New Offerings by Established Businesses and Practitioners

Ann Arbor practitioners Heather Glidden and Robin Lily Goldberg became Michigan’s first certified Organic Intelligence (OI) mind-body coaches.

Glidden has been an integrative movement therapist and body worker since 2004, and Goldberg has been an interdisciplinary educator and healing arts practitioner since 2010. The two met when Goldberg took a class from Glidden around 2012, and they have been friends and collaborators ever since.

Glidden first encountered OI when she was looking for a safer, more supportive way to help her clients who had long-term effects from past traumatic experiences often resulting in physical pain in the present. The tools she already had available to her were too intense for some clients. “What I noticed about OI right away is what a gentle approach it is and how respectful it is of a person’s system,” she explained. Goldberg was drawn to OI when she heard about it from Glidden. At the time she was attending graduate school and the Covid19 pandemic was raging. She was researching ways to integrate arts and science in service of social and environmental justice. She was most interested in how it is grounded in neuroscience and complexity science.

OI, they explained, is a gentle conversational method that supports post-trauma growth by increasing presence and bandwidth. It uses positive psychology, somatics, and spirituality in a playful way that often results in sessions filled with laughter. Sessions use free-association conversations interspersed with invitations to connect to the environment through the senses or notice movement in the body. OI coaches recognize and support the impulses that arise naturally in the client’s system indicating how their body wants to organize and heal. Goldberg brings it back to evolutionary biology: “before we had lots of breathing and other holistic exercises, our bodies and systems evolved to deal with [stress and trauma]. We are revitalizing what is already within us and reminding our systems that they know how to heal.” She described the method as “holistic, but also systems-based,” which she had not seen with other modalities. She also said that it is “based on a lot of really rigorous, good science, but there’s also a very spiritual piece to it…. We can meet people where they are as to which parts they are interested in.”

Glidden has begun integrating OI into her movement and massage work. Clients have been able to move more comfortably than before, releasing their stuck tension patterns and gaining more traction in the work they are doing. Goldberg is using OI in her work with educators and in social justice spaces. In both fields, she explained, the rate of burnout and need for resilience is extreme. OI allows people to organize their systems so that they are dealing with stress and trauma automatically without having to call up extra reserves of energy to deal with things. They become more grounded and centered naturally, achieving more ease in their daily work. She calls it a “paradigm shifting modality.”

Goldberg and Glidden are excited to bring OI to Michigan and to inspire the Ann Arbor community with this refreshing approach to healing. Both offer one-on-one OI sessions: Glidden online or in-person at her home studio in northeast Ann Arbor, and Goldberg online or in-person outdoors in the warmer months.

More information is available on the websites constellationbody.com for Heather Glidden, and aurily.com for Robin Goldberg. Glidden can be reached at heather@constellationbody.com, and Goldberg can be reached at robin@aurily.com.

Creative Washtenaw, a 501c3 Nonprofit organization supporting the arts in the Ann Arbor and surrounding areas, announced the 11 most recent selections for their PowerArt! Project.

A multi-year project, PowerArt! Installs art on traffic signal boxes in downtown Ann Arbor. More than 500 people voted online to make the final selections from 15 semifinalists selected by a jury of local art professionals, business owners, and community leaders. The jury reviewed 107 artworks submitted by 50 Washtenaw County artists. Winning artists included Mary Murphy, Erin Voss, Janet Kohler, James Lee, Richard Goff, Jill Wagner, Bill Burgard, and Thomas Robertson. A few of the artists had more than one piece selected.

The PowerArt! Project started in 2014 with the first installations going up in late 2014 and early 2015. This is the fourth phase, and there are plans for a fifth. Program manager Margaret Woodard explained that urban beautification projects like PowerArt! reinforce walkable areas and beautify urban places making walking more enjoyable. It also lowers maintenance costs as the control boxes were previously covered in graffiti and flyers. In addition to creating beauty in the downtown area, PowerArt! aims to engage local artists and the public in this shared art and design project. The project is supported by the partnership of Creative Washtenaw, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, and the City of Ann Arbor Public Art Commission with additional support by local public art supporters Larry and Lucie Nisson. The installations are fun and whimsical, popular with locals and visitors alike. Once the project is complete, 50 signal boxes in downtown Ann Arbor will be wrapped.

The pieces selected for 2024 began installation in late 2024 and should be completed by spring of 2025 as weather permits. As some of the original pieces were aging, they are being replaced as well.

