The Healing Garden, a Belfast-based wellness education organization that hosts by-donations healing events in Waldo and Knox Counties, is hosting an open house Wednesday, Oct. 30, from 4-6 p.m., at their new location, 69 Lincolnville Avenue, Belfast. The event is open to the public and all are welcome.

“The physical presence of The Healing Garden in Belfast conveys something so important, which is the message that healing is possible,” says Michelle Walker, one of the founding members of The Healing Garden in a news release. “This message is sure to uplift those who might be struggling with challenges in their life, suggesting new possibilities.”

Founded by doctors, nurses, therapists, herbalists, healers and artists, The Healing Garden envisions a model of healthcare that embraces both ancient and modern wellness practices. Their Strategic Vision focuses on sharing the art and science of heart-brain coherence, creating community around the value of healing through consciousness, and sharing stories of possibility that inspire and elevate.

Ultimately, they envision a healing center in the Belfast area that offers the best of modern medicine alongside traditional and ancient practices that support well-being.

“Having a collaborative care model under one roof can provide more comprehensive and personalized care by leveraging the wide variety of skills and knowledge of a diverse group of professionals,” says Dr. Deb Peabody, MD, a founding member of The Healing Garden. “A holistic approach to care is more likely to address not only the patient’s physical health but also their mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.”

For over 2 years now, The Healing Garden has been holding group education and healing events in the form of workshops circles, half-day and daylong retreats from Belfast to Rockland. This evidence-based model of group care is shown to have better outcomes than individual care for chronic and stress-based ailments, as it offers people the life-giving element of social connection and shared values around healing.

Dr. Kerri Vacher, a naturopathic doctor and family nurse practitioner, also one of the founding members of The Healing Garden says, “In the current medical model, there is not enough time for the connection needed to make the required life changes to heal the many lifestyle and stress based illnesses. Group medicine is an exciting modality on the horizon for lifestyle-based illness. Groups of people seen together for chronic health conditions have better outcomes than people who are seen for individual patient visits. We are looking forward to bringing this model of healthcare to the community.”

The Healing Garden’s monthly healing circle will be held directly following the open house, at the UU Church on Miller Street in Belfast from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.  The theme of this October circle is “Cultivating Self-Love.”

“Our healing events offer people an opportunity to feel empowered by the knowledge that they can improve their health by regulating their mental-emotional states and shift the baseline of how their body feels day-to-day,“ Diana Maria Chapin, another founding member says. “In all our programs, people learn more about how the heart and brain communicate with each other, and how this knowledge can help them prepare for, adapt to and recover from challenging situations, and regulate their own emotional state no matter what is happening.  It helps people lift away the fog of stress and habitual programming and think more clearly about resolving whatever they are faced with in life.”

“Even though we all live separate lives with similar goals, life can feel like a constant hike up the mountain,” says Larriean Pickford, a founding member of The Healing Garden. “To have a home for The Healing Garden and to share that space, with likeminded individuals that all hold the value of wanting, experiencing and nurturing a wholesome concept of health—that is so rewarding not only to oneself, but also as a collective.”

“Holding this space and intention as a collective creates a ripple effect in the present and future for a sense of more community and less of feeling alone in all the similar struggles we face individually,” Pickford continues. “There is so much value in learning tools to support ourselves, family and community. These very same tools will then help facilitate our ability to empower each other for all the healing and thriving there is to come. “

“We invite all those who hear the call to transform the culture around how we care for those experiencing trauma and illness and be a change-maker with us,” Chapin says. “This time in humanity asks for a shift that offers us all to engage as agents of change…one heart at a time.”

Learn more about The Healing Garden online at www.TheHealingGardenMaine.org or by emailing info@thehealinggardenmaine.org.