Alternative Therapy
Holistic Health Community in Ulster County, NY
Provides Free Holistic Health Services and a Space for
Community Collaboration and Support
September 2019
Photo Courtesy: Holistic Health Community
In the last two decades or so, there has been a notable increase in the number of people seeking alternative therapies as well as integrative approaches to medicine. With the increase in demand, there have been more holistic health centers and alternative therapy groups opening up in both urban and rural areas. The variety and types of services offered are numerous, and what might work for one person may not be the right approach for another.
A September 2016 article published by the National Center for Comprehensive and Integrative Health advises, “Be aware that individuals respond differently to health products and practices, whether conventional or complementary. How you might respond to one depends on many things, including your state of health, how you use it, or your belief in it.”
The U.S. National Library of Medicine published a study conducted by Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention (Stanford University School of Medicine) which concluded, “Along with being more educated and reporting poorer health status, the majority of alternative medicine users appear to be doing so not so much as a result of being dissatisfied with conventional medicine but largely because they find these health care alternatives to be more congruent with their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations toward health and life.”
Some holistic health centers offer free consultations or community days with reduced or free programs. As with anything, do your research to see what might be the best option for you.
A September 2016 article published by the National Center for Comprehensive and Integrative Health advises, “Be aware that individuals respond differently to health products and practices, whether conventional or complementary. How you might respond to one depends on many things, including your state of health, how you use it, or your belief in it.”
The U.S. National Library of Medicine published a study conducted by Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention (Stanford University School of Medicine) which concluded, “Along with being more educated and reporting poorer health status, the majority of alternative medicine users appear to be doing so not so much as a result of being dissatisfied with conventional medicine but largely because they find these health care alternatives to be more congruent with their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations toward health and life.”
Some holistic health centers offer free consultations or community days with reduced or free programs. As with anything, do your research to see what might be the best option for you.
Myrna Beth Haskell, spoke with Cornelia Wathen, co-founder of Holistic Health Community located in Ulster County, about the services they provide and their plans for expansion in the future.
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Holistic health care is different from traditional medicine. Can you explain? Do you feel a holistic approach should be used in tandem with traditional approaches?
We are multi-dimensional beings. One aspect is physical health, but there is also emotional health and spiritual health. Holistic health care treats individuals on all of these levels – body, mind and spirit. To be clear, spiritual health is not about religion. It’s about allowing ourselves to rise to our full potential. Traditional medicine is very important for certain issues. It would be wonderful for both holistic medicine and traditional medicine to work in tandem. Today, it is difficult to do this. We welcome conventional doctors in our work. However, many times they require equipment we do not have, such as x-rays. I’m hoping that in the future it will be easier to weave them together. There is also the issue of acceptance. Chiropractic services, massage and acupuncture are some of the alternative healing methods more widely accepted. But this is not the case with some of the other holistic modalities. |
Cornelia Wathen
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You are a retired teacher. What did you teach, and do you bring any of these skills to what you do now as an energy healer?
I taught at a progressive elementary school which allowed me to work holistically with the children – the approach was to educate the whole child. When I was teaching the children, it came from a place of unconditional love. It’s the same with energy healing for me.
One of the energy healing modalities that you’re trained in is called Dynamic Stillness. What is this?
I was introduced to Dynamic Stillness by a spiritual teacher years ago. She said it was the closest healing modality she had found to our spiritual work. It’s a hands-on healing modality that grew out of craniosacral therapy. It was developed by Charles Ridley who started out practicing on a more physical level. Then he took his work a step deeper. He calls it ‘doing nothing.’ The practitioner is not fixing the client, so to speak. When the practitioner shifts to a higher dimensional frequency while in contact with the client, the client is deeply affected in a way that is nourishing for both body and soul.
The Holistic Health Community believes in community collaboration. There were some important partnerships when you first started offering services.
I taught at a progressive elementary school which allowed me to work holistically with the children – the approach was to educate the whole child. When I was teaching the children, it came from a place of unconditional love. It’s the same with energy healing for me.