More information is available online at creativewashtenaw.org. Questions can be directed to info@creativewashtenaw.org or (734) 213-2733.

Psychologist Katherine Munter, PsyD MEd LP ATR expanded her art therapy practice and moved into a new space on Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor.

During the Covid19 pandemic, Munter said that her belief that connection is vital sharpened. While many of her fellow therapists were content to keep meeting clients online only, she wanted to return to in-person sessions for at least part of the time. Munter has taught and worked at schools, hospitals, and nursing homes with all ages from young children to the elderly. She helps people express themselves through diverse mediums, including collage, paint, pastel, colored pencils, and clay. What medium is used depends on the person’s interests and preferences. Sometimes, patients work with large rolls of paper for big pieces, and other times their projects are much smaller. Art therapy, explained Munter, is “more about the process than the final product.” She meets everyone where they are whether they have no experience in art or are highly trained. She works with neurodiversity, aging, and trauma. “We often work in a verbal realm,” she said, but sometimes working nonverbally through art can “show us things we don’t put into words.” Sometimes trauma happens to us before we have words to describe it, and sometimes things are painful to put into words. Art therapy, she said, can be inherently soothing, making it helpful for those with anxiety. It forces focused attention on the project in front of you, so it can be helpful for those with ADHD to build focus and concentration. It can help with critical thinking skills and creative problem solving and with resilience and moving through the discomfort of a problem in front of you.

Munter has welcomed colleagues Kemara Allen, LPC NCC MA and Anna Vantsevich, LLPC to the practice which is called Creative Life Therapy. Allen had been working in the prison system, mainly doing traditional counseling, and had a desire to do more with art therapy which her training had focused on. Munter explained that art therapy does not have a license, so art therapists have to be licensed as counselors with additional training in art therapy. Vantsevich will be working virtually with patients as well as in person in the practice’s other office located in Howell.

The new Ann Arbor office has three offices and a larger room with a table that can accommodate small groups. It has free parking, is on the bus line, and is handicap accessible—all factors Munter said were important to her. The practice accepts insurance and self-paid patients and does offer a sliding fee scale. Prospective patients can begin with a free phone consultation to learn more and decide whether it is a good fit. In person and virtual sessions are offered.

Creative Life Therapy’s office is at 2350 Washtenaw Suite 2, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Their website is creativelifetherapy.com. Katherine Munter can be reached by email at katherine@creativelifetherapy.com or by phone at (734) 707-8420.

Jessica Cichowlas became the new owner of the Bring Your Own Container Company.

The store, which started as a popup in 2020 and opened its first storefront in 2021, is focused on reducing single-use plastic consumption by refilling containers many times, as well as stocking women-owned, BIPOC, and LGBTQ-owned small brands supporting sustainable, nontoxic, cruelty-free personal care and household items. Many of the brands are local as well. Customers can bring containers from home, purchase a new one in store, or take one from the free donation shelf. Many of the store’s liquid products, such as laundry soap, dish soap, lotion, and castile soap, are sold in large one to thirty-gallon containers that customers refill their smaller containers from. After the large containers are empty, most of them go back to the supplier for cleaning and refilling. This process is called closed-loop, and 61% of the store’s refillable products are stocked this way, up from 20% in 2021. Containers are refilled as many times as possible before being recycled by Terracycle, offered on the free shelf, or even donated to a local farm for growing produce or used as rain barrels. The non-liquid products are shipped to the store, plastic-free with recyclable tape and paper inserts, usually in recycled cardboard boxes and no unnecessary packaging.

The store now has two storefronts, one on Jackson Road in Ann Arbor and one in Plymouth, in addition to the original popup location in Kerrytown open Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays with the Farmers’ and Artisans’ Markets. The founder, Emma Hess, started BYOC Co. as a 22-year-old new graduate from the U of M during the pandemic. She was on a low-waste journey that started in college when she swapped her regular shampoo with a solid shampoo bar to reduce her plastic use. Cichowlas was an early customer and was looking for a career change to something that aligned with her values and goals. “Being a business owner can be a tough gig,” explained Cichowlas. Two years after opening the business, as a young, recent graduate with a Sociology degree, Hess was considering exploring other career opportunities potentially with more stability. The sale was made with Hess remaining as a mentor to Cichowlas behind the scenes.

