Well-adjusted Mama

Jennifer Araneo is a graduate of Villanova with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 1999. She was part of the women's rowing team as coxswain, and through her journey as a coxswain, she found her teammates responded very well to mental imagery and used the technique frequently throughout her college career. This was the beginning of her journey into realizing that the body achieves what the mind believes. After college, Jennifer taught English as a second language in the south of Italy for a year and then returned home to pursue a career. Since college, Jennifer has always known that her calling was to help people find strength within themselves to overcome obstacles and gain confidence from within. The past four years have been a particularly deep learning process and through the help of a mentor, Jennifer found her calling in Reiki. Jennifer studied Reiki at the New York Open Center and completed Reiki 3 training with Reiki Master Joanna Crespo. Jennifer serves the Hoboken and Montclair areas providing Reiki t

Kirsten Falsey was born in Elk Grove Village in Illinois and raised in Tucson,  Arizona.  She attended the University of Arizona where she was the recipient of an Alumni Scholarship.  She earned a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing and went on to become a Labor and Delivery Nurse.  She moved to California and was a Labor and Delivery nurse for ten years,  four of which she was a Charge Nurse.  She became pregnant for the first time with twins in 2010.  Then in 2011,  right before they were born,  Kirsten lost her beloved mother to cancer.  While grieving over the loss of her mother,  Kirsten gave birth to her twin daughters.  Soon after giving birth,  Kirsten started seeing a therapist, and eventually a psychiatrist,  after it was realized that she was not only grieving the loss of her mother, but that she was also suffering from postpartum depression which eventually lead to stays in a psychiatric hospital. Nearly two years after her twins were born, and with various forms of help, resources and therapy,  Kirs

Dr. Kathia Roberts takes joy in her new role as a holistic mom while continuing her passion as a healer, naturopath, medical herbalist, and doctor of integrative medicine by empowering families with healthy, holistic alternatives in health care since 2004.  She grew up in South Africa and began experimenting with herbal potions at an early age.  As a teenager, she suffered from colitis from an eating disorder and was misdiagnosed with Tourette Syndrome.  As a result, she was prescribed Prozac and Ritalin that caused multiple side effects.  This life experience inspired her to help parents be mindful of having their child (or themselves) be defined by their diagnosis and to, rather, seek a holistic, mind-body-spirit approach to address the root cause naturally instead of masking it.   She has served on several statutory councils representing allied health professionals and continues to teach herbal medicine and mind-body therapies to other health care practitioners.  She is the director of Seasonal Health Well

Nia Reid-Allen, founder and creator of the lifestyle brand Myrtle & Flossie, dedicated to helping women recover postpartum and overall women's wellness, drew from her own personal experience being a first-time Mom in creating the company.  Coming from an extensive fashion background via a fifteen year long modeling career, Nia was used to a very different, busy, and faster pace of life.  Upon getting married, moving from Brooklyn to Jersey City, NJ and having her first and currently only child, Nia had an overwhelming feeling of insecurity as a new mom. Realizing that there was a huge gap in the "maternity" industry with a very under-served market for postpartum women and its recovery period, Myrtle & Flossie was born in late 2011.  Understanding personally the mental, physical, and emotional challenges that take place after giving birth, Nia wanted to create a company where new and established moms could go for resources, information, easy transitional fashion, and postpartum/women's wellness service

Vicki Hedley is a certified professional midwife through the North American Registry of Midwives and a Certified Midwife through the American Midwifery Certification Board.  She graduated from the National College of Midwifery in Taos, NM and is licensed to practice midwifery in NJ and NY.  She has 18 years of experience having attended over 500 births in hospitals, birth centers, and homes.  She started her midwifery journey as a birth and postpartum doula, doula trainer, and childbirth educator.   Vicki is the owner of Seventh Moon Homebirth Midwifery Services with locations in Montvale and Hoboken NJ.  She also offers placenta encapsulation.  For more information, please visit her website at www.seventhmoonhomebirth.com.

