Meet Our team
Lisa Highfield
Lisa Highfield is the Founder and Executive Director of Healing Hearts and Heart Space Inc.
A graduate of Fanshawe College’s Child and Youth Counsellor Program, Lisa spent many years working in group homes, secure custody, and with the London and Middlesex Children’s Aid Society supporting foster and adoptive families. Lisa is also a graduate of Western University at Kings College with a Bachelor of Arts (hons) in Thanatology, and a Masters in Social Work (hons). She is a certified Yoga and Yoga Tune Up® instructor.
Through Lisa’s work experience, she recognized service gaps that for families in crisis and has become passionate about filling this void. To bridge the gap, Lisa founded Healing Hearts.
Lisa is also the co-author of The Promise: Truth From the Trenches of Adoption. Part memoir and part manual, the book examines one family’s journey through adoption, loss, and trauma, and provides valuable insight into the complex behaviours of foster and adopted kids. It also gives hope to struggling families.
In an effort to better serve the families she supports, Lisa is a Reiki Practitioner and is expanding her counselling practice to include a variety of healing modalities,
Christen Shepherd
Christen Shepherd is a London-based writer and death doula. She is a registered member of the end-of-life Doula Association of Canada.
In addition to her role in end-of-life care, she is committed to adoption advocacy, particularly finding supports for adoptive parents and for children with complex special needs and trauma and is part of the provincial consortium for Aggression Towards Family and Caregivers in Childhood and Adolescence seeking solutions.
Along with Lisa Highfield she co-authored the book, The Promise: Truth from the Trenches of Adoption. She also assists individuals in memoir-writing both as legacy projects and tools for healing. At the heart of all her work is the belief that people must be supported in their grief and loss and when we come together, we can make that possible.
Check out her website for more information about Christen.
Kimberly Sanzo
Kimberly Sanzo is Healing Hearts Volunteer Social Media and Website Coordinator. She is an adoptive mom to two beautiful girls. Her family has experienced first hand the transformative and supportive services provided Healing Hearts. She is a Registered Social Worker, Reiki Master and Social Media Manager across a variety of fields. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge and creative problem solving.
Testimonials
Lisa has been a huge asset to our family as we struggled with adoption-related issues and enormous behavioural problems. She has provided us with great insight into the dynamics of our family relationships, shown us what caused our children’s emotions as well as offered hands on solutions to the behavioural difficulties. Her relaxed, stress-free approach was helpful to our family during a time of great stress, and her fun nature was a hit with our children. She is warm, positive and compassionate and she has truly helped our family work through complicated issues.
Before Lisa: Melancholic.
After Lisa: Friendly, self-loving, supportive. I’ve become a much better friend and girlfriend, and I owe that to Lisa’s major help. I have better relationships with my friends and myself.
I’ve learned to protect myself and offer wise advice that I like to call “Lisa Logic”. Life can be so hard sometimes, I know from my experience with illness, death and, in a way, abandonment at young age. It was really difficult to deal with my problems and I felt totally helpless and useless. But I’m so grateful our family found Lisa and let her into our lives.
I’m still working on my issues and have a long way to go, but I’ve also come a long way. Thank you Lisa, we love you so much.
Lisa you have been there not just on a weekly basis, but also you were and always are a phone call away!
For me, this is a HUGE help. I have used my EAP programs thru my employer; however I always felt the stress of trying to fit my issues into an hour and always watched the counsellor checking the time. You and your services are incredible in that you work around our schedule, and you come to us. Healing Hearts has helped me transition my 7 yr old son who would sleep in my bed every night to sleeping in his own bed and staying put for the night!
I have learned to set limits and work thru typical situations with my teenage kids with confidence, leaving us all able to talk thru situations that would normally have ended up in yelling and screaming matches. Healing Hearts has made a huge difference in my life and the lives of my children. We are so blessed to have you in our lives.
We still have a ways to go, and we know that you are there to support us and challenge us to look into ourselves. Thanks Lisa xoxo
Lisa has been a huge encouragement to myself and my family. She has offered us a new perspective, sense of self as both a person and a parent. We have been able to create healing, balance and learning for everyone in the household. Thank you for always being there to listen, encourage and support.
Lisa has been a big help to me and my family. She has helped me through so many problems about home, school, and even sports. Lisa has been a great friend and now she feels like family.
Do you have a testimonial? Please feel free to share!
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