I got better on a wing a prayer. Now it’s your turn.
Bee Venom Therapy is like becoming a new parent.
Countless daily miracles, sacrifice, and one sacred new life to tend:
Yours.
But instead of a cute new baby, suddenly you have hundreds of stinging insects in your care.
And you need to find how to safely and sustainably access their medicine—while keeping them alive.
Not because they need it. Because you do.
Sleepless nights and raw nipples are traded for itchy, achy stings all over your body.
Old and new pains pop up quickly—and leave just as fast.
Everyone you ask who’s done this before has a different strong opinion. And their advice is all different.
You feel lost and overwhelmed. Am I even doing this right? Is there a better way?
Yet despite all of that, you would not have it any other way.
Because for the first time in so long, you finally glimpse what it could feel like to be yourself again.
I’m Gillian Shelley.
BEE VENOM THERAPY GUIDE & TRAINED APITHERAPIST
BEEKEEPER OF 8 YEARS
IN DEVOTION TO THE LOVE THAT KEEPS YOU GOING.Stuck in beeping, bright hospitals for days on end, I tried a lot of weird visualizations to get out of pain and not throw up more.
One of my favorite go-to's was humming while imagining my friends—the bees—filling my hurting heart with honeycomb until it spilled out to fill my whole body with the sweetness it craved.
I'd soon be carried off into the deepest sleep and wake up pain-free for a few glorious minutes.
Years later, after getting Lyme disease and co-infections, I discovered the bees weren't only able to energetically love up on me. The medicine they create would quite literally save my life.
I healed Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome in 4 months. Lyme disease in 8.
Now it's your turn.
You do not have to figure this out alone, honey.
If you’re feeling lost, scared, hopeful, exhausted—or all at once—I get it.
I work with heart-led, highly sensitive, chronically ill people and their families to safely and sustainably start—and stick with—bee venom apitherapy.
I bring deep care for your body, nervous system, and the bees. Along with apitherapy training and research.
Don’t wait to find out if the bees could help get you healthy and back to what you love most.
Reach out for a free consult.
My story, laid bare in all her glory.
I was a healthy and fearless 20-something living my absolute dream.
I surfed early mornings four days a week in the frigid, unpredictable, sharky waters of Northern California.
I had meaningful remote work making a difference for heart-led people and organizations.
I was gloriously able-bodied.
I was also starting to keep bees and loved introducing people to their world.
Chronic illness was something that happened to other people. Not me.
Before I got sick
In 2016, I was hospitalized for 8 days with a rare neurological pain disorder called Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS).
It mostly went away...until the covid vaccine, trauma and stress in 2021 caused a resurgence (this photo).
This time it stayed.
My life kind of extremely sucked for a few years.
I was rocked by unpredictable, insanely painful vomiting episodes that lasted over a week. Every couple of weeks. For years.
No doctor--gastro, neuro, psych--or shaman/ healer could give me answers for why it was happening or how to make it stop.
I spent many thousands of dollars and had nothing to show for it.
The descent:
Almost worse than the physical pain was the deep, deep shame I felt about suddenly battling a chronic pain illness.
I couldn’t help but feel like it was my fault. A symptom of moral failure or some deep-seated self-hatred/ avoidance of my power and my gifts.
More than just escaping personal pain, all I wanted was to be a vessel for beauty & life.
I prayed that if I ever got out of this hell, I would devote my life to helping people like me heal.
I just needed the miracle medicine, please.
Battling deep guilt & shame.
There wasn’t much that I could do during this time. I had to almost stop surfing entirely.
One thing I loved to do was growing my beekeeping skills and hanging out with the bees, telling them about my life and asking for help like you would write in a journal.
I would wrap my arms around the hive and rest my head on top, letting the sweet smells and sounds soothe the pain.
Being in relationship with the bees was a source of great joy and anam cara --soul friendship--in my life.
My best friends:
the bees
Thankfully, I happen to be an intuitive & tenacious researcher when it comes to health mysteries.
I discovered that daily CoQ10 supplement can put people with CVS into remission.
I started to take it religiously.
Finding the crutch.
Within 4 months, I had my life back (or so I thought).
My prayer to be a vessel for beauty, life, and healing was finally being answered!!!!
I had enough health to sell my handmade & homegrown magical seed Mama Maize jewelry that I started doing while I was in the thick of sickness.
Getting my life back! (Kind of.)
I met my fiancé, Nick: The sweetest, most competent, loving, reliable, fun, and beautiful man. Yay!
When we met, Nick had been suffering from chronic Lyme disease for years. And it was getting steadily worse.
It was hard, but I was so grateful to get to be the healthy and supportive one for a change.
Sadly that didn’t last.
Meeting the love of my life!
In May 2025, I (also) got a bad case of Lyme disease.
I was devastated. Nay, I was enraged.
This picture is of Bartonella mark rash--a sign of bacteria rupturing blood vessels.
A painful bone spur grew on my right elbow (that I still have! Named him Carl because he’s probably not going anywhere). Drenching night sweats. Severe shortness of breath. Migrating deep, aching joint pain. Attacks of unexplainable terror and panic.
One doctor said “well, looks like you just ran into stuff and forgot.” Lol k. Another said, “it’s probably just stress”.
3 months of antibiotics just had me sicker and I was running out of ideas. Herbs had given Nick bad MCAS—so that wasn’t looking like a good option.
Lyme & co-infections strike.
Then I found people online who had healed Lyme for good with bee stinging!!!
I was completely blown away.
What!? These bees that I love so much can also heal Lyme disease?!!!
That is the coolest thing ever.
I learned everything about it that I possibly could and starting stinging the next week.
Finding Bee Venom Therapy
I did my first sting on a silent retreat where I work--Spirit Rock--by catching a bee off a flower.
I was so nervous and brave! (Like you!)
I went from being in constant pain and discomfort to sitting and walking in complete silence for 5 days with almost no pain.
That retreat, in addition to sleeping 10 hours a night I also took 3 hour naps every single afternoon, allowing my body to get the deep, thorough reset it needed and recalibration with the bee venom.
I felt full of hope for me, Nick, and the biggest love and awe for my soul friends--the bees.
My bee venom journey begins!
4 months into stinging, the CoQ10 stopped working. CVS came back!!!
Thank God though I had a heads up from my bee venom mentors this was a common ‘healing retracing’ that happens when the venom is healing the underlying wound. Symptoms arise.
Knowing that, and having their guidance, I felt calm even in the storm.
But after a week...CVS left. For good! Since then, I haven’t needed CoQ10.
Honey bees healed CVS at its root. Which no doctor could have done for me.
Cyclic vomiting returns
After stinging together for 8 months, I have no more symptoms of Lyme and Nick is 80% better after battling it for years with negative success.
I’m continuing to sting just to make sure it’s totally gone (because we want to have healthy babies one day soon!!!)
Bee venom therapy has cost us next to nothing and is easy compared to the other complicated, expensive, and less effective options. But yes, the stings do hurt.
Deep, lasting relief
I am completing the first Apitherapist certification training in the United States.
My prayer was answered!!! And I'm keeping my promise:
I am guiding people with complex chronic pain and illness to heal through bee venom, propolis, bee bread, honey and the many gifts of the hive!
Now my first clients’ prayers are being answered too!
They’re experiencing the first pain-free day in years and feel hope that something is finally working for them.
Now it’s time for you to try! Don’t wait to schedule a free consult with me for my 1-1 work.