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Lizy Maratea
FULL SPECTRUM COMPASSIONATE COACHING Motherhood has changed Lizy Maratea in ways she never imagined. After giving birth to a seven-pound, sixounce blessing named Francesca in 2013, the New Jersey native embarked on a reformative path to heal festering wounds from a dark past. Lizy’s childhood was rife with assault – trauma that later manifested itself in a variety of ailments, including a rare condition in which she became allergic to water. “You can imagine how inconvenient that would be,” said the 36-year-old, adding that assaults of a physical, mental and sexual nature also contributed to longstanding chronic pain.
and they weren’t getting that. Doctors are well educated, but learning about terpenes and cannabinoids is not exactly their wheelhouse. With Cannabis, it’s not as simple as take two of these and call me in the morning.” Having taken a deep-dive into her own psyche, Lizy learned firsthand that the path to good health was not a linear one, but an upand-down voyage that demanded discipline and self-care. Cannabis, she said, is just a piece of a larger puzzle. “After about three years of really, really hard work, I was able to give myself the same love and compassion that I could give to my siblings, my husband and my child,” she said. “That shift changed everything in my life.” In just two and a half years of tutelage, Lizy fter a strenuous pregnancy, Lizy was dehas expanded her personal practice into her termined to spend less time on her own own business: Full Spectrum Compassionate health and more time on Frankie, whose Coaching. She currently serves 14 clients, innamesake arrives from her grandfather. cluding a pair of soon-to-be mothers. She offers “Your sense of mortality really shifts when a three-tiered approach to life coaching – eight, you’re responsible for another human life,” said 12 or 16 weeks. Lizy, whose family has been residing on the East“I have a couple folks that come to me strictly ern Shore of Maryland for the past six years. “I for Cannabis, but it varies,” she said. “We try to wasn’t going to let [Frankie] come into this world set up goals and have the clients make realistic and learn the same dysfunctional ways without plans for themselves. The goal is to navigate tending to those wounds first.” their lives without having their wounded selves Lizy underwent intensive therapy, unearthing the controlling the experience.” underlying reasons for why she broke out in hives Eight weeks, Lizy says, is the amount of time when trying to enjoy the pleasantries of a warm needed to solidify a good habit. Sometimes, shower. the answer is as simplistic as reminding them Long-standing PTSD was the diagnosis. to do self-care. For others, she will guide them “I sat down with my counselor and she told me through Zoom-based mindfulness practices. it was a trauma response,” Lizy said of the allerEach case is patient-specific, leaving her spendgen known to scientists as idiopathic aquagenic ing hours researching on behalf of a client’s urticaria. “Medical professionals individual needs. will stop taking people seriously “The goal is to navigate “As hard as I bust when they have fibromyalgia, my ass for them, they their lives without and this is similar. There was need to work even nothing the doctors could see harder,” she said. “In having their wounded on the surface, so they threw my practice, I hold selves controlling their hands up in the air.” them accountable to the experience.” Mindfulness, yoga and Canthe efforts they want to nabis became the pathway to put in.” better health for Lizy. She fine-tuned a daily rouWhen it all comes together, seeing the results tine, while fastening her focus on her next step: is better than a paycheck. life coaching. The path to self-improvement led “Watching these lives transform before me is her to the doorstep of Natural Wellness Academy beyond description,” she said. – a Tampa Bay-based holistic health school that As the movement for federal legalization offers a variety of educational formats in person continues to pick up steam, Lizy believes she and online. Lizy entered into a one-year program, is placing herself on the front line of modern completing her certificate with a specialty in CanCannabis treatment. nabis and mindfulness teaching in 2019. “The world is more awake to the needs of “I had been working for Positive Energy those suffering,” she said. “When it is federally [dispensary] for a while,” she said. “Some of the legal, the days of doctors writing the quick preolder folks really needed someone to guide them scription, that is going to be obsolete. There will through the stigma and around the dosages, be a need for Cannabis coaches like myself on
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how to self sustain your [wellness practice].” She hints at Frankie taking over or playing a part in the family business. “She loves the smell of Mommy’s medicine,” Lizy laughed. Smiles are easier these days and multiply at a faster rate than ever before. “[Motherhood] has changed my perception of the world and what healing is,” she said. “I was beating myself up regularly and took a lot of my own abuse for a long time. To heal [for my daughter], I had to take the pretty bandaids off. I wanted her to know autonomy, I had denied myself that autonomy for a long time.” “I encourage everyone to be kinder and gentler to themselves,” she concluded. “When bad thoughts enter your mind don’t shake your fist. Be patient with yourself. To grow is not complicated, but it is difficult. Fortunately, as human beings, we can all do difficult things.”
G R OW F U L L S P E C T R U M .CO M
STORY by BAXSEN PAINE @BAXSENPAINE for LEAF NATION
