Dr. Whitley Caruso and Dr. John Caruso

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Dr. Whitley Caruso and Dr. John Caruso

Dr. Whitley Caruso is a family wellness, vitalistic chiropractor in Houston. She is the owner and founder of Vital Family Chiropractic, located in the Heights. Dr. Whitley loves serving many women and children through nervous system based chiropractic care. She is Webster certified and a member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. She holds a certification in craniopathy and is certified in craniosacral therapy and Gillespie craniofasical therapy. She is a Spinning Babies Aware Practitioner, a BIRTHFIT Leader and is dedicated to helping families through the motherhood transition. She also teaches cranial work classes to other chiropractors. Her office hosts postpartum and prenatal classes, classes for parents about ways to support their children and family in natural ways, monthly breastfeeding meet ups and breastfeeding classes and regular play dates, where her son, Warrick, often makes an appearance.

Dr. John Caruso is the owner and clinic director of Haven Family Chiropractic.⁣ He has a big heart for serving families in the Ft. Bend, Harris, and Waller county areas. ⁣ He is Webster certified through the International Pediatric Chiropractic Association (ICPA) to safely care for all the mommas through their pregnancy and beyond. ⁣ He is a Certified SOT Pediatric Practitioner that specializes in Craniopathy or chiropractic cranial adjusting to care for kids with latch and feeding issues, tongue ties or tethered oral tissues, and plagiocephaly among other struggles. He is the only Focus Academy Certified Doctor in Houston specializing in caring for kids with complex conditions and neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, developmental delays and seizure disorders. ⁣ When he’s not in the office, you can find John with his wife and son, Warrick, at summer moon grabbing some to-die-for coffee or at My Gym watching their son explore and play. ⁣ Dr. John is incessantly working to advance his education with courses and certifications to provide the highest level of care for families in Katy and surrounding areas. ⁣

Julie DeNofa, Addition Defined

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Julie DeNofa, Addition Defined

Julie DeNofa dives deep into defining addiction, what to do if someone you know needs help, where to go to get help, and what treatment looks like. Excellent information for us all, especially if we are worried about a loved one.

Julie DeNofa is a President of Positive Recovery Centers. Julie has over 30 years of related work experience in medical, clinical, operations, and creating a culture of success.

Julie began her career in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 1990’s as a Certified Addictions Registered Nurse (CARN) with her specialty in substance use disorders and psychiatry. Her extensive clinical background, coupled with her business acumen, have been a large part of her ability to developing and implementing high quality programs across the country. Her dedication is also evidenced by her volunteerism with Addiction Policy Forum, Houston Area Treatment Providers and is an advocate for the Texas Peer Assistance Program for Nurses (TPAPN) and a community partner with numerous other entities. Julie is also a former board member for the Texas Association of Addiction Professionals(TAAP).

Julie is dedicated to helping others heal, nurtures growth and self-awareness and will tell you her biggest joy is being Mom to her three adult children, Chelsea, Gia and Desi.

Debbie Hull

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Debbie Hull

Debbie Hull began learning about birth in 1996 after the birth of her first baby and has been serving Houston area families as a childbirth educator and labor doula since 1999. She is certified with CAPPA as a new parent educator, labor doula, and childbirth educator and is honored to be on a CAPPA faculty for both labor doula and childbirth educator. Debbie has been privileged to attend several hundred births in homes, birth centers, hospitals and, on one memorable occasion, a grocery store parking lot! She believes that it is the most precious and sacred of honors to be invited to care for a family during their childbearing season and is very proud to have the opportunity to speak into the work of the next generation of birth professionals. Her work has taken her places she never expected to go, including becoming a talk-radio guest-host (listen at wholemothershow.com). She also portrayed Jillian in all of the Houston productions of Karen Brody’s play, Birth, but only with the fingerprints of her beloved midwife/friend all over her back. They say the birth sounds she made there, on a stage, in front of hundreds of people, sounded real. She profoundly hopes so. Debbie designed and developed the curriculum for an innovative, interactive childbirth class and offers classes that even dads report enjoying!