Niva Herzig PT, BCB-PMD, CMTPT is the owner and director of Core Dynamics Physical Therapy in Englewood, NJ. Niva received her Bachelor of Science from George Washington University in 1996 and her Master of Science in Physical Therapy from Thomas Jefferson University in 2003. Niva has written several articles related to pregnancy and also to pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. She has had the opportunity to assist in several pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and pregnancy courses as well as be a speaker for grand rounds and other groups.  Niva has received her biofeedback certification from the Biofeedback Institute of America (BCB-PMD). In 2012, she became a Certified Myofascial Trigger Point Therapist (CMTPT). Niva has attended abundant courses and conferences on pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and is always eager to continue her education. She is a proud member of the Section on Women’s Health of the American Physical Therapy Association, as well as other associations. In November 2007, she proudly opened the d

Patrick J Murray (Founder of New Motive Hypnosis) is a Certified Hypnotist / Sports Mental Performance Coach through the American Board of Hypnotherapy, as well as a graduate of the Paradox Agency for Hypnosis. A Member of the International Hypnosis Federation and the International Association Of Counselors & Therapists, Patrick is also an Exercise Specialist at Robert Wood Johnson Rahway Fitness & Wellness Center, where he is a specialist in rehabilitation training in a Cancer, Diabetes and Cardiac Program. Looking for more ways to help his clients, Patrick discovered hypnosis, which he uses to improve the mental performance of a wide variety of clients: including, professional and high school athletes, moms-to-be, cancer patients, business professionals and anyone else who is looking to improve the mental aspect of their lives. Visit www.newmotivehypnosis.com

Nancy Neiditz graduated NYU’s physical therapy program in 1989, and immediately began an in depth training of the Feldenkrais Method. Several years later she became an Anat Baniel Method for Children Practitioner as well. A modern dancer and yoga enthusiast, she appreciated the creative approach to engaging and moving Children. She started her career as an adult physical therapist at Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC. There she trained with some of the best neurologists and orthopedic surgeons in the country. In 1995, close to the time of the establishment of The Early Intervention Program, she began traveling throughout NYC to see children, ages 0-3 in their natural environments, the home. She mentored with the only other Anat Baniel Method Trainer, Marcy Lindheimer. Bringing some of her more severe cases to Ms. Lindheimer, she began her journey in learning how to approach and treat some of the most serious neuromuscular cases that appear in children with developmental disabilities. By 2004, with her fluency in Spa

Anne (Annie) Martens is the owner of Bella Bellies. Anne took her experience as a personal trainer, pilates instructor, child birth educator, doula, training in Midwifery Assistance and a mother of three, to develop movement programs focused on women.  Anne is a Licensed Lamaze Child Birth Educator, and has studied as a Postpartum Doula with Midwife Vicki Hedley, and a Birth Doula with Sunday Tortelli. She studied and worked one-on-one with Julie Tupler from 2005-2007 and studied Midwifery Assistance under the direction of Midwife Pamela Hunt, Midwife Deborah Flowers, Midwife UmmSalaamah Sondra Abdullah-Zaima, Midwife Carol Nelson and Midwife Joanne Santana. Ms. Martens is a certified Pilates instructor under Kathy Van Patten (2003) and Bob Liekens (2005); is a certified Pilates Method Alliance Instructor, a personal trainer, completed her B.F.A. in Dance at the Boston Conservatory, where she graduated cum laude under Emiko and Yasi Tokunaga, and completed post-baccalaureate work in chemistry at Montclair Sta

Lawrence Rosen, MD is an integrative pediatrician and co-author of Treatment Alternatives for Children, an evidence-based guide for parents interested in natural solutions for common childhood ailments. He is the founder of one of the country’s first “green” pediatric practices, The Whole Child Center, in Oradell, NJ, and serves as Medical Advisor to the Deirdre Imus Environmental Health Center at HackensackUMC. Dr. Rosen is a founding member and Past Chair of the AAP Section on Integrative Medicine and is appointed as Clinical Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at New Jersey Medical School. A graduate of New York Medical College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he completed his residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr. Rosen has been featured on Good Morning America, CNN, and Imus in the Morning, and he is a frequently cited expert on children’s and environmental health matters. He is a contributing editor and pediatric columnist for Kiwi Magazine, as w

