Author
Casey has always been a writer, reader, helper, and thinker. Her strong desire to make a difference in the world through new perspectives, empowering people, and connecting the mind and body laid the foundation for her book, I Am Pawso. I Am Pawso presents resources that Casey desperately needed as a child and young reader and now incorporates into every facet of her adult life.
Pawso teaches children how to cope with stress, calm down, make positive choices, and build resilience. Pawso's universal problems open the door to Casey's vast mental health and clinical experience helping children and families. Throughout Pawso's daily ups and downs, he learns how to apply his coping skills, expand his inner strengths, and build confidence despite conflict, confusion, self-doubt, and uncertainty.
Casey's professional diversity along with her authentic and integrative approach to health and well-being make her a sought-after author by well-known magazines, blogs, websites, and thought leaders. Her work is published in Taste for Life, Costco Connection, Animal Wellness Magazine, Natural Practitioner Magazine, The Conscious Cat, Innovative Veterinary Care Journal, Tiny Buddha, Dr. Axe.com, Social Work Today, The New Social Worker, among many others. Casey's engaged and thought-provoking communication style has granted her exclusive interviews with celebrities and world renowned gut-brain, immune, trauma, and holistic health experts. .
Recovering from the horrors of the Dixie Fire, Casey sorted through a lifetime of documents discovering story after story written by her childhood self. Embedded with layers of heartache and self-exploration, writing stories helped Casey cope with childhood illness and trauma. These stories reminded her of the importance of early interventions for young children. If we provide children the lessons and resources they need to build resilience, emotional intelligence, and healthy neural pathways, we give them the best opportunities to thrive. I Am Pawso is Casey's gift to children: An intervention to lessen the negative effects of adverse childhood experiences.
Casey, also a health journalist, writes candidly about living with Crohn's disease, an autoimmune illness. She is especially interested in the connections between trauma, stress, illness, and resilience. As a patient she has relied on self-help books to guide her through health crises, give her hope, and expand her knowledge on healing interventions. However, living with chronic illness makes "the search" for the right information exhausting. Casey desperately searched for books that integrated research on the connections between mental and physical health, but she only found one-size-fits all prescriptions. Books written by psychotherapists often use clinical case studies. Casey wanted the complete picture of the patient story---the before and after.
Running on a Broken Foot is Casey's response to the gaps in user-friendly information. The self-help book and memoir describe her journey toward wellness and the discovery of a unique and individualized healing model. Using her own life as a clinical case study, she invites readers into personal and transformative episodes in her life. As she makes connections between life events, disease, and resilience, she helps readers make their own connections that are keys to their own healing.
"Even though our stories are different, I offer a universal invitation toward integrative healing and recovery."
--Casey Hersch
Casey's work with children showed her how desperate they are to be seen and understood by adults and peers. Children yearn for and require relatable stories that allow them to explore their own strengths and discover their inner powers which help them cope with uncertainties. Her work with adults taught her that they struggle with many of the same issues facing children, but they don't always feel safe enough to openly admit these struggles because of the social pressures to be “bigger and stronger” than kids.
I Am Pawso and Running on a Broken Foot offer parallel messages: one book is packaged for children, the other for adults. After all, every one of us benefits from exploring the questions: Who Am I? What am I good at? What makes me feel good? What choices do I have? How can I manage my internal environment when the outside is chaotic? How can I reduce stress? How are my mind and body connected? You will find the answers to these questions and more in both of Casey's books.