Once upon a time, long long ago and far far away, lived a midwife. She loved helping women to give birth naturally, in strength and joy, a transformative experience with the beginning of new life.
Like every story, hers was full of adventures, with friends and foes, and some friends who turned out to be foes and some foes who turned out to be friends, crossing oceans and decades, spending time as a counselor at a residential health spa, a cardiology nurse, a geriatric nurse, always seeking the health model, but often running into the roadblock of a firmly entrenched sickness model. Until, in her flight from sickness, she spent a very long time as a real estate broker.
One day the midwife met a psychiatrist and they fell in love and got married and lived happily ever after.
But that’s not the end of the story. While out for their walk one morning, the psychiatrist wasn’t feeling quite right, so they stopped in to see their friendly cardiologist in his convenient walk-in clinic. Lo and behold, he took one look at the EKG and yelled, “call 911 and notify the cath lab!” Suddenly they were plunged deeply into the sickness model. They searched everywhere for a way out – where was Dean Ornish, Nathan Pritikin, Andrew Weill? Not in Albany, NY… How could they escape??!
The vision came one fine day, “surely others are searching for a way out too; if we can’t find a program, we’ll just have to start one”, a long-term program to support people in making lifestyle changes to transform sickness into wellness. And so, the Albany Wellness Project was conceived. The midwife took the Cornell Wellness Counseling Course with Beth McKinney. She renewed her nursing license, and the psychiatrist renewed his medical license. They began developing content, a website, a meeting location… Will they succeed? Can they help people transform their lives from sickness to wellness? We’ll see…
How do I know all this? Because I am that midwife. As we approach the birth of the Albany Wellness Project I am so happy to share my story (briefly) with all of you, and look forward to continued communication and learning!
Thank you for listening.