Spend Locally: Creative Wellness

Health is at the forefront of many people’s minds during the pandemic, but it’s been the focus of Creative Wellness since the business opened on April 2, 1990, providing alternative medicine, holistic healing, acupuncture, massage therapy, and more in the East Lansing area for the past three decades.

Creative Wellness co-owner and massage therapist Chris Reay is grateful to the community for their support and trust, especially now. “We’ve been hiring throughout this pandemic, just to meet the demand for services,” Reay said. “We are certainly not at our pre-Covid numbers, but we are healthy in our numbers of customers.”

The wellness center was closed from mid-March until the end of May, when they reopened for chiropractic services only and then for massage therapy in the beginning of June.

“During that time, we spent months researching safety protocols for our staff, and for our clients,” Reay said. “By the time the state published safety protocols for businesses such as ours, we already had ours in place. Our safety protocol not only included what the state required, but it included all the recommended safety protocols by professional associations, massage therapy, acupuncture, and chiropractic associations. We worked really hard on this, and it has helped keep our clients and our staff safe.”

The five-page safety protocol, which includes temperature checks, and health questions asked of each customer, can be found on their website. Staff are also signing up and getting scheduled for vaccines.

“That will help, as more and more healthcare providers get vaccines, it will not only protect the healthcare workers, but it will protect the customers that come to them,” Reay said. “We’re grateful to be classified as healthcare.”

As more people are working from home and sitting for longer hours than they were accustomed to, Reay is noticing an increase in sales of self-help massage tools. These tools help relieve muscle aches and pains and are for sale in their gift shop. They also sell items that can help “provide a bit of peace at this time,” including bath salts, candles, massage and essential oils, and stress reducing and wellness guided imagery CDs. Their gift shop also sells facemasks, greeting cards, and neck wraps that can be heated. For kids, there are stuffed animals that can be heated.

Gift Cards can be purchased for any denomination and utilized for any service offered, including messages (Swedish, deep tissue, neuromuscular therapy, sports, foot reflexology, and pregnancy), acupuncture, chiropractic services, Zoom fitness classes, meditation, yoga, and more. Certificates can be purchased online, over the phone (517-351-9240), or in-person. Curbside pickup and shipping options are available.

Reay is proud to work daily in an area that encourages and promotes health in a variety of ways, helping people feel better from physical or emotional suffering. “We’re able to help relieve a little stress, provide a listening ear, or help with some acute or chronic pain problems. It’s very rewarding,” she said. “We are very fortunate to do this work.”

Some employment health insurance policies cover certain services offered by Creative Wellness, so Reay encourages customers to check with their human resources departments to learn more about their individual policies. Creative Wellness (2045 Asher Court, East Lansing) is open Sunday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Make sure ELi can continue to provide this important support for the local economy.