Harlem Chi's "Healer Within"
Spring & Fall
You are no doubt familiar with this old cliché, but have you ever really realized just how profound this notion is – and applied it in your life? As a culture, we tend to generally accept that some foods are good and some are bad for us, but beyond this level of understanding, there’s rarely deeper meaning behind the way we eat. We eat habitually and not intentionally. We eat without conscious thought as to what the food is doing within our bodies, beyond the momentary taste sensation in the mouth, and perhaps impact on our waistline. We value convenience over integrity of body and soul. When concerned we jump on all type of fad and “elimination” diets struggling to find “balance.”
And yet we struggle with all types of chronic health issues – most of which could be remedied if we only paid more conscious attention to how we nourish ourselves. The cumulative impact of this act of nourishment every day is the most powerful and empowering medicine we have at our disposal.
Taking our power back is what the Healer Within nutritional lifestyle programs are about at Harlem Chi. These programs are for anyone who wants to honor their body and take better control of their health.
The Spring ReBoot and the Fall ReSet Healer Within programs aim to engage you in a fundamental reprogramming of your mindset to help you adopt intuitive sensibilities that honor your body. Each session falls in a season with different yin and yang energies that call for a different approach but each session revisits and reinforces certain core principles covered in both sessions. In each session we introduce newcomers to the process and invite former participants to not only refresh, retune, and strengthen their resolve for the long-haul but they also help to share their prior experiences in a manner that helps to teach others.
Next Sessions in 2025
The “Healer Within” Spring Reboot is a 21-day program that harnesses the natural yang energies of springtime to jump-start and recalibrate your efforts to right your relationship with food.
The program helps you identify and overcome natural stumbling blocks to healthy eating, helps you intuitively connect with your body and honor food as a source of life energy as opposed to just fuel. The goal is to help you adjust your mindset to view and enjoy food as your ally and as the most important self-empowering component of your wellness toolkit. You will embark on this health journey with a supportive group of people who share the same goals.
This year’s Reboot is an evolution of a successful program we have held at Harlem Chi for many years. This year’s program will be structured with two (2) online group workshop sessions to dive into and tease in-depth into the science and art of healthy eating. These 2 sessions will bracket the experiential component of the program where we will embark on — as a group — a whole foods plant-based menu.
This menu is carefully curated to help you cleanse and realign your health goals with the way you nourish your body. By the end of the program you will feel lighter, more energized, and more connected to your body.
Committing to the meal plan is critical to the Reboot experience, but the end goal is really to move you beyond it. The objective of the program is to help you foster intuitive sensibilities that will help you make better food choices going forward, engaging you to embrace food as a critical component of your health and wellness.
We are often most aware of the mental anguish form of stress. We tend not to be aware of the nutritional stress that our bodies experience daily, due to suboptimal nutritional decisions we make. A reboot is necessary to address that stress with consciousness and purpose.
The purpose of a cleanse is to clean house, so our bodies can run more efficiently. Our bodies have wonderful natural cleansing mechanisms, from our livers, which remove toxins from our blood, to our kidneys, which further filter the blood and make sure the toxins are excreted properly, to our lungs, which constantly filter the air we breathe and expel toxic by-products of our metabolisms. When we put our bodies under constant suboptimal physiological stress from abusive eating habits, we can render these natural cleansing mechanisms less efficient. Engaging in a proper cleanse offers the opportunity to aid our bodies in doing the job they already know how to do.
Some of the topics we tease through these programs are:
- The 5 energetic dynamics of foods, as understood in Chinese philosophy and many indigenous practices, that inform how we should be eating for health and well-being.
- How to make sense of the voluminous (and oftentimes conflicting) nutritional advice we get bombarded with every day.
- Going beyond the one-size-fits-all health advice: How to devise a personal, streamlined lifestyle blueprint that actually works for you and fits with who you are, not who you “should” be.
- How to focus on the energetics of food, instead of conventional reductionist nutritional advice.
- How to measure sustainable progress and get buoyed by steady progress, instead of relying on “quick fixes.”
- How to properly cleanse to jump-start the process of reconnecting with your food.
- How to repair our culturally-ingrained antagonistic relationship with food.
