In 2011, Lori Kalaaukahi-Boone was ready to get off the island of Oahu in Hawaii, where she was born, had been raised and lived her whole life.
She had been working as a medical assistant and a nurse’s aide, and was struggling with mental health issues. She wanted to explore the world, so she did something unconventional for a single mom in her mid-30s.
Lori enlisted in the Army.
“At 34, I just barely made the age cutoff,” she says. “Growing up on a small island can become claustrophobic, and I felt like I was going in circles.”
She asked her parents to care for her two kids, Tihani (then 17) and Ramsay (then 7), and she headed out to boot camp at Fort Jackson, SC. She found herself in basic training with kids just barely older than her older daughter back home, taking orders from people much younger than she was.
After serving four years in the Army, she was living in Tennessee and was able to use GI Bill benefits to earn both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Social Work from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville.
At first, she thought she would be a nurse, but she was struggling in the program. Then, a friend who was a social worker told her about his job.
“It just resonated with me, and I knew this is what I needed to do,” she says. “When I changed my program, everything started flowing naturally, and I knew I was supposed to be a therapist.”
She graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in 2018 and her Master’s in 2020. Now, she is credentialed as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), which means she is qualified to provide services independently.
When she first came to Florida, Lori worked with an agency in Clearwater providing community mental health. She helped people who were homeless and struggling with addiction, as well as many other issues.
But now, this Wesley Chapel resident is tackling her dream of having her own practice, which she opened in Zephyrhills in July 2023. She provides teens, adults and couples with mental health care via virtual and in-office appointments.
She says she named her practice Aloha Nui Counseling Services to embrace her Hawaiian heritage, and what is important to her in her relationships with her clients.
“‘Aloha nui’ means ‘Take good care,’ or ‘Lots of love,’” she says. “It’s basically our version of southern hospitality.”
She says it’s important to her that she incorporates that spirit with all of her clients.
“In my culture, we’re brought up to help others, love others and care for others,” Lori says. “I wanted to implement that here in my practice.”
EMDR Therapy
Lori says that, as a former soldier herself, she is especially passionate about helping those who have experienced any kind of trauma to process their issues and heal.
One way she does this is a specialized trauma therapy called EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing.
Lori explains that EMDR is a well-known modality that uses eye movements to help people process trauma in a healthy way.
“It helps your brain to process the images in your head in a healthy manner so it doesn’t get stuck,” she says. “It’s almost like how eating too much food can cause it to get stuck, and we start choking. images can get stuck in our brains, too.”
She says EMDR puts a patient into a similar state to REM (rapid eye movement, a state of deep sleep) and she installs positive cognitions to help her patients process their trauma.
“Once it’s completed,” she says, “you still have these images, but it’s no longer accompanied by heavy emotions.”
Lori has completed 60 hours of training to be qualified to practice this modality. She also has used it under supervision to complete her training so she is well qualified to help those who need to work through traumatic issues and find healing from those difficult events or times of their lives.
Lori definitely also has a heart for those who have served in the military, as not only a veteran herself, but also as the daughter of a veteran, and now the spouse of a veteran, too.
When Lori was stationed and living in Tennessee, her parents loved to visit her there. She says it was her father who inspired her to join the Army. She knew it would “knock his socks off” for her to join, after his own 36-year military career. With the low prices relative to the cost of living in Hawaii, and the southern hospitality that reminded them of home, they relocated to Tennessee.
Lori’s husband Barry Boone is retired from the Army and brought the family to Florida to work as a military recruiter. Tihani now lives in Hawaii, where she is married with four daughters. She is a nurse who earned her Bachelor’s degree in 2020, the same year her mom got her Master’s.
Ramsay still lives with Lori’s parents in Tennessee and is in school to become a fashion designer, and her 12-year-old daughter Teveah is home-schooled. Barry has three adult children of his own, as well.
With all of her experience raising children, as a single mom and as part of a blended family, she feels she has no problem relating to adolescents and understands what they’re going through.
She encourages teenagers who are struggling or parents who see their children suffering from mental health issues to reach out to her.
“It’s okay to not be okay,” Lori says. “Mental health is not something to be afraid of. Let’s normalize mental issues in the same way medical issues are normalized.”
Aloha Nui Counseling offers a free initial consultation. While Lori is happy to see patients in person at her office in Zephyrhills, she also offers Telehealth appointments for anyone who prefers to meet that way.
She works with clients who have insurance to pay the cost of counseling and those who self-pay.
Bonita Ashe, a colleague of Lori’s who is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, says the following about Lori, which was published on Lori’s profile at PsychologyToday.com.
“Lori has an authentic style and warm demeanor and she will immediately calm an anxious spirit,” Bonita says. “If you need a kind and compassionate therapist, your search ends here. Lori is EMDR trained and a therapist I would trust with any client.”
To schedule a free consultation, call Lori at (808) 342-1042, email her at LLorik808@ gmail.com, or visit AlohaNuiService.com. Aloha Nui Counseling is located at 5344 9th St., Suite 105, in downtown Zephyrhills, and appointments are offered in person or via Telehealth.
