The studio interior is also quiet, with a welcoming lobby painted in earth tones and outfitted with comfortable chairs. A large wooden placard above the fireplace reads, “DREAM.”
The calm and plaintive music of a solo Japanese flute is playing softly throughout. Inside, there is an open space for yoga and meditation classes –even belly dancing classes are taught here – and two private rooms for massage treatments, including Reiki. Other inspirational signs, posted throughout, invite visitors to “WISH,” “INSPIRE” and “BELIEVE,” to find “PEACE” and have “FAITH.”
The decor is a mélange of spiritual iconography – Native American art, Hindu and Buddhist statuettes and pillows and curtains printed with East Asian and Indian patterns. Its eclecticism reflects the versatility of the staff, which includes North Salem’s Melissa Merendino, an “intuitive practitioner,” who sometimes gives psychic readings at neighboring Touch of Sedona. She is also an animal communicator, tarot card reader, past life regression therapist and sound and vibrational healings performer. In addition, she arranges for dolphin assisted therapy for humans and shamanic journeys. As a Reiki master and teacher, she uses the palms of her hands to help align chakras—the seven energy points along the spine—and “unblock” the energy flow, or qi (“chee”).
The goal, of course, is for these treatments to work together or separately to heal your mental, physical or emotional ills.
At peace with herself
Warm and gracious, Merendino hands me several brochures and emphasizes that she’s also “trained in animal massage, healing and communication, especially with horses. I’m certified in equissage.”
She speaks and walks with the calm comfort of a woman always aware of who and where she is and of her life’s purpose – to help and heal.
“I’m extremely empathic,” she says. “After working on very ill or disturbed people, I sometimes have to do a cleansing ritual on myself like burning some sage or meditating just to be sure I release any negative energy I might have absorbed.”
She shows me several tools used for these nonstandard therapies – crystals, an Aboriginal rain stick, tarot cards and dowsing rods to measure a person’s aura. There are several metal bowls of varying sizes, known as “singing bowls.” As she taps one with a padded wooden mallet, she says, “This one is from Tibet and is an alloy of seven pure metals.” The bowls create lovely harmonic tones and are used for mediation, music and relaxation.
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