The Healer

Whether you’re a high-profile client or a regular Joe, Buddhist nun–turned–spiritual wellness guru HENY FER AWATI is here to help

- Christopher Bagley

Thirteen years ago, before she became a Buddhist nun, Heny Ferawati showed up at a meditation center in Bali for her first silent retreat. She had a lot of trouble with the silence part. In fact, Ferawati spent most of her 14-day stay making more noise than anyone else because she kept bursting into sobs.

“At first you don’t know how to control your mind or deal with your anxiety,” says Ferawati, who’s known as Fera. With some guidance from a monk, Fera got her tears under control, and before long she was living at a monastery in Myanmar. Seven years after getting ordained, she returned to Indonesia to care for her mother and eventually began working at a wellness center at the idyllic Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan— yes, the place where Julia Roberts stayed while shooting scenes for Eat Pray Love and where the Obama family camped out on vacation in 2017.

About five years ago Fera became the resident wellness mentor at the luxe resort, where she created treatments like the Sacred Nap, a blissful ritual that has even longtime insomniacs snoring in purple hammocks as she whispers blessings in Sanskrit and uses a traditional singing bowl. “The idea came after I had my daughter two years ago and saw how comforted she was when I rocked her to sleep or sang to her,” says Fera. “I realized that the best time for us is when we are babies. You have no burdens, no emails to worry about. Everyone loves you, and you can really sense that. I wanted to bring adults back to that time.”