Wellness professionals join forces to bring mind-body connection to community

A group of over 16 established Grand Rapids wellness professionals have come together under one collective group to make a holistic range of natural services available to clients under one roof. Calling themselves The Wellness Collective GR, the group is essentially a co-op of like-minded professionals. Practitioners include nutrition counselors, life coaches, naturopaths, natural health therapists and consultants, massage therapists, counselors, yoga instructors and other types of natural health practitioners. While each member of the coop provides a different service and maintains their own clientele, they are all committed to one common purpose: to help clients understand the connection between mind and body.

Every professional under The Wellness Collective GR brings many years of experience and their own well established practice to the co-op. They maintain separate offices in one shared address, at 1324 Lake Drive SE, Suite 4 in Easttown. The coop’s office shares one reception desk, and includes open event or studio spaces which are used for private sessions and community events.

While each member maintains their own business entity and billing system, the collective name gives individual professionals a wider client reach. Importantly, the shared facility also gives clients convenient access to key services which could compliment the work they’re doing with one individual.

“What really connects us is how we all see mental and physical wellness as two sides of the same coin,” says Life Purpose and Entrepreneurial Coach Leah Grace. “Every practitioner we’ve welcomed into the group has solid integrity, and is passionate about the work they do. There’s no ego here - we’re all just here to serve, with the highest integrity.”

According to Grace, each member of The Wellness Collective GR is committed to their own professional development, and providing the best services the industry has to offer.

Many clients of the co-op’s members have come to them as a part of proactively seeking ways to live a better life. Others have sought out alternative methods offered by the co-op's members as a last resort, after having exhausted more traditional medical and allopathic options.

"A lot of people know life can be different, but they have no clue how to go about it," says Grace. "They don’t understand the mental-physical-emotional-spiritual connection. They’re unaware that they have the ability to thrive, that their body is intelligent and knows what it needs to do.”

Someone with a persistent rash, Grace cites as an example, may have struck out finding answers with doctors, and come to one of The Wellness Collective GR’s practitioners as a last resort.

“We look at things that are deeper than the physical,” Grace says. “For example, we’ll go back and make an emotional map of that person’s life, to see if there is an emotional root. More often than not, we might find that something particularly stressful happened right around the time the rash or ailment appeared. Our emotions and bodies are in sync with each other.”

In addition to providing individual services, The Wellness Collective GR hosts regular community classes, events and workshops, such as their upcoming classes on Gentle Spinal Care Yoga, Holistic Childbirth Education and How to Brew Your Own Kombucha. There is one community support group which meets at the space on a monthly basis.

“So many people are becoming more aligned with this type of thinking, so we also wanted to have a space where like minded individuals can come, and rent the space out for their own purposes,” said Grace. “We didn’t want it to just be us offering things - we wanted to open up a space for the community, which offers services beyond just what we as practitioners offer.”

Class and workshop schedules, as well as descriptions of individual practitioners’ services, can be found on the co-op’s website.