Daily Inspiration: Meet Ayana Rivers

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ayana Rivers.

Hi Ayana , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Healing Hands Therapeutic Ranch was born during COVID-19 — a season that forced a lot of people to slow down and get honest with themselves. For me, that honesty looked like finally stopping the internal debate I had carried for years: work with animals or work with people. The answer turned out to be both. As a Licensed Recreational Therapist with a deep belief that nature has the power to heal, I realized I didn’t have to choose — I could build something that brought it all together. That’s exactly what Healing Hands became.
The road from vision to reality has been anything but simple. I built HHTR from the ground up while working full time in behavioral health and completing a dual graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Career Counseling at North Carolina Central University — all while raising my son. Every late night and early morning was a choice to keep going. This year I took the leap and left my full time job to run Healing Hands full time. I call it my Year of Audacity — and I mean every word of that.
Today Healing Hands is actively serving children in the Triad area of North Carolina through our Little Explorers Outdoor Summer Camp and our Mini Makers Club workshop series. But the vision goes far beyond summer programs. I am building toward a full physical ranch, licensable curriculum, and one day a program dedicated to youth aging out of foster care — young people who deserve a soft place to land and a community that believes in them. We are just getting started.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth would not be the word I would use. Honest would be. Building Healing Hands has meant navigating every challenge that comes with being a solo founder — no business partner to split the load, no investor writing checks, no roadmap handed to me. Every decision, every setback, and every breakthrough has landed squarely on my shoulders. There were moments I questioned whether I was the right person for this, whether the timing was right, whether I was moving too slow or dreaming too big. Imposter syndrome is real and it does not care how many credentials you have behind your name.
Balancing a dual graduate degree, a full time job in behavioral health, motherhood, and building a business simultaneously meant that rest became a luxury and clarity had to be fought for. There were seasons where everything felt like it was competing for the same limited hours. And layered on top of all of that was the very practical challenge of finding the right location — a space that could actually hold the vision of a therapeutic ranch doesn’t just appear. Finding land, finding property, figuring out where Healing Hands could physically come to life has been one of the most grounding and humbling parts of this journey.
But here is what I know — every obstacle has sharpened me. The self doubt pushed me to get clearer on my why. The solo founder journey taught me systems and resilience I could not have learned any other way. And the location challenge led me home — literally.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a Licensed Recreational Therapist and Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist — credentials that represent years of clinical training, professional commitment, and a genuine belief that recreation and nature are legitimate and powerful tools for healing. That foundation is what everything I do is built on. I specialize in nature-based therapeutic programming for children, designing experiences that meet kids where they are emotionally, socially, and developmentally — not through a clinical office setting but through the outdoors, through creativity, through animals, and through play.
What I do professionally lives at the intersection of therapy and experience. At Healing Hands Therapeutic Ranch I have built a therapeutic model grounded in six pillars — emotional regulation, social skills, executive functioning, creative expression, nature-based healing, and confidence and independence. Every program we offer is intentionally designed around those pillars. That is what sets Healing Hands apart from a typical summer camp or enrichment program. This is therapeutic work dressed in mud boots.
What I am most proud of is the totality of what I am building simultaneously. I am a solo founder who started an organization from a vision during a pandemic, currently pursuing a dual masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Career Counseling — because I want to be able to meet the people I serve at every level of their need. When I complete that degree I will not just be a recreational therapist — I will be equipped to provide deeper clinical support to children, families, and young adults who are navigating some of the hardest seasons of their lives. I am not building a program. I am building a legacy.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
Some of my favorite childhood memories are going to open houses and to the animal shelter with my younger sisters. We have large age gaps which caused me to have to figure out things that we could all do together and those were always really good days for us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.hhtrkids.com
• Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/healinghandstr
• Facebook: https://Www.facebook.com/healinghandstr
• Other: https://Www.pinterest.com/healinghandstr