As part of the Sanctuary for Independent Media’s growing Nature LAB, JJ Luceno and Dr. Frank Coughlin are working to establish a central space in Troy to share health skills, provide basic integrative care and explore ways to build networks of community health. Though caring for our elders, our children, or cooking soul-nourishing food for family or friends may not be deemed ‘real’ healthcare, they know that in fact, it’s what holds us together and keeps us sane. Let’s bring our skills together to build a space where creative, joyful health is possible and accessible.

On Tuesday, December 17th we will continue to build towards a permanent health autonomy space as part of the Nature Lab Center. This space would provide basic integrative care, be a hub for health skill shares, and serve as the heart of a growing health network. During this workshop we’ll take the first step in this journey: rediscovering our own health, learning from others and building the foundation of a health network.

4 – 6:30 PM: interactive health tables: free blood pressure checks, herbs for stress & sleep, community health resources, healthy food & more
6:30 – 8 PM: visioning/building an autonomous health clinic

We’ll have…..
– Free Blood Pressure Checks
– Consult with community health practitioners
– Learn about community health resources
– Fun mini workshops on food, herbs/gardening and health

Biographies of Session Leaders:

Dr. Frank Coughlin is originally from the Hudson Valley, but is now living in New Lebanon. He works as an ER physician at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield and Samaritan Hospital in Troy. He helps run the “Health Autonomy at the End of Empire” podcast and is a member of the Lebanon Health Assembly. Coughlin is excited to build on the generations of strong communities in the Capital Region and to foster health autonomy as a liberatory practice.

JJ Luceno is usually found tight-roping between the plant world and the story universe. She has worked as an educator in many settings: in the woods and urban gardens with children, in shelters with survivors of domestic violence and facilitating health, and in sex and puberty education with families. She believes in the undeniable need for liberation medicine and hopes that storytelling and skillsharing can help us reimagine the ways we can care for ourselves and each other. Luceno grew up in the Hudson Valley and now lives in New Lebanon, NY.

We are committed to lowering the barriers to access for events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or low-vision, or whose physical limitations can interfere with a satisfying experience, let us know two weeks in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.