By Megann Horstead
“You might want to help all the people in the world, but you cannot help anyone if you do not feel well,” said Niki Coate, ‘00.
Coate returned to the College earlier this month. She presented as a part of the Global Human Rights series. Her appearance addressed poverty, but focused on the topic more directly from a spiritual and mental sense than economic.
Alvaro Salazar, Coate’s business partner in the nonprofit venture Healing House of Cusco, joined her and provided attendees with a musical performance.
The Healing House of Cusco is a non-profit organization that works to build community in individuals wanting to be inspired creatively and free of the weights that hold us down mentally and spiritually in everyday life.
The House is situated in Cusco at the foot of sacred Incan ruins. The Incans named the Cusco the Earth’s center.
Coate and the nonprofit work at the House arose after a taking a trip to South America to get some perspective and do some “listening inward.” She did well in her career at the time, but dedicating her life as a reporter was not satisfying.
Again amidst her travels across South America, she found herself coming to Cusco time and time again to play music.
“I had created this space (in Cusco) for myself of meditation, yoga and writing. Trusting my intuition on where to go and what to do. I got a bigger apartment where I could start offering some of these things (creative art healing) to other people. People would show up at my house word of mouth.”
She later partnered with Salazar and they got a house together with the growing demand for their nonprofit in holistic creative health.
“It (the Healing House Cusco) is very unique to Peru. There is a lot of nonprofit work and nothing like what we are offering. A lot of people that come to Cusco are in this world of the healing arts,” said Coate. In the end, Cusco became the center for her work.
In terms of setting up her nonprofit overseas from her home in the States, Coate said, “I do not know exactly what it is about Cusco, but I do know that it is supposed to be considered the energetic center…The Incan people named it the bellybutton of the Earth in saying that this is the center. They built all these sacred sites and temples around that physical geographical city.”
Laughing, she added, the Healing House sits at the foot of important Incan structure. “There is something energetic about the city. It is why a lot of people are drawn here and end up staying there longer than they think.”
In working in social service, she has learned what it means to honor her own creativity. “Practicing what I preach, essentially what you are saying is, do I have a creative impulse? If you’re not honoring that, you’re stopping the flow of whatever your belief system is,” she said.
“I feel so grateful for the work I am so fortunate to get to do everyday. I guess this is the essence of why the project works… When we come together in community with a common interest, how much (inspiration) that ignites in people,” you gain things that you would not otherwise.
