New Holistic Healthcare Options for Russian River Residents
By Annabele Grace
Interested in exploring alternative healthcare options but find them a bit beyond your budget?
The Phoenix Rising Wellness Project is offering a Community Holistic Clinic twice a month in Guerneville, providing holistic healthcare to the community without the price tag that comes with most alternative therapies. This innovative project is based on the belief that quality healthcare should be available to all and that true health must address body, mind and spirit. The burgeoning interest in alternative and previously considered “fringe” modalities such as reiki, yoga, herbal medicine, acupressure and massage is indicative of a society seeking answers outside of the mainstream western medical model in favor of a more integrated approach to wellbeing. More and more people are opening themselves up to consider less conventional therapies either because they have not found answers in our current health care system or are simply seeking more natural remedies to support their health. In light of the current political administration limiting options for healthcare to the people most in need, there has never been a more opportune time to offer the Russian River community empowered and accessible options for health.
The Community Holistic Clinic operates by a Gift Economy. What this means is that each client offers the reciprocity they feel is fair for the service. This revolutionary new model of healthcare is part of creating a new medical system, one that is not driven by corporate greed or Big Pharma. The clinic draws upon the concept of “paying it forward”; many clients who are able to pay generously support the clients who are able to pay less. Often people who can’t afford to donate a lot monetarily, find other ways of giving back for the services they receive. This “energy exchange” can come in many forms - from assisting in making medicines for the clinic, passing out flyers, or even bringing the practitioners dinner! Volunteer hours, private donations and grant funding allow the clinic to cover overhead costs of operation and hopefully in the coming month, to expand their clinic hours.
The practitioners at the Clinic bring a broad spectrum of experience and professional training. Graduates of the California School of Herbal medicine offer their expertise in plant medicine to support specific health conditions. Shiatsu massage is available (bodywork based in Chinese medicine which uses acupressure points to align and rebalance energy within the body). The clinic has several very talented Reiki practitioners who work with the body’s subtle energy field often creating powerful changes in physical, mental and emotional states of being. The Clinic staff also includes a medical intuitive with over twenty years experience in bodywork and energy healing, and an in-house astrologer who will give you a personal health-based reading, drawing upon the wisdom of planetary movement for optimum vitality. I myself am excited to be offering private therapeutic yoga sessions utilizing the tools of breath, meditation and yoga postures to address the physical and psycho-emotional levels of being and health challenges. The Clinic hopes to bring on even more practitioners as the year progresses, such as therapeutic massage, acupuncture and chi gong. And the list of clinic volunteers is constantly growing!
