Today we’d like to introduce you to Darcy Schwerin.
Hi Darcy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m Darcy, a strong and loving mama, wife, and yogi. I’m a sucker for a good self-help book, yoga retreats, revitalizing skincare, and delicious, nourishing food! I’m also a holistic health coach, functional nutrition therapy practitioner, esthetician, and wellness lover. My journey to becoming a Yogi and Functional Nutrition Therapy Practitioner began when I took my first yoga class over 20 years ago. I was in love faster than you can say, “Namaste.” At the time, my husband, Michael, and I lived in Sante Fe, where we dove deep into the holistic world. I studied under Tias and Surya Little at Prajna Yoga & Healing Arts. I gained a deep understanding of the mind-body connection and completed my RYT-200 – a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Certification. We brought everything we learned here to Bayfield, Wisconsin. When this whole journey began, my husband, Michael, and I started Enso Wellness Center & Day Spa in Bayfield, Wisconsin, in 2009. Enso is the inter-connectedness of all things, mindfulness, balance, living in the present moment, and expression of movement. Michael and I wanted to share what we learned in Sante Fe with our family, friends, and community. It’s here in Bayfield while running a business and having two small children, where my real-life education began. I needed to feed my family, not the stuff in packages. Despite my best efforts, my daughter was having epic blowouts, and Michael was constantly struggling with gut issues.
I knew food had a healing side and wanted to learn more. I studied at the Nutritional Therapy Association and became a Functional Nutrition Therapy Practitioner. Here, I learned how to use food as a foundational tool for healing. To help my daughter, I worked alongside an allergy clinic to help resolve severe inflammation in her gut. The inflammation had led to intolerances to foods like gluten and dairy. We found that Michael had a fungal overgrowth and parasites living in his gut from his work in South America years earlier. We eliminated inflammatory foods, followed the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet, and drank a lot of bone broth. I gained a deeper understanding of what it meant to not only feed my family but also nourish my family. I’ve used my knowledge as a functional nutrition therapy practitioner to help others with chronic inflammation like Hashimoto’s disease, autoimmunity, and arthritis.
Jump to 2022; I had come to a point in my life where I wanted to provide a space for healing in Bayfield and online. A space became available downtown and fell into place to give the community locally and online with yoga, movement, nutrition therapy, and holistic skin care. I got into this business because of my passion for helping others reach their health and wellness goals. My biggest accomplishment is seeing my clients attain the results they were seeking. Meanwhile, they’re creating new habits and healthy living choices that bring more joy and vitality to their lives. My clients see their hard work pay off, and they want to work harder and dive deeper into their healing. They glow; I watch them come to life.
Working with 8th-grade girls at our local Middle School was a life-changing experience. We spent nine weeks meditating and journaling together. We met once a week for 45 minutes, and each girl was given a journal. On the first day, these girls were nervous, overwhelmed, and noticeably anxious. Throughout the workshop, we worked through specific meditation exercises, and they were given journaling assignments each week. They were thriving! They wanted to be there, engaged, opened up about their fears and anxieties, and worked to figure out how to resolve them. It was breathtaking to have this opportunity to see such growth in just nine weeks! I’ve had similar experiences of success in my Functional Nutrition Therapy coaching, where I’ve helped women resolve issues like hormone imbalances, blood sugar issues, and perimenopausal symptoms. Working with them on the foundations of simple, healthy nutrition, they felt more energy, slept better, lowered their anxiety, and started living healthier lives. This is what it’s about for me– seeing how simple steps can almost instantly send my clients toward greater health! I give people the tools to take charge of their well-being, inevitably creating a stronger and healthier overall community.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Running a wellness-based business in a post-COVID context brings both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, the pandemic drove an awakening to “the importance of healthy lifestyles and personal resilience as a first line of defense against chronic and infectious disease” (The Global Wellness Economy). Likewise, as feelings of depression and anxiety have seen dramatic increases, we need to provide simple, accessible stress management tools both online and in our local communities. Furthermore, with a more significant percentage of the population working remotely, there is an increasing desire to access these health and wellness tools from home and to make these spaces more usable for functional wellness opportunities. Whether virtually or in the studio, I aim to provide my clients with simple, foundational, affordable, and results-based tools to improve and sustain their overall health. As a rural business in a post-pandemic context, my biggest obstacles have thus been to both support my in-person services and grow my online client base through relevant, up-to-date content that can be readily seen by the people who need it, meeting the challenge of marketing this content within a highly competitive field, and having the up-front funding to make it happen. In short, the pandemic has left a large part of our population struggling to find simple and affordable tools to manage their anxiety, stress, and overall health, and ensuring that my services are quickly and seamlessly accessible both in-person and online could mean the difference in their ability to overcome these challenges. My existing clients depend on me staying in business. Prospective clients need simple and foundational services like mine to keep them from getting stuck in the weeds of online offerings.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about BLU Studio and Wellness?
