Heather P. is the PCH Tutors account manager and the most recent addition to the staff. Originally from Pleasantville, New York, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a degree in international studies and Spanish, then earned a master’s in childhood education and special education at Hunter College in New York before teaching for several years in Manhattan. After subsequent adventures including world travel, teaching yoga, and working in ad sales, she relocated to Los Angeles in 2017 to complete a second master’s in Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and herbs. Heather has inspiring things to say about her multi-layered career and passion for helping educators maintain sanity and wellbeing. She maintains a wellness website and enjoys cooking healthy comfort dishes and learning how to better care for plants including her avocado tree, Gerard.
You’ve had a very circuitous career route! Did you always want to work in education?
I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, but I wanted to take time in college to learn about the world and other cultures before I got a master’s in education. I spent time studying abroad in Jerusalem and taught English in Buenos Aires.
What brought you to Los Angeles?
When I was teaching in New York I started to do yoga and meditation to take better care of myself as a teacher and shared these tools with my students and other educators I was working with, and I really wanted to learn these tools to share and so that’s why I left teaching because I wanted to do a yoga teacher training and other things. I started working for a company that led yoga and wellness trainings for educators, and I taught yoga at a private school, teaching two to six-year-olds - it was really fun to just see kids really go for it. Even four-year-olds are really stressed out these days.
How do you teach yoga to two-year-olds?
They’re the best at it. They do everything you say and they love it. And you can sing songs and dance with them, too.
What inspired to you to pursue studying Chinese medicine and acupuncture?
Working with teachers and educators and seeing their burnout was my focus for a while and then I started seeing a lot of stress and imbalances among people of all professions, and how much yoga and breathwork and energy work can help. I wanted to learn more about alternative medicine to help not only educators but all different humans.
In the mid-2000s I was having a lot of skin issues and a lot of western medical doctors didn’t know how to help me. They were giving me like steroid cream for the back of my neck and stuff for my scalp and didn’t know how to help and ultimately an acupuncturist helped to balance everything and told me to stop eating gluten and stop using chemicals in a lot of things I was doing. Now I think a lot more western medical doctors know more about these things, but at the time they really couldn’t help me. I started getting acupuncture and lymphatic drainage and reiki - I’m also a reiki practitioner - so that was really cool for me to heal personally from those modalities. From then on I started thinking about doing acupuncture.
I started leading 200-hour yoga teacher trainings for educators and teaching them how to take better care of themselves so they don’t experience as much stress and burnout. And teaching them tools to teach their own community: students, families, and their personal communities. It’s really amazing work.
When I wanted to further my wellness practice after I did yoga teacher training I thought I might as well just follow my dreams, you know?
How does acupuncture even work?
There are a lot of different approaches. One is muscular; stimulating certain muscles. But then there’s this whole meridian configuration that I will learn about for four years. There is a lot to learn, and studying herbs, too, has been pretty cool.
What makes you passionate about teaching self-care and giving people these tools for it, and educators specifically?
I think teachers and educators are the most important people in the world and definitely don’t get enough of anything - pay, nor emotional support, nor recognition. And having gone through that myself and feeling that I didn’t have the support and care that I needed - I want to take good care of tutors and teachers so that they can create better younger people and make the world a better place. With that, also just interested in working with all different kinds of people and also specifically helping people to navigate - not only do I find education to be a place where there’s a lot of un-clarity, I feel like there’s not a lot of support and I feel like I’ve experienced the same in the medical world so I think that what I’m doing ties together my personal issues with education and the healthcare system.
But it’s taken a long time to figure all this out. There was no way I could be a school teacher and learn and do all the other things I was passionate about. This ties all those together.
What drew you to working with PCH Tutors, especially in the midst of your busy studying schedule?
My experience - and observation of others - in finding tutors is “oh, somebody knows a tutor, let me call that one person.” But I really like how PCH Tutors puts that time, care and effort into hiring quality people and not only that but matching them with people whose personalities match and their skill sets match. It’s nice to see that process and see students getting the help they need.
What’s some advice you’ve received from a teacher or mentor that you’ve found to be really valuable?
This may sound cheesy but one of my yoga teachers once wrote in a card to me, “More truth will set you free.” To me, I think that mostly just means be you who are, do what you want to do, and don’t worry so much about what society or your parents or whomever wants you to do. I think that’s really good advice because I think often people may end up going to a certain college because that is what they think they should do or studying and then not being interested in it or not. Like, if you’re going to have to work until you’re 120 these days, you might as well be doing what you like to do! I wish someone had told me this way earlier and it’s something I like to share with others.
Is there a mantra or some advice you like to share when you’re leading trainings or teaching others?
This is kind of connected to what I just said, but I feel like it’s been hard for me to have a lot of different careers and change direction a bunch. And so I think just something I remind myself is that I am strong and smart and can do these things. I try to focus on the positive attitude instead of feeling that I should be doing something because everyone else is doing that thing. Just staying true to what it is you want to do and knowing that you can.
Do you have any time for fun?
I’m so busy right now. But I like cooking - I think homemade food is what’s missing from a lot of people’s lives. I’m not very good at growing plants but I also have a handful of plants in my bedroom that I’m trying to grow including an avocado plant that has been really fun. I’m doing it from a pit. It has huge, beautiful leaves right now. It’s hard not to kill it. You have to change the water.
What’s your best dish?
Right now I’m really into fried rice but I don’t use soy sauce, I use coconut aminos which are a hidden gem. If you don’t use that you should go buy it ASAP. I’m also making lamb stew - I have a really good recipe that’s lamb and rice. Usually I don’t like to mix foods together - I’ll have everything separate on my plate but there’s one dish where you make the lamb, you make the rice, and then you make a cucumber-feta-tomato-delicious salad, and then you mix it all together, it’s really good. I’ve also been making homemade chicken soup which has been really amazing because it’s freezing and raining every day. Cold foods are anti-Chinese medicine but I also really like smoothies.
Why is cold food anti-Chinese medicine?
Because food’s supposed to build and nourish the fire, so eating warm and cooked foods is good and cold dishes are not. It takes more time and energy for your body to turn it into what it wants it to be. Also, Americans tend to be scared of fat but I’m into those healthy fats because it’s really fat that makes you skinny.
Hence, Bulletproof coffee and avocado trees.
Yes!
Does your avocado tree have a name?
Ooh, no, but I’d love suggestions.
Post Script:
PCH Tutors conducted an Instagram poll [@pchtutors] to find the perfect name for Heather’s avocado tree. The roundup included:
Guac
Nacho Avocado Tree
Gerard
Terry
Toast
Avi
Heather chose Gerard.
