Gentle Currents: our story so far…

My names is David Phreaner. I’m etired Unitarian Universalist minister. Together Lisa Rothermich, Lic.Ac. and I founded Gentle Currents Wellness Center. This is our story so far…

It was never our intent to create Gentle Currents Wellness Center. Yet here we are more than 20 years later.

It’s not widely known but acupuncture used to be illegal in New Hampshire, not just unlicensed but actually illegal! Any acupuncturist who lived in New Hampshire had to practice in a nearby state. Lisa practiced in Kittery. In 1997 the legislature approved licensure. Lisa was Vice President of the original licensing board. Right away we set about looking for office space to lease. After several weeks of frustration friends and colleagues started suggesting we find a place to buy. We thought — and said — “We could never do that.” But the seed had been planted.

Not long after that two friends of ours, independent of each, other suggested the same thing: “There’s this old farmhouse with an attached barn in Greenland. You should go see it. You could have your practice there and even have additional wellness practitioners.” We decided to take a look.

It turned out the place was the old Hussey farmhouse. The Hussey family was one of the founding families of Greenland — though the Husseys had sold it several owners back. We liked it right away. The house had several individuals renting there, so that became a little tricky. Before it became a residence, (long after it had been an apple orchard), it had been an early group health practice called “Beacon Health Service”, owned by Bob Vacarro. We met him, saw the place, and began to think about the possibilities. We had little money for a down payment. Bob turned out to be a saint, agreed to sell us the building, and worked with us on financing. He made the purchase possible.

We bought what became Gentle Currents Wellness Center the day before Thanksgiving in 1997. We spent three months renovating. With the help of friends and wellness colleagues we did an extensive room by room energy clearing. And we opened in the spring of 1998. Jan Hummel Faggiano was our first tenant.

At first we did not live at the Center; we lived in another town. We moved during January of 2001. That was a project! Now here we are all these years later. Five years after the fire — three contractors [the final contractor, Sean Marshall, highly recommended], a new home, and even more renovation, we have a full house of excellent tenants. And we are grateful.

From the beginning our vision was to create a welcoming, inviting, calming, peaceful presence with a homey feel — for acupuncture, for our tenants, and for everyone’s clients. Lisa’s brief video describes our approach. That’s our story…so far. Welcome to Gentle Currents. ~David Phreaner