Jennifer Nery: Putting community into practice

Written by Charles Noyes
Photos by Kelly Z Photography

Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement

Published in Northampton Living (July 2021)

Jennifer Nery, known as Jen., arrived in the Valley in 1994 when she attended Smith College “and it’s felt like home ever since,” she says. It was in Northampton where she started to discover what would become her lifelong passion for personal, alternative healthcare solutions.

“I would say I was always interested in wellness broadly,” she started, “I was an athlete and I was always interested in different ways of healing and performing better. I also always had an open mind and was curious about health.” Some of her early explorations into alternative medicines and treatments involved water fasting, a process of going without food and drinking only water for periods of time, which she continues to this day, and massage. But this budding interest became a necessity when she injured her shoulder playing rugby.

“I had a frozen shoulder for 2 years in my early twenties. I couldn’t lift my arm above shoulder level, it was so bad. I finally went to the doctor and they said the options were physical therapy, which I couldn’t afford, or acupuncture, which I could. I wasn’t expecting much, but from the first needle, everything changed.” After 3 sessions, she said, she regained full range of motion and was free from pain.

When she was leaving her first career in academic philosophy, Jen.’s first impulse was to explore the possibility of becoming an acupuncturist; this turned out to be the perfect fit.

Fast-forward to today and Jen Nery is the proud owner and a practitioner at CLINIC Alternative Medicines, located right on Main Street. Opened in 2011, CLINIC is a community-driven space for practitioners of many different alternative medicines to deliver their services. “We run it on the same model as a hair salon,” Jen said. “Practitioners rent space and run their own businesses there. I don’t dictate how they run or what they offer, they determine all that themselves, but I support them with the space, I administrate our scheduling software, our record keeping, and I put together a monthly newsletter and do promotions. There are a lot of opportunities we offer that they wouldn’t be able to get if they were on their own.”

What truly makes CLINIC unique are the bonds that everyone shares. Bonds between the practitioners and their clients—and between the practitioners themselves—make it feel more like a team than a business. “The communal aspect is something that not only functionally works well, but that I really love about this job. It’s all about creating a space that feels warm and cozy and supportive and healing. It’s our own little community within the greater Northampton community. It could feel like business but it feels more like a team.”

One other team that Jen helps run smoothly is, of course, her loving family. Jen’s partner Ryan Merten, along with kids Lena, age 10, and Estelle, nearly 2, all love to host get-togethers, and after Covid restrictions ease, they will have a great event to host: a celebration of the couple’s recent marriage!

“Lena is a 4th grader at Jackson Street School. She’s really into indie video games, as is Ryan. We all love board games and play those together. Most of our activities these Covid-days have been bike rides. Even the baby loves bike rides. We enjoy getting out into nature quite a lot and we’ve been spending lots of time at Fitzgerald Lake with the baby in the backpack! In the summer we all spend a lot of time in the rivers.”

Ryan’s life over the past year has been just as full of change as Jen’s. He is now working at Valley Solar as an installer and electrical apprentice. He is on the electrician training track taking classes at Smith Vocational. “He’s super excited about that. He comes home boasting about how much carbon he’s saved from the atmosphere. I think electrical work suits him, as he likes to be active and work with his hands, but also he has a background in chemistry and physics, so he’s getting to apply his academic knowledge and use his head.”

Throughout the pandemic, Jen has been able to peel back the black clouds to point out the silver linings. “Honestly, it’s given our family a chance for closeness that I’m not sure we would’ve had without it. We all get distracted with our friends and work and school and while those are still going on, there’s been more time for family as well. I’ve spent more time being around the kids, and I got the maternity leave I never would’ve gotten otherwise.”

And not only is Jen. part of the Northampton community through her work at CLINIC, but she is also a leader on the Chamber of Commerce’s Community Engagement Committee (CEC) and Nominations Committee. “The CEC is a newer committee and we’re figuring out what kind of projects are best for our community, but Nice Tuesdays are a way of getting people back out on the street and feeling engaged again with their community.” Nice Tuesdays is a weekly event that encourages individuals and families to engage with the community, local business, and organizations. As Jen said, “People have felt far away from each other and from things that were happening in town and we want to give people the feeling of participating in community activities again.”

Jen sees her work with the Chamber as an opportunity to make important change in Northampton. “It’s given me a voice on certain topics. The Chamber has been around for a long time and I respect that. It’s been very good at what it does, but I saw a great opportunity when I joined to use that as a chance to bring in some change. My big push since I joined was making sure we become more diverse in our membership and leadership, and since joining I’ve implemented a process that can achieve a more diverse Board.” And that push is already showing some promising results early on. “We’ve added more diversity the last few years in terms of race, socioeconomic class, disability, and sexual identity. Our new executive director, Vince Jackson, is African-American, and is determined that the Chamber will take leadership in local efforts to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive Northampton. We hope the Chamber will better represent the people we’re serving, going forward.” As for Jen’s next steps in a post-pandemic world, let’s just say she knows exactly what she wants to do. “I can’t wait to get back to biking and having a beer outside!” I think many of us can agree that sounds pretty good after the year we’ve had.