Meet Stephanie MoDavis
At the age of 20, Stephanie MoDavis was diagnosed with autoimmunity, an illness that threatened her life on multiple occasions. After 10 years fighting and surrendering to her destiny, Stephanie received two organ transplants, she began the healing process and her journey toward giving back.
Stephanie's mission stemmed from the vision she developed which was verified by the frustration of her clients. Years ago, when Stephanie talked with clients, a common phrase stood out to her. Clients constantly said, “I have tried therapy, medication, I try to eat well. I do all the things I am ‘told’ to do but I still don't feel well. There's something missing, I feel stuck.”
Stephanie understood where her clients were coming from because she experienced their concerns as a patient in the labyrinth of a medical system for 20+ years.
We cannot go forward in healthcare unless we broaden the discourse and include the
*SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCER
Empowering Patients
Training and Supporting Peer Mentors
Peer support starts with the assumption that meaning and perception are created within the context of culture and relationships. For many individuals who have complex or chronic illness and utilize the modern healthcare system, they have been told what they "have," how "it" will be treated, and how they must think about arranging their lives around this "thing." This approach leads to a view of their lives as a series of problems or "symptoms," and they forget that there might be other ways to interpret their experiences. As a result, they feel different, alone, and "other-than" much of their lives, leaving them in relationships that have been less than empowering and more often destructive and infantilizing.
Peer support training can help individuals develop their ability to think critically about "who they've become." It helps them learn to sit with discomfort while exploring the relational dynamics that have kept them stuck and also helps them look at their own reactivity. Understanding their "hot spots" and the kinds of situations that feel comfortable, tolerable, or intolerable can help individuals learn to negotiate power rather than take it. This then allows them to normalize what has been named as abnormal because in our culture illness is seen as a setback or event that disrupts our normal life. This is actually a set up for integration and individuation failure. Our health setbacks can be a liberating inner experience when we shift healthcare culture. True participatory care allows room to self realize (connecting with others on the inner healing journey) while we work with the providers. The science is not enough. This is a big responsibility as we all are called to level up in our worldview.
Peer mentorship allows individuals to find affiliation with others who they feel are "like" them, which creates a deep, holistic understanding based on mutual experience where people can "be" with each other without the constraints of traditional relationships. As trust in the relationship builds, both people can respectfully challenge each other when they find themselves re-enacting old roles. This allows members of the peer community to try out new behaviors with one another and move beyond previously held self-concepts built on disability, diagnosis, and trauma worldview. This is valuable as a mutual empowerment and meaning can ensue, where there once was only "a fight". We can find the light if we are offered the opportunity.
Stephanie and Awakening Healthcare are the bridge between trained subjective experiencers and the hospital teams. This is the inception of true comprehensive care. Where healing and healthcare are allowed to co-exist under what we call the modern western healthcare system.
Stephanie and Dr. Shah published The Peer Mentor Handbook available on Amazon.
Stephanie discovered that authentic healing comes from a coupling of experts and an experiencer community. There are ways to end the cycle of emotional upset, stuck-ness, pain, depression, anxiety, fear, stability and financial woes and more. You can get your life back and become so much more even while experiencing set-backs. In fact, set backs are our information. We just need the room to experience it.
Stephanie humbly facilitates the "self healing" journey. Uncovering the alchemical gold through a transformational and creative healing adventure.
Make your life your own creative experience.
In 2020, Stephanie founded Regenerating Healthcare, a 501(c)(3) entity, to offer the teachings of self awareness and personal development to those in the healthcare field. Stephanie has also co-authored The Peer Mentor Handbook and The Emotional Aspects of Transplant, continues to offer online meditation classes, and co-founded Awakening Healthcare and The Activated Patient Project.
Over the years, Stephanie has drawn in individuals seeking emotional processing, spiritual support, creative integration, individuation, and self realization.