Cichowlas’ favorite items in the store are the solid dish soap from Dexter-based Tiani Body Care (“it lasts so long,” she said) and the stain stick from Bubble Babes in Ann Arbor. She said that the store carries a lot of “stuff that’s not on Amazon,” and that it makes sustainable lifestyle products approachable. Between the locations she employs four part time workers, and she cycles between the stores and popup doing ordering, finances, merchandising, and serving customers when she can.

The store does sell products online as well. Customers can order products to pick up at the store or have them shipped to their homes. One specialty is the build-your-own gift basket which customers like for holidays, teacher appreciation gifts, and for other special occasions. Cichowlas said that another aspect that sets the store apart is the deep dive she does when vetting new suppliers. She checks to make sure the brands are paying living wages, source high-quality plant-based ingredients, and avoid plastic usage in their packaging including when shipping products to the store.

The Bring Your Own Container Company store in Ann Arbor is located at 25 Jackson Industrial Drive, Suite 500, Ann Arbor, MI 48103. The website is byocco.com, and Jessica Cichowlas can be reached via email at hello@byocco.com.

Angel Whispers Healing Center in Dexter celebrated its grand reopening in a new location on November 11 at 11:11 a.m.

The new space at 3045 Baker Road is four times the size of their previous location on Ann Arbor Street, which they opened on the same date in 2022, and which was much bigger than their original 70 square foot office.

Angel Whispers operates as a 501c3 nonprofit organization and is run by Reiki Master Danielle Groth and Pastor Vicky Lovell along with musician and mystic Dr. Dan McConnell. It is a healing center and healing collective bringing together practitioners of various healing modalities in one place. They also house a boutique selling spiritual items like crystals and tarot cards. Local artists and makers also offer their goods including handmade teas and soaps, jewelry, clothing, and more.

The center houses many events including Reiki group healings, sound baths, classes, workshops, and retreats. There is a Bible study, meditation group, a spiritual discussion group, and a new Alcoholics Anonymous meeting is starting on Wednesdays at noon.

There is a massage chair and a sound healing table that people can use without a practitioner. Spa and healing services offered include Reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT or “tapping”), sound therapy, and massage therapy with Michelle Chute. Lovell and Groth offer a unique energy healing experience called Wonder-Twinning by working together with reiki, sound healing, and prayer. They said that they have a “holy synergy” working together in this way. Lovell offers a signature “Shift Your Lens” program which addresses root causes of emotional, physical, and spiritual problems with reiki, clinical EFT, vibrational sound healing, prayer, and meditation. She also offers pastoral care including Christian baptism, weddings, funeral services, hospital, and house visits. McConnell offer spiritual direction appointments.

The new space does have openings for two more practitioners to join the collective to hold classes or provide services. “We can do so much more now that we have the space,” said Groth. Future possibilities include fitness classes, yoga, and other activities incorporating body, mind, and spirit. A conference room that holds eight to ten people and a larger group space for 20 to 40 people depending on the activity are available to rent.

Groth and Lovell started working together when Groth, a parishioner at Lovell’s church service, asked in the line after service “you’re always telling us to love ourselves. Do you love yourself?” She then offered reiki to Lovell, and they started meeting on a regular basis, eventually creating their Wonder Twinning healing sessions and the Angel Whispers idea. Said Lovell: “God is using us together in crazy unbelievable ways. We literally see miracles every day.”

Angel Whispers Healing Center is now located at 3045 Baker Road, Dexter, MI 48130. More information is online at angelwhispers.org. Vicky Lovell and Danielle Groth can be reached by email at info@angelwhispers.org. or by phone at (734) 276-2682.

Local healer, author, and teacher Eve Wilson is starting a new cycle of her Healing & Ascension Monthlies series on January 30th.

The series has been ongoing, with new cycles beginning every six months, for 14 years, but it continues to evolve over time, covering different themes and topics. The current theme is Ascending the Ego Identity. Said Wilson, “We have been ascending into greater unity…. Now we are recognizing that we are that higher self; human identity is temporary.” The series and its participants are focused on both self and world-level ascension. “We are all part of that oneness, that pure spiritual state…. Bringing that into the world is the process of ascension,” she said. “We are co-creating life; instead of many individuals competing…. so that unconditional love can be in charge.”

