LOUISA COUNTY, Va. -- On a secluded spot of land in Louisa County, about 23 acres in size, therapist Karen Felimond finally found what she was looking for.
"I've always had a vision to create a wellness retreat," Felimond said. "I know that being in the middle of the woods is deeply healing."
The home on the property, covered by hundreds of trees, has been converted into Lotus Bloom Farm, a therapeutic getaway offering different healing practices like yoga, sound baths, meditation rooms, and other kinds of therapies.
"We're living in a very frantic world right now. Our phones are pinging every minute," Felimond said. "We're just constantly being exposed to technology and the demands of stress. And I wanted to create a space where people could leave all that behind."
It's not a place she wanted to gatekeep from those who could not afford it.
After seeing the toll the COVID-19 pandemic took on first responders and those considered to be front-line workers, Felimond wanted to expand her offerings, for free.
"I started thinking about who in our community should we be helping. Veterans, they sacrifice themselves for us. First responders, and then also, teachers. Those professionals are not choosing that line of work through money motivation, they're choosing it because they're passionate about helping people," she explained.
The mission to create this space and offer free therapy services aimed at eliminating stress is personal. Her husband, Marcel, was a teacher.
"He was physically fit. Picture of health. Went to the gym every day. Ate a healthy diet," Felimond said. "He was very stressed. He was Head of Languages, and like every other teacher, the stress aspect of the job was really getting to him and back then, I really didn't have the same comprehension of what stress does. It's a silent killer.
On Christmas Day in 2009, her husband became suddenly ill and had to be hospitalized.
“He died at 6 a.m. the next morning with meningococcal bacterial meningitis. The bacteria had gotten into his system and it caused septicemia, which basically broke down all of his organs," Felimond said. “My belief is, if he hadn’t been so stressed, his immune function would’ve been strong, because everything else about him, he took care of himself, so it was really the stress that compromised his immune function that didn’t allow him to fight off that bacteria.”
Felimond, left a single parent to two young boys, knew she had to try to take care of herself and others to prevent any kind of other health complications caused by stress.
It led her to want to open up her services to large groups, hoping to serve at least 100 people on a retreat weekend at Lotus Bloom Farm, free of charge and hosted by volunteers who also work in the wellness industry.
Felimond saved several thousand dollars to expand a barn on the property, which would be used for large-scale events but was stopped short.
Felimond said the contractor she employed took her down payment, completed about a third of the work, and then stopped showing up. Now, the barn sits idle.
"He said by the beginning of May it was going to be done, and here we are," Felimond said. "A very sad looking space."
However, Felimond is choosing not to name the contractor or the company he may have been with.
She's not demanding her money back, either.
"At first, I went, 'Oh gosh, poor me, why would someone do that?' But then, I reframed it, and then I sat quietly and said, 'What is the lesson here Karen? Who is the lesson?'"
Instead, she's hoping the right person will hear her story and pitch in to help complete the construction.
"People who choose to make bad decisions, they have to answer to a higher power. That's not for me to judge them or cause retribution. And I just prayed that there would be a good, reputable contracting company that had the resources that could see how strongly I'm motivated to help people that would like to come out and donate their services to get the studio built, because as soon as it's built, I can start offering these retreats," she explained.
For now, the space will be used for her private practice.
Felimond's frame of mind, patience, and positivity keep her hopeful that she'll soon be able to help get people to that same level of peace, no matter what comes across their path.
"I know when the universe determines the time is right, this space will be ready to receive lots of people," Felimond said. "And for years to come, I will be able to help people."
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