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Center For Holistic Medicine

By age 47, Jean Farmer already took medications for high blood pressure, was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and wore a patch to help alleviate her menopause symptoms. Besides raising a teenage son as a single mother, she ran a daycare center in her home and worked as a home health aid.

Stress stalked her as it has many of the residents of Camden, one of America's poorest and most blighted cities. When Farmer read about a "free reflexology treatment" in a community newsletter, she was curious. "I knew what free meant; I had no idea what reflexology was about."

Farmer met with Betty Burke, a massage practitioner with Camden Wellness, a ministry of the Philadelphia-based Medical Mission Sisters. Burke told Farmer about the ancient healing art that is based on the understanding that there are reflex areas in the feet that correspond to all systems, organs and glands in the body. When pressure and stimulation are applied to these areas, they relieve disorders in the body, helping it come into balance.

During her first treatment in November 2001, Burke asked Farmer if she drank much water. Farmer did not. Burke suggested she drink plenty of water and relax after the foot massage. She also told her not to be alarmed if her urine was very dark in the next few days.

Had Burke not alerted her of this, Farmer said she would have dialed 911 when her body began to release its stored toxins. Farmer continued weekly treatments with Burke. Soon she felt better, and--at Burke's suggestion--returned to school in January 2002, beginning courses in massage therapy.

A month later Farmer reported "another profound experience with reflexology." Burke asked her if she had any intestinal problems. When Farmer said, "No," Burke advised her to see a specialist. Soon after doctors found and removed six cancerous polyps from Farmer's intestines during a colonoscopy.

"Betty Burke saved my life three times," Farmer told NCR. She credited the foot massages with restoring her physical health and said reflexology has lowered her blood pressure and sugar levels. She no longer requires any medications.

"I've gotten a life. I've experienced a change of attitude. My son doesn't hear me complaining any more. He knows his mom is well and happy."

Farmer is one of hundreds of Camden residents--most of them poor, many lacking health insurance--who are offered holistic health services through Camden Wellness. The program provides massage, energy work, reflexology, yoga, and health and wellness education to city residents who have limited access to holistic health services, lack financial resources and often transportation.

Holistic health considers the whole person: body, mind and spirit, said Camden Wellness founder, Sr. Lucy Klein-Gebbinck. The Medical Mission Sister said that such health care relies on natural treatments rather than drugs and follows a model of care that asserts the body has wisdom and--when restored to balance--can heal itself.

The concepts are not new, but their use among a population that has had limited or no access to such services is new. Seventy percent of Camden residents live at or below the poverty line, in conditions of substandard housing, inadequate nutrition, pollution, crime, domestic and street violence as well as poor schools and lack of decent jobs.

The effect of living here is "enormous stress" that many residents alleviate through drugs, alcohol and other behaviors harmful to their health, Klein-Gebbinck said. "Camden Wellness is about health care, not sick care. It's preventive medicine."

Canadian-born Klein-Gebbinck joined the Medical Mission Sisters at 36, attracted by their feminist perspective, accent on justice and their outreach to 20 nations on five continents. She trained as a massage therapist in Gainesville, Fla., before becoming program coordinator in 1999. Camden Wellness operates at four sites-all of them in existing community centers. It also sends practitioners into nursing homes, a homeless center, a youth development office and into some private residences.

Ecumenical in nature, it relies on local clergy, church bulletins, notice boards and word of mouth to increase its client base. The program began under the umbrella of Our Lady of Lourdes Wellness Center, part of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden. Lourdes continues to refer city clients to Camden Wellness and provides laundry service.

"When people hear about massage, they think, 'I can't afford it,'" said Farmer. Most people believe a massage will cost $60, $80 or $100 an hour--typical prices in New Jersey. "When they learn it's on a sliding scale, they say: 'I can afford it,'" she said.

Clients are encouraged to give what they can afford. As a fair exchange they are asked to donate what they earn in an hour with $5 as the minimum. However, money is not meant to be a barrier and those--like the homeless, disabled or unemployed--who cannot pay are not turned away.

Since it began offering massages in 1999, Camden Wellness has grown from 365 full-hour sessions of therapeutic bodywork to 1,427 hours last year. Currently it has seven independent contractors doing bodywork and four volunteer practitioners.

Irene Roberts, a massage therapist and an interpreter at the agency, believes "some people can afford to pay more, but take advantage." She can tell by "how they look, how they're dressed." Roberts negotiates the price before she starts the massage. She's also advised Klein-Gebbinck to set a fixed price for the various services offered.

Roberts said she wants the program to survive should the sisters ever leave. Klein-Gebbinck admits having to climb a "steep learning curve" when it came to business, but hopes to retain the sliding scale. Besides client contributions, the program funds its $105,000 budget through an annual dinner dance and by contract services at retreats and other events.

A native of Puerto Rico, Roberts specializes in care for elderly Latinos, taking her massage treatments to private homes and senior citizen facilities.

At one of the massage centers where NCR visited, Roberts served as an interpreter for Magaly Rodriquez, who had come for a Reiki treatment--just days before she was to have breast cancer surgery.

Reiki involves combining the energy of the universe with individual energy to open a path toward healing. The therapist acts as a conduit for universal energy. She places her hands on or just above the patient's body to align chakras and bring healing energy to glands and organs. Treatments help dissolve or eliminate toxic energy and substances from the body--some of them physical, but also emotional and mental residues, said Reiki therapist Julie Gandy.

Since 2001, Rodriquez has had three bouts of cancer and has had to take Tamoxifen and undergo radiation. Still, she is convinced the Reiki sessions have strengthened her, leaving her with "no side effects" from medication and radiation.

