Ready to uncover and navigate your defining moments?

WHAT IS HIGHER HEIGHTS, LLC?

Higher Heights, LLC was founded in 2008. At Higher Heights, LLC, we specialize in leadership development, executive coaching, and team development. With our expertise and tailored approach, we help individuals, teams, and organizations unlock their full potential and achieve their goals. We help clients operate from a forest-level perspective rather than getting trapped in the details. Our coaching specialization focuses on boosting confidence and discovering hidden potential.

Would you like to respond to change and adversity, identify pivotal moments, and master the ability to overcome obstacles, enabling you to effectively handle current challenges and inspire others to do the same? Take the first step towards your transformation today.

The Difference Between Coaching and Counseling

Coaching is forward-looking and goal oriented. It focuses on helping clients achieve specific goals, improve their performance and enhance their personal or professional growth. 

Counseling or therapy is more problem-focused and involves exploring past experiences to understand and resolve current issues.

ABOUT THE FOUNDER

Lorraine Thornhill is deeply passionate about coaching leaders and teams to realize their aspirations and equipping them to achieve their dreams. With a wealth of experience, training, and a diverse background, she offers a unique perspective. She has developed an array of tools to aid her clients in increasing their self-awareness, simplifying their objectives, and establishing strategies to overcome obstacles. For over three decades, she has guided individuals in enhancing their lives through her roles as an Executive Leadership Coach and Lead Pastor.

Lorraine holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master’s degree in education with a concentration in human development and psychology. She is an ICF accredited Associate Certified Coach. A constant learner, she was recently certified as a Practitioner of Everything DiSC and The Five Behaviors of a Team. She also has a postgraduate certificate in psychotherapy from the Boston Institute of Psychotherapy. In 2020, she became a certified instructor in Mental Health First Aid with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. This skills-based course teaches individuals to identify, understand, and respond to mental health and substance use challenges. Since her certification, she has been teaching this course across city and state lines.

Additionally, she serves as the Lead Pastor of the Kingdom Empowerment Center and the Founder/CEO of We Heal Ourselves with Love & Empowerment (WHOLE), a community-based program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, catering to the mental health needs of the BIPOC community.

FUN FACTS

  • Lorraine loves traveling, especially to Hawaii and South Africa. She enjoys touring and delving into the history of her destinations, often found exploring on foot and soaking up knowledge along the way.

  • Lorraine enjoys reading mystery books and thrillers, watching action movies like the "Fast and Furious" series. She's also a dedicated fan of all the Boston sports teams.

  • Lorraine loves cobbler in all its varieties, especially when it's homemade. She also has a sweet spot for bread pudding, which she enjoys making herself, and she's particularly fond of apple cake.

Lorraine’s Mental Health Non-Profit

WHOLE aims to increase hope through healing and to normalize mental health services by decreasing stigma and assisting in breaking down barriers to access. We strive to serve marginalized populations who are typically denied mental health services and basic human needs, especially Black individuals who are low income. We offer symposiums, workshops, community events, support groups, and group therapy. 

The WHOLE Program was created in response to a 2017 survey conducted by CORE (formerly known as Cambridge Community Health Network Area - CHNA17). The survey examined how the Black community in the Cambridge area engaged in mental health services. The results showed that there is an enormous stigma associated with mental health in the Black community, especially communities of faith. Some of the findings showed that people don’t talk about mental health inside the church. People also often said that they fear being told that they “simply need to pray more” or having to explain their faith to a provider but then being labeled as “crazy”.

Under the leadership of Rev. Lorraine A. Thornhill, Kingdom Empowerment Center (KEC) was awarded a grant from CHNA17 to address mental health in the Black faith community. Rev. Thornhill’s passion is to see individuals WHOLE and thriving in every area of their lives. She has seen how the current climate in the country is affecting people of color (POC) and has made it her goal to address the mental health crisis of POC. This has propelled her into action to create safe spaces for individuals to know that they are heard and are not alone. Rev. Thornhill founded the WHOLE program to continue to serve the community on an ongoing basis. Through WHOLE, Rev. Thornhill began to address the mental health crisis by organizing events such as Healing Racial Trauma for Women seminars, a Black Men and Trauma virtual gathering, mental health trainings, a Clergy Support Group, and a mental health symposium. Over the years, WHOLE has expanded its programs in hopes of meeting more of the needs within the Cambridge community and surrounding areas.