Words & photos by Emily Fraser
A Vale therapist has launched a social enterprise to promote well-being as a right for all and not a luxury just for those who can afford to pay.
Joanne Dick, a complementary therapist and medical herbalist with 20 years experience, decided it was time for her business, Green Tree Remedies, to grow into Green Tree Community CIC.
And now she’s inviting everybody to reclaim their wellness.
Maybe you never had any health wobbles pre-pandemic, or maybe you were already struggling.
Either way, Jo could help.
Since relocating from Strathleven House to 89A Bank Street in Alexandria, Jo has been offering some Pay-What You-Can appointments which start at £1.
Her new structure enables her to plough profits back into the local area, provide fairer access to her treatments, apply for funding, and promote the principle that wellness is a necessity for all, not a luxury for a few.
Jo wants to give us confidence to look within for those feel-good answers.
She wants us to learn basic, low-cost health habits, and she wants us to remember that it’s not selfish to prioritise yourself, sometimes – it’s essential.
Working On A Trust Basis
No client at Green Tree is means-tested or asked to prove their status, Jo operates on a basis of trust.
This was an important part of her CIC idea, because she wants locals to seize the opportunity without worrying about whether they ‘tick all the boxes’.
Whether you book a Pay-What-You-Can session or a Pay-It-Forward (regular price) session, you have the added motivation that, in the words of Green Tree Community, “every treatment does good”.
In looking after yourself, you are looking after others.
Jo’s day-to-day work involves meeting clients with various health concerns at her two-room treatment centre, which feels comfortable and cosy.
She also offers home visits if mobility is an issue.
She provides massage therapies, reiki (energy work) and reflexology, practical ways of managing stress and tension, breathing work and muscle relaxation, energy flow techniques, plus herbal remedies to support healing.
Jo also has a talent for asking the right questions and listening intently.
Wisdom Of The Ancients
“A lot of what I practise is nothing new. Quite the reverse – it’s rooted in the simple, age-old wisdom that our ancestors swore by,” Jo humbly
assures me.
Most people leave Green Tree relaxed, and with a sense of relief and hope.
They have more understanding of where they are with their wellbeing, and some ideas they can use to continue self-care.
Jo works on the ethos that mental, emotional and physical health are interlinked, and she uses hands-on treatments as a gateway to calm your mind, helping you feel present, and hopefully, make it easier to cope with any health challenges.
And plenty of people from the Vale and beyond will vouch for her healing abilities.
On Jo’s Facebook page Emma McQueen comments: “I absolutely love going to Jo for Reiki and relaxation classes and can’t speak highly enough of Greentree Remedies.”
And Mel West adds her recommendation: “I had the most amazing Indian head massage and floated for at least 24 hours, also had the best sleep I’ve had for weeks.”
But Jo insists she still has to work on her wellbeing, just like everybody else.
You Are The Expert In Your Own Wellbeing
She has empathy for people who struggle to incorporate new habits or find it hard to manage pain.
Rather than tell clients what to do, she prefers to support while they figure out for themselves what they need most.
As Jo says, “you are the expert in your wellbeing.”
And everything she has learned, she needed for herself first.
A deep thinker and highly sensitive woman, Jo says, “I’ve been fairly broken at certain points in time and had to know how to mend myself and that’s probably been my main motivator.”
From her Beauty Therapy HND at Clydebank College in the 1990s, “for the well-rounded health content, I never filed another nail after that,” to studying for a Herbal Medicine Degree in London, to recently completing a prestigious course in Foraging & Wild Foods.
Jo’s career has been shaped by years of reading, research and practical experience as well as self-healing and intuition.
Now Green Tree Community CIC’s Pay-What-You-Can or Pay-It-Forward system should create even more opportunity to ‘share the wellness’ we all have a right to, and get more folk reclaiming self-healing and natural wisdom.
For more information contact Jo via:
Email – gr***************@ou*****.com
Telephone – 07562 333 731
Facebook Page – Green Tree Community CIC