It has often been said that pets possess an unspoken bond with their owners and Andalusia native Shanda Beste hopes to use that bond to improve the overall health of local “couples.”

Beste began working as a massage therapist and soon realized she wanted to focus her skills on improving the health of pets. Her work then uncovered a deeper need to treat both the ailments of the pet and, in turn, the owner.

“I can work on an animal eight days a week and make no progress because they are trapped in the person’s energy field,” she said. “One service I’m delighted to offer that I’ve never seen available anywhere in the country is a new twist on couple’s massage. In my work with massaging animals, I quickly saw patterns where companion animals’ imbalances mirror those of their humans.

“This is what inspired the wellness center as a place to help both get back into alignment together. Our couples massage offers a 30-minute session in the automatic massage chair for the human and a hands-on therapeutic massage for the canine.”

The wellness center is located at 1029 East Three Notch Street in Andalusia across from Colonial Bank. It incorporates the services offered by Beste’s two businesses – All Is Well Health and Inspirations, which offers bionetic body scans, and Integrated Animal Therapy, which offers acupressure and therapeutic massage for dogs and horses and intuitive communication with any animal.

Beste said she is excited to offer these beneficial services, but she originally had pictured a different setup for her treatments.

“Ultimately I picture this spread across several acres of land with a retreat and more staff members than just me,” she said. “This space opened up and I just saw it as the perfect opportunity to begin.”

The wellness center also features a retail section offering homeopathic formulas, essential oils, energy bars, massage tools, bath salts, whole salt, supplements and inspirational gifts and books. For pets, the center offers grain-free, raw and frozen pet foods, supplements and accessories.

In addition to treating pet-owner pairs, Beste said she also looks to help children and their parents overcome health issues.

“I see the same patterning with parents and children,” she said. “In order to be truly effective in helping a child get to the root of a health concern, you must be able to also work with the parents. Maladies that are generally considered hereditary and passed through genes are often equally ‘passed’ to children through chronic thought patterns, eating habits and lifestyle.

“In order to make real change in a person’s condition, one must go all the way down to what message the body is trying to convey,” she added. “Our bodies are always talking to us and guiding us. If we don’t listen to the whispers, we have to put up with the screams.”

Other services include Emotional CPR which offers a re-boot of the mental computer, a mind spa offering recorded guided meditations and inspirations where a client can “try on a new thought,” tuning fork sessions that tune the body like tuning an instrument, body balancing sessions that help re-set the electrical circuits of the body, mind-body connection sessions, aqua chi foot baths and feng shui consultations.

The center also has a reference library allowing clients to seek for themselves answers to any of their health concerns.

“The best thing is that this is the cutting edge of advancements in holistic healing, and it’s available right here in Andalusia,” she said. “Even before we were officially open, we had people traveling many hours for our services. And this is just the beginning. We have plans for tons of events working in small groups to offer life-changing workshops, inspirational movies and educational opportunities. I couldn’t be more proud.”