Alicia Diaz, MA, AHP is an Ayurvedic Practitioner and thought leader in the area of women’s health and spirituality.  Her mission is to help women embrace their divine feminine essence, unlock their inner healing power and be at home in their bodies.  She has studied in India and the U.S. under the world-renowned Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. Pankaj Naram and Dr. Claudia Welch and uses the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda to help women easefully align their cycles and their bodies with the rhythms of nature.  Her clients experience reduced menstrual pain, enhanced fertility and ongoing daily rejuvenation, deep fulfillment and vibrant energy. 

Penelope Jagessar Chaffer is a multi award winning documentary filmmaker, writer, feminist, children’s environmental health advocate and global environmentalist. She is the first black, female director to be nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. She has directed several well received pieces of work including “Shakespeare’s Stories” for the BBC, which was nominated for a BAFTA in 2006. She has also won over 10 awards for her British television work, including 5 gold national and international Promax awards and is a double BAFTA, Royal Television Society and Grierson (British Documentary Awards) nominee. A documentary auteur, her films display a singularly unique perspective on the world we live in with The Observer newspaper in Britain calling her work “a joy to watch.” She is the director, producer and writer of Toxic Baby, which will be released as the world’s first interactive documentary app for the iPad. Penelope has been named one of the top 100 Green Online Influence

Ariele Myers is a Licensed Acupuncturist and Board Certified Herbalist, and the owner of Ariele's Apothecary, Hoboken's Acupuncture and Wellness Center.  While Ariele successful treats various forms of dis-ease in the body, from digestive to emotional to pain, her focus is on women's reproductive health.  She enjoys helping a woman throughout the transformational process of becoming a mother, from becoming pregnant and to sustaining a healthy, full-term pregnancy through labor and beyond.   Ariele has two sons, Leo and Jonah, who are constant reminders about the nature of balance and joyfulness.  Since starting her own family, Ariele has been committed to helping other parents make healthy choices for theirs.  Ariele encourages her patients to actively participate in their own healing process, empowering them to achieve and maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health.   When not with patients, Ariele can often be found in the Apothecary basement workshop, hand-blending oils and potions to add to her Artis

Denise Bolds has been a resident of the Hudson Valley for over twenty years and is originally from Harlem.  She is a successful single parent of a son who holds a master's degree and lives in New York City.  Ms. Bolds has earned her undergraduate degrees from Dutchess Community and Marist Colleges and she has a Master's Degree in Social Work.  She is also a self-published author, whose books are sold on Amazon, and Denise has her own Internet show: "Black Motherhood Empowerment" where she is both producer and host.   Denise has worked with women and their families for over sixteen years and she now owns her own business, Bold Doula.  As a certified birth doula, Ms. Bolds continues to empower women, one birth at a time.   In her free time, Denise is currently earning additional certifications, is an avid reader, and she participates in several organizations and activities.  For more information, visit her website at www.bolddoula.com.  

The Fertility Expert is a recognized leader in the field of fertility and reproductive health.  Marc is the creator of www.MarcSklar.com and www.ReproductiveWellness.com, and he's the author of "Secret to Conception."  Marc has been studying, practicing, and educating others about alternative medicine for more than fifteen years in his clinics in Southern California.   After completing his undergraduate degree in Comparative Religion at the University of Florida, he experienced an illness and learned about Oriental Medicine while searching for the most effective way to recover.  That experience was a catalyst to expand his studies of Asia religions to include Oriental Medicine.  To pursue his interest, Marc explored the Middle East, India, and Nepal.   Upon returning to the U.S., he moved to San Diego to pursue and complete his Masters of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine.  Marc has studied with many prominent figures in Oriental Medicine, with additional cer