Each series tends to attract a mix of new people and some that have been around for a long time. The original group of 12 has grown to around 40 people. They meet by phone, said Wilson, because it’s easier for everyone, and because it’s “about individuals mastering themselves,” not necessarily about being social. Everyone is at a different level of spiritual experience and “everyone gets their own classroom spiritually.” There is no sense of competition or conflicting energies when no one is thinking about what they look like or what others look like. “In the new world we are who we are, and we’re perfect,” said Wilson. “That has always been the case, but we get confused with this reflective sense of self.”

One of the exciting things about this series, she said, is working with higher sets of chakras, beyond the seven primary chakras that most people with some spiritual experience know about. This allows participants to “move out of our own aura into part of our soul/spirit aura that is already with our higher self and God.” Wilson said that this allows people to hold higher vibrations, changing bodies, emotions, minds, and ego, “moving into who we are in eternity and out of the limitations of ego.” They feel less stressed, are filled with more ease and humor, and can make clearer, more confident choices in all aspects of their lives.

Calls are recorded, so participants do not have to listen live if they are not available. Everyone receives spiritual vibrational support for the entire month, said Wilson. For the newest series, classes are offered every four Thursdays starting on January 30 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Information and registration are available online at spiritualhealers.com/participate. Eve Wilson can be reached by email at evew@spiritualhealers.com.

After seven years in downtown Ypsilanti, Evenstar’s Chalice closed the doors to its in-person boutique on North Huron Street.

Its related gathering space on Packard Road also closed in May. Owners Mara Evenstar and Russ Jones said that the decision to close the spaces was multifaceted, but to put it simply, it had become unsustainable. Evenstar said that they were proud to have survived the pandemic, but then they were immediately challenged by two years of construction directly in front of the store, greatly reducing foot traffic. Inflation, high residential rent, and post-pandemic poverty had roles as well–people had less disposable income to spend on things like metaphysical supplies, and downtown Ypsilanti had started to feel less safe, so people stopped coming to the area as often.

Despite the store’s closure, Jones, Evenstar, and others associated with Evenstar’s Chalice are still very much present and continuing to offer services and supplies to the Ypsilanti community. The store is open online and at local vendor shows, and still offers books, candles, home décor, ritual items, tarot cards, and more. Jeanne Adwani, who used to maintain a hair salon in the back of the store, now owns Jeanne’s Sovereign Relics at 226 West Michigan Avenue, where she still cuts hair under the business name Be Hair Now and sells antiques, collectibles, and vintage items.

The shop and gathering space’s many events, classes, workshops, and rituals are still happening regularly but have moved to other rented spaces such as 7 Notes Natural Health on Packard in Ann Arbor.

Evenstar recently secured an office space in Atria Park on Hogback Road to allow her to serve clients in her private practice offering “spiritual life support,” energy clearing, Reiki, and mystic guidance. Her 10-session online course “Shadow Work through the Chakras” will start in January. For those who have already experienced the course, she will offer a new series of mini retreats with one session offered in each quarter of 2025. The series is called Shadow Work Flower Power and is based on Rachael Maddox’s book: ReBloom: Archetypal Trauma Resolution for Personal & Collective Healing.

Evenstar and Jones are open to the possibility of a future retail space, said Evenstar, but for now they are in somewhat of a liminal space awaiting further guidance from spirit to see where it takes them.

Mara Evenstar can be reached by email at Mara@evenstarschalice.com. More information about her services is available online at maraevenstar.net. Her office is located at 2020 Hogback Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105.

New Books by Area Authors

Local author Angela Shinozaki, writing as A. Kidd, published her second children’s book, Yasuko and the Dream Eater.

It is a picture book for ages four to eight inspired by a Japanese oral legend. “If you have a bad dream, call the Dream Eater three times, and he will come and gobble it up. But if he’s still hungry he might gobble the good dreams, too.”

Shinozaki is an American married to a Japanese man who was born and raised in Japan. They have frequently traveled to visit his family for extended periods where she has learned about Japanese culture. Their seven-year-old daughter attends a Japanese immersion school in Livonia. In the book, the character is visiting her grandmother in Japan. “In Japanese culture, they don’t usually hug much,” said Shinozaki. At bedtime, parents might show affection differently like patting the child’s forehead or rubbing their back. The character Yasuko misses her parents’ hugs at bedtime, but her grandmother holds her hand which she sees as a “tiny hand hug.” Despite the cultural differences, the characters can still connect said Shinozaki. The book, she said, celebrates bicultural families like her own.

