About Us

Vision & Mission

Vision - The Heart Center, a restorative healing community for the mind, body, and Spirit, envisions a New Earth where everyone expresses their uniqueness and magnitude through their gifts and talents; self-mastery and integration of their own Truth, in alignment with a Spiritually based universal consciousness, that embodies the principles of love, peace, harmony, and Oneness.

Mission - Using a Spiritual, energetic, and holistic approach, The Heart Center provides a window of opportunity for self-intuitive healing and individual awareness that restores balance and harmony, wellbeing and joy, which spreads a ripple effect into our communities and Mother Earth.

Our intention is to provide a comfortable, peaceful, restorative, and joyful experience to our guests and visitors.

Our approach promotes self empowerment and personal responsibility, as individuals are guided through a four step process encompassing mind, body, spirit, and nature.

We believe that we are all part of a larger and universal family and because of this, we promote respectful, loving, and compassionate interactions. We embrace our differences and uniqueness which, in turn, promote wholeness, balance, and harmony in our communities and world.

The Heart Center Social Impact Goals

To assist guests to experience a deeper, personal and spiritual connection to humanity and our planet through:
Promoting higher level consciousness and awareness.
Daily open meditation practice and life guidance.
Healing and restorative practices and activities.
A loving, respectful, holistic and common ground approach.
Multi-faceted education, motivation and integration activities.

To provide our guests a comfortable, peaceful, restorative and joyful setting by:
Using a spiritual family-based guest service model – No strangers.
Maintaining warm, clean and restful accommodations.
Ensuring an inviting and uplifting environment.
Creating a memorable experience that invites one back to do more personal growth, discovery and sharing.
To focus on a pristine, natural and holistic experience that ensures:
Respect, preservation and connection with Mother Earth.
The enjoyment of area attractions and healthy, rejuvenating adventures.
Healthy, strong and supportive bodies through vegetarian and organic food choices at the Sacred Choice Café.
Organic Terra A Mesa experience – Farm-to-table project.
Smoke and drug-free facility.

A commitment to a limited technology experience thereby:
Promoting a personal understanding of the value of temporary detachment from worldly concerns.
Assisting the body and mind to relax and reconnect with essential self, others and natural environment.
Opening to our innate wisdom and trusting our inner knowing.

Liz Velazquez – Disruptive Channel, Restoration of Truth Conduit, Life Path Guide, Intuitive Healing Agent. Liz, Founder of the Heart Center, has been studying Truth principles since the age of 13, when she was invited to attend a Unity Church service. She immediately fell in love with the natural environment of the church – a giant tree growing from inside and out through the ceiling.

Secondly, she was impressed by the fact that there was meditation during the service – she could feel the peace and harmony in that short moment of silence in which everyone participated. Finally, she was captured by the words of the minister when he said, "I know you are all doing well in the worldly sense because you are elegantly dressed; you live in a great neighborhood; and, you are driving nice cars. But I want to tell you something, there is not a house fancy enough for you, or clothes elegant enough for you, or cars that can take you to greater places, than what is available to you in the true knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven."

She was hooked! She proposed to herself after that service to live in close communion with nature; practice meditation on a regular basis and to seek the truth in that ethereal promised land. It has been a long, beautiful, challenging and rewarding journey and it has been her professional intention and heart felt desire to assist others in their journey to discovering their own inner truth and the joy and peace that she has experienced in her life through, nature, meditation and contemplation.

Training and Education:

Graduated from UC, Davis – Social/Cultural Anthropologist
Unity Chaplain in Prayer Ministry, Tampa, FL
Therapeutic Foster Parent and Case Management, NC
Usui Reiki Master and Reiki Tummo Practitioner
Raja Yoga Advanced Teacher Training, San
4 Years of Non-Dual Kabbalistic Healing, A Society of Souls
Enneagram
Kriya Yoga Initiate, Center for Spiritual Awareness, GA
Founder of Light on the Mountain, Struggling Children’s Camp
Founder of The Heart Center, a Restorative Healing Center for Mind, Body and Spirit

Anna Pietkiewicz – Culinary Artist and Yoga Teacher

I have always had a keen interest in delicious, nutritional food. I have been blessed to be surrounded by loved ones who have taught me the importance, and art, of feeding yourself well and cooking with love. My mom provided a great foundation for the value of home-cooked, whole foods, which I have carried with me all through my life. Additionally, I have been blessed to be mentored by friends who are great artists with food. Cooking inevitably became one of my passions and I find immense joy in sharing that with loved ones and guests. Gathering around the table to share food has always been something beautiful and transformative for me. The communal practice of sharing food is a joy I have. Using the foundation for valuing nourishing foods, I was inspired and ready to be creative with meals, once choosing to eat a vegetarian lifestyle.

Creating dishes with a cultural theme sparks my interest as every culture offers unique flavors, colorful food, and a variety of textures. Also, creating “fusion” dishes, between cultures, is an exciting, creative experience in the kitchen. Food brings us together, it allows for a space to open up so we can share from our authentic selves. It is my desire to bring this wholesome, vegetarian, and lively food experience to the holistic approach in restoring mind, body, spirit to balance and harmony.

I am honored and grateful to offer yoga at The Heart Center.

I have been a student and practitioner of yoga for almost 10 years. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root word “yuj”, meaning “to unite”, or “to yoke.” Yoga practice is aimed to create the union between mind, body, and spirit, and that can be achieved through the many variations of yoga. I was drawn to the calmness, presence, and community that yoga has always brought to my life and love sharing that with others.

In 2017, I received my training to become a registered yoga teacher that was a catalyst for my own personal growth and to learn how to guide people through a yoga class using breath, body, and a variety of yoga modalities. The practice of yoga is not just done on the mat, we want to take it and integrate the practice off the mat as well, and into our lives.

Being able to provide culinary services and yoga at The Heart Center has truly been a blessing. As we nourish ourselves with health and gather around the table, we also can feel that union of the mind, body, and spirit with ourselves and others. This benefit can then be felt through the power of the restorative, integrative, and holistic approach of The Heart Center, that includes nourishing food and yoga.

Erin Smith Emmons – Garden Management and Ear Seeds Practioner. My name is Erin Smith Emmons, and I’m proudly a part of The Heart Center team. I moved to North Carolina seven years ago from Alaska. It was there that I found my deep relationship with Mother Earth and our environmental impact.

From 2010-2014, I served a native village as an Environment Specialist in sustainability and preservation of natural resources, mostly living off the land in a respectful way. I also managed the Gakona Village Community Garden and educated the Tribe that I represented how to garden and harvest. I feel these experiences led me to help be a steward of our environment and realized that we are all connected to this divine earth.

During 2016-2017 I taught many informative courses related to herbal medicine and the use of essential oils for health purposes at the Tri County Community College. I have a strong interest in native plants and medicinal herbs, the vast ecosystem at my disposal is a great influence on this!

My interest in gardening and sustainability unfolded in the town of Robbinsville, and I became the community garden director. This has been an on-going project since 2019 and continues to thrive in the community, providing organic food, education for younger generations and a network of like-minded people. This also led me to attend many seminars under The Organic Growers School (OGS) of Asheville, NC. Enhancing my knowledge of horticulture, permaculture and sustainable farming methods.

As of March 2022, I was drawn to auricular therapy and became an Ear Seeds Reflexology Practioner. This healing modality is based on Chinese reflexology, a gentle application of ear seeds to maintain balance and bring harmony to the body.

It brings me much joy to offer this practice to The Heart Center. As we heal ourselves, we help heal the world. In connecting our collective gifts, growth and community blossoms with each seed planted.