Nestled under the shade of live oaks amidst the industrial commerce of West Rhapsody Drive on San Antonio’s Northeast side, the Nourish Collective is an oasis of healing and community. Nourish was born in 2020, the vision of Juniper Gwin, aka Jennifer, an acupuncturist and bodyworker with a passion for making somatic well being accessible to all. A native of San Antonio, Juniper’s first love was the creative expression of modern dance, an art she practiced professionally with companies in Michigan, Seattle, Costa Rica, and New York. With the rigors of performance, a dancer’s life routinely includes multiple minor injuries and Jennifer sought out her first acupuncture treatment in 1987, when the practice was still relatively new to the United States.
”As a dancer, you acquire all sorts of injuries and you’re always looking for ways for your body to find better balance. I would always find a local school, so I could find affordable acupuncture as an artist.”
A serious back injury led Gwin to a magical healing experience in Costa Rica, followed by an encounter on the streets of New York that solidified her interest in learning the healing arts herself.
“I was in New York and I was on my way to my waitressing job and there was an old man selling used books on the sidewalk. And it was one of those teeny little paperback books about Chinese medicine and it was glowing at me. I grabbed it and it was just the angels saying, I’m going to acupuncture school. I just knew right away. I ran to my work and I told everybody, I’m leaving New York, I’m going to acupuncture school. And that’s what brought me back to Texas.”
Settling in Austin, Juniper added the practices of qigong and yoga to her studies of somatic healing, movement, and breathwork. Then Gwin moved to Bastrop, built a house, and started a family. Happy living in nature, Juniper felt that she had found her and her family’s permanent home.
“I was planning on living with my family out in the forest, in the pines of Bastrop. My husband had built us a home with his own hands. All three of my boys were born out there. I wasn’t planning on coming back to San Antonio.”
Everything changed in 2011, when Gwin’s handmade house was immolated in the most destructive fire in the history of Texas, the Bastrop Country Complex Fire. At the end of the fifty-five day catastrophe, 34,000 acres had burned, along with more than 1,600 homes, and Juniper’s life path had been irrevocably altered.
“The way that it all happened…I don’t want to go into all the details, but it made it so much easier to get through it because it was just so obviously an act of the divine just shifting things. About three years after the fire, I got the message that we were supposed to move to San Antonio. And so I started with a little private acupuncture place. But then I met Graciela Sanchez from Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.”
Troubled by the high cost of acupuncture, Juniper had dreamed of opening a community center that would offer affordable acupuncture treatments. Sanchez helped the idea along, offering advice and the infrastructure of an umbrella organization.
“Every time I say how much I charge for acupuncture, I feel like I’m apologizing because I can’t afford my prices. I never could afford normal prices for acupuncture. And Graciela said, you know, you can find grants for that. So I was umbrellaed under the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, I applied for a grant, and then I opened Sanctuary Community Acupuncture down in Southtown. And that was amazing, being able to provide those services.”
In addition to operating Sanctuary Community Acupuncture, Gwin created an organization called Whole Woman Whole World that provided free and subsidized acupuncture for low income women and non-profit organization employees. The mission became even more critical in 2017, when the Trump administration had begun creating multiple crises for San Antonio’s immigrant community.
“It was called Sanctuary for a reason. You know, people needed a sanctuary at that time to come to, to feel like they can be safe, like they can be welcomed, and cared for. It was a great time, with beautiful experiences.”
Jennifer sensed there was a need for the same kind of services on the city’s North Side.
“I kept hearing of people who were driving from the north side of town for affordable acupuncture. And what community acupuncture is all about, is affordability and accessibility. So I started looking for just a teeny little northside clinic. And it was going to be called Nourish Community Acupuncture. I was looking for spaces for a while and I’d seen this space, right here west of the airport, but it was way too big.”
Days after ruling that space out due to its large size, Juniper learned that the whole building had become available. Something clicked, and suddenly she decided to say yes to leasing the whole thing.
“We opened Nourish in January of 2020. Right before, you know, the world shut down. We had both Sanctuary and Nourish going at that time. And then, by March, the pandemic hit and we had to close Sanctuary. At first I was shaking my fist, like, why universe? Why did you have me do this? But now I realize it was the perfect timing. It had to be then, or it wouldn’t have happened. It felt like I was giving birth. The creative energy was so strong, there was no choice. Had I not done it then, honestly, with the pandemic and then all the uncertainty, and then what’s going on now, I wouldn’t have ever done it. So the universe just gave me a big push and I’m so thankful that I heeded the call.”
Once the location for Nourish was in place, the Nourish Collective came together naturally as a diverse group of healers, teachers, and bodyworkers offering a variety of services under Nourish’s roof including sound baths, community acupuncture, Qigong and Tai Chi classes, community Reiki, massage therapy, and special events.
“It was like a magnet. It just fell into place. People just started showing up. I would just meet the right person, it was just little synchronicities. When I started Nourish, the reason – and I knew when it was all coming together—was community, community, community.
“Even back then, it just felt so important that we come together. After COVID and so many people in isolation…I think that there’s still fallout from that. Now with all the Instacart, you don’t even have to go to the store. So I just feel it’s so important to bring people together. There’s just so much healing that happens in just being with people. That’s where we come from. We are communal beings. Just being together is already huge. So, this space is really about bringing people together.”
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Nourish Health Collective September events include: Community Sound Therapy (Sept. 3) ; Full Moon Community Drum Journey (Sept. 6); Community Room Reiki+ (Sept. 7 & Sept. 21); Breathwork Hum in the Aquarian Age w/ Michael Enderle (Sept. 10); Yoga & Qigong classes throughout the month.