ABOUT HEATHER:

As a habitual maker of things, habitual intuitive, and helper, I’ve learned the art of presence and healing within the little things. I have 25 years of experience working with the public, witnessing and relating with 1000's of different types of personalities, backgrounds, and cultures. My Vision Gardens comes from the necessity of giving pieces of me while I hold space and kidneys, creating gardens and art to support the pieces of healing within you.

Hi, I'm Heather Smith, a Certified Transforming The Experience-Based Brain (TEB) Practitioner, 200 HR YT, Intuitive Artist, and most importantly a mom to a spirited 3-year-old.

I'm a trauma-informed, intuitive practitioner and artist who focuses on the repair of parts affected in early development. This somatic-based approach to healing is extremely effective at soothing a wild nervous system; holding space for transformation (healing) that takes place when the body's vital flows are able to coordinate with each other, lowering allostatic (stress load), which is impeded by our excessive task-driven, modern culture.

Utilizing the body's own ability to heal itself in the context of developmental trauma, I facilitate a safe and supportive relationship with your whole self, using light touch and/or intentional presence around your kidneys, behind the neck under the brainstem, and at the ankles, called Transforming Touch®, developed by Stephen J. Terrell, Psy. D, SEP. This is an amazing therapy on its own and also to benefit/ compliment traditional Psychotherapy practices, massage work, and all healing journeys.

Check out these articles and research relating to the importance of physical touch:

Living * Altar (*lovingly called a Walltar)

I’ve incorporated the aesthetic and easy-care nature of the succulent into a customized wall garden. The piece is a focal point in your home, a place to catch your gaze and remember the beauty of your life. The Walltars are a place to grow your gratitude and your spirit. The wooden box can become a shelf for candles, incense, sacred objects, crystals, and more. The Walltar can be the heart of your home, a focus for meditation, prayer, spiritual work, and sacred moments. It can be direct access to beauty, in any room.

The custom Walltar is available in multiple sizes with plantings of variated succulents and options to add sacred objects that reflect your style, belief systems, and meaning. Custom inscriptions are available. E.g. prayers, poems, spells, chants, healing words, dreams, goals, names, etc.

As a native of San Diego, CA, succulents were a calling card on daily walks to the beach, container gardening, fun and meaningful gifts from the farmer’s market, and sweet garden shops on almost every corner. Creating my own space here in the forests of North Carolina, I long for the alien-like, strange, perfection of the succulent.

Incorporating my painting work from vision paintings (Scroll down to learn more!) and as a practitioner of Transforming the Experience-Based Brain® (TEB): A Somatic Approach to Developmental Trauma, I want to make what people need to heal. So if it’s “holding” a kidney for support, painting someone’s complete Life’s Vision on one canvas, or a creative altar with funky little plants, I’m fully in my purpose. Allowing and celebrating individuals in their normal through my art and presence.

If you’d like to schedule a TEB session with me, I can work remotely through Zoom or in person, in Durham, NC. Sessions are typically 45 minutes and will help you to change your life.

What is a Vision Painting?

I'm inspired to create stuff for other people, that means you. A few years ago I fell into a stagnant life. I believed I wasn't good enough as an artist (I didn't know that we all just are artists yet) and I did not have enough energy to pursue the art world as I had been taught. The idea of the rejection everyone kept professing, weighed on me and kept me from pursuing my passion. I only painted when it was for other people. Weddings, birthdays, and just because I love you were all reasons that would light my painting fire.

I want to navigate this world with love and authenticity and perhaps change what we believe being an artist is. What if instead of buying someone else's vision for your home, I paint yours? What if I take your dreams, goals, and future aspirations and use my expressionistic style to capture your spirit and essence in a fine art painting? Vision Paintings, like the vision board with magazine cutouts and inspirational sayings, is a beautiful masterpiece to live within your everyday life. Not only an art piece to decorate your home but one full of purpose, your purpose!

Admire a vision of what you're meant to be every day and see how this visual language starts to change your thoughts into believing this to be the reality of your life. Let’s work together to create something beautiful and full of meaning. Let's be the artists WE ARE and create our own world.

Passion Painting:

A very concentrated, specific vision painting focusing on one subject or inspiration. We work together visualizing what you want to focus on right now. This is a great way to start your day with a goal or way of being in mind. What an amazing gift for a loved one, sometimes we can see more than what someone can see for themselves.

I paint your soul, Vision Painting:

You want it all, right? Well, just so you know, you already have it all and this vision painting will remind you every day! I will get to know you a little more intimately through a questionnaire and interview via Zoom, lunch date, or email correspondence. We will discuss your dreams, goals, and what is meaningful to you. This painting can be a collection of your inspirations, goals, and desires all in one. With my intuitive, creative guidance I make it all work together to portray your soul and who you're meant to be into a GORGEOUS painting.