Dr. Stephen C. Marini was educated in basic science and medicine at Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia where he received a M.S. in Microbiology and Immunology in 1976.  Doctoral studies followed at the University of Pennsylvania and Pacific Western University with dissertation research on avian tumor viruses accomplished at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia.  He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology in 1989.  Vitalistic training and professional development occurred at the Pennsylvania College of Chiropractic where he received his D.C. in 1988.  He served as professor of Microbiology at the Pennsylvania College of Chiropractic from 1980-1995 and as Academic Dean from 1990-1993.   As a vitalist trained in classical science and conventional medicine, Dr. Marini appreciates the role of energy/information on an individual's health and healing process.  He recognizes the need for a complementary, patient-centered approach to healing and health care options.  Dr. Steve incorporates this knowledge and belief

Laura Lagano, MS, RDN, CDN is a nutritionist and health educator who integrates her classic background as a registered dietitian with cutting-edge training in functional medicine.  Laura brings a range of experience in the food and nutrition world to the table.   She entered the field of functional medicine and nutrition organically-she followed the path set by her children.  Raising a child with a seizure disorder and apraxia has provided Laura with deep insight into life as both a parent and a health professional.  This experience and her own holistic health journey have informed her style of nutrition and health counseling.  Laura's inspiring story combined with her nutrition expertise and communications know-how form a winning combination for her clients.   Laura has immersed herself in the world of food, nutrition, and healing for over thirty years and continues to do so.  She received advanced training in clinical nutrition and biochemistry from the Institute of Functional Medicine which enabled Laura t

Visit www.HobokenChiro.comEmail - [email protected]: @drbrayton Dr. Cathy Wendland-Colby, D.C. is well known for her work with pregnant women and young families.  She lectures around the world on the importance of improving our lifestyles because "Healthy Moms Equal Healthy Babies."  Her lectures take people out of their comfort zone by dissecting the medical model forced on our society and replacing it with the natural approach-the chiropractic approach-to healthy pregnancy, birth, and parenthood.  You can see some of her work at www.educatedpregnancy.com and her YouTube station at DoctorCathy.   Her purpose is to educate as many people as possible how to live a healthier life because she recognizes that babies aren't pin cushions, kids aren't Guinea pigs, and no one should be treated as a human lab rat.  She believes that every person has the right to experience life to its fullest potential without drugs, without interference, and without limitations.  Her mission is to educate and lead our comm

Suzanne Ausnit has more than twenty years as a movement educator and therapist, teaching yoga, the Feldenkrais Method, and most recently, the Child'Space Method.  Prior to that, Suzanne worked as a journalist in Europe and the U.S., covering health, travel, food, and wine for a variety of national publications.   In addition to therapeutic yoga, she has taught various prenatal yoga and Pregnant Pauses classes in New York and New Jersey.  Pregnant Pauses is a Feldenkrais program designed to help women with lower back and rib pain, sciatica, breathing and sleeping difficulties and pelvic floor issues during pregnancy.  She has also taught yoga and Feldenkrais to children (ranging in age from five to eighteen) at three Hoboken schools.   As a Child'Space practitioner, she helps empower parents to enrich their baby's learning through instructive touch, guided movement, and special face-to-face interaction.  The process fosters enhanced mobility, self-soothing, vocal development, and deep parent-child bonding that

Lily Nichols is a registered dietitian, nutritionist, certified diabetes educator,certified LEAP therapist, and certified Pilates instructor whose approach to nutrition embraces real food, integrative medicine, and mindfulness. She specializes in helping people with digestive issues heal from food sensitivities and in supporting pregnant women to have the healthiest pregnancy possible (even if, and especially when, they have conditions like gestational diabetes). Lily also helps Pilates teachers love their bodies (and lose weight in the process) by ditching restrictive dieting habits, tuning in to their body's inner cues, and indulging in real food. Lily is the author of Real Food for Gestational Diabetes. Visit her website at www.pilatesnutritionist.com or www.realfoodforgd.com.