Staying healthy and active is a lifelong commitment, but even the most diligent of us could use a little breath of fresh ujjaya air every now and again.
From a treatment center that offers cold plunge, sauna and light therapy, to an expansive yoga/pilates studio, to the reopening of a special naturopathic health office, this trio of new businesses in the health and wellness arena each offer something for the mind, body and soul.
Personalized treatments at the stretch garden
The Stretch Garden (189 Main Road, Aquebogue, 631-502-0001), is a wellness space offering multiple healing services for North Forkers in need of a little physical reprieve. Operated by mother-and-son team Carissa and Nick Kretchmer, the business offers assisted stretching, a cold plunge, infrared sauna, compression chair sessions, full-spectrum light therapy and a meditative salt room. Services are offered a la carte but packages are available. There is also a “Day at the Garden” in which patrons can experience all the offerings for $225.
The studio, which opened in 2024, is quiet and welcoming, with locally sourced driftwood and beach rocks accented with plants and natural light.
“We wanted to create an environment that is calming, that is anti-stress, that is relieving people of tension, and we just felt like this was just a perfect melding of everything, and then Aquebogue offers connections to the North and South shores so easily,” says Carissa.
The idea for the business started with a trip to Colorado. After a long day of hiking and snowboarding, Nick was feeling extra sore. Carissa, a stretch therapist, gave him an assisted stretch and he was back on his board the next day. This led to conversations about what a family-run stretch studio might be like.
Nick’s first job at a café spawned his love for the small-business model and fostering good customer service.
“I loved everything about unlocking the door and opening the shop, then setting up and everything else,” Nick says. “It just always felt really good to me to be able to open up a place. That’s what I wanted to do. I’m going to turn my own key. I wanted to have my own business one day.”
Knowing his mother was a talented stretch therapist but also visually impaired, Nick decided to take his business school acumen from SUNY Geneseo and combine it with Carissa’s fitness background.
Opening a wellness business, rather than a food and beverage venue, allows the duo to promote health and help people improve their lives. “Something that I love about this particular [business] is that I can focus on my body, my health, as my career,” Nick says. “It’s really important to me for my own health and longevity.”
The studio does not offer medical or beauty services, instead focusing on improving a patron’s overall wellbeing without causing trauma.
“We really dug deep in areas that we wanted to focus on, and we eliminated places that we didn’t want,” says Carissa. “We’re all about sending our clients away feeling amazing without being too invasive. So it’s not about intruding into their bodies with medicine, with any sort of difficult or painful treatments, and it’s not about looking beautiful. It’s about feeling great.”
Learn more about The Stretch Garden at thestretchgarden.com.
Take charge of your body at Greenport Pilates, Yoga & Wellness
Michael and Sofia Antoniadis purchased a former bowling alley in 2022 and transformed it into Greenport Pilates, Yoga & Wellness (308 Front St., 631-477-6011) with the aim of helping clients improve their health and wellness through mindfulness and exercise.
“Fitness is both physical and mental,” says Sofia, who lives full-time on the North Fork and grew up visiting her family’s summer home in East Marion. She first began taking yoga classes a decade ago and started developing the idea for a studio with Michael in 2020, when her favorite studio closed during the pandemic.
The revamped space includes three spacious studios, a store and — in a nod to the local creative community — an art space, with paintings from local artists on the walls. The main pilates studio has 12 reformers for group classes, equipped with color-coded weight springs, personal ballet bars, mats and other pilates essentials. With various levels offered, anyone is welcome and encouraged to enter the practice. Beginner classes and an introduction to pilates include a review of positions and combination of exercises to create the muscular exertion present in the practice.
“I don’t do just pilates, I don’t do just yoga,” says Sofia. “If you can do yoga twice a week and pilates twice a week, you’ll maintain your balance and your health.”
The private, two-reformer studio allows for more individualized coaching, and a gorgeous open studio lies at the back of the building for yoga classes, sound baths and more to come. With beautiful solid mahogany wood floors, tree branch chandeliers, color-changing ceiling lights and closets full of equipment, the space is a yogi’s dream.
“I am so happy to go into work,” says Jenny Rutkoski, who leads the Vinyasa yoga classes.
“It’s such a beautiful space and everyone is so welcoming and friendly. I cannot wait to [get to] know my students well so I can enjoy watching their growth.” Excited to connect with both visitors and locals, Rutkoski says she’s eager to “to continue to meet new people and have them share our love for wellness together.”
Sofia shares these sentiments, noting that “one of the wonderful things about Greenport is that it’s a real community village.” She loves interacting with clients and helping them navigate into a field of practice that works best for them.
“We’re collecting information and ideas that the community wants, and we’re going to build on them,” she says. Things in the hopper for the future, for instance, are Tai Chi, ecstatic dancing, more sound baths and a storytelling hour for kids.
“I want the Village of Greenport and the Town of Southold to know that we’re here for them,” Sofia says.
For a full list and schedule of classes, visit greenportpyw.com.
Naturopathic healing at Tulsi Vis
Tulsi Vis Naturopathics Medicine (21 Sterlington Commons, Greenport, 631- 268-5818) has leveled up with a recent move to a larger space in Greenport’s Sterlington Square.
Mattituck native Dr. Stephenie Pisacano and business partner Dr. Emily Anne McDonald have expanded their hours and their inventory of naturally made wellness products, from skincare and personal-care products to foods and beverages, including herbal teas, CBD products and their own botanical formulas.
The pair are naturopathic doctors trained in both conventional medicine and natural therapies, such as herbal and homeopathic medicine, nutritional counseling, acupuncture and hydrotherapy. Pisacano is a certified lactation counselor and is a candidate to become a certified functional medicine practitioner, a holistic practice that considers the whole person and how all the body’s systems work together.
While Pisacano was doing her residency in Manhattan during the pandemic, “the entire practice went virtual,” she recalls. Cooped up in a small apartment in New York City, she decided to live with family in Cutchogue and worked virtually for two years. Eventually, she started a practice, opening a small office in Southold’s Feather Hill in July 2022.
The doctors offer an individualized, in-depth experience for each patient. They operate on a membership plan model, which includes a personalized health plan, doctor visits, direct messaging, advanced testing, functional medicine testing and discounts on supplements. Clients can choose to access personalized breast health assessments, as well as pre-conception fertility care plans that include naturopathic therapies to support IVF, or participate on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The practice supports a host of conditions in several categories — pediatric, women’s health, men’s health, autoimmune issues, tick-borne illnesses, gastroenterology, skin/hair, maternity and mind/body — to name a few. A free webinar series, hosted in conjunction with Dr. McDonald, focuses on perimenopause. More webinars on different topics are slated for the future.
Tulsi Vis’ curated market offers a varied selection of wellness products, some from local producers like Sweet Woodland Farms and The Apothecary Girl. Items include natural skin care and dental products, herbal remedies and teas, supplements, books, healthy drinks (including caffeine and alcohol replacement products), toys, castor oil packs, CBD products and much more. Items can be ordered through their website and picked up at the store.
Pisacano collaborates with local herbalists to produce her own line of tinctures for a host of conditions — No Sick Days, for example, is made with astragalus, myrrh, osha, echinacea, and holy basil, and can be used to boost immunity and counteract stress and fatigue.
Tulsi, or holy basil, is an herb in the mint family that is called “the Queen of the Herbs” in Ayurvedic medicine. It is grown locally and used in many of Pisacano’s botanical formulas and serves as a fitting name for this holistic business meant to help you optimize your health.
Learn more at tulsivis.com.
