Michigan’s Holistic Directory

FEATURED PRACTITIONER/BUSINESS

Summer, 2006

Introducing Holistic Businesses

and

Natural Healthy Living

June Hinkle, Gordon Burbridge,

Nancy Angelo

A number of months ago a group of complementary health practitioners got together with The Cottage Retreat Center to talk about collaboration regarding our mutual concern for natural healthy living. The work and focus of The Cottage Retreat Center is enrichment of spirituality by offering programs and retreats that nurtures mind, body and spirit.

Partnering with complementary health practitioners supports our mission while furthering the wellness work these practitioners provide. Together we promote optimum natural healthy living choices in the Jackson, Hillsdale and surrounding areas. Services offered by these complementary health practitioners include Healing Touch, Reiki, Hot Stone Massage, Tai Chi, Meditation, Acupuncture, Nutrition, Healthy Home, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Yoga, Raw Foods, Guided Imagery, Energy Balance, and Aromatherapy.

An all day event entitled Natural Healthy Living has evolved from this partnership to be held October 21, 2006 at Firth Middle School, 205 East Seymour Street, Jackson from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. Our purpose is to make known the many untapped resources of Holistic Practitioners in this geographical area. Keynote speakers are Mark Leventer, MD and Sue Tracy, Chaplain Spectrum Health. Twelve workshops will be offered from which to choose four related to a variety of modalities. Display tables with information and healthy living products will be available.

This article reflects the spirit and work of this Natural Healthy Living group. Practitioners who contributed to this information are: Bobbi Byrd, Barbara McConnelll, Rev. Sally Bunce, Charlene Krueger, Beverly Pickett, and Dawn Bean from Passages Center for Women¹s Health of Foote Health System.

Care of the whole person is entering the consciousness of society. The average person is beginning to ask what is causing their symptoms and looks for more creative solutions than just covering up isolated symptoms with medication. They want a healthcare provider who looks at the whole picture and works cooperatively with them to promote good health and a better understanding of the causes and treatment options.

Another way of caring for self is Healing Touch that restores harmony and balance in the energy system through bio-field therapy. It is heart-centered and uses light touch to facilitate health and healing while the client remains fully clothed.

The benefits of meditation are numerous. Meditation can be described as the door that opens to inner peace, awakens the heart and deepens the awareness of life's riches. Some practice meditation for health reasons to lower blood pressure, reduce stress and decrease pain, improve concentration and creativity. Others practice meditation to deepen their experience of God. It is an ageless human experience that has been discovered, explored and used in every known period of time and culture. Meditation increases strength and serenity, access to the limitless wisdom of the ages, and enduring peace and joy.

Enduring peace begins within each person. Peace is possible when body, mind and spirit are in balance. Natural healing and wellness practices like eating natural healthy foods, meditation, and enjoying nature are ways to deepen peace. Deep inner peace shapes actions, speech and thought effecting love and healing in the collective soul of the world.

Awareness of the human connection with all of creation and environment opens paths to peace. Deepening awareness attunes us to the ever-increasing impurities in our air, preservatives in our food, dyes and new materials we put on our bodies. We are constantly becoming stressed. Learning to lead a natural healthy life is essential especially with regard to current healthcare protocol.

Healthy connections are enhanced through Aromatherapy described as an art and science of utilizing naturally extracted aromatic essences from plants to balance, harmonize and promote the health of body, mind and spirit. Essential oils, one of the oldest methods of holistic healing for at least 4000 years, are suitable for a variety of uses: topically, inhalation, body soaks, and may aid in the relief of some common ailments.

Recognizing that each person is innately spiritual is essential for being most fully human. The sacred spark within individuals has the potential for unimaginable love and healing. Following a spiritual path towards wholeness and peace is a journey integrating the disparity with self, others and our environment. Come nurture your entire self on October 21, 2006.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 517-796-5670.

 

Summer, 2006

Introducing Holistic Businesses

GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS®
The Art of Exercise and Beyond

Two wonderful training systems that most people are likely familiar with are Yoga and Pilates. Both help to develop flexibility and core strength. Now there is something new and different to experience - GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® Exercises.

