We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Terry Duffy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Terry , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s go back in time to when you were an intern or apprentice – what’s an interesting story you can share from that stage of your career?

I was living in San Francisco, going to school to study Alternative Health and Design. I got a job at Yoga Journal Magazine and my husband was working for Lucas. We had a one year old son and stress was high. I had to get knee surgery and the same day my husband started bleeding internally and my aunt had to drive him to the hospital since I couldn’t drive or leave the baby. He had lost 1/2 the blood in his body. The doctors didn’t know why and said they would have to operate and possibly cut out parts of his stomach or maybe he had cancer and he needed chemo. We didn’t like the “Oh we will just cut you open and go in and find out what it is” approach. I said let’s pause for a moment and take a breath. We had been going to an acupuncturist so we went back to see him to see what he would say and that day changed our lives. We had mentioned to him that we were thinking about moving back to New Mexico since we had family there who could help out. He said, “Then you need to make an appointment with Dr Hazel Parcells. She’s in Albuquerque but you better make it quick since she’s 92 years old.” We made an appointment and met this red haired woman who had a twinkle in her eyes, an amazing laugh and the kind of energy that made you feel like you were buzzing. She found that Andy had parasites and put him on a fasting program and within 2 months he was eating and feeling like he was healing inside out. I had just bought a video camera that was so big that I could barely hold it on my shoulder. (Haha how times have changed). Dr Parcells asked us if we could video tape all of her classes and do a short video of her. That led to a 10 year apprenticeship with an amazing healer who changed the way I took care of myself, my family and I’ve taught her classes ever since. She was funny and fierce. She would say “Grow a backbone instead of a wishbone if you want to get healthy.” She taught us how to take responsibility of your own bodies. Dr. Parcells lived to be 106 and taught classes till she died.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a creative. I’m an artist, a graphic designer and a teacher of alternative health. Because of my tandem study, the universe always sent me clients that had projects that they wanted me to design about health. I love the synchronities of life. If you notice them and show gratitude they keep happening is my experience. I started designing books. I then was the art director of Yoga Journal magazine when yoga was not cool. It was weird and putting swamis on the cover with string coming out of their noses did not help. I said, “Hey can we make some changes? There is a whole audience out there who you are not reaching.” I asked if I could get credit at school for changing the magazine and aced the class and enhanced the magazine appeal too. Ever since I have designed books, branding and museum exhibits for people about health. My pride and joy was designing a museum for the American Heart Association about teaching kids how to take care of their hearts. I worked with scientists to create a curriculum that was interactive, multi sensory and fun. I also got to write a curriculum about the digestive system and gut health. I teach it by having people draw their organs so that they realize where they are located and what they do. I call it the Art of Digestion. During the covid shutdown I developed my own online curriculum to teach about the body and how to take care of it, mind, body and spirit included. Creatives have to create. We will change the world. To see some of my work go to: www.glyphicsdesign.com and www.compatiblealternatives.com

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I’m not the richest person if you measure that by how much money you have in the bank. I will only take clients with who I resonate with and who want me to do good in the world. I have always had incredible clients and people who have worked with me. I am friends with all of them to this day. So of course I wanted to pay them well and couldn’t always do that. What I realized is creatives need stimulation. So I decided that we would take Fridays for soaking up creativity. We would go to museums, art galleries or take time to paint. At first, I thought that it might not be the most productive use of time as a business owner but over time I realized that we were happy and stimulated and that every painting day ended up in someone’s project, somehow. Most of all we were enjoying life. That is worth a lot! Stress is the underlying cause of most disease. Being happy and healthy is the most productive way to LIVE LIFE LARGE.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

The first thing that came to mind is absolutely I would choose the same multi-faceted profession. I love to teach people about their incredible bodies that they get to walk around in everyday. Your body does something for you every second of the day and night, without being asked! Who does that for you? Teaching people how to love and appreciate themselves has had an undeniable affect on me. When you help others, you help yourself the most. Teachers always learn the most and what I’ve learned is that if you stay positive you can take a crappy situation and turn it around. Let’s face it these last couple of years have been intense but this down time allowed me to stretch my creativity again in a new way. That’s why I say creatives/artists will change the world and they will do it in a beautiful way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.glyphicsdesign.com AND www.compatiblealternatives.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compatiblealternatives/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tereseduffy/
• Linkedin: Terry Duffy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn9LZiahpa5n0S7otfXz0WA
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/compatiblealternatives

Image Credits
Ron Murray/ Image Active