Our Neighbor, Palmer woman finds holistic path to well-being

Joanna Buckley Lee dispenses comfort to those who walk into her shop.

Some of it comes from neatly labeled bottles of herbal tinctures and lotions, the comfort of fountains flowing. Or it comes from the sprinkles of fairy dust sparkling the carpet. More likely, it flows through her able fingers as she does relaxation body work on weary souls.

The owner of Sisters of Essence in downtown Palmer believes in holistic health as a path to meaningful living because, she said, it targets mental, physical and spiritual well-being.

There's no voodoo involved, but every now and then Lee is confronted by those who believe holistic medicine is sorcery.

"If I had a dollar for every time I was called a witch," Lee said, "we would be able to build a big holistic center."

Once a teen-age girl shyly entered the shop and said if her family found out, she would be punished for being there.

Those who suspect Lee of waving a magic wand now and then might be surprised to find she is an ordained minister. She has a doctorate of divinity from the American Institute of Holistic Theology and a wealth of background in the Christian faith, first as a minister's daughter and then as a counselor.

"My religion is between myself and God. What we do here," Lee said, "is holistic medicine. It is a more a life path that covers a whole person based on a personal, spiritual, physical approach, with the precept that if a person is out of balance in one of those areas, then the rest of him or her is not in balance. All areas are addressed."

Lee helps bring a person back into balance in several ways -- through relaxation body work, traditional Usui System Reike, modality movements, reflexology and intuitive release and energy cleaning.

"You familiarize yourself with that person," Lee said. "Intuitively, you'll know something about them without being told. Some areas you know just by doing body work, and you release those areas from stress or muscle cramps. The overall relaxation package helps get energy flowing correctly throughout the body."

Muscles never tell lies, Lee said. As a reiki master and teacher, and as a reflexologist, Lee works on the energy centers in a person's body.

She manipulates meridians of the hands and feet to assess problems inside the body.

At times, release can be the most important process because a spiritual-emotional connection is manifested in a physical one, Lee said. Once a friend of Lee's who had been raped as a child cried after having her abdomen massaged. The friend said for the first time she actually released all the shame and grief.

Lee works with a staff of other holistic professionals, and networks with practitioners in the Valley.

On staff is a licensed massage therapist, Deborah Hawkins; massage/Shiatsu therapists, Raven Wi and Rose Eglen; and Jackie Schaeffer, who gives flex and stretch courses and teaches breathing techniques.

She also works with Diane Little Eagle, who specializes in Oriental medicine, acupuncture and is a licensed herbalist, and with licensed estheticians Sherilee Sullivan and Karin Chapman.

Certain serious ailments need traditional medical attention, Lee said, in which case they would be referred to a local physician.

But others might require stepping outside that to find alternatives from ancient healing techniques coming into better American understanding in recent years, Lee said.

For all the unexpected events that happen to a person in the course of life, 55 percent of all the stress that comes along can be located in a person's lifestyle, Lee said.

Lifestyle can be controlled, she said, through breathing exercises, fitness, choosing to eat a healthy diet and finding a source of joy.

Much of her belief system evolved during 14 years as a funeral director in Denver. There she specialized in counseling parents going through the death of a child.

"There is nothing you can say to a person who just lost a child. I was counseling people through the most difficult events of their lives, and felt a calling on a spiritual plane that I wanted to pursue," Lee said. "I grew up in a parsonage, where every Sunday you went to church and after church there were potlucks, which offered a lot of support and friendship to the whole family. As I counseled families, I asked them who was their pastor. So often they had none, were missing that whole connection that is spiritual and social and healing.

"We are missing two, maybe three generations of young people and children that are not familiar with a spiritual upbringing. Some have been disenchanted with religions or churches during their lives and haven't exposed their children to a spiritual teaching," she said.

Lee is especially interested in helping that group bridge their way to a new understanding in "a divine presence."

That approach is through a non-denominational Christian faith and holistic techniques that incorporate Lee's Native American background.

Her dad, an American Indian, was a Nazarene evangelist and minister who worked as a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., before moving his family to Washington's Whidby Island where Joanna and her brother were raised.

"Dad was open spiritually. He had an ability to heal just by loving people for who they were. Sometimes there would be a church torn apart by disagreement, and he would be brought in to heal them," Lee said. "He grew up at a time when Native Americans had been taught their own dances and practices were sinful, and so those practices were rarely spoken about."

Lee and her brother, now director of Native communications for the United Methodist Church, investigated Native American practices, and incorporated those in their holistic philosophy.

"I never thought of growing up and becoming a minister myself," Lee said.

From the beginning, though, she felt called to comfort people. Eventually she saw a need to pursue the spiritual interest after years of counseling people through tragic deaths convinced her we all need faith.

"I've found it's most important to love and care for people for who they are, to give them unconditional love," Lee said.

Often women come into the shop just to sit in one of Lee's chairs and relax or have a cup of tea and chat. She calls it a "serene haven where wings are fluffed and souls soothed."

A place where hugs and smiles are always free.