Candice Van Dertholen did not arrive at her work in energy healing by reading about it. She lived through it.

In this episode of Fine is a 4-Letter Word, host Lori Saitz sits down with energy practitioner Candice Van Dertholen for an unflinching conversation about single parenthood at 22, a Texas maximum security prison career she stumbled into out of financial desperation, an abusive marriage that escalated into a violent car ride with her children in the backseat, and the night she nearly took her own life — waking up in a hospital bed furious that she was still alive.

From Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind on a hospital nightstand to affirmations she wrote thousands of times before she even knew what affirmations were, Candice traces the slow, unglamorous, piece-by-piece rebuilding that took two years before she felt like herself again. She also shares the complicated grief of finding out both ex-husbands had died within the same year, and why disenfranchised grief rarely gets the space it deserves.

Now a practitioner who holds space for others in those same pivotal moments, Candice talks about why self-sabotage is almost always a story, why money in alignment multiplies, and what happens when we finally stop running from the relationship with ourselves.

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Timestamps:

[00:00] Introductions — Candice and Lori on mutual friend Chris Schembra and life in Charlotte
[01:45] The values she was raised with: personal integrity and the discipline of non-judgment
[03:00] Growing up between two worlds — her mother's nursing work with terminally ill children
[06:00] Her mother's unrecognized PTSD and the compassion Candice finally found, decades later
[08:30] Becoming a single parent at 22 and the judgment she faced in Texas
[09:45] The unexpected detour: corrections officer at a Texas Level 5 max security prison
[13:00] The abusive marriage — how familiar energy patterns kept her from seeing the signs
[15:30] The violent car incident that involved her children and set off a CPS investigation
[18:30] The night she nearly took her life and the hospital room that changed everything
[20:00] The books, therapy, affirmations, and two-year rebuild that followed
[22:00] Finding unexpected permission to leave through a hospital chaplain's words
[24:00] Complex grief: losing both ex-husbands within a year
[28:00] Burnout, 75 Hard, and the yoga studio that led her to energy healing
[30:00] What to do when you feel stuck and unworthy of the next level
[33:00] The song that gets her going: Ready or Not by Britt Nicole

Guest Bio:

Candice Van Dertholen is an energy practitioner whose path to healing work was forged through personal experience. A single mother of three from a young age, she has navigated poverty, domestic abuse, correctional work, burnout, and near-fatal crisis to arrive at a practice centered on helping others break the self-sabotaging patterns that keep them from the next version of themselves. She works with clients in pivotal transition moments and offers pay-it-forward sessions for those who cannot afford standard rates. She found her work in energy healing through a yoga studio in Virginia, where she met her first practitioner after years of seeking the missing piece in her healing journey. She and her husband are military family who have relocated multiple times across the US.

Connect with Candice:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicevandertholen/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/candice_elizabeth.co/

Candice also offers pay-it-forward sessions for those who need support but are working with limited means.

About the Show:

Fine Is a 4-Letter Word is the show for leaders who are tired of pretending everything is okay. Host Lori Saitz brings on guests who get honest about what it really takes to lead with empathy, vulnerability, gratitude, and courage. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and if this conversation hit home, leave a review. It helps more leaders find the show.