Bel Air’s newest wellness center, a serene, somatic-based therapy studio, is making big waves for residents in the community.

Get Centered Wellness, a sister company to the Center for Trauma, Stress and Anxiety, takes a physical healing approach to addressing mental health for its clients.

“Our approach to healing comes from this mental health background of knowing what stress and trauma and anxiety do to our bodies,” said owner Michelle Perry, who opened CTSA in 2016. “A lot of people in mental health are feeling like it’s one thing to talk about it, and it’s another thing to learn how to heal your body, using your body.”

The body-based healing practice began as yoga classes alongside therapy at CTSA, but met with the high demand from her clients, Perry opened Get Centered Wellness as its own company last October. Since then, it has expanded to offer a variety of yoga classes, reiki, tarot card reading, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, ketamine-assisted therapy and more, while serving its therapy clients and the greater community.

Perry began her own mental health journey in college. Under the stress of studying veterinary medicine and on her school’s competitive swim team, she sought out therapy from the advice of her coach. That prompted her to change her major to psychology and in 2009, started working hands-on in the community with the Army’s Public Health Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

She opened CTSA with the goal of seeing clients “on the side” during her day-to-day work, but it has since grown for Perry, who now has several licensed therapists on staff and two locations in Harford and Baltimore counties. It wasn’t long into this that she began experimenting with yoga for her clients alongside talk therapy.

“The clients who were involved in that were having way better outcomes, healing so much more quickly and learning how to manage stress much better. And so from there, we’re like, let’s take the leap and make this a bigger thing and open it up to the broader community,” she said.

Tyler Mauler leads a yoga class at Get Centered Wellness in Bel Air. (Angelique Gingras/Staff)

Yoga is Get Centered Wellness’s most popular service. From energy medicine yoga to restorative vinyasa, many clients have memberships that allow them to attend weeknight and Saturday morning classes. Classes are capped at 10 people to give each person the attention they need.

As a CTSA partner, clients of the clinic may have the yoga classes covered by their insurance, including services by a therapist who is on-site at each weekday class.

“I love that Get Centered Wellness takes that mind, body, spirit approach,” said Tyler Mauler, who has been teaching at Get Centered Wellness since it opened. “The fact there’s always a therapist there to provide some level of emotional support allows us to go a lot deeper in the classes and do some really amazing work. …I think it really expedites the therapeutic process.”

The studio also provides yoga materials for each session, including mats, blocks and blankets, because the goal is for everyone to feel relaxed and not have to worry about any preparation, according to Perry.

Holyn Ivy-Bogert has been coming to Get Centered Wellness since January. As a CTSA client, she enjoys the yoga and reiki sessions as a way to decompress from her work as a chaplain at a local hospice.

Tyler Mauler sets up for a yoga class at Get Centered Wellness in Bel Air. (Angelique Gingras/Staff)

“The biggest takeaway for me is when I’m feeling stressed or scattered or anxious is to just take a pause, take a breath, and just really connect into that grounded place I have during class,” Ivy-Bogert said. “I can just have that moment to refresh myself before I go back to my daily work and life.”

With positive feedback from her clients and the growing demand for classes at Get Centered Wellness, Perry is looking forward to expanding her services, including wellness retreats outside the area. She hopes to bring more of these classes to CTSA’s second location in Nottingham.

Get Centered Wellness

20 E. Lee St., Bel Air, 443-567-7038. getcenteredwellness.com