The Secluded Wellness clinic celebrated its fifth anniversary with a noon-hour reception in the Tseshaht Great Hall on Nov. 1.
Naomi (Horbatch) Nicholson opened the alternative healing clinic at the Tseshaht Administration Building with funding from the Nuu-chah-nulth Economic Development Corporation, and has built up a solid clientele, while also delivering workshops on behalf of NEDC.
Speaking in Nuu-chah-nulth and English, Ahousaht elder statesman Cliff Atleo Sr. welcomed guests and thanked Tseshaht First Nation for allowing the celebration in their traditional territory. He also introduced Ray and Marie Samuel, who performed the Dinner Song.
In her address, Nicholson gave thanks to NEDC for their initial funding, training and continued support.
“Sometimes I think self-employment should be measured in dog years,” she quipped. “Sometimes, five years feels like 35 years.”
But in those five years, Nicholson said, she has treated 350 clients and tutored over 1,000 people in her workshops.
“I like to think the government money I have received has helped hundreds of people. They say it takes a community to raise a child. I think it also takes a community to build a small business,” she said.
Nicholson also paid special thanks to Jan Green, who encouraged her to complete her high school diploma and to attend university. She now sums up her role in life in two short sentences:
“I get to change people’s lives. I get to make them feel better.”
Speaking with Ha-Shilth-Sa, Nicholson said while she was born a member of Ahousaht First Nation, with her marriage to Tseshaht member Ed Nicholson, she is now a Tseshaht member.
Her role as a traditional Medicine Woman is part of her lineage, she has discovered.
“My late grandmother Rosie Swan told me my great-grandmother (she is not sure on which side) was a Medicine Woman. I now have her name, Qwi-na.”
Nicholson said there is a paradox in being an effective alternative healer.
“I’m good at what I do. So I will see [patients] a few times, and I don’t need to see them again, because what they came in to see me for has been addressed. So I work myself out of a job.”
Nicholson said since she set up her practice, people have become more open to holistic care and self-health.
“Typically, when a client comes in, they have already seen many doctors and they haven’t got a solution to their health issue. They’ve heard I do good work, and I’m their last resort.”
Nicholson said that, as that “last resort,” her clients are far more willing to listen carefully.
Her practice focuses on food, holistic supplements and, most critically, changes to lifestyle habits.
“Your lifestyle habits got you where you are… we want to have you change these lifestyle habits to get you where you want to be. There is not one thing that I will suggest to you that magically changes everything.”
But above all, Nicholson said, you need “the mindset to believe that you can heal yourself.
“I can help you along. But you’re the one that has to heal yourself.”
Nicholson said she now teaches workshops on the Law of Attraction, which spells out how the body takes its cues from the brain.
“When you say ‘I’m sick,’ your body lets out all these chemicals that say you’re sick. When you say ‘I feel sick,’ your body just says, ‘Okay, I feel sick.’ There’s a big difference.”
