By Ruth Melville

When Dianna Hofer was young, she was fascinated with the placebo effect and startled to learn that people normally use only 5 percent of their brains. In college, as she studied more about the mind, she began to think of it as “the greatest new frontier.” Four decades of continuing investigation into a wide range of alternative therapies—from Silva Mind Control, to hypnotherapy, past-life regression therapy, guided visualization, energy healing and shamanism—have led her to open a new business in Station Place, the Healing Nest, which she calls “a community gathering and healing space.”

Hofer spent most of her working life as a teacher and an artist. She retired from teaching in 2012, but she missed working with kids, so she returned to teaching a few years later. Last spring she moved to Norfolk from Otis, Mass., and worked as an instructional assistant in special education at Botelle School. Walking across Station Place one day and noticing the empty storefront, she had a spontaneous thought: this might be the right place and the right time for her to utilize her skills to “help people to shift their ways of thinking, or change their paradigms, and learn how to access the untapped power of their minds to achieve their goals and dreams.”

Redecorated in shades of turquoise, teal and purple, the redesigned interior of the old Artisans Guild is cool and tranquil, with colorful Tibetan prayer flags brightening the front window. The back room has been designed to accommodate individual and group therapy sessions, as well as traditional Native American prayer circles.

Having just opened at the end of June, Hofer is slowly expanding the range of services she offers. Every month she hosts both a new moon ceremony, which is open to everyone, and a full moon ceremony, which is for women only. The new moon circle is a despacho ceremony, a traditional Peruvian prayer offering to honor Mother Earth and the spirit world. Sitting in a circle, participants collectively build a bundle of prayers, using objects such as sweets, beans, corn, spices, flowers, yarn, shells and stones. At the end of the ceremony, the bundle is wrapped and tied, participants bless each other with it, and later it is buried, burned or released into running water. The full moon ceremony is a women’s water blessing, to bless and purify waters, inside and out.

Hofer also leads individual clients in what she calls “Guided Shaman Alchemy.” The session starts with a conversation. She asks the client to tell her three things they feel good about, and three things that are current goals or challenges for them. Once the client is comfortable and relaxed, she facilitates a guided journey, with the client’s subconscious leading the way, and closes with a shaman healing, cleansing and blessing.

Hofer has a team of people she works with who share her worldview. She mentions in particular her friend Viktoria Seavey, who is a Life Coach trained in Hungary and the United States. Hofer credits her own sessions with Seavey as “planting the seed which sprouted the serendipitous development of the Healing Nest.” 

Hofer plans to have weekly women’s groups, for women to support one another’s goals.  Seavey and Antoinette (Toni) Matthews are offering Life Coaching, and Adam Seavey (Viktoria’s husband) is a Reconnective Healing practitioner. Lev Natan, a men’s coach, plans to offer men’s individual and group coaching sessions; Kevin Sullivan will be leading nature integration walks.

The Healing Nest is a work in progress, Hofer says. “It has its own life, and I’m a willing conduit.” She would like to hold special events, such as guest healers, sound healing sessions and drumming circles. She’s also looking for a massage therapist or two, and other interested practitioners. 

Teaching is still close to her heart, and she plans to continue teaching and to publish several children’s books she’s written. Her “Coloring Book for Women” is filled with feminine symbols from various cultures and time periods. Hofer also makes and sells magnetic therapy jewelry at the Healing Nest, along with other healing-stone jewelry pieces and accessories.

During the summer, the Healing Nest is open by appointment and on weekend afternoons, from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Special events are posted on the website and on the signboard outside the shop.