Two Names, One Woman: My Integration Adventure

What was going on in my life when I chose the name Heather Wild?

Oh man — the truth? I was stepping into a new online platform and needed a screen name that felt more alive. “Heather - Conscious Woman” just wasn’t the vibe. A coach suggested something more exotic, and the words Heather Wild rolled off my tongue so easily that I didn’t even have to think about it. It felt right. Free. A little daring.

I still remember sitting at my desk, fingers hovering over the keyboard, searching for a name that felt like home and adventure at once. When I said Heather Wild out loud, it was like exhaling truth I hadn’t given myself permission to live yet.

In those early days, I was exploring my sensuality — both privately and through my creative work online. What started as playful curiosity became sacred experimentation. The name Heather Wild turned into more than a pseudonym; it became a portal. Under that name, I could explore without shame or limits, creating space for parts of me that had been caged for years.

Then there’s Heather Dolson — the clinical nurse.

I graduated nursing in 2009 and practiced for about 14 years in adult acute mental health, child & adolescent programs, community care, and long-term care. If you count the education years, nursing has been part of my life for nearly two decades. I even took a hiatus during training, wondering if nursing was truly my calling. That pause led me to yoga — and my first true spiritual awakening.

Eventually I went back and completed my degree, realizing that mental health nursing was where I was meant to be. From six-bed lock-down units in downtown Toronto to dementia wards where I helped families navigate loss, I learned what it means to sit beside someone in their most human, vulnerable moments. My work taught me presence. It taught me dignity. It taught me how to hold space for people at their rawest.

So when I stepped into sensual embodiment work, it wasn’t a departure — it was a return.

For the first time, I turned that same presence inward. I began offering to myself what I had given patients for years: care, listening, love, attention. My embodiment practice became a way of tending to my own aliveness — through breath, movement, self-touch, stillness, and creative expression. It was where nurse Heather met wild Heather.

At first, I kept them separate — different accounts, different voices. One polished and professional, the other bold and unfiltered. But lately I’ve realized they can’t be separated. They are the same woman.

Heather Wild is my courage, my sensual truth, my edge. She’s the part of me that doesn’t apologize for being fully expressed.

Heather Dolson is my groundedness, my compassion, my ability to hold others in tenderness and care. She’s the woman who listens deeply and meets pain with patience.

Together, they are whole.

They are the reason I can teach embodiment with both soul and science, both fire and grace.

Integration isn’t about erasing who we were — it’s about letting every version of us be seen.

The nurse and the artist. The healer and the sensualist. The caregiver and the creator. They’re all here, and they all belong.

Maybe you have your own “two names.”

Maybe there’s a version of you that the world has seen, and another that you only meet in your private moments. The magic happens when they stop competing and start dancing together.

For me, Heather Wild has evolved into my pen name — the one I write under when I share my memoirs and poetry. But she’s also more than a name. She’s a permission slip. She’s the reminder that I don’t have to choose between soft and strong, sacred and sensual, nurse and muse.

Two names.
One woman.
And a lifetime of integration still unfolding.

 

By the way, find out more about my books here.