Living Present With Lynda: A Journey of Truth, Trauma Healing, and Grace
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
By She Rises Studios Editorial Team
Lynda Hills has dedicated her life to helping others reclaim the parts of themselves they were taught to silence. As a Mental Health Trauma Therapist, Grace Coach, Recovery Consultant, and founder of Living Present With Lynda, LLC, she brings together professional training, spiritual depth, and lived experience in a way that resonates deeply with survivors of sexual trauma and emotional pain. Through Healing In Truth Retreats, she has created a sanctuary for people seeking healing, clarity, and the courage to live fully in the present.
Born and raised in Northwest Oklahoma and Southwest Kansas, Lynda grew up surrounded by strong community values and the kind of resilience found in small towns. After graduating from Ulysses High School, she pursued her Master’s in Education in Counseling at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. By 2013, she became a Licensed Professional Counselor. When she first set out to pursue her higher education she knew she wanted to help others. She had dreamed early in her education of becoming a first responder therapist however didn’t believe that could become reality. That role felt far beyond anything she pictured for her life, and she is still learning to embody it with humility, gratitude, and purpose. Today, it is an important part of her service to the world as many of her ancestors were first responders and served in the military.
Long before she began working with clients, Lynda began walking her own difficult journey through trauma, sexual abuse, co-dependency, domestic violence, substance abuse, religious conditioning, and deep shame shaped years of her life. Perfectionism and an unforgiving inner critic once kept her from seeing her own worth. Yet these experiences became the foundation of her calling. Over time, through profound personal work, she learned to leave toxic environments, to stop performing for acceptance, to honor every part of herself without judgment, and to embrace the gentleness of grace.
This healing journey influences every part of how she supports others. Working from the Internal Family Systems model, Lynda teaches that there are no bad parts within us. There are only parts that have been burdened by pain or misalignment. Her approach is never from a place of hierarchy. She meets people where they are because she remembers exactly what it feels like to be afraid of being seen or afraid of disappointing others. Her sessions are grounded in recognition and compassion. She believes healing is not codependent but interdependent. When one person rises, they invite others to rise with them.
A core message that guides her work began during a season she describes as wild and holy healing. Living present became her anchor. It is the practice of allowing yourself to feel, think, and process without shame. It is the commitment to return to the moment rather than living in the past or escaping into the future. As she teaches, the past holds wisdom but is not a home. The future holds dreams but is not an escape. Peace is found in the present, where truth and transformation take place one day at a time.
Her Healing In Truth Retreats reflect this philosophy. These retreats are not rigid programs.
They are gatherings built on grace, education, and honest conversation. Lynda has brought together a multidisciplinary team that includes a massage therapist, a psychic medium, a brain strategist, a therapist who incorporates animal therapy, and authors who share personal stories of survival and resilience. Together, this team blends biblical wisdom, scientific understanding, and universal truth to create an experience that feels safe and deeply restorative. Attendees often arrive carrying heaviness and leave feeling lighter, understood, and grounded in their own value.
As a first responder therapist and Grace Coach, Lynda helps people move from shame and striving into authenticity and spiritual freedom. Much of this wisdom comes from her own recovery path. As a young woman healing from meth use and navigating the impact of sexual abuse within Bible Belt culture, she carried shame she did not yet have language for. It was the vulnerable women she met along the way who showed her what strength truly looked like. Through their honesty and her own spiritual awakening, she met Yeshua in a deeply personal way and learned that grace is not achieved through effort. It is received through surrender.
Lynda now integrates EMDR, Internal Family Systems, Person Centered Therapy, contemplative spirituality, mindfulness, and the Twelve Step model into her work. She also encourages tools such as devotionals, oracle reflection, meditation, and massage therapy to support balance in both body and mind. This blend of science and spirituality helps clients release shame, honor their stories, and move toward freedom.
The message she hopes every person receives is simple. You are seen. You are heard. You are valued. It is never too late to begin again. She believes most people are doing the best they can with what they know and what they have. Vulnerability and honesty, she teaches, are acts of courage that have the power to transform not only individuals but entire communities.
Looking back, Lynda often thinks of the young woman she once was, stepping into treatment twenty five years ago with a determination to build her future. She never imagined what it would take to become a therapist, much less a first responder therapist, or seeing her story featured in a magazine. Every challenge, every lesson, and every person who believed in her helped her rise.
Through Living Present With Lynda and Healing In Truth Retreats, she continues that work each day. She teaches people to live consciously, love themselves fully, and walk in the grace that has always been theirs. Her life is proof that when healing meets truth, and truth meets love, transformation becomes inevitable.
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