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Island Therapy is a group mental health practice that adds a holistic flair to their practice. The practice offers individual, child and adolescent and couples therapies and has holistic methods to offer to clients, such as Reiki and crystal healer practitioners as well as yoga instructors. Located in Somers Point, N.J., they have opened up a new office in Hammonton inside Graycewyngs Gardens and Interiors.
Opened since 2020, owner Angie Corry and office manager Caitlyn Fitzick chose Somers Point as the location of the office as they both have a background in the community, especially the Shore area. It also seemed ideal as it gave direct access to the surrounding communities like Ocean City, Linwood and Egg Harbor Township, according to Fitzick.
“We love building relationships with just about everyone so when we were picking our location, Somers Point seemed ideal because it’s one of our smaller communities but it also gives us direct access to some of the larger communities in town,” Corry said.
The Somers Point office is also close to the Garden State Parkway, they have various clients coming in from Cape May County. While serving Somers Point and the Shore area, both Corry and Fitzick wanted to see which one of the more underserved communities in Atlantic County could use their services and chose Hammonton.
“The community is awesome up there [in Hammonton]. It’s so quaint, nice and welcoming, we’ve met so many business owners and they’re awesome,” Corry said.
Fitzick went to school for office and business management at Ocean County College and met Corry at a previous job. After the both of them left their previous job, Corry was opening a private practice and Fitzick asked to join.
“I’ve been with her side-by-side and just building the practice. It started with 30 clients, if that, and it was just Angie herself and we just started building and then we wanted to start offering workshops to the community so we started offering all types of workshops: yoga, full moon, EFT [Emotional Freedom Technique] tapping. Angie and I are also very good friends on the outside as well so it works out between us and we want to keep helping as many people as we can and it’s not so much as growing, we want to be able to help and let people know we want to help people and we’ve flourished,” Fitzick said.
Corry is a licensed clinical social worker after receiving her graduate degree from Rutgers University. She worked in the Atlantic County Office Building in Atlantic City, where she worked with a team that secured housing for the homeless, where she went under the boardwalk and made sure homeless people had food and clean clothes. Corry described that experience as where it all started for her. She then worked in the federal government, commuting from Somers Point to Philadelphia, until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Three weeks into the pandemic, she decided that she would start her own practice.
“I saw that people were being stuck at home and it was really taking a toll on their mental health. I had been working at a practice with Caitlyn before this, had used my license in therapy but never owned my own business. When I had decided to go off on my own, left my federal job and pension and everything, I said ‘this is what the community needs right now.’ I started working from home doing telehealth and then opened up in Somers Point and about four weeks into me working from home, Caitlyn gave me a call and said ‘can I come on board with you, please?’ and I said ‘absolutely!’ so we’ve been together since the beginning and it’s been a journey,” Corry said.
With the Hammonton community being so close-knit, both Fitzick and Corry want to use the opportunity to not only join the community but also network and get involved.
“We want to join the community, we want the residents to come to our workshops and meet us, expand their circle and network. We like to do a lot for the community as well, we ran a feminine hygiene drive for the homeless people, we donated to a church, Angels in Motion in Atlantic City, we do Halloween trunk-or-treat. We try to get involved with the community as much as we can, it’s homey and we like to be homey. That’s just our whole goal, we want people to feel comfortable with us,” Fitzick said.
Both Fitzick and Corry also plans to keep the same island theme that the Somers Point office has for the Hammonton office and have praised Graycewyngs owner, Jennifer Jones-Rodriguez, for her graciousness and helping them transform the island vibe to the Hammonton office.
“People in Hammonton don’t have to travel down the Expressway to come to the beach, they’ll get that right in the office,” Corry laughed.
Island Therapy is open Monday through Saturday in the Somers Point office located at 803 New Road from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with Saturdays being 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. For the Hammonton office inside Graycewyngs Gardens and Interiors at 215 Pleasant Street East, it is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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