Half an hour before Health Care is a Human Right offered its first free holistic healing appointment on Tuesday at Woodstock’s St. Gregory Church, some 20 people had already lined up, underscoring the rising appeal of the nonprofit’s mission to fill health care gaps and make wellness care free and available to all.
“This feels more important than ever right now. People are suffering and life is not easy,” said Leslie Snow, 67, who directs the Woodstock clinic and has been a volunteer practitioner for the group since 2017. “Helping people is just part of how I fulfill my purpose in life.”
Local residents, who face a surge in health care costs and lack access to affordable holistic care, can receive free treatments that include Heart Healing and Cranial Sacral therapy as well as Jyorei, a Japanese spiritual healing practice, from volunteer practitioners. Rural residents are less likely to have health insurance and face higher health risks than their urban counterparts, reflecting higher poverty rates and more limited access to health care, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I’m not sure if it was the Reiki, acupuncture treatment or the combination, but after I went to the Phoenicia clinic, the pain I had in my neck for two weeks fully disappeared,” said Ruth Gollobin, 75. At Tuesday’s clinic, which she attended for another Reiki session, Gollobin said she’s grateful for the service and that she was inspired to seek out acupuncture treatment on her own.
Among the first in line at Tuesday’s clinic was a cancer patient gearing up for the fourth of his five chemotherapy treatments, which leave him feeling terrible, both physically and emotionally. He received acupressure treatment in October.
“With everything that’s going on in the world, geopolitical and local stressors, job conditions and financial strains, we are really serving people’s needs,” said Joan Oldale LaPoint, 60, a retired public school music teacher who helps with check-ins and appointments. She attended her first clinic as a client last year, receiving treatment from practitioner Karen Charman.
“It’s like the energy field of our entire country is being attacked right now and many people don’t have access to this kind of care,” said Charman, an environmental journalist who offers services such as BioSET, EFT, The Emotion Code and the Body Code. “We have a collective responsibility to take care of each other.”
The organization, founded in 2003 by local physician’s assistant Susan Weeks and others, offers free quarterly holistic health care clinics in Woodstock and Phoenicia as well as monthly clinics in Kingston. Services vary at each clinic. The organization also offers specialty clinics at shelters, community centers, and social service agencies.
“Services are offered on a first-come, first-served walk-in basis, but we do our best to give everyone what they’re looking for,” said the group’s president, Peter Blum, 78, a Saugerstock resident and hypnosis practitioner.
Health Care is a Human Right began as an all-volunteer initiative under the umbrella of Family of Woodstock. A bequest from Annie Borgenicht, a longtime practitioner who died in 2021, enabled the organization to expand its clinics, hire directors and pay stipends to practitioners.
Chana Widawski is a contributing reporter. Send correspondence to reporting@theoverlooknews.com
