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WELLNESS: URBAN ZEN FOUNDATION


“We could see how his quality of life improved and he was able to stay well enough to check off many things on his bucket list”


centres. Its core modalities are yoga therapy, reiki, essential oil therapy, nutrition and contemplative end-of-life care and self-care (this last one being for the therapists’ personal development). It’s designed to treat the common symptoms of illness: pain, anxiety, nausea, insomnia and constipation (UZIT uses the acronym PANIC™) and exhaustion. To date, its practitioners have carried


out more than 25,000 documented sessions in hospitals, outpatient centres, support groups, private practices, corporate environments, nursing homes and medical schools. One of the inaugural 2009 trainee


therapists was Gillian Cilibrasi, who is now the UZIT programme director, charged with standardising the training and expansion in the USA and beyond. Cilibrasi brings a perfect combination


of wellness knowledge and business background to her role – having been a massage therapist for 15 years, a yoga teacher for a decade, in addition to having worked on all commercial aspects of a medical device start-up company. She owned the River Rock Health Spa


Gillian Cilibrasi, one of the fi rst UZIT trainees, now heads up the whole initiative


in Hudson Valley and still maintains a private clientele. And like Karan, she’s had her own experience of seeing a loved one become ill and die. Cilibrasi says: “Several years ago,


my stepfather was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the May and he died


in the December. He’d come home from chemotherapy and not want to eat. My sister, mother and I, who are all therapists, would give him acupuncture, prop him into a supported restorative pose and do energy work with him. He’d fall into a deep sleep and then wake up famished. “We could see how his quality of life


improved and he was able to stay well enough to check off many things on his bucket list. When he died, we were at peace with his passing.”


CHANGING PERCEPTIONS It’s exactly this kind of practice and result that forms the basis of the UZIT programme. Cilibrasi admits that it wasn’t always easy in the early days as some medical institutions remained staunchly sceptical, yet there were an equal number that “welcomed us with open arms”. UZIT has very strong partnerships with


major treatment centres such the Beth Israel Center in New York, the UCLA Health System in California, as well as smaller community facilities such as Southampton Hospital in the Hamptons, which is now one of the strongest


Buddhist monks Koshin Paley Ellison (right) and Robert Chodo Campbell (left), co-founders of the Zencare organisation, are faculty members


46 spabusiness.com issue 2 2015 ©CYBERTREK 2015


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