Her minor in training and development and experience as an American Sign Language interpreting mentorship program manager perfectly prepared her for mentoring doulas and childbirth educators. She believes that we learn best when we are laughing, so her training is designed to be enjoyable and memorable. It should be noted that there have also been tears in training when groups dive deep into the emotional side of birth work. Debbie is most proud to be the mother of two amazing, formerly breastfed and home-schooled young adults, the youngest of whom has been on a 21-year nursing strike. When she is not working on her feelings about that, Debbie enjoys movies, reading, and game nights, even when she loses. www.debbiehulldoula.com

Dr. Caroline Long

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Dr. Caroline Long

Dr. Caroline Long is a pregnancy and pediatric focused chiropractor and the founder of West U Wellness. Born and raised in Houston, she graduated from Spring Woods High School before pursuing her Bachelor of Arts at UCLA. While at Texas Chiropractic College, she learned more about chiropractic care for children. She discovered that chiropractic care could help with scoliosis, ear infections, colic, reflux, latch issues for infants, and more. While still a student, she heard expectant moms complaining of back pain during pregnancy and thought there must be a way to help women with pregnancy aches and pains who wanted a more natural labor. Dr. Long was one of the first chiropractors to be certified in pediatric and perinatal chiropractic in the Houston area.

When she started her clinic, West U Wellness, almost 20 years ago, she wanted to build a practice that offered customized, not cookie cutter, treatments for patients. In addition to chiropractic services, they offer acupuncture, dry-needling, cupping, functional medicine testing, nutritional counseling, decompression, physical therapy modalities, as well as multiple types of massage therapy. In fact, West U Wellness has more pregnancy and pediatric trained chiropractors than any other small business in Texas. Since 2000 she has built her reputation as a caring and compassionate chiropractor for patients as young as 1 day old all the way to a patient who was 106 years old. She and her husband Patrick have two daughters, Katia (14) and Victoria (16).

Catrice Harris

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Catrice Harris

Encouraged to support women after the birth of her own daughters, Catrice Harris has been helping families with childbirth education, labor & birth, postpartum and lactation support since 1992. From day one, she loved being a mom, but before the birth of her two girls, she was not sure of what to expect in this new role. Because of that, it became very important to help educate others who felt the same way. Her initial Lactation training was through the University of Texas Health Science Center and City of Houston WIC Programs. Childbirth Education came next as she began teaching Lamaze classes to expectant families, birth moms, and adopting parents.

In 2012, she was able to take the leap away from Corporate America, and focus full-time attention on caring for women; it was no longer just a part-time venture. Bridging the gap between Childbirth Education and Breastfeeding support, she began working as a Birth and Postpartum Doula, becoming certified through DONA and ICEA. Learning more about the wisdom of women’s bodies, Catrice realized there is yet so much more to learn. In that quest to learn more, she began the journey toward becoming a Midwife. She has been fortunate to learn from many midwives in the Houston area through births at home, in birth centers, and hospitals as well. As of December 2021, she finished her formal Midwifery education through the National College of Midwifery and looks forward to taking the national licensing exam in early 2023.

While working toward that long-awaited goal, Catrice supports aspiring birth and postpartum doulas as they complete training, and currently works as doula mentor with a non-profit organization in Houston whose goal is to make doula support available in under-served communities, and improve postpartum outcomes. Having supported over 350 women with the births of their babies as of early 2023, and countless more with breastfeeding and postpartum care, she is truly grateful that this work found her!

