Meet Sheila Fay

Q: Sheila, can you start by telling us about your Chinese medicine / healing business here in Coolidge Square?  

My business, Balanced Life Healing, is rooted in Chinese Medicine, offering acupuncture along with several other healing modalities that I learned after attending New England School of Acupuncture (NESA), which was long based in Watertown. My enrollment in the school back in the late 90’s is what brought me to Watertown. I started my practice working out of the school clinic, and then out of the Spring Street Healing Arts Center before opening my own office in Coolidge Square. 

I studied Chinese Medicine because it gave me a way to help people heal their whole person: body, mind and spirit. I think of the theory behind the medicine as a map to understand the world, helping to understand not just what happens in the body but why. This map idea gives people ways to heal not just a symptom, but the underlying process that created the symptom in the first place.  

People often think of acupuncture as treating pain, but the medicine is an old system – 5000 years old! – to treat a person, not just a disease. In my practice in general, I help women with fertility, people with knee, back and shoulder pain, anxiety and depression, and just general wellness maintenance.

Q: You serve on the Watertown Bike-Ped Committee. What is its purpose? 

The goal of the Watertown Bike-Ped Committee is a safer transportation network for everyone, since we are all at minimum pedestrians at some point. We work with the City advising on infrastructure projects, such as extending the Community Path to the River. We also create activities to get people out on their bikes such as the Yard Art Bike Tour, or Get Out Your Bike. 

Q: What is it like to volunteer for a Watertown committee?? 

Well, I’ve served on the Bike-Ped Committee for probably 20 years now – although it's hard to remember. I first began attending just as a regular community member, as I didn’t even know you had to be appointed. My interest began because I was biking to my part-time job at MIT (it's hard to start your own business) and I wanted better bike paths. 

The nuts and bolts are that we have 9 residents who are members, and we are staffed by Zeke Mermell, the City’s Senior Transportation Planner.  We meet once a month for 1.5 hours, which certainly isn’t enough time to get everything done, so small sub-groups meet to work out specifics. Depending on what I’m involved with, the time commitment varies – more time is needed when events are happening.   

Increasingly over the years I’ve personally realized the importance of creating a safer transportation network for all of us, since most of us are pedestrians and drivers at various times. Safer transportation means it's easier to get across Mt Auburn Street to visit stores in Coolidge Square, or not worrying about slipping on snow or ice as you race for the bus, or trusting you won’t be hit when making a left turn in your car. All of us benefit when the whole transportation network is safer.

Being on the Bike-Ped Committee has also helped me understand both the City of Watertown better, and the slow political process it takes to make enduring change. And it’s been a great way to get to know the city administration, and what is involved in supporting an ever growing and changing community. For example, I’ve loved getting to know people like Stephanie Venizelos and the wonderful work Live Well Watertown does, when we’ve collaborated on events with them.

By the way, we welcome residents to join our meetings, or share their ideas with us. And anyone can apply for a position on the Bike-Ped Committee, or any Watertown committee, as appointments open up. 

Q: You’ve been in town a long time. How has it changed over the years?

I’ve watched Watertown change and not change over all these years. I’ve loved frequenting all the stores in Coolidge Square even as some old favorites, like Kay’s, have disappeared. I love that when I need nature I can walk or ride by the river, and stop to watch the ducks and herons – and sometimes the alewives. I love the diversity of people, businesses, and interests that show up in the library, the squares, the events. Increasingly Watertown feels more welcoming to this diversity, and is working out how to meet multiple different needs and interests while retaining its heart.  That is what makes this a community, and a great place to live.