Community Healing Is Needed And Available in Chicago

Jon Poindexter owns Solutions for Optimal Health, a practice that offers psychotherapy and holistic health. In the past six years, he has seen the need for healing in the community ebb and flow.

"We have done a community workshop before," he said. "Wednesday, right after the election, I had a request for some community healing work."

Even though the request clearly came on Wednesday, Poindexter has been noticing the need for community healing has been growing for a little while now.

"It was demand because I saw a real spike in intakes after the second (presidential) debate," he said of clients needing services. "It really became acute after the election."

The community healing circle will create a judgement-free zone where people can come and talk, receive healing from Reiki practitioners.

"They should expect an open place to have a dialog," Poindexter said. "They should expect a safe place to have dialog.

"There will also be free Reiki healing treatments available from different Reiki practitioners."

There is no age limit for the event. The event is free.

Poindexter cautions that this event is about healing.

"This is not an anti anybody rally," he said. "This is not a protest meeting. It's not about what my political views are or anyone's political views are.

"It's about the need for dialog and the need to come together."

Poindexter said he hopes those that attend will get to communicate and have access to the healing they might need.

"I hope that people will be able to communicate about and find company in and share and recover from their initial emotional reaction," he said.

Poindexter found his calling to work in the mental health field at a young age.

"I knew in high school that I wanted to be a psychologist," he said. "People had an easy time talking to me and confiding in me.

"I had an easy time giving them feedback."

In college, Poindexter, who grew up Roman Catholic, began exploring healing modalities.

"There wasn't a whole lot of talk about spirituality," he said. "That didn't seem right to me.

"That was the reason I did not continue and get a PhD at that point. I knew that there had to be a spiritual component and a physical component."

The event on Saturday is intended to be healing not just to those in attendance but also to the community at large.

"We all really need to communicate now," Poindexter said. "Now more than any other period of time in the last 15 to 20 years. we all really need to communicate with each other."

The event on Nov. 19 will be held from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Solutions For Optimal Health, 566 W. Lake Street, 227 in Chicago.

The event is one of a number of workshops that will take place at the studio. To learn more, visit the studio's Facebook page.

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