GYROTONIC® exercises are performed in private sessions using the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM®. This is a pulley tower that consists of two pieces: a seven foot tall tower with two sets of pulleys and a bench with two sets of rotating wheels at one end. With the trainee's hands manipulating the discs, the GYROTONIC® instructor helps guide him/her through a series of arches and curls, which smoothly move the spine through flexion and extension. To exercise the upper body and hamstrings, the arms, legs, or hands fit into the straps attached to the pulleys, which provide resistance and support to the movements. All movements are generated from the "seed center" (deep pelvic floor muscles) and integrated with breathing. The movement is elliptical and infinite. This creates movement that looks and feels like dance or "swimming in air."

Contrary to other workouts, the trainee never gets "red in the face" while performing GYROTONIC® exercises. Rather, the face becomes more relaxed and open. When coordinated with breath and the rhythm of the movement, the GYROTONIC® system can be very meditative. But don't be fooled into thinking the muscles will not be sculpted and reveal definition. On the contrary, because the movement is a blend of strength and flexibility, lean muscles will be created without "bulking up." The individual will leave a session feeling taller and invigorated, all with minimal effort.

GYROKINESIS® uses the same principles as GYROTONIC® but is done with mats and stools. Both of these systems were developed by Julio Horvath, a professional dancer from Romania. After an injury ended his career, he began to study yoga intensively and experiment with movement and energy pathways. He continues to teach and further develop both GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® systems. Mr. Horvath oversees the certification process of teachers, which includes study with one of his Master Trainers, completion of an 180-hour apprenticeship, and final training with Mr. Horvath himself. There is now a "waiting period" for acceptance into the final certification course because of the popularity of the system. Studios that now offer GYROTONIC® lessons have tripled worldwide.*

Besides its popularity with dancers and athletes, GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® are recommended by professionals in the medical field. Both disciplines are ideal for muscle, ligament, and tendon recovery without sacrificing fitness. These systems have also been shown to be extremely beneficial to people with arthritis. Arthritis causes the collagen in ligaments and joints to wear down which the GYROTONIC® system counters by gently stretching these areas and bringing additional blood and nutritional supply. GYROTONIC® helps reestablish the body's natural way of moving and corrects the alignment of the spine.

Local certified GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® practitioner, Jane Gamble, is the former Artistic Director of Happendance Professional Modern Dance Company. She has been a professional dancer and teacher for 35 years. Jane (known as Mary Jane to her students) also teaches children's creative movement classes in the mid-Michigan area. Jane is well known for her unique approach to teaching, which provides students, both children and adults, with a supportive, relaxed, and safe environment in which to learn.

Jane's services can be engaged through two locations:

        • Center for Yoga Movement and Massage at 1780 E Grand River, East

   Lansing MI 48823 website: www.center4yoga.com      phone: 517.333.9883

•  Jane's home studio in Laingsburg (jjanearth@aol.com)      

               or call:    517.651.6726  or  517.282.3303

Client in photos is Matt Bebermeyer (professional dancer)

* GYROTONIC®, GYROKINESIS® ,GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM®
and The Art of Exercising and Beyond® are registered
trademarks of Gyrotonic Sales Corp. and are
used with their permission.

 

Spring, 2006                                                                                                                   Introducing Holistic Practitioners

        Reverend Troy Shaw

Spiritual guidance and spiritual healing take the individual on a journey to that center of self where life decisions are made. The goal is to awaken to the truth of our divine nature, do the healing work needed and claim our divine heritage.....our True Self.

Today, many are searching for a richer and more meaningful experience with spirituality and a greater sense of fulfillment in life. Questions and comments like "isn't there something more", "I just want to find peace", or
" I don't know who I am anymore" are often asked. Regardless of religious
background or spiritual understanding, most would agree that we are something more than just our bodies, even if we struggle with our perception or belief in God, or just what that something more might be. To grow beyond who and what we are today, we must go beyond the rational mind and search within, to that place of inner knowing that holds the key to our personal truth, and our connection of Oneness with all life.

A holistic minister can provide an approach that offers a path to awareness and healing through a unique understanding that health is not just a body free from pain, but a state of Being that allows for an experience of harmony at all levels.

•As an interfaith minister, there is a specialized awareness and understanding of the need to guide, educate, support and nurture both the personality and the Soul.

•As a practitioner of complementary healing modalities, therapies are provided to initiate the healing process at all levels.

•Finally, training in esoteric spiritual teachings and spiritual science allows Rev. Shaw to also assume the role of teacher in helping others to look more deeply at who they are and the spiritual significance of their lives.

