by Marlaina Donato

Holistic Renaissance woman Tonya Nichols ventured into the health field as a conventional pharmacist with a desire to help others. If not for an unsettling relationship with blood, she would have followed her leanings to become a mainstream physician but opted to complete a Doctor of Pharmacy program at the University of Florida. Despite Nichols’ flourishing career and happy family, destiny had other plans when her own health buckled in 2005. “When I was in my 30s I had issues with depression and my weight. I also had zero energy and generally felt terrible. I took the medicines my doctor prescribed for me. I did low-fat diets. None of it really helped,” says Nichols, who shares the helm with her husband Mark at The Healing Center, a multidimensional wellness sanctuary in Lakeview. 

With a willingness to look at her own health through a different lens, Nichols took a deep dive into alternative approaches that included working with a naturopath to balance hormones and a tailored diet of clean, nutrient-dense food. In the process, she felt like she had become an entirely different person, one who wanted to make a difference. “I started taking classes and getting certifications so I could help other people feel better,” she says. “I am almost 50 now, and I feel better than I did in my 30s.” Today, Nichols is an integrative pharmacy specialist, holistic nutritionist, certified energy medicine practitioner, Reiki master, emotional clearing specialist and ClearBeliefs Coach. Through her deep understanding of how emotional, mental and energetic health affects physiology, Nichols also fortifies her toolbox with certifications in trauma-informed therapeutic coaching, homeopathy, essential oils, vibrational flower essences, spiritual hypnosis and past life regression. This seamless melding of modalities enables clients to find equilibrium through an inspired and individualized methodology.

At The Healing Center, finding the root causes of any health condition is paramount, and using the BioScan can be helpful to shed more light on the many complex layers of a person’s state of being. “The BioScan has a database of the healthy frequencies of over 120,000 different bodily functions,” explains Nichols. “The scan measures a client’s bio-frequencies against the stored healthy frequencies and generates a report of those that are out of balance.” The BioScan then runs optimizing frequencies to help restore any imbalances including underlying vitamin deficiencies, hormonal discrepancies, heavy metal toxicity and viruses. Contributing emotions can also be detected, linking a feeling to a physical issue and generating music that clients can use at home as a vital component to their healing journey.

Holistic modalities are now recognized by prestigious hospitals like the Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and for Nichols, these changes are a sign of good things to come. “I feel that the future of health and healing will be understanding the mind-body-spirit connection and guiding people to heal on all three levels,” she muses. “Your body, mind and spirit are a package deal. You can’t ignore one and expect to be healthy.” She is constantly inspired by her clients’ response to thorough care and offers hope when she says, “I am inspired every time one of my clients is able to release stuck emotions or trauma, starts to feel better when we are able to correct nutritional deficiencies or when I help put them in touch with their true self that has been buried under years of conditioning and societal norms. I get to do that every day, and it never gets old.”    

For those struggling for answers to chronic ill health, Nichols encourages diligence, adding with seasoned optimism, “If you don’t resonate with the practitioner you are working with, find another. The body is amazing, and it can heal itself if you give it what it needs.”

For more information, please visit
thcoflakeview.com or call 989-352-6500.

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