Meet the couple who is changing the face of holistic wellness in Qualicum Beach.
Vancouver-born Sean Lymworth and Darcy Smith moved to the Island earlier this summer opening Qualicum Beach Wellness, nestled in the centre of town along West Second Avenue.
The duo is hoping to create a hub for health in Parksville Qualicum Beach.
“We want to be a centre for holistic health and wellness, where, for example, practitioners can have a place for their practice and also where people can come if they’re on a healing path and they aren’t quite sure who they need to see — we can find someone who has the skill set for them,” Lymworth, a registered massage therapist (RMT) and co-owner of the clinic told The NEWS from his new office space Friday afternoon.
Lymworth explained Qualicum Beach Wellness is an “integrated clinic” with a range of practitioners offering therapeutic and relaxation massage therapy, nutrition consulting, Bowen therapy, acupuncture and even somatic counseling.
The hope is that, whatever your ailment, Qualicum Beach Wellness will have somebody who can help.
Lymworth studied massage therapy at the West Coast College of Massage Therapy and has been practising for three years in the Lower Mainland.
But before his life as an RMT, Lymworth had a starkly different path ahead of him as a program advisor for the provincial nominee program with the Ministry of Economic Development.
“I was applying a template over and over again,” he recalled. “I enjoyed helping people, but once I got promoted it became less engaging… The work culture didn’t really work for me and I did a lot of soul searching.”
He said the idea of massage therapy first crossed his mind while getting a massage.
“So I went and got an RMT and information interviewed him while I was getting treated and what he said really resonated with me,” said Lymworth.
“He talked about job satisfaction, effort required versus financial remuneration and the intellectual stimulation of it… I feel like I’ve been on a path since I was in Grade 10 of knowing that work is roughly one-third of your life and I’ve known my work needs to be meaningful… it feels like I finally found it and it took me three degrees essentially.”
Lymworth met his now-girlfriend Darcy Smith at a farmers’ market and their interests immediately meshed.
Smith is a holistic nutritionist and consultant, who was basically her own first client.
“For a long time I didn’t feel well or vibrate, I didn’t have energy and I wasn’t getting help from my doctor,” she explained. “I didn’t really know what impact food or exercise would have on my life because that knowledge isn’t really readily available — especially six years ago it wasn’t.”
Smith said it took years of hard work and research to find out what kind of changes she needed to make in her life to feel better.
“I had to do that work myself,” she said. “So when I was looking to shift into a more holistic lifestyle I decided to study holistic nutrition because I thought it would be so wonderful if I could empower people the way I had been empowered and maybe save them a few years of research and trial and error.”
And so far, it seems like everything is falling into place.
The couple spent a long time researching where in B.C. they wanted to plant roots and Qualicum Beach came out on top.
Lymworth said unlike many communities, when he started calling practitioners in the area they were incredibly welcoming and encouraging — whereas a lot of others warned against a saturated RMT market.
“I’ve had several practices in Vancouver and this kind of feels like it’s growing the fastest to be honest,” he said. “Despite an aging population, it feels like there’s so much opportunity for us here.”
Qualicum Beach Wellness is located at 2-152 West Second Avenue in Qualicum Beach.
For more information visit www.qualicumbeachwellness.com or call 250-752-8711.
