NEWSLETTER

Dear Heartwood Community,

This fall Heartwood celebrates 12 years of providing professional and compassionate services to our patients, clients and students. We would like to thank each of you for your part in the Heartwood community and we welcome you to stop by the center for a visit if you haven't been here lately. This fall season has been particularly cool and damp and if you need any special healthcare, our practitioners and teachers are here to help you.

We hope that you enjoy our beautiful new design and format for our newsletter as well as the excellent and informative articles on the healing value of psychotherapy and renewal in the wilderness. We are also in the process of giving our website a whole new look so watch for those changes in the coming weeks. Take care and we wish you a very happy fall season!

Sincerely,
Nancy Floy, President, Heartwood Center

It All Begins with Mental Health

by Marsha Smith, MSW, LCSW 

The Heartwood Center offers an array of healing therapies and classes. A service at Heartwood you may be less familiar with is psychotherapy. I am often asked "what is different about psychotherapy at Heartwood?". The answer? The mission of Heartwood psychotherapists is to provide holistic approaches to help people live healthier, more satisfying lives.

Our psychotherapists help people identity their goals and effective strategies to achieve them. We address issues related to mental health, addictions, relationships and wellness. What is distinctive is the way our holistic psychotherapists provide inclusive mind-body approaches that engage all ways of experiencing — thinking, feeling, sensing, doing — in order to access more healing resources and inner strengths. We would never just apply a text book theory or formula. Instead, we creatively find many ways to support you to move in a direction that is meaningful and right for you.

David Johnson is a psychotherapist with Heartwood who speaks for many of us when he says "sharing a commitment to a holistic health care philosophy drew me to Heartwood." A holistic philosophy emphasizes that mental health is a significant part of every one's well being that can be nurtured and promoted. Just as with lifestyle changes and choices (e.g., exercise and nutrition) that can prevent going down a path of physical illness, building healthy emotional skills can strengthen emotional well being for a life time. With the right support, a person's experience, intelligence and resources can allow them to more fully embrace who they are capable of being. At Heartwood, we help people experience their ability to move forward, to heal and grow.

Heartwood provides services for adults, couples, families and children and facilitate classes, groups, as well as presentations to organizations on a variety of wellness topics. We welcome you to contact therapists directly and read about the many services and specialties they offer, and the days of the week/times they are available on the web site's Psychotherapy page.

Marsha is a psychotherapist with 20 years experience facilitating change and healing with adults, children and couples. In addition, she teaches creative skills for personal growth, such as Focusing and dream interpretation. To reach Marsha, you can click to email or call 847.323.1717. See more information >>

Connecting in the Wilderness

by John Lionberger, author and owner of RITW 

While breathing in the mountain or lakeside air and taking in the sight of cliffs or beautiful waterways, weight seems to drop from our shoulders; perhaps we stand straighter and feel cleaner. In addition, and importantly, there is a soul level experience, a connection to something greater and bigger...a perspective that is humbling that leads us to understand what is in our heart while bringing clarity to our lives. The experience of being in beautiful, natural places takes us to a core place in our lives which often eludes us in the city.

Renewal in the Wilderness (RITW) focuses on spiritual direction, and on spiritual and life renewal...and our offerings are conducted (mostly) in the wilderness, where people have gone for at least 6000 years to seek clarity in their lives.

People from all faiths are welcome as long as they understand that we're all there for the same purpose, and how we get there is between each participant and God, or whatever they call "God." The trips focus on what we have in common, spiritually, rather than on what divides us, and we have a lot of fun in the process.

RITW's trips are almost always by canoe or kayak, and are geared for middle-age people who lost their Olympic conditioning years ago. Trips are:

• a single day on the Kishwaukee River in Rockford, IL
• three days on the gorgeous WI River
• and 5-10 day trips to
  • the Boundary Waters of northern MN
  • Lake Powell, UT
  • Lake Superior in northern WI, around the Apostle Islands
  • the Kenai Fjords National Park in AK (wild and stunning; truly and appropriately humbling)
  • and Crete, kayaking from inn-to-inn on the azure Libyan Sea, eating terrific Mediterranean food.

On all but the single day trips we practice yoga or tai chi, and have guided meditations. We also do a cross-country ski trip that uses a cabin as home base, from which we do day trips.

RITW has been featured four times on PBS, on ABC, by the Washington Post, and twice by the Chicago Tribune. John is the author of a book about the spiritual power of the wilderness, called Renewal in the Wilderness: A Spiritual Guide to Connecting With God in the Natural World. It's available in B&N, B. Dalton, many independent bookstores, Amazon and other on-line stores, and many religious bookstores. It's also in international distribution.

For further information go to www.renewalinthewilderness.org or contact John directly at 847.869.5885.