Clinics offer a gateway to holistic health

A Renaissance Health offers clinics at a discount

By Shannon Wells

The Gresham Outlook, Apr 1, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

John Klicker / Gresham Outlook

Cynthia Conlin, an acupuncturist for A Renaissance Health center for natural medicine in downtown Gresham, inserts needles into a patient’s points on the head, left, and wrist, below, Thursday, April 27.

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Wellness-oriented health care appeals to many, but acupuncture, chiropractic, massage and other alternative treatments often extend beyond the reach of pocketbooks and insurance coverage.

A Renaissance Health in downtown Gresham offers an affordable pathway to holistic therapies as well as free health screenings for some patients.

Through “Your Community Clinic,” held on Wednesdays and Thursdays, the natural medicine center and health spa on Miller Avenue offers chiropractic adjustment, acupuncture treatment, massage therapy and physical therapy for $30 to $35 and a full doctor’s visit for $50. As a participant in the state-funded Oregon Breast and Cervical Cancer Program, Renaissance also provides free breast and cervical cancer screenings, pap smears and blood-pressure checks to qualified women age 40 and older.

For A Renaissance Health owner Ana Squellati, providing services for lower-income patients and those without insurance is essential to her devotion to holistic wellness.

“We have lot of people who call the clinic who don’t have insurance or don’t have a lot of money,” she said. “We feel they should have some access at some level to have these kinds of treatments. That’s kind of our giveback to the community. Otherwise (people) may never get to have that opportunity.”

Held Wednesdays from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 to 3 p.m., Your Community Clinic allows patients without insurance or whose income is less than $2,000 a month ($2,800 for a two-person family) a chance to experience the soothing environs of A Renaissance Health and its five clinicians. The center combines traditional healing — naturopathic doctors, herbalists, acupuncturists and massage therapists — with a full-service health spa, featuring water therapy, facial wraps and skin scrubs in a calming, luxurious environment.

The clinic’s discounted offerings bring in customers who may have otherwise been skeptical or skittish about non-traditional medicine. The tasteful, relaxing non-clinical decor throws off some newcomers at first.

“Sometimes they’ll come in and say, ‘Am I in the right place?’ or ‘Oh, it’s so nice in here,’ ” Squellati said. “We’re helping to empower people to feel better.”

Squellati applies Oregon’s formula for its free breast and cervical cancer screenings to the clinical offerings, which include patients with income up to 250 percent above the poverty line.

“We have a lot of different people who come in financially unable to pay for health care who then find out we have this program,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of women come through who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks.”

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