OCOA Team Stories: Alyssa’s and Char’s Mental Health Journey

At OCOA, we believe beauty starts within. That’s why this Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re holding space for the real stories behind our team—stories of growth, healing, and resilience. Because just like curls, no journey is the same… and everyone is worthy of love and care. 

In this blog we highlight two new members of the Ocoa familia sharing their stories and journey to healing. Meet Alyssa our Operations Manager and Char our Marketing Strategist.

Read Alyssa’s and Char’s Healing Hermanas stories below:

Alyssa’s Story:

1. Name, Role at Ocoa:
Alyssa Ghilardi, Ops/Project Manager

2. If you had to describe your mental health journey in 3 words, what would they be?
Challenging, enlightening, liberating 

3. What’s a moment in your life that challenged you—and taught you something about your strength?
Like so many others covid came at the perfect worst time. I was 24 years old and after years of living with grandparents after college to save money, I finally decided to stop contracting work, get a “big girl” job, move to Philly on my own and get my first ever apartment by myself. 

I was there for 3 months before covid hit, I lost my new job and was stuck with a lease. While I could’ve spiraled down the rabbit hole of could’ve, should’ve, would’ve’s - like just stayed comfy at my grandpa’s living rent free in a big ole house in the south (lol I digress). I took the moment for what it was and really understood what it meant to be resilient. To navigate life with an unwavering determination to be well and forever optimistic. The saying, “you don’t know how strong you are until strong is all you have to be” became life's compass. 

4. What helped you move through that season?
A practice of gratitude. How could I be mad when I had saved all those years for a reason, so I could take care of myself in moments of emergency? How could I be sad when I had a safe space that was all my own while the world was in chaos? Of course I felt the entirety of the emotional rollercoaster during that period, as did the rest of the world. But I believe everything for a reason and most things are just a season. I leaned into what I could do and every day remained grateful for what I still had. As scary and challenging as 2020 was, it was also the year I found the love of my life (now husband) and found a job that would forever change my life and set a course to things I would’ve never previously imagined for myself (like working with Ocoa)!

5. How has that experience changed the way you care for yourself now?
I prioritize time, experiences and practices that all serve to strengthen my mental, emotional and physical health. The cycles of existing as human beings will always come with seasons of chaos, loss, and anger. What I realized is that these seasons don’t have to be as detrimental as you’d think they would be. In fact they can be very enlightening and empowering, IF you have the mental/emotional fortitude to navigate them in a way that doesn’t sacrifice your mind, body or spirit. So now, taking care of myself, building mental/emotional resilience is a regular occurrence in my life. 

6. What does mental wellness look and feel like for you today?
It looks like going to therapy. It looks like cultivating a close knit community of loved ones that I can share the hardest parts of life with because none of us can do this alone. It looks like more time in my garden and in nature as a whole. It looks like more time in stillness, solitude, reflection and mediation. 

It feels like bliss. It feels like joy. It feels like comfort. It sometimes feels challenging, to be pushed to grow, share, face and overcome. But mostly it feels like ease.

7. Any go-to tools, habits, or mantras you’d recommend to others?
Habits: Walks in nature, going for runs, playing basketball, tending to my garden, blasting feel good music & singing out loud/dancing, 

Tools: meditation, gratitude practice (speaking/listing things I am grateful for), practice in being present (reflection questions on what is and not what isn’t)

Mantras: “she said she could so she did”, “everything happens for a reason, honor that it may be just a season”, “I am ___ (insert what is needed in any moment)”

8. What would you tell someone who’s in the thick of it right now?
Everyday you wake up is an opportunity to rise again. To rise above adversity, to move past the unknown, to work through the hard part. The only thing you need to change the situation in front of you is the mindset to do so. If in your heart you feel you need to make change, in your mind you want to make change and in your spirit you are ready to make a change, you are positioned to make that change!

9. Share your favorite haircare tip and your favorite Ocoa product:

Don’t sleep on the importance of getting trims!! I used to rarely trim my hair but now I go faithfully every 5-6 months and it really helps keep my curls healthy. That combined with the superb ingredients of Ocoa products has my hair looking better than it ever has before! I love the cream (obviously) I use it almost every other day but truly the whole 4 step kit is my favorite lol it’s the full journey that helps support my hair from cleanse and condition to styling. Every step matters!

