Service as a State of Mind “I’ve always been passionate about helping the most vulnerable populations,” says Mindi Counts (BA Contemplative Psychology, ‘08). Within months of launching her acupuncture practice and the Inner Ocean Center for Healing in Lafayette in April 2013, Counts founded Inner Ocean Empowerment Project, a nonprofit bringing integrative healthcare and education to places most in need.
“Service isn’t something you do—it’s a state of mind. And if you let it, it penetrates everything you do.” In the last four years, the organization has spent thirty-two weeks in the field on eight international and U.S.-based projects.
Among other projects, they have provided vital and timely assistance to survivors of sex-trafficking in India, victims of violence in the United States, persons displaced by natural disasters in Nepal and the United States, and Burmese refugees. That would be enough to keep most people busy, but Counts is also working on a book about Chinese medicine, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications in 2020.
Mindi Counts, Inner Ocean Empowerment Project founder, treats the many children who visit her clinics in Nepal. Many of these children have struggled significantly since the earthquake of 2015. She and her team brought along toys to replace the ones lost during the disaster.