The book also contains instructions for the origami paper crane and has some resources for other origami projects for children to learn. Shinozaki’s daughter likes origami and “half the time she’s teaching me,” she said. Shinozaki said that she usually starts children off with the origami jumping frog because it’s easiest, “and they can make it jump.”

Shinozaki is a children’s librarian in addition to writing. She said that she wanted to be an author since childhood which is why she writes under her maiden name, Kidd. She wants kids to know they can be authors. She said that being around all the children’s books in her work has definitely inspired her.

Yasuko and the Dream Eater gives children a creative way to deal with bad dreams encouraging them to think of someone they love when they are scared. This gives them some agency over what they are experiencing said Shinozaki. The illustrator, Marsha Misawa, is Japanese. The book also contains a cultural note at the end.

Future book plans for Shinozaki include a young adult novel set in a dystopian future which is “deep in revision,” she said.

More about Shinozaki,her books, and upcoming author events is online at akiddwrites.com. She can be reached by email at a.kiddswrites@gmail.com.

Local psychotherapist, retreat organizer, and speaker Tanis Allen has published her first book, The Self-Led Internal Family Systems Workbook: Learn IFS Skills to Understand and Love All Your Parts, January 2025.

The book, published by Zeitgeist, a division of Penguin Random House, is intended for the general public and allows individuals to learn about and work with the Internal Family Systems model of psychotherapy independently of formal therapy. Allen has been teaching and training in the IFS model for over 25 years and uses it in her own life. The book is a “practical guide for anyone interested in accessing their internal world and trying the IFS process on their own for self-exploration and self-restoration,” explained Allen. She said that IFS takes participants on a “journey of understanding and self-acceptance” in a non-pathologizing way. It “puts the client in the driver’s seat” and establishes them as the expert in what is going on inside of them, putting the therapist in the role of facilitator or copilot. The book allows people to do this on their own without the aid of a therapist. This might be useful to people who are having a hard time finding an affordable therapist, one that works with their schedule, or since the demand for therapy in many areas exceeds the number of qualified professionals, anyone to work with them at all.

The basic idea of IFS is that each of us has different parts with different roles, perspectives, and agendas. There is also a core self—a part which is “naturally curious and compassionate and confident” that can be accessed, said Allen. Everyone has experienced times when one part of them wants to do something, and another wants to do the opposite: stay or go, exercise or relax, persevere or give up. Allowing the core self to be present to the other parts’ perspectives in a loving, respectful, and compassionate way can create deep healing.

IFS founder Dr. Richard Schwartz, when he was working on the IFS model in the 1980s, was very committed to backing the model with scientific study, and Allen said that this prevented him from speaking much on the spiritual aspects. More recently, as the model has been extensively studied and proven beneficial, he has explored and spoken about these aspects more. He wrote in the magazine Psychotherapy Networker,“We are sparks of the eternal flame, manifestations of the absolute ground of being.” Allen said in her book that “…for me, Self is the divine spark within each of us; it is that which connects us to one another and to the greater Self-energy that’s out there within the context of whatever belief system we might have.”

Tanis Allen can be reached by email at tanis_jo@yahoo.com. She is working on scheduling book readings and signings in the early part of 2025 and will publish details as they are finalized on her Facebook page at facebook.com/tanis.j.allen/. More information about the book is online at penguinrandomhouse.com/booksandt. Itcan be purchased at the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore.

Ann Arbor resident Melanie Wick Singer is publishing her first book in February of 2025 through Harper Collins.

Martina’s Muy Bad Day is a children’s picture book for ages four through eight. Singer is a speech and language pathologist who works with both children and the elderly. She has always loved writing and recently took some classes about writing for children. She wanted to help bridge the gap between children and the elderly so she included elderly people in the book. It is dual language and celebrates bilingual families like her own. Singer’s mother is from Colombia, and while Singer does not consider herself bilingual, she said she knows enough Spanish to get by. She said that she wished more books had multiple languages when she was growing up to make it easier for children to learn more than one language.

In the book, Martina has the worst of days and tells her grandmother all about it. Abuela has some ideas for Martina to deal with her feelings, but she doesn’t find any of them very helpful. So, she comes up with her own way of coping involving music, balloons, dancing, and celebrating to release the pain of her bad day. Singer said, “sometimes we do the things we know we ‘should’ do... Meditation, deep breathing, journaling. But if we look inward and listen to our bodies and hearts, sometimes healing comes from unexpected places.”

