for allowing me to serve a community I once so deeply needed.
With love,
Vanessa
Founder, Holistic Healing Fair