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Jane Simonds, top right, has opened holistic wellness center Fusion Health in Canaan.

Fusion Health Brings Personalized Care

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
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CANAAN, Conn. — A new health and wellness center just over the border in Connecticut is offering physical therapy and holistic practices.

Owner and physical therapist Jane Simonds wanted to provide more help to her clients and make her services more accessible.

"I worked in outpatient therapy for about 15 years, and it was a grind, and I didn't feel like I was giving people the whole picture of what they needed," she said. "I just didn't feel like people were certainly getting better, but it just felt like something was missing. And so through that experience, plus my own, I started to find my way to this more holistic approach that I'm trying to educate people about and provide."

Her wellness center focuses on a patient's body as a whole rather than the one problem ailing them. 

"It is a health and wellness center that really targets helping people see their body from multiple angles and from all the possibilities that may be leading them to feel a certain way," Simonds said.

"So rather than someone having shoulder pain and only focusing on the shoulder, thinking about what other aspects of their life might be influencing, how that's feeling and their well-being, what nutrition, what role that's playing it, what their emotional health is doing, and how the pain affects those things in return."

Simonds has more than 20 years of clinical experience. Fusion Health offers physical therapy services, holistic life coaching, nutrition coaching, reiki, infrared and light sauna therapy, cryotherapy, cryosculpting and more. It also plans to offer salt cave halotherapy in the near future.

Some of the services offered may be covered by health insurance.

The center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; some services have personalized schedules.

Learn more about Fusion Health here.


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Reps. Leigh Davis, Bud Williams Filing Legislation Honoring Freeman

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — State Reps. Leigh Davis of the 3rd Berkshire District and Bud L. Williams, of the 11th Hampden District, are filing legislation establishing Aug. 22 as Elizabeth Freeman Day of Equality, Healing, and Remembrance in the commonwealth.
 
The legislation would direct the governor to annually issue a proclamation recognizing the courageous contributions of Elizabeth Freeman, an enslaved Black woman known as Mum Bett, whose landmark freedom suit helped spark the legal end of slavery in Massachusetts.
 
"Elizabeth Freeman's story began here in the Berkshires, but its impact reached every corner of the commonwealth," said Davis. "More than two centuries later, her legacy continues to inspire us. Establishing Elizabeth Freeman Day will ensure that future generations learn not only about her extraordinary bravery, but also about the power of one person to change the course of history."
 
In 1781, Freeman, of Sheffield at the time, challenged the institution of slavery by filing suit against her enslaver, Col. John Ashley. In the landmark case Brom and Bett v. Ashley, a Berkshire County jury ruled in favor of Freeman and her fellow plaintiff, Brom, granting them their freedom. The case demonstrated the power of the Massachusetts Constitution's declaration that all people are born free and equal and helped pave the way for the Quock Walker decisions that ultimately ended slavery in the commonwealth. 
 
"Freeman's courage changed the course of history in Massachusetts," said Williams. "At a time when the odds were stacked against her, she stood up and demanded that the promises of liberty and equality contained in our Constitution apply to her as well. She risked everything to challenge an unjust system, and her victory helped lay the foundation for the end of slavery in our commonwealth. Her legacy deserves to be recognized and remembered by every resident of Massachusetts."
 
Although unable to read or write, Freeman understood the meaning of freedom and equality and took extraordinary action to secure those rights for herself and others. Her story remains one of the most powerful examples of individual courage in the face of injustice. 
 
Elizabeth Freeman Day will provide an opportunity for reflection, education, healing, and remembrance, said Williams. 
 
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