Singer has read the book to her own eight-year-old daughter who was six at the time it was written. It was based on some of the tough times they had during the Covid19 lockdown and some very unexpected setbacks they experienced. They would have “very bad day parties” with balloons and banners, and they Facetimed with Singer’s parents. Together, they learned to cope through some really hard things, and this was something Singer wanted to share with other children.

The book is already available as an audiobook and an ebook; the print edition is on pre-order and will be released in February. Harper Collins picked it up as part of a two-book deal, so there will be another book coming out in late 2025 or early 2026. Singer is in the process of submitting other manuscripts as well. There will be a launch party on February 4 with all details to be announced on her website.

Melanie Wick Singer’s website is wickmelanie.wixsite.com/website, and she can be reached via email at wickmelanie@hotmail.com.

Upcoming Events

Lou Weir, a certified Diamond Approach teacher and founder of Insight Meditation in Ann Arbor, will be offering a new program in 2025.

The program, called Diamond Gathering, is open to current Diamond Approach students and to those with no experience. The Diamond Approach, said Weir, is a combination of spiritual teaching based on ancient and modern wisdom and directed inquiry which allows students to explore their own experience and move toward their deepest true nature and potential. What differentiates Diamond Approach from other spiritual practices, Weir said, is the practice of personal inquiry allowing teachings to be explored in a very personal way. It is usually practiced in groups of two and three with students supporting one another’s inquiry.

The Diamond Gathering program will meet on Saturday mornings from 9to 11:30 a.m. on January 4, March 8, April 5, May 3, and June 7, at Insight Meditation’s space on Little Lake Drive in West Ann Arbor. Each session will include a meditation, a teaching on a topic, and personal inquiry in twos and threes. Topics include value (how we seek it in outside things), loving the truth (and how it is limited), practicing presence, and basic trust. Each topic will be explored with directed inquiry to see how they apply to each individual’s own life. All are invited to attend as many sessions as they would like.

Weir has been practicing the Diamond Approach for over 20 years and teaching it for several years. He has a love to share the practice as an important component of one’s spiritual journey and felt this was a good way to make it more accessible for beginners and to provide continuing support for those who have attended retreats. He expects a mix of beginners and experienced students at the Gatherings. He said that three types of people can benefit from this work. The first is those who feel a sense of authenticity present in their lives, who feel like they present themselves in different ways and circumstances rather than being comfortable with who they are. The second is people who have had a meditation practice or have experienced some openings that allow them to see that the world is more than the material but haven’t been able to apply those insights to their ordinary life. The third is general seekers who are looking for ways to understand the reality of our lives. “This practice is a lifetime practice so it’s not for everyone,” he said. “It requires a certain amount of steadfastness… you have to be willing to look at your habits and the way you live your life. You need to be someone who is willing to explore one’s self.”

More information is available at diamondapproachmichigan.org. Lou Weir can be reached by email at diamondworkmichigan@gmail.com. Insight Meditation is located at 180 Little Lake Drive #1, Ann Arbor, MI 48103.

Ann Arbor based master numerologist Gayle Fitzgerald will hold a special virtual event titled Line up with the Vibrational Power of 2025 & Thrive (or risk taking a dive) on January 29 at 6 p.m. This event is free for all.

Fitzgerald said she has been concerned about 2025 for a long time. She explained that there are positive, negative, neutral, and destructive aspects of the year’s energy. 2025 reduced to a 9 in numerology which she said is associated with purification, ending, and completion. 25 reduces to a 7 which has a vibration of upliftment and a clearing of old consciousness that is no longer serving. She said that she feels 2025 will be a year of “letting go, letting God, surrendering, and keeping the faith,” and that the more people can line up with the energy, the higher the flow will be in their lives. She said that we need to be aware of thought patterns, consciousness, and beliefs and be ready to release what is not serving the highest good. Letting go of the old can allow more of the positive new energy to come in while trying to hold onto the past can bring us down and make life more difficult.

Fitzgerald said that this event will help people prepare for the general collective vibration of 2025 to “receive the treasures and pass the tests” the year will bring. If we can do that, she said, “it can be a great time of connection and positive and progressive change.”

Fitzgerald is also an energy healer and a celestial conduit and will be providing healing energy for the people attending the event to help them get through the challenges, transmute the negative, and feel uplifted.

