Hi I'm Doug Essig MS,

I believe healing was never meant to happen inside four walls.

When I worked at Jacksonville University’s Counseling Center, I sat across from a student having a panic attack. For twenty minutes, he couldn’t speak. His breathing was shallow, his hands shook, and his eyes darted with panic. Nothing I tried worked, so we walked to the river.

The moment we started moving, everything changed. He began to talk and didn’t stop until we did. That experience changed me. Movement didn’t just help him, it unlocked something in me.

I realized healing isn’t just about conversation. It begins through movement, faith, nature, and science. That walk became the spark for Healing Hobbies, a space where people learn to turn emotion into motion, move through what feels heavy, reconnect with peace, and rediscover the strength that was always there.