Helping individuals to develop and enhance self-awareness by establishing a personal connection to one's own inner guidance and an emerging contact with the Divine within, growth and healing is inspired on multiple levels. This is accomplished with healing and counseling techniques and spiritual practices that integrate both human and spiritual, the Whole Being. Reverend Shaw will also offer suggestions about coordination of care with other healing professionals based on individual need.

Why work with a holistic minister?
The approach used by a holistic minister can help one to experience progressive states of peace and connectedness, and a healthier life-style that results in stress reduction and an ability to manage life more effectively!

Care and guidance from a holistic minister can be initiated by an illness or personal crisis, or to satisfy an inner need for a more profound spiritual awareness and sustenance. Inner need can be experienced as a longing for "something more" in life, as a result of having a spiritually profound experience, or as an "awakening" that suggests a change in the direction of your life.

Teaching & Professional Background
Reverend Shaw is also a teacher and the Assistant Director of Semper Ad Lucem (meaning "Always toward the Light"), a contemporary School of Wisdom based in Jackson. Working with the founder and Director of the school, Reverend Sally Bunce, together they offer classes in both Jackson and Lansing in Meditation, Ancient Wisdom, Spiritual Healing, Dream Study and much more!

Reverend Shaw graduated from Sancta Sophia Seminary and was ordained by Light of Christ Community Church, a member of the International Council of Community Churches, in 2004. She is an ecumenical, interfaith minister and is currently working on her Masters Degree in Theology. She has been a student of spiritual studies and the healing arts for approximately 11 years. Certified as a Spiritual Counselor, Reiki and Esoteric Healer, she also provides Spiritual Direction and Mentoring, Pastoral Care Services, and designs and performs marriages, funerals, baptisms and rituals for people of all faiths.

Reverend Shaw is based in Mason and serves the Lansing, Jackson and surrounding areas. She can be reached at (517)206-6057 or by email at librashaw@cablespeed.com   

                 

Winter, 2006

Introducing Holistic Businesses

The Greenhouse Birth Center

Looking for a unique birth experience? The Greenhouse Birth Center, Mid-Michigan's only freestanding birth center, provides complete prenatal, labor, birth, and postpartum care, as well as massage services, childbirth education and free support groups for parents.

The Greenhouse Birth Center differs from a traditional hospital birth practice in several key ways:

•The Greenhouse Birth Center is staffed and run by midwives. At the Greenhouse Birth Center, pregnant clients and new moms are cared for by certified nurse-midwives, professionals specifically trained in providing care to healthy women experiencing normal pregnancies. Midwives spend time getting to know their clients, answering their questions, and providing support and encouragement. At the Greenhouse Birth Center, prenatal visits are up to an hour long each‹an unhurried way for mother and midwife to get to know each other and to address any problems or concerns that come up. This allows the midwives to provide excellent prenatal care, getting to know the client as an individual while thoroughly assessing her pregnancy. Midwifery care offers superior outcomes, especially in an out-of-hospital setting.

•It's private and homelike. The Greenhouse Birth Center allows women privacy and control over their birth environment. Its birth rooms look and feel like bedrooms, without the sterile, cold feel of some hospital rooms. Instead of "machines that go ping" and stainless steel medical equipment, laboring clients are surrounded by tasteful, calming décor, and instead of an ever-changing supply of nurses and medical staff, a client at the Greenhouse Birth Center is attended by her midwife - the same one throughout her labor and birth - and other birth center staff she¹s come to know and trust. Friends, family, children, or anyone else she chooses is welcome at her birth. No strangers!

•The birth experience is dictated by the mother, not medical protocol. You won¹t see laboring women lying in bed hooked up to machines, restricted from moving, eating, or drinking, at the Greenhouse Birth Center. Instead, laboring clients are encouraged to move around, relax in the deep tubs, (and give birth in the water, if they choose), eat and drink to keep up their energy, and labor in any position that feels good to them. Because the patient load is smaller than a hospital practice, the Greenhouse Birth Center's staff has time to personally monitor and assist a laboring client - instead of relying on equipment and medication to control and assess her progress.

•

•Mom and baby aren't separated after birth. Instead of regarding babies and moms as two separate "patients", the Greenhouse Birth Center views and treats them as one unit, assessing the newborn in Mom¹s arms, assisting with breastfeeding, and providing comprehensive postpartum care that addresses parenting and feeding issues as well as Mom's health and recovery.