More information is available at celestialvibrations.com. Gayle Fitzgerald can be reached by phone at (734) 327-8423 or by email at admin@celestialvibrations.com.

New Classes

Eileen Ho and Larry An began offering introductory Japanese Taiko Drumming classes through Ann Arbor Rec & Ed in 2018, but the classes were put on hold during the Covid19 pandemic.

The classes returned around the fall of 2022 and are being offered as monthly two-hour sessions in which participants can explore the art form through demonstrations and hands-on activities. Ho and An are the leaders of the Great Lakes Taiko Center, which prior to the pandemic was located in Novi, but which now rents event spaces in Ann Arbor and Novi.

Taiko, explained Ho, is a performance art form rooted in Japanese music. The drums have been used for over two thousand years for gatherings, religious ceremonies, festivals, and war. Historically Taiko has been performed with an ensemble, and as it evolved, it was used as an accompaniment to opera or court music. Now, said Ho, it is a “growing global art cultural movement” with many people, artists, and students practicing and learning together. Groups participate in collective play, she said, through moving in space, using their voices, and playing instruments.

Ho and An both grew up in Ann Arbor but moved to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. They saw a Taiko performance in college and years later took their children to see one. They learned that the group offered community classes and decided to learn the art form. When they returned to Michigan in 2009, they were happy to find out that Taiko was being taught in Michigan through the Great Lakes Taiko Center with teachers from Japan and from North America. Today, they own and direct the Center, through which they teach and perform. Their Ann Arbor Rec & Ed classes are an outreach to the community so that people can learn about and experience the art.

Monthly Ann Arbor Rec & Ed Taiko Drumming classes are scheduled for January 26, February 23, March 23, and tentatively for April 27, at the Rudolph Steiner High School on Pontiac Trail. The Great Lakes Taiko Center provides the drums, and students may borrow or buy the wooden drumsticks called bachi. The class is mostly geared toward adults though students as young as 12 are welcome. The class is a two-hour workshop that meets from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Said Ho, “We welcome anyone who is interested in what we have to offer.” She describes the practice as “easy to relate to; it resonates with body and spirit.” Everyone is invited to attend regardless of their level of experience with drums or music.

More information about the Great Lakes Taiko Center is online at michigantaiko.net. Eileen Ho can be reached via email at eileen@greatlakestaiko.org. Class registration information is available at michigantaiko.net/aareced.

New Practitioners and Businesses

Local social worker and coach, Michelle Duprey, is launching her new signature program: Stress Rehab.

Duprey grew up in Ann Arbor and holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State and a master’s degree in social work from the U of M. In 2021, she had a brief but intense health scare followed immediately by a trip to Sedona, Arizona for her cousin’s wedding, where she experienced a spiritual awakening and decided to completely change her life. She had been working for a nonprofit organization in Wayne County where she had served as a child therapist, clinical supervisor, and director of several programs. She was considered a national subject matter expert in pediatric integrated health care. Despite her success, she quit her job over the phone on the way to the airport in Arizona. She collected her two dogs from home, drove to Florida, and rented a house for a month. Then, she began training as a transformational nutrition coach, focusing on mind, body, and spiritual nutrition. She became a Reiki Master, learned to use the Akashic Records, and completed an Ayurvedic Practitioner program. Finally, she created an LLC and named her business IterVia Health. She is excited to help people using her diverse sets of knowledge and skills.

She is focusing on stress because she said it is an issue that is constantly mentioned in health and wellness but rarely deeply looked at. People are advised to “manage their stress,” but mostly the same basic tips are regurgitated over and over without offering real, lasting solutions.

Duprey works with teens, including athletes, college students, new graduates, newly married people, new parents, people who feel burned out at work, and others who need help with stress. She works in a client-centered way, allowing each person to decide how many sessions they need based on their needs, rather than selling pre-determined packages. She said that she encounters many people who feel very “stressed out” and unhappy but believe that “it’s just part of life” and there’s nothing to be done about it. Stress is natural, she said, but feeling completely overwhelmed and burned out is not. She is excited to help people learn to deal with stress in better ways and said she wants to help “raise a generation that knows how to handle stress!”

Duprey currently offers online sessions only though she would like to have office space to work with people in person in the future. She has also been offering traditional therapy and Reiki sessions.

Anyone interested in working with Michelle Duprey can make an appointment for an assessment via her website stressrehab.net. She can be reached by email at michelle@stressrehab.net.