Collaboration is a major breakthrough for holistic health and wellness in New York City area

NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — New York College of Health Professions, a pioneer in holistic health for more than 30 years, and the New York Open Center, a leading continuing education provider for holistic health that has featured many world famous pioneers in holistic care, such as Deepak Chopra, Dr. Oz and Andrew Weil, have announced a new, creative collaboration. In January 2012, the New York College will begin offering its programs at the Open Center’s 30th Street location.

The collaboration creates a major breakthrough for holistic health and wellness in the New York Metro area. With the offering of degree and licensure programs at the Open Center, this will be New York College’s third New York City location. Its other two sites at The Riverside Church in Morningside Heights and at the University Settlement Houston Street Center began offering holistic health degree programs in late 2011.

The Open Center, which has welcomed such major figures as Dr. Mehmet Oz, Daniel Goleman, Andrew Weil, Karen Armstrong, Deepak Chopra, Rachel Naomi Remen, Robert Bly, James Hillman, Thomas Moore, and Gary Zukav as frequent teachers, runs certificate programs in many areas but has yet to offer undergraduate or graduate degree programs. The Open Center has been New York City’s leading center of holistic learning and world culture for 28 years.

“Over the past decades both nonprofit institutions have worked along parallel lines to help educate and serve their communities, and have earned international reputations for their programs in integrative health, wellness and many other dimensions of holistic learning. While the Open Center has offered nondegree programs in health, psychology, spiritual traditions, the arts and ecology, New York College has concentrated on degree programs, offering the first massage therapy degree program and the first acupuncture degree in New York state. This new collaboration creates an exciting potential to share skills and resources, to enhance both institutions’ dynamic offerings,” says Walter Beebe, president of the New York Open Center. For more information, visit www.opencenter.org.

Lisa Pamintuan, president of New York College, added, “Both organizations have been pioneers in education. Working together toward new programs with exceptional breadth and depth will enable them to exponentially expand their offerings to the communities they serve.”

New York College has a 30-year history of pioneering holistic heath care and education, including continuing education courses for nurses and other health care providers, and will benefit from an association with the Open Center and its enormous scope of fascinating programs. The college has its main campus in Syosset, Long Island, and has recently opened sites in New York City on the Upper West Side at The Riverside Church and in the SoHo/ Chinatown area at the intersection of Houston and Bowery at University Settlement. It now will also hold classes in Midtown at the Open Center. The college also maintains a 30-acre modern health care facility in the People’s Republic of China and will shortly make an announcement for a new venture in that country. For more information, visit www.NYCollege.edu.

Additionally, New York College and its community look forward to the utilization of some of its world class portfolio of Intellectual Property, valued at tens of millions of dollars in underdeveloped stage appraisals.

New York College and New York Open Center look forward to working together and expanding the horizons of holistic learning in the Eastern U.S.