Liz Olszewski - Raised with Alcholohism in the Home - Now "Healing Hearts with Horses"

The Addiction Podcast - Point of No Return

In 2009, Liz founded the nonprofit Horses Healing Hearts. Liz personally experienced the struggles of growing up in a turbulent alcoholic home. At the age of 24, Liz lost her mother to liver disease. During the last ten years of her mother’s life, it was the support of mentors and horses that gave her the strength and inspiration to survive. Motivated to “pay it forward” Liz created HHH to help the children standing where she once stood. In her Executive Director role, she oversees the daily operation of the charity in close collaboration with and under the guidance of the HHH Board of Directors. In May 2016, Liz was invited to testify before the Bipartisan Task force to combat the Heroin epidemic. In support of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, she shared the detrimental effect of severe trauma these children may survive but then carry into adulthood. A prevention advocate, Liz urged lawmakers to create a more strategic approach providing services to ALL family members impacted by the family disease.

Liz is a national subject matter expert and sought-after presenter on topics such as Children of Alcoholics/Addiction, Equine Assisted Therapy, and turning adversity into empowerment. Some of her presentations include: The ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experience ) Youth Eastern Summit 2017 (the same lecture forum as renowned experts as Dr. Vincent Felitti); Drug Endangered Children’s Conference (Reno, NV 2016) and EAGALA National Conference (Kentucky 2016) (evidence based model).

Since 2009, Liz has been published in Palm Beach Post and The Sun Sentinel almost a dozen times, as well as other periodicals such as Equestrian Living Magazine, Paradigm, Sidelines, Sober World, Are Bodega, and Wellington Magazine. Liz earned her Bachelor of Arts – Communications degree from University of Dayton in 1992. She is also certified in the EAGALA Model (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association) as an Equine Specialist.