One of the energy healing modalities that you’re trained in is called Dynamic Stillness. What is this?
I was introduced to Dynamic Stillness by a spiritual teacher years ago. She said it was the closest healing modality she had found to our spiritual work. It’s a hands-on healing modality that grew out of craniosacral therapy. It was developed by Charles Ridley who started out practicing on a more physical level. Then he took his work a step deeper. He calls it ‘doing nothing.’ The practitioner is not fixing the client, so to speak. When the practitioner shifts to a higher dimensional frequency while in contact with the client, the client is deeply affected in a way that is nourishing for both body and soul.
The Holistic Health Community believes in community collaboration. There were some important partnerships when you first started offering services.
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The Town of Marbletown offered us its community center free of charge on weekdays, which was was extremely helpful.
When we decided to start, a local newspaper happened to be publishing an issue on health, and they did this feature article about who we were and what we were proposing. We also sent letters out to those we thought would support the project. But that was the extent of our advertising. So when we had the first community meeting, we were surprised by how many people showed up. There was a real interest in what we were proposing. It was a huge undertaking, but there were so many synchronicities along the way. It felt like it was meant to be. We had lots of support and lots of practitioners willing to provide volunteer services. The Green Cottage (a floral and gift shop) donates beautiful bouquets of flowers, and the High Falls Food Co-op donates healthy food for clients and volunteers. |
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At the heart of everything is the creation of community. We are a community on all different levels. Our group of practitioners is like a family. It’s the same for our administrative volunteers as well as the extended community which consists of the people who come for services and classes. Our practitioners love coming. They understand how the environment is totally different from their private practice. It’s a group endeavor with a group energy that’s wonderful and hard to describe.
At the start of each Healthcare Day [the third Tuesday of every month from 4pm to 8pm], the volunteers gather in a circle. We meditate together and acknowledge the love we share. We fill the building with our group heart. How many people on average attend your healthcare days? Between 50 and 60. We get all kinds of clients - some with money, some without, some with insurance, some without. If they have money, we ask for a donation. If they do not have money, we ask them to pay it forward in some way, by extending the love we shared with them to someone else in the outside community by offering a kind service. |
Photo Courtesy: Holistic Health Community
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Besides healthcare days, you offer free classes and other programs. Would you like to explain a few?
We have free, self-care classes once a month (the first Thursday of every month from 7 to 8:30pm]. They’re different every month. A practitioner will give a class on their modality and teach clients things they can do for their own well-being.
We also offer free weekend classes, about once per month, that are co-sponsored by a family foundation that covers the expenses. These classes allow for the possibility of more in-depth programs.
Is there a vetting process for the volunteer practitioners and therapists?
Yes. Donna [Donna Nisha Cohen, president] vets the administrative volunteers, and I vet the practitioners. For practitioners, we require that they fill out an application and sign a Code of Conduct which states that they are working with us as an extension of their private practice and that they agree to keep all client records. They must be licensed or certified in their modality and provide a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendation. If a practitioner is not licensed with New York State, we require that he or she must be an ordained minister.
What types of volunteer positions are available for community members who are not practitioners but would like to help out in some way?
We have a dozen administrative volunteers working at Healthcare Day each month. There are four stations: welcome, check-in, scheduling, and check-out. We also have volunteers in the kitchen. We provide a vegetarian dinner for our volunteers and tea and snacks for the clients.
In the future, you’d like to acquire land and build a campus with several buildings to accommodate more services. Tell me more.
It is our intention to acquire land and build a campus where we can create a Holistic Hub of Possibility. We envision multiple buildings constructed according to the principles of sacred geometry, harmonic resonance and natural building, which demonstrate what is possible in the interaction of architectural structure with consciousness and healing. At the center will be a Healing Sanctuary, providing office space and meeting rooms dedicated to holistic healing. Satellite buildings will provide space for art studios, theater, sound/music, movement, conscious birthing, conscious dying and lodging for out-of-town clients. We also envision organic/biodynamic gardens and a café serving food from our own gardens and other local organic sources. Through all these programs and the buildings that house them, we intend to create a web of inter-connection with our local community which will attract holistic practitioners, teachers from a variety of disciplines, and the people from our local community and beyond. The campus and its offerings will provide a template for how to transform society collaboratively and support the conscious evolution of humanity.
