Ylona Hartford is a naturopath who has worked in the Ypsilanti area since 2013. She owns and operates Holistic Whole Health, where she offers natural solutions for natural health. Hartford is also a VoiceBio Practitioner, life coach and an opera singer. She works with adults, children, teenagers, seniors and pets. She states, “Naturopathy is the mother of all healing arts and is the oldest known form of healing. I bridge the gap between simple bodywork and naturopathy, allowing my clients a greater understanding of their bodies, how it is speaking to us, and how to reach optimum health.”

General bodywork benefits include stress relief, renewed energy and ambition, lowered feelings of fatigue, pain reduction, more supple muscles and joints, improved circulation, better delivery of nutrients to the cells, better digestion and elimination, deep relaxation, better removal of cellular waste, improved immune system and a sense of confidence and control. “Layering my naturopathic expertise into a session allows my clients to gain a deep understanding of how to look and listen to their bodies to determine how to be the healthiest they can be. Our bodies are one organism with everything being interconnected,” Hartford explains.

“Your breakouts that always happen around your mouth could indicate a weakness in your reproductive area. Your lower back pain could indicate a general feeling of a lack of support, and could even be a kidney or adrenal weakness. This information is vital to your ability to heal yourself,” notes Hartford. “Naturopathic bodywork is one way of receiving positive touch to have a happier, healthier, less stressful, more successful life. Not only are you receiving the powerful benefit of touch, but you are gaining a vast understanding of how your body works and how to help it get you where you want to be.”

Hartford says, “My naturopathic bodywork sessions are really a bodywork therapy session combined with a holistic health guidance consultation. Although different from a traditional massage, it offers specific work on a broader scale combined with education. No one else in the area offers the same thing. All therapy and consultation sessions I offer are customized for each individual client. This makes each session special because it is a time for my clients to have everything structured and working for their best good. I have a plethora of skillsets to tap into which will enable me to offer suggestions and therapies that work to my client’s highest good.”

She explains, “In a naturopathic bodywork session, it will be in a dimmed room, often with music, but I will be talking and asking questions as I work. In my sessions, you will often remain fully or mostly clothed. While I may incorporate the basic strokes from massage, I will not be working over your whole body most often. Instead, I will work on specific areas of concern. Then, I will often incorporate reflexology, reiki or energy work, polarity and magnet therapies, color and sound therapies, meridian work, chakra balancing, aura and energy field work, essential oils, flower remedies and even CranioSacral Therapy.”

Harford adds, “We may even move on to some neural organization techniques, allergy corrections, light healing touch, or even emotional releases. In a nutshell, my naturopathic bodywork goes above and beyond a simple on-the-body massage session to really allow us to work on the root issue, and it is all about finding the root issue, because you will never heal yourself until you stop focusing on the symptoms and address the root cause.”

Hartford is teaching a series of classes at the Ypsilanti Food Coop at 1 p.m., on the first Saturday of every month on a variety of natural health topics. The first class is February 3. See calendar section for details.

 

For more information, call 734-480-8240 or visit HolisticWholeHealth.com.