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HEARTWOOD TESTIMONIALS

Thanks to everyone who could join us or sent good wishes for our fabulous 10th Anniversary Party on December 12, 2009. We were delighted to share this milestone with everyone in the community who has supported us and helped make Heartwood such a wonderful wellness resource in Evanston. See Photos and Video from the event.

Practitioners, clients and students kindly shared their thoughts and feelings about Heartwood Center. Their words may give you a sense of what this place is all about.

A Source of Healing A Source of Healing

I love coming into Heartwood Center! Walking up the steep stairs, I feel a blanket of peacefulness wrap around me. At the top of the stairs... beautiful objects and spaces, a calming scent, a tranquil silence.

Whether I'm coming for meditation class, an acupuncture treatment, or any other event, I feel I am entering a place that is connected to the universal source of healing.

Thank you!
Diane F.


A Safe Environment

I feel a sense of support, caring and nuturing from all the practictioners I have encountered at Heartwood (tai chi, yoga, acupuncture). It is a safe environment in which to ask for and receive what I need to be healthy.

Sheila

 

Tai Chi Stories

I started taking Arlene Faulk's tai chi/qigong class nearly nine years ago. Over the years, I have found the class to be beneficial in the following ways:

  1. Improved posture and alignment.
  2. Better balance (I walk a dog that pulls and I walk on ice a lot in winter.)
  3. I have a much better sense of body awareness than I ever did and a sense of how to root myself.
  4. Through breathing and qi gong exercises, I have learned to better control chronic anxiety and am now able to quiet my mind when it races.

Arlene is a patient and kind teacher. Her own story of healing is a dramatic example of what we can do to improve our health and attitude. Her calm, incremental, repetitive way of teaching is a pleasant oasis in the middle of my hectic schedule. Because she is both consistent and flexible, over the years I have been able to start and stop attending class for months at a time yet still am able to come back to it without feeling lost.

Denise Kirshenbaum


Why I am at Heartwood

I am a practitioner at the Heartwood Center because this where I belong.

To me, all of us are really doing the same thing, just in different ways and through different modalities. We are each involved in the healing and transformation process of those that we serve. Each of us works with energy — whether stated or not — to bring health, vitality and harmony to clients, students and patients that we treat.

I believe that environment is integral to the healing process and I love to just walk into the wonderful space that we have all worked so hard to create here at Heartwood. I would bet that you can’t help but notice. Believe me, it is by design.

In closing, what a joy and blessing it for me to be working here at Heartwood for the last 5 years with such like-minded people. Here’s to 10 more years of the Heartwood experience!

David Johnson LCSW


 

From Terri Clemens

Heartwood is so much a part of me that it's hard to put into words how I feel about Nancy and the community of practitioners that give it life. I often say to people that my life really began 9 years ago when I was first encouraged by Nancy to join Heartwood.

After having spent a number of years in a profession that was toxic for me, I decided to change careers and become an acupuncturist and herbalist. I cannot tell this story without mentioning Nancy over and over again. She was my healer, my mentor, my cheerleader and now my cherished friend and partner. Without her, my rebirth would not have happened. As a result, I began a new life with a new job, met and married my husband, and was blessed with a beautiful daughter. I finally found my calling and couldn't be happier.

Heartwood has been the incubator for the most meaningful work that I have done. I have developed lasting friendships with my colleagues here and feel like I am finally home.

Congratulations, Nancy and Heartwood on this 10th anniversary! May we all continue to thrive and prosper in our work and our community.

Terri Clemens, LAc, MSOM, Dipl Ch
Acupuncturist and Herbalist
Finance Director, Heartwood

 

Classes at HeartwoodClasses at Heartwood

Tai Chi quiets my "brain chatter". The practice is calming, yet energizing. I look forward to my classes. When I enter the room at Heartwood I am released from all my other obligations and I focus eintirely on my breath and my being. I am entirely in the moments and that is a gift.

Heartwood Tai Chi student

 


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From Nancy Floy

Heartwood is my home as a healer. It is a living spirit of a place that embodies the sacred for me. Creating Heartwood was a vision and dream I have carried since I was a little girl watching my Grandmother work with her patients around our kitchen table. Her first name was Floy and I became Nancy Floy, named for her. She was my first teacher and it is to her that I owe my deepest gratitude for her sometimes strict training and also her immense love and compassion.

I was joined in my vision by a wonderful woman and very skilled healer, Andrea Gundersen, and we opened the doors to the Heartwood Center for Body Mind Spirit in August of 2009. We had no business plan and no money. We put all of the expenses on a credit card and then prayed that people would come.

And come you have. From the beginning the practitioners, teachers, clients, patients and students have been the life blood of this center. Over the years we have changed and grown and like all transitions this has not been easy. But through all of the change we have sunk deeper roots and we are still here doing what we do best: healing, teaching, giving and receiving and creating community. Now we are ten years old and we can say with pride and confidence that we have a sustainable thriving center that is on the forefront of holistic healthcare.

I offer my love and thanks to every single person who has contributed to this community. You have made Heartwood what it is, it is you who manifests the peace and harmony that you feel when you walk in the door. This is not something outside of you, only special to Heartwood, it comes from within you and you leave it here when you take your class or do your healing.

I look forward to seeing you all here in another 10 years for our 20th anniversary party!

Many Blessings, Nancy Floy, MA, LAc, Dipl Ac
Owner and Director, Heartwood

 

A Welcoming PlaceA Welcoming Place

You walk into a sense of calm.

Sandy



Light and Warmth

Heartwood Center immediately embraces us as we enter its nurturing and restful energy. We are accepted and honored for who we are right in that moment: practitioners, clients, patients, students and teachers alike. We can use that energy actively in healing work or more passively, letting it replenish our bodies, physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. I believe that Heartwood extends light and warmth, not just to those who enter its doors, but also to the community around us.

I have been feeling this light and warmth since my first day of working at Heartwood, September 12, 2001 — a day we all needed to experience light and warmth shining on us and our humanity. Being a teacher and practitioner at Heartwood has continued to be a blessing ever since then.

Thank you Nancy for creating the foundation of Heartwood’s beauty and integrity and thank you to all who come here as we mutually support each other. Peace and joy.

Colleen Hubbard,"The Rev"


Thank You, Heartwood

Stepping into Heartwood's space often feels like curling up in my favorite chair. It's nurturing and relaxing and it's always there for me.

Whatever is going on in my life — chaotic mind, achy body, soggy spirit — Heartwood always seems to have a never-ending supply of exactly what I need. Arlene's tai chi and qi gong instruction brought me balance, massage therapy from Louise eased my pain and meditation guidance from Asang and Nancy literally changed my mind.

I treasure this place and the community that brings it to life every day. Thank you, Heartwood!

Kim Pierceall

 

The Benefits of Massage

Recently I injured my back and was unable to do much of anything for over a week. I scheduled a massage at Heartwood with Louise and it was extremely helpful in lessening the pain and helping me to immediately improve my mobility. Louise is a talented massage therapist and she made sure I was comfortable with the amount of pressure she was using. I have highly recommended her to friends who have also had success with their injuries.

Denise Kirshenbaum

 

Heartwood Says "Yes"

For over 10 years I've experienced Heartwood as welcoming, centering, encouraging. Celebrating 10 wonderful years of teaching Tai Chi, keeping my body strong through acupuncture and Chinese massage with Nancy Floy and having her be an advocate for my body, and keeping stretched and aligned with Lori Howell's Thai massage, all help immensely with my mind/body integration.

Heartwood says "yes" to all who enter.

Arlene Faulk, Tai Chi Instructor