LOIS: A place to
heal
Providing support by removing any barriers to healing and expanding consciousness. LOIS is a nonprofit organization providing trauma-resolution services to individuals throughout the Greater Cleveland community.
LOIS
Lois exists to provide support for those helping themselves and to be a consistent presence needed for healing.
Some wounds are easy to see.
Others live beneath the surface.
They show up in the ways we react. The relationships we struggle to maintain. The patterns we can't seem to break. The ways we protect ourselves.
For many people, especially those rebuilding their lives after incarceration, there is an entire history beneath the surface that has never been given the space to be seen, felt, understood, or released.
LOIS exists to create that space.
A space that combines compassionate presence with the will to show up for oneself. A space that brings support to those that are willing to support themselves. The result is a community that is built on connecting with the truth that is within.
What is LOIS?
HEALING BEGINS WHEN WE ARE READY TO LOOK WITHIN.
LOIS is a nonprofit organization providing trauma-resolution services to individuals throughout the Greater Cleveland community.
Our work is rooted in a simple belief:
WHEN WE HEAL THE SOURCE, WE CREATE THE POSSIBILITY FOR LASTING CHANGE.
Through individual Integral Breath Therapy sessions and workshops, LOIS creates opportunities for people to explore and release incomplete experiences, stuck emotions, and old patterns that may be holding them back.
This is not about telling someone who they should become.
It is about creating the space for them to discover what is already within them.
To become more aware. To reconnect with themselves. To understand the patterns that once helped them survive, but may no longer serve them. And ultimately, to move forward with greater intention.
The People LOIS Serves
COMING HOME IS ONLY ONE PART OF THE EXPERIENCE.
For someone returning to the community after incarceration, there can be a lot to rebuild.
Relationships. Employment. Stability. Trust. Purpose. A sense of belonging.
Many people carry experiences and trauma that existed long before incarceration, and others experienced trauma during it. After delving deeper, many individuals discover prison was a recapitulation of early childhood trauma.
When those experiences remain unresolved, they can continue to shape how someone sees themselves, responds to the world, connects with others, and moves through life.
LOIS partners with organizations including NorthStar Reentry to reach individuals who may otherwise have limited access to consistent, individualized trauma-resolution support.
Because we believe that successful reentry is about more than simply getting someone through the door.
IT'S ABOUT HELPING CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR THEM TO BUILD A LIFE THEY ACTUALLY WANT TO STAY IN.
Riley’s Personal Connection
I HAVE SEEN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE IS READY TO GO DEEPER.
For over a decade, I have worked with individuals reentering the community.
I have watched people do the work required to rebuild their lives and claim their truth.
I have watched them show up for programs, seek employment, work to repair relationships, and try to create something different for themselves.
And I have also seen something else.
There are people who want to continue their healing and expand their awareness of themselves.
People who know there is something deeper.
Something beneath the anger. Beneath the fear. Beneath the addiction, the anxiety, the disconnection, the old beliefs or the patterns that continue to repeat themselves.
But wanting to heal and having access to that healing are two very different things.
We are not built to go to our deepest darkest places alone.
That is where LOIS began.
LOIS exists to be the container and loving presence needed to expand.
How the Work Happens
LOIS provides individualized trauma-resolution sessions utilizing Integral Breath Therapy.
Integral Breath Therapy is a safe, natural, organic modality. It is a body-centered process that uses various conscious connected breathing techniques as a vehicle for self-exploration and personal development.
This client-centered process can be used for managing stress, physical healing, building self-esteem, emotional balancing, personal growth, Spiritual development, and more.
It invites us to bring awareness to what is happening within us, through the body, emotions, thoughts/beliefs, and deeper patterns that may have been carried for years.
Sometimes we learn to survive by holding in, holding up, out, down, holding back. We restrict our breath. We disconnect from our emotions. We develop patterns that protect us from experiences that once felt too overwhelming to face.
Over time, those protective patterns can become automatic.
And what once helped us survive can eventually become the thing that keeps us stuck.
The work is about surrendering, letting go.
It is about creating enough safety and support for an individual to explore what is there.
The elements of IBT: Conscious Connected Breathing, surrender, relaxation, awareness, acceptance, integration.
HEALING IS A PERSONAL PROCESS. AND THE DECISION TO BEGIN HAS TO BELONG TO THE PERSON DOING THE WORK.
That is why participation in LOIS is entirely voluntary.
What Impact Looks Like
LOIS has already demonstrated what can happen when people are given consistent access to individualized support.
During its first full calendar year of partnership with NorthStar Reentry, LOIS provided MORE THAN 220 INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS.
And people kept coming back.
That sustained engagement matters.
No one is required to participate. Each person makes the decision to return. To continue exploring. To continue healing.
Among 15 participants who completed five or more Integral Breath Therapy sessions, 100% remained out of jail/prison during the 12-month follow-up period. The program describes this as a promising relationship between sustained participation in trauma-resolution services and successful community reentry, rather than proof that the therapy alone caused that outcome.
But beyond the numbers, success looks different for every person.
How the Work Happens
Recognizing a pattern.
Nervous System Regulation.
Meeting resistance with compassion and curiosity.
Responding instead of reacting.
Taking 100% responsibility for oneself.
Repairing relationships.
The absence of violence/abuse to resolve an issue.
Making a different choice.
Believing that something different is possible.
Sometimes, the most powerful change begins with someone simply realizing:
I HOLD THE POWER TO STEP INTO MY AUTHENTICITY AND FREEDOM.
The Impact of LOIS
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What People Are Saying
“Every detail was thoughtfully executed. We're thrilled with the outcome.”
— Former Customer
“Communication was top-notch and the final outcome was even better than we imagined. A great experience all around.”
— Former CustomerMake a Donation
When you choose to give, you become part of something bigger—something powerful. Your support fuels progress and brings hope where it's needed most.
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