Dr. Valerie Akinwande, Pelvic Floor Health and Therapy

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Dr. Valerie Akinwande, Pelvic Floor Health and Therapy

Dr. Valerie Akinwande is the founder of WomansDPT, a telehealth and mobile (concierge) pelvic floor practice. She earned a Doctorate in Physical Therapy, a Master of Science in Biology and Biochemistry, and a Bachelor’s in Biology. Dr. Akinwande also taught for several years as a college professor and is a certified clinical instructor. She continues to teach, as a Lead Women’s Health Educator for the Pelapy YouTube Channel and in group class settings around the Houston area. She began working in pelvic floor rehabilitation after having her first child over 8 years ago. Dr. Akinwande earned Certificates of Achievement in both Pelvic Health and Obstetrics from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and is a Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist (PCES). She is a wife and mother of three school-aged children, all born via un-medicated (natural) vaginal births. So, she is personally familiar with the challenges that women face during pregnancy and postpartum.  For example, she healed her own diastasis recti, or separation of abs, after giving birth. Dr. Akinwande is passionate about educating and empowering women to thrive through pregnancy, postpartum, and every life transition, especially in their most intimate areas.

Susan Wildin, M.D., CPC, Nonviolent Communication

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Susan Wildin, M.D., CPC, Nonviolent Communication

Susan was trained as a developmental and behavioral pediatrician, leaving medicine to raise her son. Susan started attending Nonviolent Communication (NVC) workshops in 2007 and became passionate about using and sharing NVC with others. NVC gives Susan hope that humanity can learn to live in harmony, partnering with one another to meet the fundamental needs of all people. She became a Certified Professional Coach in Coaching for Transformation in 2012 and completed a year-long course in facilitation in 2014, both at Leadership that Works.  Susan also served on the board of Houston NVC from 2011 to 2020. Susan’s workshops can be found on the Houston NVC website (www.houstonnvc.org). Susan can be contacted at www.wildins.net. 

Angelique Geehan, Udoro, Milan and Nora

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Angelique Geehan, Udoro, Milan and Nora

Milan and Nora
Nora and Milan are 14 and 14 years old and not white. They are in 9th and 10th grades attending Westside and Lamar High Schools. You can find them doing a number of things for fun: Nora enjoys photography and reading; Milan enjoys doing theater at Lamar and working out (getting RIPPED) at the gym. Both of them love doing art (Milan prefers digital, while Nora prefers traditional) and writing. They met in 2020 via email, but never really clicked. In April of 2022 their families met at a park — the first time they met IRL — but the real event driving them into friendship was a slightly poorly conducted joint interview. Ever since then, they’ve been good ol’ pals.

Udoro
I am a human who desires to see other humans, God’s lovely creations, live in their wholeness. I am Udoro Ekpin, and I have the pleasure of wearing some meaningful hats: A Mother of Three, A Sister to Four, A Friend to a Select Few, and A Child of One. Raised in Houston, TX, I am a Nigerian-American who is proud to be a graduate from Texas schools. From my formal teaching years to my consulting work through Restorative Empowerment for Youth (REY), I remain a life-long learner. My background in restorative justice (RJ) processes lends to my understanding about others and the world around me—making certain being seen and heard is not simply a cliché—moving from conversation to action. 

Angelique Geehan
As a consultant, facilitator, and organizer, Angelique (any pronouns) works to support and repair the connections people have to themselves and their families, communities, and cultural practices. She builds intergenerationally, with colleagues across disciplines, to question and depolarize the beliefs and practices that can lead to isolation and feelings of powerlessness — co-creating or reclaiming ways (like carrying children in fabric close to their caregivers) that can promote resilience and healing from historical and social harms. A queer, agender, asian mother, she coaches individuals and groups; trains community and health care workers and educators; and offers lectures, classes, and workshops on topics including consent, cultural awareness, community building, relationships, parenting, and conflict and communication, in alignment with social justice and transformative justice frameworks. She invites you to connect via her website: angeliquegeehan.com.

Alex Barrera, Struggles in Marriage and Fatherhood

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Alex Barrera, Struggles in Marriage and Fatherhood

Alex Barrera is a men’s life coach that is passionate about helping men build lasting relationships at home with their wife and kids, by focusing on relationships, communication, and confidence. As a husband and father of three, he is aware of the struggle that many men (himself included) face when entering fatherhood. Alex is co-host of the Men of Conviction podcast that talks all things men and Alex can be found online at thealexbarrera.com