793 Main Road is the place we call home from Monday to Friday. Patients and staff alike agree there is a "special energy" in this building that was once a private home, calm and healing. You will find the comfiest easy chair on the second floor, the Adirondack rocker on the first, next to "Claudine," the rangy cactus that claims the entire window seat all year long and produces an exceptionally beautiful bloom in the spring, the collection of stunning Joyce Goodman framed photographs on the walls, books for sharing, 4000 paper charts alongside a state-of-the-art electronic health record, a stairwell hung with hummingbird wallpaper, Cindy's fresh flower arrangements in every room, the Beatles, Vivaldi and Gregorian chant piped in overhead for privacy, Sarah's massage table, Maria's Reiki grid, the lowing of cattle in the back 40 accompanying Frankie's beloved birdsong and the gaggling of wild turkeys, Stewart's Illigitimi Non Carborundum necktie for inspiration, the espresso machine and chocolate stash for fortitude, the Nonnie Hood garden replete with magnanimous magnolia, lilies and lilac, spirea and mock orange, dogwood, holly, cedar, rhododendron and azalea, peonies and iris, the signature bank of blue hydrangea, an array of plants placed in memory of loved patients and family passed, many, many weeds because pulling weeds is such good therapy, and the sunny deck under the locust, where yoga and tai chi are practiced, and the occasional free-loading frog is released.

You will also find good eye contact and smiling faces at the front desk, helpful support staff who know your name and remember your preferences, familiar, live voices on the phone, and a prevailing attitude of good will. We give every one we meet our best effort, and endeavor to meet each person where he/she is. If you have a preferred pronoun or identity not apparent to us, we invite you to inform us. We wish to respect what is unique about you and to create a space where you can explore with us how to achieve your personal health goals. We bring our best selves to this work, so that by partnering with us you may benefit from our knowledge and experience to discover your best self. We, in turn, look to you to support us in this work and hold us accountable to these ends. We answer to no one else.

Cathleen S. Hood, MD

Karen L. Ottenstein, MD