I created this space to offer wellness opportunities for my community both in Bayfield and the surrounding area and online because I felt this desire to help people feel better. The wellness industry is huge and, to be honest, completely overwhelming. I want to introduce these health tools to people in a way that is attainable, foundational, and worth their time and effort. People today are inundated daily through the world of technology, phones, smartwatches, social media, etc, with all the fast, quick fixes of health. The wellness industry is a 4.9 trillion dollar industry, yet the United States is one of the top countries suffering from diabetes and adult and childhood obesity. I work with my clients to teach them tools. These tools allow them to return to foundations for their nutrition and movement. I specialize in Functional Nutrition Therapy. I use a deep foundational and bio-individual approach to functional, holistic nutrition to balance body chemistry and achieve optimal wellness. I have gone through extensive training to learn a hands-on skillset called the Functional Clinical Assessment (FCA) that allows them to evaluate the nutritional imbalances and deficiencies at both the body system and organ level that are unique to a specific client and create a tailored set of recommendations designed to
support that client’s wellness goals.
The skills and tools that I use for clients:
- Conduct an informative interview and assessment with clients.
- Suggest individual foundational supplement recommendations.
- Conduct an efficient Functional Clinical.
- Assessment and Lingual Neuro Testing.
- Assessment to identify primary areas of struggle or issues. Evaluate Food and Mood journals and recommend beneficial dietary changes and key lifestyle areas such as stress management, sleep, hygiene, and intentional movement.
- Evaluate the Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (NAQ) and interpret the information to identify imbalances in the body. 7. Tools to learn how to Prepare nutrient-dense foods. 8. Create recipes and meal plans
As a yoga instructor, I know this is another field of wellness where there are many obstacles, struggles, and misunderstandings around yoga and meditation. I am working with my clients to learn a new approach to yoga and meditation. I am helping my clients use yoga as a way to heal not just physical issues but also help stabilize and manage stress, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, and simply living a daily life. My approach to teaching is not just a flow class where you sweat and go home. I will use this class time to teach anatomy and give instruction and support throughout the practice with props and support so that anyone of any level can come in and explore learning yoga without feeling overwhelmed. I am proud of the relationships I have created with my clients. I have a very compassionate, hands-on approach with all of what I do. Supporting someone as they work through something as challenging as changing their diet or learning something new is essential. To be validated for their strengths and their abilities to change and grow. I want readers to know that as soon as they set foot into my studio or they get on a call with me, they are seen, heard, and validated for all of their life challenges and that I am there to give them education, support, and compassion at all times. Healing is not easy, and I want people to understand that when they return to the foundations of their health and well-being, they will succeed in whatever they do! I am there for them!
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee but had the privilege of spending my summers on Madeline Island on Lake Superior during my summers. My grandparents had a cabin on the water; it was my favorite time of year. My childhood memories are filled with swimming in Lake Superior, heading to Big Bay Town Park as you swim through the lagoon out into the lake, walking the shoreline, and finding the most perfect rocks. Spending your warm summer days jumping off the rocks at the Big Bay State Park was magical; swimming in those deep waters, diving through hollow rocks, and seeing down to the bottom in the clear crystal waters and ending your days with this incredibly satisfying exhaustion. The lake and the island brought joy to my life. I believe I live here now because of those memories!
Pricing:
- $15 yoga classes
- holistic facials start $59
- functional nutrition therapy starts $99
Contact Info:
- Website: www.darcyschwerin.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darcyschwerin/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darcy.schwerin
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvm6MaZNj38G9DGHdGCwNA
Image Credits
Sarah Schneider Wroblewski of Sarah Ann Photography
