Raina Dawn is a dynamic force in the world of holistic wellness, seamlessly blending the ancient wisdom of spirit medicine with modern holistic nutrition. Beginning her journey with a diploma in Holistic Nutrition in 2011, Raina launched “Lutz Nutrition,” introducing transformative fermentation workshops throughout British Columbia’s Interior. Her passion for natural health soon expanded as she pioneered the Okanagan’s first line of locally brewed organic kombucha, enriching her community with vibrant, gut-friendly beverages. Deeply inspired by her formal mentorships in Earth & Soul Shamanic Medicine and Traditional Spirit Medicine, she now integrates ancient practices into her work, bridging the physical and spiritual realms. Raina’s holistic approach reflects her belief that true healing requires nourishing both the body and soul. Join Mystic Mag as we delve into Raina’s inspiring story and explore how her unique path weaves together nutrition, spirit medicine, and the power of tradition to guide others toward their most authentic, vibrant selves.
Can you describe the pivotal moment in Kitsilano BC when you shifted your life path to align with nature and holistic living? What was it about that moment that felt like “lightning struck”?
It was really an idyllic time for me. I had just left a really bad scene, the lightning strike was me literally packing up to hit the Restart button, alone and on a totally new path in life. Idyllic because I was 21 and a student and a sponge ready to learn. But I also spent lots of time at the beach and listening to Jimi Hendrix. I started to see life in different ways and a lot of things I’d held as truth for so long shifted for me. As I deepened into my holistic studies, I would wonder why the dots didn’t feel quite all connected for me, like something felt missing. But it was because I hadn’t experienced the traumatic and spiritual experiences that years later would kick me into oblivion and shamanic sickness. Then I had to step into my medicine journey and learn what healing ourselves really feels and looks like, what “living in perpetual dance with the Creator” (Kahkeesimowin) means, instead of “Oh it’s time to ‘sit and be spiritual’ how instead it would feel to always be with the sacredness of life. Aligning with nature is a perpetual process, and like anything it takes practice, focus and commitment. Like all of us on this journey, I’ve felt lightning strike many times in life, moments where you fall to your knees, or your grief is so big you can barely breathe, where you just know you need to change something and the ancestors nudge you.. so you do. It’s such a potent place, and terrifying. I often meet my clients at that place because it can be really scary to navigate and its a salve to have support along the way.
How did training as an Iyengar-style yoga teacher under Wendy Goudie shape your approach to holistic health, and how do you integrate yoga principles into your boutique wellness offerings?
Yoga was part of my ‘back to nature’ in a better understanding of myself and a great way for me to improve my body and mind at a time when I was struggling with depression. It helped heal me at a difficult time and I loved that it was a tool I could go back to anytime. It helped me to clear my mind by getting INTO my body. That’s how I learned that I was not truly connected to my body! There was a block there. Once I deepened into that space, I accessed parts of understanding myself within the framework of this amazing lifestyle and practice that has an deep wellness foundation that one could study for a lifetime. For myself, it opened the door in my wellness practice to learning how emotions get stored in our body and spirit. This understanding became foundational for what I do now.
What type of services do you offer?
My background is in holistic nutrition so I do help people with their food trauma. Helping women to get out of the diet yo-yo cycle and supporting mental health are the big ones. I do a lot of speaking at wellness conferences & for different groups to inspire wellness foundations and mindful eating. For the past number of years I’ve been dedicated to spiritual medicine healing arts, I teach traditional and emotional healing, food sovereignty and ancestral healing work. Working within the Métis community carved my path to reclaiming that ancestry within my own blood, deepening my understanding of spirit work and my place in it, and really seeing what the needs were in the community. When I’m not speaking, volunteering or helping clients, I facilitate ceremonies for healing, connection and community. My medicine work involves soul retrieval for the soul loss that comes when we experience trauma, smudge and clearings, as well as ceremonies for supporting clients where they are at in their journey. Folks will come in crisis, with mental health struggles, wanting to get sober or are just at a crossroads in life. A medicine journey is powerful work, a beautiful story that helps people understand the root or spiritual cause of what’s going on, and tie the threads together so they can let go of what they need to, while bringing home the pieces of themselves that have been waiting to return.
How does your boutique house of wellness reflect your personal journey and philosophy? Can you share what makes it unique compared to traditional wellness practices?
I could see my practice evolving in real time as I learned how our spirit needs tending in order to make healthy changes in life stick. It became so evident to me in my early years that meal plans weren’t right, and that what I really needed to be doing was helping people on a much deeper level. I learned how to become a space holder as people find healing in simply being heard, having a witness to what they are dealing with. Even in the early days of nutrition consults, people would bring me their really dark heavy stuff but it never scared me to just listen. Being heard can produce spontaneous healing in itself. We can turn that darkness into an understanding that our bad habits or behaviours that we think ‘it’s just the way I am’ or that “I’ll never be able to change this” all come from something inside of them. Whether it’s trauma that happened to you or was said to you, there’s a place in you that is actively practicing self-harm by binge eating, using substances or making unhealthy choices. It’s a part of us that we are trying to numb and cover up. Once we heal the trauma that is causing that, we can shift the subconscious thoughts to know we deserve to eat well and live well, and take care of ourselves because wellness is a birthright of every human. Once I dropped the assumed hat of a nutritionist (meal plans) I was free to teach in my unique way, guiding people to find their own power and strength within a place of self-care, rather than a chore it can become “I get to” take care of myself. It’s unique in that I have been able to bring in my personal medicine of spirit healing, connecting people back to the land, their ancestors, and themselves. I’m blessed to have incredible Métis and Cree medicine men guiding me, so I can learn the Old Ways. We might not know it yet, but we all have deeply rooted medicine and ancestral wisdom waiting for us to feel or hear and we can access that through “bush medicine” or in other terms – getting back to the land.
Since earning your diploma in Holistic Nutrition in 2011, how has your understanding and application of holistic practices evolved, especially in the context of modern health trends?
I could write a huge essay just about that! To keep it succinct, I would say that I’ve gone away from the crowd and more underground. I don’t even put my teachings on social media anymore. I loved how wellness and holistic went mainstream, but I didn’t like the trendy consumerism side of it, the idea that you need to buy all the new gadgets or the hop on wild tiktok trends. I like to keep it simple and straightforward for people. Wellness isn’t hard, but having someone give clear steps helps to pull you out of your current mud helps move folks in the right direction, away from the trends and back to basics. Because that’s what wellness really is, focusing on consistent practice of the basics. There are shamanistic roots all over the world, and it is not exclusive to any one culture or people. More and more people are waking up to this understanding of the world through this lens for that reason. Combining shamanic tools can help bridge the gap from our overwhelming amount of knowledge online to actually living in a state of ease and wellness wisdom.
Looking ahead, what new directions or offerings do you envision for your boutique house of wellness, and how do you hope to continue inspiring others on their own paths?
I do love helping up-and-coming nutritionists or people on a path to being a healer, just the way my teachers did for me. It’s so deeply important to have solid mentorship. I love having a “boutique house of wellness” instead of a “business”, because it means my offerings are being updated, rewritten, tabled or re-imagined. If I was doing the same thing every single day for clients, I’d get bored and I wouldn’t be too great at what I do. People come to me for all sorts of reasons so I have to keep my pulse on the needs of folks. Shamanism is tribal, it’s the world’s most ancient technology. Medicine requires a life commitment to it. But because I think like an artist more than I think like a nutrition text book, I get to insert creativity and spirit into my offerings.
This quote is one of the few to backdrop my work. Andy Warhol said…
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