- How to eat to thrive rather than just eating to survive.
- How to prepare flavorful, creative, and healthier meals using an abundance of fresh, delicious, and non-genetically modified foods.
- Building a community of like-minded people with similar goals whom you can continue to connect with even after the program concludes.
Some other topics we specifically explore:
- How to effectively tackle the negative impact of emotional eating.
- How to strengthen your natural immunity and “balance your hormones” with food.
- How to strategically use fasting to support your metabolism.
- How to successfully incorporate herbal remedies to achieve your preventative health goals.
A particular element of Harlem Chi’s Healer Within programs is a special emphasis on using nature as our teacher. Drawing from many Eastern and indigenous philosophical traditions, these programs aim to train and develop the body’s intuitive sensibilities. We’re intrinsically capable of becoming attuned to nature’s way of nourishing our bodies, which is more connected to the creative energies of the cosmos and to how our bodies naturally function.
The importance of getting our cues on how to eat and live from the natural world around us is another key component we introduce and investigate in our Healer Within programs. As a result, the cleanse menu reflects the season in which we engage in the cleanse. The menu, as well as the meditations around the cleanse, will reflect what that season beckons.
In the spring, we start to emerge from the hibernating and conserving energies of the fall and winter. Thus, in the Spring Reboot you will find that the menus, recipes, and activities will focus on ingredients that are not only abundant during the season, but also reflect the spiritually expansive energetic aspect of the seasonal dynamic.
Programs will begin again in 2025!
For any questions in the meantime, email info@harlemchi.com
“I loved the holistic approach to food, eating, and living well! The time to get clear on my individual choices but also the global impact of what we all collectively do. I appreciated the information, meal plan/recipes, conversations, additional resources for post-reboot, really all of it! It was a wonderful balance. I felt supported and looked forward to our [meetings]. I feel like your approach is empowering to me/the individual…It is also centered on self-love, compassion and not victimizing or blaming, yet not void of individual responsibility or accountability either…This feels sustainable as a lifestyle choice.”
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“[This program] exceeded [my expectations]. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I had never done a cleanse, but this program made an impact for the long term and mentally which is something I wasn’t expecting…I think the psychological components of this program are very powerful.”
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“It exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds. While I hoped to learn some things, lose some weight and curb my addition to sugar, I learned so MUCH more! This Reboot helped me feel more knowledgeable on a deep level about how to make choices to feed myself, and also how to prioritize my health and wellness.”
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“I had done many cleanses, fasts, and all different kinds of fad diets in the past. I was at the point where I was so disillusioned by the fads and confused by all of the conflicting information. The Spring Reboot was a cleanse that didn’t feel like a detox/cleanse. Even if there were food restrictions, I felt satisfied and full, and I experienced the benefits of a detox. The recipes were delicious. I lost 7 pounds, my blood sugar levels decreased, and my acid reflux went away. I finally felt good inside, without boating or constipation. I also learned so much and feel confident about having a blueprint for success that will actually work. Thank you so much!”
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“My biggest takeaway is that healthy, clean eating can be tasty and satisfying….I loved the warm and nonjudgmental vibe within the group. It made it much easier.”
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“I think most people in the US can truly benefit from this program because it brings awareness to deeper issues that need to be brought to light…and then gives you a blueprint on how to take on the journey long term, not just for a few weeks”
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“I appreciate how I can apply this to my life even after the four weeks are over!”
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“For the people I know who are attracted to wellness endeavors I would definitely recommend this program. For those who say they want to improve their overall health I would recommend this program. For those I know who are willing to “invest” in their health I would also recommend. And, I’m looking forward to the Fall cleanse!”
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“I have recommended it to to people from the first week we started because I felt immediate benefits, and will continue to recommend the Reboot and any future sessions you host.”
M. Johanne Picard-Scott is nationally board-certified Diplomate in Acupuncture and Herbology by the NCCAOM. She owns and runs Harlem Chi Community Acupuncture, a thriving NYC-based health & wellness practice that specializes in Acupuncture and Classical Chinese medicine. She designed the “Healer Within” programs to provide additional support to her patients and community seeking to take better control over their health story. This program was specially designed over the years to empower participants to heal a relationship most critical to their health and wellness.