Former Tavistock woman leaves the banking world to help others including seniors

The Maples resident Marjorie Skinner enjoyed a relaxing facial from Cindy Hyde during a special Mother’s Day spa day at The Maples Home for Seniors in Tavistock. Gary West photo

By Lee Griffi

“Mother’s Day is approaching and I want to share something that deeply moved me.”

Those were the first words in Cindy Hyde’s social media post just after Mother’s Day.

“In 1996, my siblings and I lost our anchor, our mom. It was sudden, tragic and life changing. For years afterward, Mother’s Day carried a quiet heaviness. We would gather together but often there were no words. Just grief sitting silently beside us.

“This year, something in me wanted the experience to feel different. As a trained holistic facialist, I felt called to spend time with women who would have been close to my mother’s age. I also wanted to create an experience many of them may have never received before; a safe, nurturing touch and the feeling of being deeply cared for.”

Hyde reached out to the Maples Home for Seniors in Tavistock, shared her vision, and offered to come in and provide facials for the women there.

“I did not expect it to impact me the way it did, but every time I follow my intuition, something meaningful unfolds. Over three days, we served women between the ages of 82 and 98 years old.”

Hyde, who worked for Scotiabank at the corporate level for over 15 years, said failing health led her to take a new career path.

“I was chronically sick off and on. I would lose my voice during speaking engagements and that went on for three or four years. I assumed I was just busy and really tired. I was working in Toronto and one of my senior leaders said something was wrong with my eye as it was really red.”

She woke up the next morning with no vision in her left eye and wound up at the famous Ivy Clinic in London.

“Long story short, I had developed a cornea eye ulcer and went down this rabbit hole to get better. I went back too soon and in December of 2022 I got my second eye ulcer. My boss was fantastic. She said something was going on with my body and I thought I would go off on short-term disability but talked to doctors and they said I needed to figure it out.”

Hyde eventually found out her vagus nerve was under constant stress. It is one of the most important nerves in the body, running from the brainstem through the neck into the chest and abdomen, connecting the brain to the heart, lungs, stomach, intestines and other organs.

“I started feeling better during the fourth month of short-term disability and I had this realization that I was working around the clock. I had become disconnected from my body, my life and I was just working 24/7. I made the decision to choose my health.”

Hyde said she saw 19 different practitioners, including a somatic who dealt with stress, trauma and grief in the body.

“Just an inventory of stuff that has built up over the years I thought I had dealt with on a cognitive level, but I learned through somatics that our body holds more memory than the mind. I went down this path with this practitioner, had huge results and its been two years since I lost my voice. I decided to be trained as a somatic myself.”

Hyde, who resides in Stratford, is now the CEO at Soul State Wellness, a nervous-system-centered wellness and education practice offering somatic coaching, leadership training, speaking engagements, holistic facials and restorative retreats. Her work supports women and organizations navigating stress, burnout, leadership pressure and transition by strengthening nervous-system capacity, regulation and resilience.

While on the surface she was providing what may have been simple facials for residents, she was performing her somatic treatments at the same time. Hyde explained her experience with female residents at the Maples was something she won’t forget.

“They felt heard. They were in a space where they were able to relax and just share. I just listened and occasionally asked a few questions but didn’t ask for their personal stories. I noticed, once they became comfortable, things just came out.”

Hyde said what she enjoyed the most about the experience was all about creating a safe space for others for them to be themselves.

“I had no idea (the residents) would be so open. My sister was there taking some photos and she captured some of the emotion. There was one woman who was deaf and I was filled with emotion. She wasn’t really talking but I could tell she was really at peace in her body. I started getting very emotional and after the facial, she stood up and she was crying.”

She explained moments like that is what she loves most about her work.

“As long as I am grounded and solid in my own nervous system, I can be of service and support to others. It was bizarre to see I didn’t even need words to feel what was going on. It was literally about that felt sense that is this work, nervous-system work. I could feel her emotion and she displayed it back through her tears because we couldn’t talk to each other.    

“This was such a wonderful experience for our ladies. It’s a reminder regardless of our age we deserve to be pampered and we deserve to feel special,” said Maples executive director Joan Hergott.