Vermont Wellness Education was founded by Dr. Jesse de la Rosa and Joan Bowman to provide wellness programs and  support to all members of our local communities — exchanging ideas, developing skills and solving the problem of what makes motivation a challenge for so many.

Dr. de la Rosa is an expert in Somatic Education. He graduated from the Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1978, practiced in Austin, Texas, and served on the board of the Austin Area Holistic Health Association. He called his scope of practice “putting education side-by-side with treatment.” In 1984, he opened the first wellness center in Philadelphia. Then, after moving to Maryland in 1991, he became interested in policy change, as a consultant to the National Wellness Coalition. Jesse lobbied for the inclusion of Prevention and health education in the Clinton round of health care reform, through this group.

In Maryland, Jesse also developed Somatic Integration (SI), his inner-directed method of teaching self-care and mindfulness in the healing process. SI is not a form of treatment, but of “self-management” [self-care]. It is an experiential approach that increases sensory awareness, being observant, and finding new direction from inner experience. It is a process of turning attention inward, that provides a process of clarification and stability. He later moved back to Pennsylvania, consulting on pain management using this mind-body method.

From 2000 to 2009, he worked on numerous health-related initiatives in Connecticut: wellness programs, renewal for caregivers, delivering integrative pain management as an alternative to drug treatment, and community education. All of these now figure in Vermont Wellness Education: consulting, teaching, and planning for community revitalization. Jesse moved to Brattleboro, and is promoting this educational model to demonstrate ways we can improve self-care. Once again, he will advocate that Prevention would be improved by focusing on education and public health, in Vermont’s new measures for health care reform.

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Joan Bowman has over thirty-five years experience in assisting others with personal growth goals and teaching how to be the change that creates good, as  an executive in business, a lecturer, and as a writer.  She received her MBA from the Eli Broad School at Michigan State University, concentrating on Change Management theories. She has broad experience in relationship building, business start-ups, executive search and international operations. Since 1980, Joan has enjoyed speaking tours on the subjects of empowerment and entrepreneurial growth strategies .

Currently, Joan concentrates her efforts on lecturing and writing about the struggles, transitions and the health-related challenges women face in the 21st Century.