Feng Shui Guru Fawn Chang

Feng shui is a fascinating practice and can be integrated easily into one’s everyday life with the correct guidance.

If you're looking for guidance, the person to help you is Fawn Chang, a Sewickley resident, interior designer and feng shui expert.  She sat down with Patch recently to discuss the ins and outs of design and feng shui. 

 Q.What is feng shui?

A. A method of evaluating the interface between human seen and unseen influences on their health, and the ability to be personally powerful and happy. Feng shui science enables designers to offer simple solutions based on an individual's personal style, time, energy and financial budget.

Q. Why does it work?

A. It works for many reasons. 1) It's practical and addresses the entire environment, energy and goals of the people living and working in the spaces.  2) It engages natural forces of energy and guides the forces to their positive expression. 3) It is a science based on thousands of years of observation of forces influencing life and uses that evidence-based design to hone and predict outcomes. 4) it works because it anchors the positive influences in spaces affecting behavior -- colors, shapes, placement -- that would otherwise require conscious vigilance of the occupants.

Q. Is it for everyone?

A. Do you remember being in love? Nothing could stop you, you were healthy, happy, mountains moved, doors opened, everyone loved seeing you come around, you loved everyone, and you were alive. If your life isn't like that every day, you could benefit from an analysis of your spaces. Right now you are living with feng shui -- you are living and being influenced by all that is around you, seen and unseen, in the spaces you transit and occupy. Feng shui, and the right adjustments, can bring into your life that same powerful quality of being in love every day -- in love with life.

Q. How long have you been interested feng shui?

A. Since I was a small child. I understood space and the feeling of spaces and
where the energy was buoyant and where it was depleting -- many of us have that experience as a kid -- we just know things based on our "feeling" and many of us don't have validation of that intuition of living, sleeping, eating what is right for us right now. I was a brat in that I would find a way to make a space "feel" right. I would re-arrange my mother's house all the time. She didn't mind as long as I cleaned while I did it.

Q. How long have you been consulting?

A. I have been doing what I do for about 20 years.

Q. What are your qualifications?

A. I am a certified feng shui consultant and an interior designer. I studied interior and industrial design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and La Roche College, and life sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. I studied with Terah Collins in San Diego, Denise Linn, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Ibrahim Karim (BioGeometry), Jacob Jastrab, and many others.

Q. Some pretty visible people and places regularly use feng shui. Can you give some examples?

A. Many Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 corporations, especially those who operate in China or Hong Kong use feng shui. Donald Trump is famous for using feng shui, Disney World. There are many who use feng shui, but you'd not know it because true feng shui is personal and confidential.

Q. You work as a consultant in various capacities. Please explain them.

A. As a feng shui practitioner, everything I do has a basis in the energy of the event or design. I help my clients set their spaces with any number of options they would like to pursue, from straight feng shui all the way through to design of homes and offices and everything in them, from rugs to furniture to architectural details on a staircase or door. I am also the "National Color and Design" consultant for PPG Pittsburgh and PPG Porter Paintss such, I am always watching and reporting trends from around the world and I travel North America speaking and consulting with architects, designers and consumers. I am so grateful for what I do and the people I meet and the designs I get to help my clients create.

Q. How do people follow your work?

A. I am just now revising my Web presence and as soon as that is done, you can go online and follow my calendar and read my blog.

Q. How does someone get more information about feng shui?

A. There are a few great books I recommend. Mine will be coming out in a few months, but don't wait. Start reading now. The "Western Guide to Feng Shui," by Terah Collins, "Feng Shui Made Easy," by William Spear are both books I recommend because they look more fundamentally at the energy that is underneath cultural mythology. We all live in bodies on earth, and the type of true feng shui has little to do with our cultural filters than it does with the true nature of energy flow and life as we live it.

Q. Who is a good candidate for a consultation?

A. Anyone who wants their life to be easier, smoother, healthier and happier -- and oh, yes, wealthier, as defined as an abundance of whatever it is you love in your life.

Q. How do they reach you?

A. Fawn@fawnchang.com. I answer all my e-mails personally and look forward to hearing from you.