‘A community for the community’ | It’s Your Business

Ashley Kerns and Stefani Pearsall speak their visions with two different voices — but, like the warp and weft on a loom, they’ve woven those visions together creating a tapestry of healing arts through their new business, Chico Free Spirit Healing Center.

“The vision for me was to create a sacred space where people feel safe to learn, grow and feel the vibration of love,” said Kerns. “I wanted a space where healers could collaborate as a community and create connections so we could come together and create a community for the community.”

Pearsall also envisioned creating a safe space where “people can authentically be who they are, heal and grow and step into a higher vibrational energy. A place where they can shift old programming and step into a new way to live where they can heal mind, body and soul and be happy.”

Chico Healing Arts Center opened on May 3 in a renovated 2,600 square-foot space on Salem Street in downtown Chico. At the center, Kerns and Pearsall, along with six other practitioners, offer clients a holistic approach to health and healing that focuses on the connection between mind, body and spirit. The holistic philosophy views health as a state of balance and harmony of the whole person where the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical well-being are accorded equal importance.

The center currently offers Vinyasa, Ayurvedi and gentle yoga classes as well as Reiki, resonance repatterning, shamanic healing, Ayurvedic consulting, sound healing, massage therapy, intuitive medium services and workshops. The center also participates in the annual Butte County Veterans Stand Down event, and future plans include adding educational classes, youth outreach and programs and a retail space where local artists and wellness professionals can sell tools and products.

“Our vision to bring healing practitioners together and provide educational  space where people can come and learn about and experience different modalities, choose what works for them and get tools to support them in keeping their healing journey moving forward,” said Pearsall.

Pop-up market

Before launching a permanent retail component to their business, Kerns and Pearsall are testing the waters by hosting a Summer Solstice Pop-Up Market from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday (June 20) at the center. The event is free both for vendors and the public.

If this first pop-up market is successful, Kerns said they may continue hosting them on a regularly.

On hand for the pop up will be massage, Reiki, sound bowl, shamanic and energy healers as well as Tarot and oracle card readers plus psychic readers. Product vendors will have art, essential oils, crystals, herbal blends and candles as well as other healing-related items for sale.

“Through the pop-up we want not just to help the community start building relationships with vendors and healers but to honor and bring together local practitioners and businesses,” said Pearsoll. “We’re already feeling a shift into community and away from competition and divisiveness where everybody’s forces are coming together.”

Reinforcing the sentiments of her partner, Kerns said, “It’s really about shifting out of fear and into love. Love thy neighbor, love thy self, love thy community.”

“Yes,” added Pearsall. “All ships rise together.”

Making connection

The two locals — Kerns is a Durham native and Pearsall was raised in Chico — each took different healing journeys that intersected in 2023 when they were introduced to each other by a mutual friend. In that moment Kerns and Pearsall felt a symbiotic connection, one that led them to continue their odyssey together and create Chico Free Spirit Healing Center.

Both women had at different times — Kerns in 2012 and Pearsall in 2011 — experienced what they each describe as a “dark night of the soul.” This common experience came at a time of physical, mental and spiritual duress and a striking realization that their lives depended on change.

“It was the time for healing, for stepping into spiritual practice and connecting with source, universe, God. They all work together,” said Kerns. “When I did that, it opened the door to peace and serenity and showed me it was time to look at different modalities for healing.”

While she learned about and employed different approaches to healing, Kerns said she was “most drawn” to Reiki. She first became a Reiki client receiving treatments, then a Reiki student and, finally, a Reiki master.

“What I love about Reiki is that basically, as a practitioner, I’m just a conduit for life force energy. It’s really the client’s body working with universal life force energy to make room and clear out that which is no longer serving them,” said Kerns. “All of us are empaths, are intuitive and this is a way to step into that power, tapping into our bodies and working with energies that are accessible to us to help clear anything.

“At the same time, I am not a doctor but I believe, I know western and eastern medicine can coexist.”

Pearsall’s path to holistic healing for herself and others took her around the world. During her trip she visited friends; taught English to children and Buddhist monks at a monastery in Nepal; and spent 10 days at a silent Vipassana retreat where she spent 14 hours a day in meditation.

“As part of this process, I learned that thoughts are temporary, feelings are temporary and realized pain is temporary,” said Pearsall. “As the pain moved through and out of my body, I was pure consciousness. I began a healing journey learning about everything from the power of mind, thoughts and feeling to the power of manifestation in healing mind, body and soul.”

Pearsall returned home and became a psychic healer, a Reiki master and earned a master’s degree in transformative leadership from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Related Articles

Best in show in a new arena | It’s Your Business

Chico Chai marks 20 years of ‘magic’ | It’s Your Business

Ridge couple serves ‘food for the skin’ | It’s Your Business

Four Peaks Medicinals’ idea mushrooms | It’s Your Business

Roadside dessert stand worth the drive | It’s Your Business

“I learned a lot, but what I really learned was that I wanted to help others heal and live the life of their dreams,” said Pearsall. “Typically, people go through pain and hard times to feel what they need to heal.

“Everything is energy —  thoughts, emotions, beliefs – and over time those thoughts, feelings and beliefs can grow and grow and grow and turn into disease. As a healer and coach, I work with people from a kind, nurturing holistic place to excavate darkness and pain so there is room for them to hold more light and love.”

To learn more about Chico Free Spirit Healing Center, visit chicofreespirit.com.

Reach Kyra Gottesman at [email protected].