She said Reiki has kept her calm and helped her not get angry when doctors found cancer in her breast after she had already undergone breast and thyroid surgery. "I know this is a bad illness, but if I get sad or mad, it could get worse," said the mother of three who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic 15 years ago.

Faithful to her daily Bible reading and meditation, to Sunday Mass and weekly Reiki treatments, Rodriquez, 47, said she feels surrounded by the love of God, her family and her massage therapist. "My faith is strong. I know God will take care of me."

Before Gandy begins the massage, she prays that her hands can be "the tools of God's healing. I don't ask for a result. I let go of the outcome." Some clients experience an "emotional breakthrough" during the treatment, Gandy said.

Gandy has also taught a six-week healthy lifestyle course at Holy Name Church in North Camden as part of the Camden Wellness program. The agency offers yoga as well as classes in weight management, nutrition, smoking cessation and creative wellness.

She also teaches a variety of exercises. These movements, many of them "Eastern," in origin, utilize sitting postures and are beneficial for those who have not exercised before or find bending and stretching difficult. In addition to full body massages, she and other practitioners perform chair massages, which are popular with seniors, with those suffering from arthritis or injuries, or those who feel more comfortable when fully dressed.

Nathalee Williams has been coming regularly for full-body massages for two years. Four years ago she fell down the stairs at the consignment store she had just opened. Within a few months Williams said her whole body ached. A former runner who had been active all her life, she found it impossible to adjust to the stiffness and swelling that followed the accident. "I was determined not to let it get the best of me."

One of her clients recommended Camden Wellness. Williams is glad she did. She never misses an appointment. "I give it priority. My body and health are important"

Williams views massage as a partnership between therapist, client and the Almighty. "When she [the masseuse] puts her hands on my face, I mentally go into the state of having my body healed."

Klein-Gebbinck said Camden Wellness and its practitioners make no claim to healing, even if Some clients believe they have been cured of a disease or restored to wellness following massage treatments. Neither do they counsel clients, but they do refer them to medical and psychological practitioners.

One woman was sure that the cyst on her breast had vanished as a result of energy work. A teenage girl crippled with cerebral palsy and scoliosis was able to straighten her torso for the first time as a result of massage therapy with Jean Farmer.

"I don't consider myself a healer, but by opening myself to God's healing energy, I can facilitate healing," Klein-Gebbinck said. She called her work "faith-filled.... I see the beloved on the table and I begin the ministry of laying on of hands."

She starts most of her massages with a loving kindness meditation learned from meditation teacher Stephen Levine. She asks to be present to the client with mercy and compassion. She concludes the massage with a prayer composed by Medical Mission Sr. Miriam Therese Winter: "May the blessing of God go before you. May her grace and peace abound. May her spirit live within you. May you walk on holy ground."

Though her own hands do the massaging, she feels they are symbolically God's hands blessing the person. "It's like the act of anointing. It's really sacred," she said.

Klein-Gebbinck recalled a reflexology treatment she'd given to a 76-year-old man. She clipped his nails as part of his foot care and, when finished, she gave him a hug. "Do you know how long it's been since someone's hugged me?" the man asked.

"People long to be touched," she said, though "some Christians have mixed feelings about massage."

Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, who is Klein-Gebbinck's neighbor at Camden Wellness' East Camden location, has referred clients to her and has offered a part of his office as space for yoga classes. "Sr. Lucy and her project is the most exciting thing in health care in all of Camden," Brenner told NCR.

The agency "is in the trenches doing face-to-face health care." Working largely with women of color and their children, Camden Wellness has helped reduce stress levels in pregnant women and put families on the path of healthy living and eating, he said.

The physician supports the "alternative health care" practiced by Klein-Gebbinck and her associates and finds "there's a tremendous need for another type of health care distinct from the typical urban model."

Brenner said that in the "large anonymous clinics" that dot America's inner cities, people get "the worst kind of primary care." offices are disorganized, clients are sent to different physicians at each visit, charts go missing and "no one gets to know you." As a result, "many people are not taking their medicines because they don't trust the provider," said the young doctor who finished medical school in 1995 and did his residency at a community clinic in Seattle before moving with his wife to Camden.

Many health problems that Brenner, as well as therapists at Camden Wellness, see daily--asthma, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, poorly controlled diabetes--have grown worse, he said, because "people here are too stressed out at the end of the day" to be concerned with their health.

At Camden Wellness, "Our attitude is not 'Oh, we're helping the poor people of Camden,' "Klein-Gebbinck said. "We want to help residents lead healthier lives. The city is filled with stoic, hard-working, faith-filled people who are committed to a renewed Camden with safe, clean and wholesome communities."

Klein-Gebbinck shares a Camden row house with three Sisters of St. Joseph, a Sister of Charity and Medical Mission Sr. Jean Mouch. A graduate of Mount Sinai Hospital School of Medicine in New York and a specialist in the health of mothers and children, Mouch's long involvement in the Learning Collaborative for a Healthier Camden helped launch Camden Wellness.

Klein-Gebbinck has witnessed people's lives "begin to take off" as they've gained self-confidence and made needed changes in the way they care for their body, mind and spirit. With a modest budget and the aid of volunteer and paid staff who are deeply committed to the city, she said that Camden Wellness has become an "enabling and empowering program" that helps people of all circumstances experience the healing of safe, caring, therapeutic touch.

The net result of feeling relaxed in the midst of a stressful environment not only aids clients, but benefits practitioners too. It is, as one sister noted, a "mutual exchange, with each learning from the other on this common journey to wholeness and healing."

COPYRIGHT 2005 National Catholic Reporter
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