by jennifer hetrick
sleepless nights and a beyond-words degree of pain she couldn’t bear led graphic designer shannon anthony to switch careers. the scoliosis plaguing her body and the disappointing results of traditional approaches to her condition, along with a healthcare system that would only cater to her chiropractic costs so much, eventually became inspiration for what is now known as serenity junction at 127 east philadelphia avenue in boyertown.
anthony heard her diagnosis of scoliosis at age 20. dealing with and managing the pain of it as well as she could, she noticed the severity of it growing so exponentially over a period of years that even her employers, jim & kim herman, saw how unbearable it had become, affecting her constantly at work. her health insurance provider stopped covering costs for her chiropractic adjustments at one point, because she went so often, to ease her suffering. once the coverage ended, the hermans, owners of ultimate printing service, inc. in barto, began to search online for alternative approaches to back pain relief because they had such concerns for her. the hermans are also good friends of anthony’s parents.
their first find stood as an inversion table, where ankles are safely latched into place, and a person hangs upside-down to reverse the stressful effects of gravity pushing down on the spine.
“your spine is constantly under pressure from gravity,” she explains.
anthony recognized some relief from her symptoms just a few short days after trying out the table. but this made her curious to learn more about other alternative approaches to her condition—ones not normally known about or advocated by traditional medical professionals.
while perched on the sofa, wide awake at 4 a.m. one night, anthony watched a news broadcast about vibration exercise machines, something unfamiliar to her at the time. they would soon be hers.
in the past, anthony just housed a few vibration exercise machines at serenity junction. but with growing demand and walk-ins at the storefront every day, she recently brought in more and now has six of them, ready for use. with the quickly bumping and powerful movement of them, only 15 minutes on one of the vibration exercise machines equals to the effort of having worked out for 60 minutes at a gym. the machines are great for therapy work, too, and for those who have mobility restrictions, as they do a lot of the work for the body, mid-exercise.
anthony also found a hydro-massage bed where a person can rest, fully-clothed, and feel the better pressure of strong jets moving up and down the backside, with adjustable levels of the movement, customizable to each user’s liking. this is what anthony calls the treat after 15 minutes on the inversion table and also on the vibration exercise machines.
sleepless nights and a beyond-words degree of pain she couldn’t bear led graphic designer shannon anthony to switch careers. the scoliosis plaguing her body and the disappointing results of traditional approaches to her condition, along with a healthcare system that would only cater to her chiropractic costs so much, eventually became inspiration for what is now known as serenity junction at 127 east philadelphia avenue in boyertown.
anthony heard her diagnosis of scoliosis at age 20. dealing with and managing the pain of it as well as she could, she noticed the severity of it growing so exponentially over a period of years that even her employers, jim & kim herman, saw how unbearable it had become, affecting her constantly at work. her health insurance provider stopped covering costs for her chiropractic adjustments at one point, because she went so often, to ease her suffering. once the coverage ended, the hermans, owners of ultimate printing service, inc. in barto, began to search online for alternative approaches to back pain relief because they had such concerns for her. the hermans are also good friends of anthony’s parents.
their first find stood as an inversion table, where ankles are safely latched into place, and a person hangs upside-down to reverse the stressful effects of gravity pushing down on the spine.
“your spine is constantly under pressure from gravity,” she explains.
anthony recognized some relief from her symptoms just a few short days after trying out the table. but this made her curious to learn more about other alternative approaches to her condition—ones not normally known about or advocated by traditional medical professionals.
while perched on the sofa, wide awake at 4 a.m. one night, anthony watched a news broadcast about vibration exercise machines, something unfamiliar to her at the time. they would soon be hers.
in the past, anthony just housed a few vibration exercise machines at serenity junction. but with growing demand and walk-ins at the storefront every day, she recently brought in more and now has six of them, ready for use. with the quickly bumping and powerful movement of them, only 15 minutes on one of the vibration exercise machines equals to the effort of having worked out for 60 minutes at a gym. the machines are great for therapy work, too, and for those who have mobility restrictions, as they do a lot of the work for the body, mid-exercise.
anthony also found a hydro-massage bed where a person can rest, fully-clothed, and feel the better pressure of strong jets moving up and down the backside, with adjustable levels of the movement, customizable to each user’s liking. this is what anthony calls the treat after 15 minutes on the inversion table and also on the vibration exercise machines.
( shannon anthony, owner of serenity junction, works the muscles
of her right leg on this vibration exercise machine; she advocates a variety
of exercises and styles of propping onto its surface, with more than 500 exercises
available to consider, to work out different parts of the body in different ways )
these three components offered to the public are something unique not only in the region and in pennsylvania but also in the country, as these alternative exercise and therapy pieces of equipment are not found in any one retail outlet for consumers elsewhere but are usually instead seen in hospitals and chiropractic offices—usually, only one or another of the machines are in each of those kinds of settings. this keeps serenity junction matchless not only on the local level but on the national level, too.
and the far-reaching persuasion of the location speaks for itself, as anthony has clients around the county but also from longer distances, including a woman whose day job is as a breast cancer surgeon in new york city; she pines for the opportunity to get away from her work, easily one of the most stressful professions in the world today, to give herself the gift of what serenity junction has to offer, different from traditional exercise routes.
“when i wasn’t in pain, i didn’t know how to react to that,” anthony says in reflecting on how her life has reshaped since blossoming into better days.
it’s easy to see then just why she felt so passionate about sharing her success with others who are in a constant and real battle of physical suffering; she wanted to help others understand that there is hope and that life can be something well-worth enjoying—and that pain doesn’t necessarily have to be chronic or unfixable.
anthony has also seen a bit of an addictive effect with the environment where she’s made her work-home. people who come in seem to be ecstatic to be there and often comment on how they could never find the motivation to want to stay at a gym for long or to even go to one at all, and yet they have a curious energy and enthusiasm for wanting to make their way to serenity junction on a regular basis. this is most likely in no small thanks also to the personalized touch anthony provides, showing how she really does care for each person, wanting them to find new perks of happiness in their life again the way she experienced after she finally began to feel relief from her own back and bodily pain.
the environment is also plenty full of social-smart possibilities, too, as personal parties are available with one-on-one training and assistance—this is something women have been learning to appreciate on weekends, anthony observed, as people are looking for new and exciting chances to spend time with their friends while creatively thinking of efforts to be good to their bodies, which in turn affects so much else en route to happiness in life-days.
one great benefit clients have mentioned to anthony is that the more they visit to exercise, the less they take the medications they were reliant on for so long, for pain. some are even able to go off of their medications, because of what this alternative approach is doing for their health, and that’s something anthony finds very rewarding to know she is helping to coax along for the better, locally.
two-week free trials are available. for more information, visit www.serenityjunction.com or call 610.367.heal.
