How 4 Points Health and Wellness founder Alyssa Schmidt created a visionary space for a mental and physical connection.
Upon arriving at 4 Points Health and Wellness, it is immediately apparent that this is founder Alyssa Schmidt’s second home. Her presence is encompassing, her voice delicate. She has spent time outdoors recently, and the sun endears her. After I meet Mary, her timid street dog from Thailand, Alyssa ushers me into a small sitting room with two mid-century modern inspired chairs. She curls up opposite me just as one would at home, barefoot; her genial sense of self-confidence is infectious.
“Most of us aren’t aware that our minds and bodies are disconnected,” Alyssa says, “we break that connection so we can thrive in society.” From personal training and yoga classes to craniosacral and chiropractic therapies, 4 Points offers a multimodal approach to health and wellness. You can get a massage, have an acupuncture treatment and even see a dietitian all in one place. If something emotionally tricky comes up, there’s a psychologist who can help you find your balance again. Alyssa believes that we are truly healthy when everything is balanced and connected. “Say you’re a bodybuilder, and you look great, but deep down there’s depression, and you don’t love yourself. You’re not healthy; you just look good,” she says, shrugging her shoulders.
Alyssa was born and raised in Edmonton and has always felt a pull towards helping others. At age 12, she began volunteering with autistic children, which led her to Grant Macewan University, where she received an honours degree in psychology. The plan was to get a PhD and become a clinical psychologist.
“I loved the brain. I was fascinated by [it], but then in my gap year, I started working with kids at an intensive trauma treatment home,” and everything changed.
Upon arriving at 4 Points Health and Wellness, it is immediately apparent that this is founder Alyssa Schmidt’s second home.
Alyssa saw holes in the Government-funded program right away. “You can’t just do therapy,” she says with a comical and matter-of-fact tone, “we needed to get their bodies and minds healthy.” With the implementation of a healthier diet and exercise (or ‘baby bootcamp’, as she affectionately calls it), improvements in the kids’ behaviour and overall health were instant. The program’s limitations planted a seed within Alyssa; and she began to think, “Well, if I ever did it, I would want to do it [differently].” She wanted to work with people of all ages and then something unexpected happened.
The toll of working with trauma began to manifest, “I had this perfect life. In my head, I thought everything was good. I was very disconnected from my emotions.” Alyssa began to struggle with breathing, became anxious and felt physical pain that was hard to define. Medically speaking, she was clear, so she turned to an acupuncturist who “right away [said] can you tell me a bit more about your trauma?” Over several sessions, Alyssa began to address things that she had never acknowledged as her mind and body began to connect. It was from this experience that in 2014, 4 Points Health and Wellness was born. The four points refer to a compass: mind, body, soul and you. “Our mind is what has and perceives all of our experiences, but then it lives in our body. We feel [our experiences] in our bodies. So, how do we put those together? That’s what we do here, we rebuild the mind-body connection.”
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