A FULL CIRCLE FOCUS
WORDS and PHOTOS Liam Stretch RENDERS Provided
Ōtautahi keeps getting better and brighter, with many new additions popping up over the cityscape. One such area which will bloom in 2021 is the well-being sector. Coming to the corner of Kilmore Street and Fitzgerald Avenue, is Flow Wellness Centre.
You may be familiar with Flow Hot Yoga; currently operating out of a studio on Mandeville Street, it is one of the services coming to the purpose-built, state-of-the-art centre. Alongside Flow Hot Yoga will be Flow Therapeutics, Opti-mum, and Lifetime Learning.
The aim is to have an all-encompassing approach to hauora.
“The focus is what we’re calling full circle. What we’re interested in is serving all aspects of the human experience,” says key stakeholder, yoga instructor, and former midwife KeiShana Coursey.
She is most excited about the community that will develop, and believes accessibility is key.
“We want a space where Joe Bloggs can come into a place of more wellness and more movement to experience what it is like to understand that movement is one of the key foundations in wellness. You might have an impeccable diet, and you might even have your head together, but if you don’t have movement, we really can’t use this body as an instrument to feel as well as we can feel.”
People of all mobilities will be welcome at Flow, “whether it be a limited range of movement because of the challenges that pregnancy offers or someone that is experiencing a disease state in the body and still wants and deserves to be held and nurtured towards wellness”.
KeiShana also believes the timing of the opening is perfect in the Christchurch context.
“We see, as a collective, that Ōtautahi has been through an earthquake, which is like cracks and wounds in the whenua (land); an incredibly horrific mosque event, that created a psychological collective wound. And now, we’re in a global climate of COVID – so, I believe we have a unique community of people who are even more activated due to the challenges of those events.”
The centre comprises two buildings with a central courtyard. There will be a fire-themed studio for hot classes; a restorative earth-themed studio which will encourage repair of the body at a cellular level: physically, mentally, neurologically, spiritually. Then Flow Therapeutics, which has a mix of specialty classes on one side, and on the other, a space where pregnancy and postnatal yoga will take place, as well as educational classes – like master training for yoga.
Downstairs, rooms for practitioners and therapists like “chiropractors, acupuncturists, bodyworkers, social workers, and health professionals.” There are also further well-being tenants to be confirmed.
Quality is in every aspect of the build. With cathedral-like ceilings, the studios will have German-made tatami flooring throughout, making the ‘whole studio a giant yoga mat’, and Italian wallpapers, and imported lights turning the centre into a place conducive to wellness.
“We want people to come into a space that makes them feel like kings and queens.”
Flow Wellness Centre will open in the springtime, in August this year.