ASHLAND – Earlier this year, Rise Studios Wellness Collective opened in downtown Ashland. Rise houses both a gym and a yoga studio with a variety of yoga class styles. Massages and holistic health consultations are also available.
Coinciding with the new space opening, Rise founder Aubrey Bates’ newest brainchild also launched. The SOAR Method, which Bates designed over the last two and a half years, interweaves spiritual, occupational, anatomical and relational aspects of wellness to offer a customized wellness experience meeting each participant’s unique health goals over 90 days.
Bates reflected on her experience opening a small yoga studio in Ashland six years ago. Back then, she could never have imagined what her vision would eventually become.
“My whole thing when I started the studio was ‘we’ll just have a couple of classes, I’ll run the business from the back end and I’ll find a couple of teachers. It will be a couple nights a week and just be this little thing,’” Bates said.
It quickly became apparent that Ashland’s demand for a yoga studio was far greater than Bates had anticipated. As her business grew, she began to feel a tugging within telling her there was a bigger need to fill in the community.
“We were doing yoga, which in most western minds, that’s a workout. You come for an hour, you do these movements, and you get a little bit of a workout or a stretch. It was purely a physical practice,” Bates said.
“As people continued to practice, this stirred up some emotional stuff, or they wanted to start eating better, or they realized that it was almost worship–not religion, but there’s almost this spiritual element to it. So, there were these comments that people would make hinting that this thing had woken up something more in them that a 60-minute class is touching on, but it’s incomplete.”
“That’s when it kind of started to feel like there was more,” Bates said. “What is it beyond the asanas—beyond the physical poses?”
To re-envision her work, Bates and her husband got away for a one-night business retreat in May 2018. On this trip, she began to develop the SOAR Method, hoping to address a collective need she saw within the community to receive physical, emotional and spiritual support.
Shortly after, Bates shared the idea with her friend Sara Baumgartner, a clinical counselor. Baumgartner had independently felt a similar pull and quickly came on board to help make Bates’ vision a reality. She is now the overseer of the SOAR Method.
“The SOAR Method is uniquely from Aubrey,” Baumgartner said. “It took me a while to kind of understand it and really get the fullness of it, but once I did, it really captured my vision and my heart as well.”
As Bates and Baumgartner worked together on the specifics of the SOAR Method program, they sought out a variety of services to support physical and mental needs for future participants.
“The SOAR Method is a 90-day immersive experience that helps guide individuals who feel dissatisfied and unhealthy in their lives to move forward in the direction toward greater well-being, feel more connected, free and confident,” Bates said. “(It is) centered on healing the mind, body and soul.”
The program begins with a health and wellness assessment and lab work to measure body system imbalances. Participants can attend unlimited yoga and gym classes, and strength training, massages and spiritual direction sessions are also provided.
Throughout the 90 days, they also receive a specialized nutrition plan with recipes, reflection sessions twice monthly, two deep-dive immersion experiences, and career coaching, financial planning and environmental health suggestions as needed.
Matti Krispinsky, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, was one member of the first group to complete the SOAR Method. She is now also the program’s navigator and will help future participants navigate the program and ensure it aligns with their particular needs.
“I went into the SOAR Method thinking I was wanting to focus on my physical being, and I walked out needing more of a spiritual, emotional support,” Krispinsky said. “I think that’s kind of the beauty of the immersive experience. It meets you where you’re at, and it almost shows a mirror … you may not need the physical, just rest, support and comfort.”
Krispinsky also found the small group support along the journey very helpful. “We got to dive into supporting one another and seeing each other’s unique journey in it,” she said. “We’re all working toward uncovering what we need and how to grow and understand that we all don’t have the answers; we’re just trying to figure out what’s best for each one of us.”
The first SOAR Method group just completed their experience, and the variety of needs in the first group was remarkable to Baumgartner, who met weekly with participants. “Every person was so different—so different, but in a beautiful way,” she said.
“No matter how old someone is or young or how whole or how broken they feel, or how healthy or unhealthy they feel, there’s always room for growth and healing and restoration,” Baumgartner said. “We really believe that, and we saw that happen in pretty amazing ways.”
Bates noted the COVID-19 pandemic added challenges to opening a new wellness center and launching her program this year, but she believes their services are needed now more than ever.
“There’s a drive and motivation to keep the doors open and to keep space for people to come in and become well and become resilient,” Bates said. “I think it’s like pushing a boulder up a hill, and the thing that keeps us pushing that boulder up the hill is how auspicious this time is.”
Bates explained that pursuing health and wellness can help boost immunity to combat viruses, and the services they offer go beyond physical wellness into emotional support during these challenging times.
“We drill down even farther, working on belief systems and self-image,” Bates said. “Self-knowing and self-love tie in hugely to the way you exist within a pandemic.”
Bates, Baumgartner and Krispinsky look forward to working with the next SOAR Method group in early 2021, for which they are now taking applications. The cart will close on Jan. 11, and following assessments, the next 90-day experience will take place between Feb. 6 and May 6.
“So much of our culture and just the way that we move through life has been giving authority and power to others,” Bates said. “Part of the complete thing is, how can I take responsibility in a good way? What is my ownership of this vessel that I’ve been given? And how can I turn that back inward to see this is who I am, this is where my worth and my value comes from?”
“(SOAR Method participants) are not coming for us to tell them what to do. We are helping them to take ownership and really become empowered to live their most full and healthy life.”
