Do you remember how when you were a child, life was easy and carefree and there were no problems, just situations? We used to play outside until dark, chase fireflies and never worry about the future. All we dreamt of was to grow up fast, so we could do all the things we wanted to. Everything was possible and within reach. It was only a matter of time. The path was ahead of us and we knew no bounds.

So many possibilities ahead…

Some of you might have stayed on the path, others might have strayed, some dreams have been shattered by reality, and others discarded by our own insecurity. However, it is never too late to get back on the right track. If you have a goal and you believe in it, you can achieve it. This is what life is about, becoming who you are and who you really want to be. Fear of the unknown is the biggest hurdle. The path is self awareness. What makes you happy? What are your passions? What are your goals? Are you the person you want to be?

Answering these questions can take some time and a little help from a friend. Luckily, there is a place in Washington where you can find a lot of support in your journey of self awareness and personal growth. Located on 426 E. 5th Street,  the Washington Healing Arts Center is a home of many different practitioners, unified by a common mission: to promote and support wellness of body, mind and spirit. Their vision is to serve the community by providing avenues to health, comfort and personal realization.

Washington Healing Arts Center: cooperation and synergy under one roof

The Washington Healing Arts Center was founded in 2008 by a person with a vision. Her name is Holly Stratton Schmitt and she offers Counseling, Life Coaching and Ceremony. Holly carries a Master’s degree in Social Work and a Missouri Clinical Social Work license. She was raised by parents who were also licensed clinical social workers and she has more than 25 years of experience providing counseling to individuals, families and groups.

Holly Schmitt, the founder of the Washington Healing Arts Center, is devoted to helping people embrace change in their lives.

Growing up, Holly’s family took vacations every summer.  They often adventured to places with different cultures, including Mexico, Europe and Canada.  The variety of languages, foods and customs fascinated her. In High School Holly lived in Arequipa, Peru for a year as a foreign exchange student, and then she went on and traveled to Spain, Morocco, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, just to name a few. Holly’s experiences abroad enriched her as a therapist and helped her understand that every family is its own culture.

Holly’s office reflects her global soul: she has objects from every corner of the world, reminding her of the different cultures she has experienced along the way.

Holly says she has entertained the idea of a wellness center ever since she was in her 20′s. “As a young woman I knew I wanted to help the world in some way. I decided that helping individuals reach their highest potential and families successfully create a loving environment for themselves would be a satisfying career.” When the time and the place were right, Holly bought the house on 5th Str. and turned it into the Washington Healing Arts Center. Her idea was to have a place where different practitioners can work as a team to promote holistic healing and personal growth in a cozy and peaceful atmosphere.

Cozy and inviting, the Washington Healing Arts Center offers different ways of healing the mind, body and spirit.

Three years after the grand opening, the Washington Healing Center of the Arts is the home of a couple of practitioners and offers different classes and courses every month. Holly does Counseling, Life Coaching and Ceremony. Dr. Zunli Mo, who I featured in the blog earlier this month, specializes in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Tracy Miles offers psychotherapy, and Julie Dotson works on restoring the inner and outer balance through CranioSacral Therapy and Somatoemotional Release. Not sure what the latter means? I am meeting Julie in the beginning of the New Year to experience her methods first hand and tell you all about it   You can find more information on the practitioners, their background, and their medium here.

There are many different ways of healing, and the Washington Healing Arts Center tries to embrace a large variety of approaches and therapies that complement each other. For example, if you have a migraine you might want to try Acupuncture or CranioSacral Therapy, or both. The common factor is that the practitioners at the Center will try to find the cause of your problem and work on it, instead of offering you a temporary solution.

The integration of different modalities makes the Washington Healing Arts Center a place of balance, harmony and peace.

Holly says that this endeavor would have not been possible without the help of her dear friend Letitia Marlow. Letitia is the heart of the Washington Healing Arts Center and she reaches out to all community members who want to share their stories of healing and personal growth. Everybody is welcome to attend the classes and workshops at the Center. In January you can choose between Yoga with Elaine Blackmur (every Friday morning from 8:30 until 9:45 am), Reiki with Julie Dotson, Meditation with Sharon Corcoran or “Winning at Weight Loss for Women” with Susan Schulte (a six week course starting January 12, that offers a comprehensive holistic approach to weight loss). New classes and events are being added all the time, so check back the website often. Letitia is open for new ideas and suggestions, so if you want to take a certain class, give an informative talk, or find a group of like-minded people, don’t hesitate to give her a call at 636.346.8579.

Letitia welcomes practitioners and community members alike to share their stories of healing and growth.

With 2012 just around the corner, why not include health and well-being as one of your resolutions for the New Year? Life is always busy and we tend to neglect the signals our body is giving us. We cannot take care of others until we take care of ourselves. Take some time off, visit the Washington Healing Arts Center and explore some of the positive changes you can embrace in your life.

To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. ~Buddha

Our limitations and success will be based, most often, on our own expectations for ourselves. What the mind dwells upon, the body acts upon. ~Denis Waitley

Our bodies are our gardens – our wills are our gardeners. ~William Shakespeare

Do you feel tightness and tension in your head, neck, shoulders, back, legs or knees? Chances are you can alleviate a lot of it by working on your fascia.

What the Fascia?!

The fascia is a system of connective tissue that runs through your entire body, holding every major system of our body in place. It has been described as the “plastic wrap” that holds our muscles together, but it actually encompasses every organ, nerve, blood vessel, and skin cell.

The fascia runs through your muscles and helps attach your muscles to your tendons and ligaments. It acts as a shock absorber for many of your muscles and a net that provides leverage for your muscle fibers to contract and produce movement.  About 90% of all muscular injury is not from your muscle fibers, but your fascia.

So Who Cares, Right?

As you get older, and from a variety of other reasons, your fascia will tighten, making injury and improper movement more likely. Other factors leading to tight fascia include physical trauma, muscle soreness, structural and muscular imbalance, burns, surgical scarring, bad posture, stress, inflammation, and infection.

When your fascia gets tight, a section of your muscular tissue will become “glued” within the muscle, preventing the muscle from operating in a proper way. And to make it worse, fascial tension can cause other parts of your body to compensate for that imbalance, forcing misalignment in other parts of your body, which causes further injury.

Think of a hammock tied on each end to a tree. The hammock is the fascia between two joints (the trees). If a person sits in the hammock (representing muscle contraction or tension), the trees take on the pressure in a balanced way. Once the person gets out, the trees (and the hammock) return to normal.  But if one tree were pulled in an opposite direction, the hammock and the other tree would be pulled in that same direction to compensate. From head to toe, your body is interconnected, and that if one part is affected, the other parts will also be.

In fact, there are physical connections of fascia that start from the bottom of your foot, go up your back, and over your skull. So, believe it or not, releasing tension in your feet can release tension in your neck!

Relief For Your Fascia

To relieve tension throughout your body, and prevent injuries before they occur, you need a healthy dose of massage, stretching, and foam rolling. Massages are awesome, but can be quite expensive. So for most of us, the most practical thing is to make it a habit to spend 15-30 minutes a day to stretch your entire body both before and after a workout, and at the end of a long day sitting in front of a computer. If you’re not quite sure what to do, you can join me in my Stretch & Roll class, where I guide you through a complete routine using a foam roller.