The Greenhouse Birth Center is located near the Meridian Mall in Okemos, across from the Target Plaza and next to Steak N' Shake on Newman Rd. Free information sessions and tours are offered to the public every Thursday night at 7 PM. For more information, call (517) 349-2620 or visit

www.greenhousebirthcenter.com

 

Fall, 2005

Introducing Holistic Businesses

THE WATERSHED

WELLNESS CENTER

The Watershed Wellness Center offers a unique health program that works each and every time it is tried. Its six component health protocol is outlined in a book titled Achieving Great Health, by Bob McCauley, the company's founder. His health protocol is simple: in order to prevent and cure the body of any disease we must hydrate, alkalize and detoxify the body.

How we accomplish this is by drinking Ionized Water, which is produced by running normal tap water over positive and negative electrodes. This creates positive and negative ions in the water that are then separated. Thus, two different waters with opposite characteristics are created at the same time, one alkaline, the other acid. We drink the alkaline water that has become a powerful antioxidant and free radical scavenger while providing the body with oxygen. It alkalizes the body, helping to raise the pH, which is critical since all disease lives in an acid environment and won¹t live in an alkaline environment. Ionized Water is also significantly more hydrating than conventional water and is extremely detoxifying. Ionized Water is available at The Watershed Wellness Center by the gallon.

Bob also endorses the use of Spirulina & Chlorella, two powerful superfoods that provide the body with a broad array of nutrients, including all the vitamins and minerals to body requires. Chlorella is a green algae, Spirulina a blue-green algae. They are the most nutritionally dense foods known, containing 60% protein, the highest of any foods. They are what we should use for our protein rather than meat, fish, eggs or dairy products. Spirulina & Chlorella are not supplements, but rather whole foods. Eating them is like a banana or broccoli. Bob does not encourage the use supplements of any kind because they do not lead to health.

Probiotics, the friendly bacteria the body requires to digest food, keep the digestive tract clean and intestinal invaders such as yeast, mold, bacteria and viruses. They are an essential component of health and should be consumed daily. Bob also promotes moving away from eating cooked foods and more toward a Raw Food Diet, eating fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. We are under the mistaken belief that cooked foods keep us healthy when in fact they lead to nearly all disease. Chronic disease is not found in nature. It does not appear in any species on Earth except humans and the animals we domesticate and feed a processed food diet. Raw foods rejuvenate the body, cooked foods barely sustain us. Raw foods alkalize and detoxify the body, while cooked foods deposit their toxins in the body and acidify it.

Another aspect of health emphasized by Bob is regular daily Exercise. Without it every part of our body atrophies and withers, including muscle tissue, organs and bodily systems. The most important thing we need to do if we expect to be healthy is to maintain a Positive Mental Attitude. No matter how healthy we eat, if our mind is against us we don¹t have a chance to be truly healthy.

Available for use at The Watershed Wellness Center is a Far Infrared (FIR) Sauna, which is used like a regular sauna, however its affect on our health is far more profound. The benefits of using a FIR Sauna are tremendous weight loss (300 500 calories per 30 minute session) and deep detoxification. The body actually sweats out heavy metals, trans-fats, radiation and fat itself, all of which are never found in typical sweat. Using a FIR Sauna is the ONLY natural, healthy way to burn calories without exercising! As your body temperature rises, it creates an artificial temperature which helps to build the immune and cardiovascular systems.

The Watershed Wellness Center offers Fresh Salads daily. Their signature dressings are completely original and unlike any others you may have tried.

The Watershed Wellness Center Guarantee: If you Follow our Health Protocol, Great Health will result. Your Body Can Cure Itself of Any Disease. Only You Can Stand in Your Way of True Health.

The Watershed Wellness Center has been located on the west side of Lansing at 6439 W. Saginaw Hwy., just west of Creyts Rd. for the last 10 years. Call for more information (517) 886-0440 or visit their website:
WWW.WATERSHED.NET.                           .

 

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The practitioners featured here are also featured in current or previous issues of THE HOLISTIC BOOK.  Each has written an article describing his or her service offerings, training and experience.  Archived featured practitioners and businesses: Practitioners and businesses featured more than a year ago are listed on the Archived Featured Practitioners Index Page.