We’ve contracted an architect, and an architectural plan should be completed before the end of 2020. We recently invited Freddy Silva to teach a workshop in Creating Sacred Space and to consult with us about our building project.
*Freddy Silva is a best-selling author and a leading researcher of ancient civilizations, restricted history, sacred sites and their interaction with consciousness. He is also a leading expert on crop circle.
Where do you find sanctuary? (#Wheres Your Sanctuary)
I find sanctuary in my daily meditations in nature, in silence and in beauty.
We have free, self-care classes once a month (the first Thursday of every month from 7 to 8:30pm]. They’re different every month. A practitioner will give a class on their modality and teach clients things they can do for their own well-being.
We also offer free weekend classes, about once per month, that are co-sponsored by a family foundation that covers the expenses. These classes allow for the possibility of more in-depth programs.
Is there a vetting process for the volunteer practitioners and therapists?
Yes. Donna [Donna Nisha Cohen, president] vets the administrative volunteers, and I vet the practitioners. For practitioners, we require that they fill out an application and sign a Code of Conduct which states that they are working with us as an extension of their private practice and that they agree to keep all client records. They must be licensed or certified in their modality and provide a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendation. If a practitioner is not licensed with New York State, we require that he or she must be an ordained minister.
What types of volunteer positions are available for community members who are not practitioners but would like to help out in some way?
We have a dozen administrative volunteers working at Healthcare Day each month. There are four stations: welcome, check-in, scheduling, and check-out. We also have volunteers in the kitchen. We provide a vegetarian dinner for our volunteers and tea and snacks for the clients.
In the future, you’d like to acquire land and build a campus with several buildings to accommodate more services. Tell me more.
It is our intention to acquire land and build a campus where we can create a Holistic Hub of Possibility. We envision multiple buildings constructed according to the principles of sacred geometry, harmonic resonance and natural building, which demonstrate what is possible in the interaction of architectural structure with consciousness and healing. At the center will be a Healing Sanctuary, providing office space and meeting rooms dedicated to holistic healing. Satellite buildings will provide space for art studios, theater, sound/music, movement, conscious birthing, conscious dying and lodging for out-of-town clients. We also envision organic/biodynamic gardens and a café serving food from our own gardens and other local organic sources. Through all these programs and the buildings that house them, we intend to create a web of inter-connection with our local community which will attract holistic practitioners, teachers from a variety of disciplines, and the people from our local community and beyond. The campus and its offerings will provide a template for how to transform society collaboratively and support the conscious evolution of humanity.
We’ve contracted an architect, and an architectural plan should be completed before the end of 2020. We recently invited Freddy Silva to teach a workshop in Creating Sacred Space and to consult with us about our building project.
*Freddy Silva is a best-selling author and a leading researcher of ancient civilizations, restricted history, sacred sites and their interaction with consciousness. He is also a leading expert on crop circle.
Where do you find sanctuary? (#Wheres Your Sanctuary)
I find sanctuary in my daily meditations in nature, in silence and in beauty.
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About Cornelia:
Cornelia Wathen is a former elementary school teacher and co-founder of the Holistic Health Community. She is a graduate of Barbara Brennan’s Healing Science Training, Charles Ridley’s Mentor Training in Dynamic Stillness and Peter Fenner’s Radiant Mind course. She is also a certified teacher in Soaring Crane Qigong and is certified as a practitioner of The Emotion Code. She has completed level 1 of Reconnective Healing and is certified to give Reconnective Healing sessions. During an interview on Radio Woodstock (“Oxide with Paige Ruane”), Cornelia explained, “I made a conscious decision to allow service to be my spiritual path. So, for me, it’s my way of practicing the highest level of myself. And it’s a way of experiencing love. So it’s been a very rich experience for me.” |
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