The Clinic at the Center for Sustainable Medicine
Didi Pershouse provided alternative and sustainable heath care at the Clinic at The Center for Sustainable Medicine for over 20 years. You can read its history in the book The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities.
This was not your usual clinic: nestled in the heart of a small town in Vermont, with a pot of soup on the stove, a dog underfoot, an organic vegetable garden on one side, and perennial flower gardens all around, this was not the sterile environment that most people have come to associate with hospitals and clinics. Didi Pershouse shoveled her own walkway, greeted her own patients, and answered her own phone. She related to her patients on a personal level, never rushing them in and out of their appointments. Instead, she made sure to spend the necessary time to fully understand what was bothering them, and find long-term solutions that would lead to lasting health.
Didi often said to her patients: "Either I have what you need, or I can help you find it."
Didi practiced a variety of alternative therapies: private and sliding-scale community acupuncture, hands-on healing, nutritional counseling, and general health counseling. Her goal was always to make sure that patients got exactly what they needed out of their visits, assisting them with finding a wider support system if necessary. She was well connected to other providers in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, and was able to provide referrals to specialists if needed.
Didi closed the clinic after more than 20 years, when she started the Land and Leadership Initiative.
This was not your usual clinic: nestled in the heart of a small town in Vermont, with a pot of soup on the stove, a dog underfoot, an organic vegetable garden on one side, and perennial flower gardens all around, this was not the sterile environment that most people have come to associate with hospitals and clinics. Didi Pershouse shoveled her own walkway, greeted her own patients, and answered her own phone. She related to her patients on a personal level, never rushing them in and out of their appointments. Instead, she made sure to spend the necessary time to fully understand what was bothering them, and find long-term solutions that would lead to lasting health.
Didi often said to her patients: "Either I have what you need, or I can help you find it."
Didi practiced a variety of alternative therapies: private and sliding-scale community acupuncture, hands-on healing, nutritional counseling, and general health counseling. Her goal was always to make sure that patients got exactly what they needed out of their visits, assisting them with finding a wider support system if necessary. She was well connected to other providers in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, and was able to provide referrals to specialists if needed.
Didi closed the clinic after more than 20 years, when she started the Land and Leadership Initiative.