Char's Story

1. Name, Role at Ocoa:
Charlene Helton, Strategic Consultant

2. If you had to describe your mental health journey in 3 words, what would they be?
Patience, Purpose, Grace

3. What’s a moment in your life that challenged you—and taught you something about your strength?
May 27, 2025 marks two years since Mom became an angel. Mom was diagnosed with a terminal brain cancer diagnosis in the beginning of 2023. I still remember exactly where I was the day we received the diagnosis. It is truly wild how some events can stand so clearly in your mind, that you can relive that moment's emotion — thinking back to this pivotal time. This brain cancer took a little from my mom each day paralyzing her in her final days. However, you would have never known this by how she carried her mindset, spirit, perspective, and outlook each day. I remember waking up daily by her side seeing what we needed to do to have the best day we could as they were numbered. At this time the medical community had found no effective treatments to help extend life; therefore, we all knew her days were limited. That did not dampen mom’s spirit. She spent her final four months loving people in that everyone who visited her could feel the presence of her happiness as she fully embraced her spirituality. My mom spent her entire life giving of herself and helping to elevate anyone she met to another level of what they were called to accomplish during their lifetime. I took that perspective and made that my own. What I learned about my strength through this time, you control your perspective and mindset. There is always a positive in every situation, you must be able to find that one positive element and cultivate a grateful mindset. 2023 will be marked as the year with the largest growth that has occurred thus far within my lifetime as a total of three immediate family members passed within a timespan of 10 months. I find strength in the fact how mom never shed an angry or negative tear even though she knew each day she was fighting for her life. Anytime that I now experience a challenge or a season of obstacles, I think back to her strength and I aim to be as strong as she was and still is today.

4. What helped you move through that season?
I am so thankful for these past 2 years of reviewing the overall impact mom had on the world and me. Mom fought each day and she showed perseverance in the many trials she faced during those 4 months of her terminal diagnosis. These learnings to me show just how strong she truly was and still is, she always wanted the best for her family and lived that example each day. The impact of mom’s life will forever live on within me. I strive to not lose the passion of which mom inspired me to have during her journey. Life is truly a gift. We must appreciate each day and never take for granted the opportunity that we have to impact the world around us. Each day we have an opportunity to change someone’s perspective/lens/mindset. Sometimes we do not know why we embark upon the challenges that we must face, but that is a part of the journey. I have found that embracing that journey helps us grow into the people we are called to become. Who we become to fulfill our purpose is why we are here. Mom’s life will always have purpose, as her impact will live on for generations.

5. How has that experience changed the way you care for yourself now?
These experiences have taught me to make sure that you put a priority on yourself and your mental health. You can only be as strong as your brain allows you to be. I find that connecting with nature brings me so much peace, solitude and overall humility to appreciate the challenges and the lessons they have taught me. Being thankful for every hardship we experience within our lives allows us to learn from it, making us stronger and to positively impact the world around us. I aim each day to be a better version of myself just as my mom did.

6. What does mental wellness look and feel like for you today?
I spend time each month reflecting and journaling on my takeaways from 2023 and the changes that I have implemented in my life since this monumental year. I would say it is crucial to always go back to my purpose and see how I am living to fulfill that purpose each day. I would say that I find my outlet to experience peace, rejuvenation, and overall gratitude for the blessings I experience each day. I would still say that a crucial element for my daily healing is taking time for myself by immersing myself within the beauty that God has created. 

7. Any go-to tools, habits, or mantras you’d recommend to others?
Habits-Connecting with God in nature, Taking time each day for yourself even if its 15 minutes, Daily Health routine from hair to nutrition to fitness, Building real connections and relationships each year, Empowering others to be the best version of themselves and connecting with their purpose

Mantras-Fulfilling your destiny requires maximizing your capacity. Finding your purpose requires changing your perspective. Your mindset, your future, your choice. The vision of today leads to your future of tomorrow.

8. What would you tell someone who’s in the thick of it right now?
Patience, Perspective, Peace

9. Share your favorite haircare tip and your favorite Ocoa product: As a straight-hair girly, I can acquire natural curls that last for days by using our curl cream on either wet or dry hair and placing my hair into a braid for 24 hours. When I take the braid out, I have fabulous curls that last until my next wash.

Thank you for sharing your truth, Alyssa and Char. We’re more than a brand—we’re a sisterhood. And your stories just made it stronger.

Leave a comment or reply back to hola@ocoabeauty.com if their story resonated with you. We'd love to hear about your journey too.