Johanna Oosterwijk began her career as a Nurse Practitioner in her homeland of the Netherlands. She was associated for many years with the Red Cross in a community hospital. Due to her husband’s business they moved to the U.S. in the early 80’s. Johanna intended to have her degree in nursing translated from the Netherlands to be able to practice medicine here in the states. However a series of life changing events would chart a different path for Johanna. These events would ultimately lead to the founding of Shambhala Wellness Center. This is her story.
It was 1982, Johanna had recently moved to the U.S. She was a young wife and mother of three precious little girls when she was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. She was in the process of moving her professional license from the Netherlands to the U.S.
The interruption of cancer put all of her plans on hold for several years.
She was in her early 30’s at the time of this diagnosis. Johanna describes this period in her life as the darkest time she has ever lived through. She remembers the isolation she experienced as a result of the radioactive iodine treatment. For this treatment she would have to be isolated from her family for three days at a time. She was completely cut off from everyone. Even the nurses who were treating her could only come in her room for brief periods of time and they were covered from head to toe in protective gear due to the radioactive materials that Johanna was taking into her system.
After her therapy was completed Johanna remembers just living one day at a time, which became one week at a time, which then turned into one month at a time and eventually one year at a time. The milestone of being cancer free for the first year was remarkable for Johanna and her family.
Cancer survivors are well aware of that voice in the back of their head which whispers doubts and fears of remaining cancer free. It was in the midst of these whispers that Johanna made a commitment to herself. She was going to live long enough for her youngest daughter to remember her. That was her goal, plain and simple.
During her husband’s job related travels he came across magazines that were dedicated to the topic of wellness and holistic practices for wellness. He was compelled to get the magazines into Johanna’s hands. It is a good thing he did because those articles would be the instrument which led Johanna onto her path of self empowerment.
Johanna read an article about Reiki which sparked her curiosity. She decided this was where her journey must begin. She found a local Reiki 
practitioner and through her sessions learned for the first time that her body was holding on to past childhood trauma. One such trauma was a memory of her parent’s home burning down. She came to realize very quickly that she could release this trauma. The transformation was so radical that she knew becoming a Reiki Master was the thing she must do. She completed this new goal within 5 months. This started a cascade of becoming certified in various energy healing modalities.
The next modality she added to her tool box was Polarity. This was soon followed by becoming certified in Hypnotherapy at the Heart Song Hypnotherapy center in Dallas. Johanna was at a conference for Hypnotherapy in Los Angeles when she discovered the next modality that would be added to her growing skill set.
While traveling to this conference she had eaten spoiled food, which gave her food poisoning that required treatment before leaving for the conference. This treatment delayed her plans by a few hours.
When she arrived at the conference she had missed the start time of the first session. While waiting for the next session to begin Johanna saw a woman who had computer equipment set up and different charts and graphs being displayed. Johanna asked the woman what this was all about and the woman explained the principle behind Quantum Biofeedback. She asked Johanna if she would like a demonstration. Johanna readily agreed and to her amazement the very first thing the computer keyed in on was food poisoning. That was all it took to convince Johanna this was the next step for her to take in helping other people achieve wellness in their lives. Johanna went on to become certified in Quantum Biofeedback technology in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Because the Quantum Biofeedback technology gives feedback on each organ system in our body, Johanna felt it was necessary to take her formal education one step farther. She spent the next four years becoming a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) through Trinity School of Natural Health in Warsaw Indiana. She completed her course requirements in 2008.
From the time Johanna was certified as a Reiki Master to her completion of formal education as a Naturopathic Doctor, Johanna had used her own home to see clients. Using her home was certainly convenient; however two very big drawbacks came as a result of seeing clients in her home. She was bringing negative energy into her home on a regular basis via the clients she was treating, and this practice of seeing clients in her home had left her stuck and isolated. Feeling very cut off from the rest of the world. Due this stuck feeling she became depressed. She described it to me as being all dressed up and nowhere to go.
She had all the training and credentials she had ever dreamed of and yet, had no practical place to practice her skills and most of all no place to be of service on a larger scale.
One of the things Johanna had learned to do through the years was network. She reached out to a program that was offered by Anthony Robbins which led her to HypnoCoaching. The program taught her how to help herself. It gave her the skills to determine what she wanted to do in order to fulfill her definition of success. And helped her clarify what steps she needed to take in order to move forward. Johanna found this technique so rewarding that she became certified as a HypnoCoach.
Johanna told me that being a HypnoCoach is one of the most rewarding modalities she has ever practiced. She receives the most personal satisfaction of being a conduit for her clients as they learn what they want out of life and how to empower themselves to achieve their heart’s desires.
It was HypnoCoaching that was used as the catalysts to bring Johanna to the building that now inhabits the heart of Shambhala Wellness Center. Johanna came to clarify for herself that in order to be of better service to humanity, she needed a place to go every day to see clients. This would also get her out of her stuck and isolated mode.
The building that is home for Shambhala Wellness was purchased by Johanna in 2009. Johanna and her husband started renovation and opened for business in March of 2010 with 3 other health care practitioners, two chiropractors and one licensed massage therapist.
18 months later and there are several more health care providers who have joined her at Shambhala, including a licensed dietitian, a licensed professional counselor, an acupuncturist and Chinese medicine practitioner.
When I asked Johanna why she chose the name Shambhala, she explained that the name came to her when traveling with her husband in Tibet. Which by the way, is one of Johanna’s favorite places in the world. Shambhala means “a place of peace, tranquility and Happiness”. I can speak for myself and say that I feel the essence of peace and tranquility whenever I cross the threshold of Shambhala Wellness Center.
I asked Johanna what is her vision for the future of Shambhala Wellness Center. She said that they are in the process of building additional space which will house either a physician, and or a nurse practitioner who embraces holistic and integrative healing modalities.
Johanna looks back at the time of being diagnosed with Thyroid cancer as a gift. She said she felt on an intuitive level that Thyroid cancer developed because she never knew what it meant to speak up for herself. Through her personal journey towards healing herself, Johanna discovered her passion of learning to empower others to do the same. That is the greatest gift of all.
By Melanie Whyte
