About Our Rise Today Founder
About Dr. Erica Harris
Erica Harris is the Founder of Rise Today Consulting Services, Founder & Clinical Director of Rising Minds Counselling and Psychotherapy, a TEDx and Resilience Keynote Speaker, Health Coach, Podcast Host, retired Sports Chiropractor and Kinesiologist, and a passionate mom to two teen boys.
A Life Shaped by Resilience
RISE Today Consulting Services was born from lived experience, professional dedication to health and wellness, and a profound belief in the resilience of the human spirit.
For many years, Erica Harris devoted her professional life to helping others achieve optimal health and performance. As a sports chiropractor and kinesiologist, she founded and directed a thriving multidisciplinary healthcare practice in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her work centred on movement, recovery, and helping people build stronger bodies and healthier lives.
Yet life has a way of challenging us all.
While nursing her youngest son, Erica was abruptly and shockingly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive and life-threatening cancer. Despite intensive treatment, she did not respond to salvage chemotherapy. Two leading international medical institutions — one in Canada and one in the United States — ultimately advised that no further treatment options remained beyond palliative care. In 2012, she was given a terminal prognosis and expected to live no more than 2 months.
Faced with the unthinkable and determined to spend every possible moment with her two young children, Erica fought to return home. There, she began exploring every possible path to healing within the natural health world. Against overwhelming odds, she achieved remission.
That remission allowed her to undergo a life-saving bone marrow transplant, thanks to an extraordinary donor — a complete stranger from Germany who chose to step forward and help save her life.
Twice I was told my life was ending. Twice, strangers stepped forward and gave me the gift of time. My mission now is to help others rise through their hardest seasons and live with more joy and fulfillment.
Twice Broken, Twice Rebuilt
The transplant brought new life in more ways than one. Erica’s blood type even changed — from O negative to A positive — a powerful symbol of the second chance she had been given.
Slowly, she rebuilt her strength. Before long she was again hiking mountains, skiing steep descents, and embracing the physical vitality she had once known.
But the journey was not over.
Years later, Erica began experiencing severe breathlessness while hiking. Doctors discovered that she had developed bronchiolitis obliterans, a form of graft-versus-host disease in which her transplanted immune system began attacking her lungs.
Once again, her life hung in the balance.
Erica fell to 80 lbs and was prescribed oxygen. She was later given another extraordinary gift — a double lung transplant, made possible through the generosity and selflessness of a family who chose to give life in the midst of their own profound loss.
Through courage, rehabilitation, and determination, she once again rebuilt her life.
Shortly thereafter, Erica faced another major life transition when her marriage ended. With two young sons and a new chapter ahead, she dusted herself off and reinvented herself once again.
Paying it Forward
Witnessing firsthand the incredible resilience of the human body and mind profoundly changed Erica’s path.
She returned to university to pursue a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology, deepening her ability to support others through life’s most difficult seasons. She is currently completing the final phase of her program and expects to graduate in May.
Today Erica is the founder of:Â
Rising Minds Counselling and Psychotherapy
Compassionate, evidence-based virtual therapy offered through secure video and phone sessions for residents of British Columbia and Ontario. Visit Rising Minds Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Rise Today Health Coaching
Health coaching with Erica focuses on forward-focused empowerment not therapy or mental health treatment. Schedule a Free Coaching Consultation.Â
Rise Today Resilience Keynote Speaking
Inspiring audiences worldwide to overcome adversity, cultivate resilience, and discover strength in life’s most challenging moments. Book Dr. Erica for your next event.
The Simple Truth
Erica's work is grounded in a simple truth she has come to understand through both professional practice and lived experience:
Resilience is not hardness.
It is not the absence of pain, nor the denial of vulnerability.
Resilience is the quiet, courageous decision to rise — again and again.
Through her speaking, coaching, and advocacy work, Erica is committed to paying forward the extraordinary blessings of survival, helping others cultivate strength, perspective, and hope in the face of adversity.
