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New Saddle River Boutique Empowers Every Body

SADDLE RIVER, N.J. — Anything positive you can do for a body — destress, detoxify, heal, nurture, strengthen, love — you can do at The Body Image Boutique in Saddle River.

Psychotherapist Melanie Struble, left, and Yoga Teacher Jen Kraft opened the Body Image Boutique.

Psychotherapist Melanie Struble, left, and Yoga Teacher Jen Kraft opened the Body Image Boutique.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
Jeannie Placier of Midland Park, a yoga teacher, greets people at the entrance of The Body Image Boutique.

Jeannie Placier of Midland Park, a yoga teacher, greets people at the entrance of The Body Image Boutique.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
A staircase to the second floor of The Body Image Boutique. Inspirational sayings are everywhere at the new community, located in a former parish house.

A staircase to the second floor of The Body Image Boutique. Inspirational sayings are everywhere at the new community, located in a former parish house.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
Susan Noyes Taylor, mind-body nutrition specialist at The Body Image Boutique.

Susan Noyes Taylor, mind-body nutrition specialist at The Body Image Boutique.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
Jen Kraft in the immense yoga studio at The Body Image Boutique.

Jen Kraft in the immense yoga studio at The Body Image Boutique.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
Jen Kraft, left, and Melanie Struble in the meditation room at The Body Image Boutique,

Jen Kraft, left, and Melanie Struble in the meditation room at The Body Image Boutique,

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
Inspirational words on the wall of Melanie Struble's office.

Inspirational words on the wall of Melanie Struble's office.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
Inside a treatment room at The Body Image Boutique.

Inside a treatment room at The Body Image Boutique.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
Psychotherapist Melanie Struble in her office at The Body Image Boutique, located in the former parish house of a church on East Allendale Avenue in Saddle River. Outside her window is a view of an historic cemetery.

Psychotherapist Melanie Struble in her office at The Body Image Boutique, located in the former parish house of a church on East Allendale Avenue in Saddle River. Outside her window is a view of an historic cemetery.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash
Peering down the "gratitude hallway" at The Body Image Boutique. People are encouraged to write the things for which they're thankful on framed boards lining the hall.

Peering down the "gratitude hallway" at The Body Image Boutique. People are encouraged to write the things for which they're thankful on framed boards lining the hall.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Ash

The center was opened two weeks ago by two friends.

They are Jen Kraft, a yoga teacher, and Melanie Struble, a psychotherapist.

Here’s the message Kraft and Struble have for the community:

The Body Image Boutique is for everybody. Read that “every body.”

For starters, it’s for men and women, girls and boys.

The heart of the center’s philosophy is that there isn’t just one way to live life well.

“People walk in apologizing for eating a piece of candy,” Kraft said. “I ask them if I can have a piece.”

The boutique is about learning to treat your body well in all its uniqueness, which includes your personality, personhood and soul.

Yes, the center helps people with eating disorders.

“That’s a niche we’re doing but that’s not everything,” said Kraft. “Yoga helped me personally a lot with body image issues and an eating disorder I had in college.”

But there’s so much more than that to the center, located in the three-story parish house of the Zion Lutheran Church on East Allendale Road.

The friends renovated the space drastically to accommodate an immense yoga studio, meditation room, treatment rooms for Reiki and Ayurvedic services, a doctor’s office, Struble’s office, a café/social space, a nutritionist’s office, and more.

The idea of having all the services under one roof makes lots of sense to Struble, who, for years, has had to send patients from place to place, alone, to get support.

The Body Image Boutique is a way to counter all that, she explained. It's a place where people can feel “they’re coming home to themselves.”

“There is no disconnect between mind and body,” Struble said. “What goes on with your nutrition, goes on with your head. What goes on with your head, affects your body.”

At the end of the day, the two friends want to show people that, no matter what they’ve been told, they are “enough” just as they are.

There are many portals of entry into The Body Image Boutique.

People can book appointments or sign up for a class or a drum circle or art therapy or a kirtan, a call-and-response chanting group.

For all the options, CLICK HERE, call 201-708-8448 or write info@thebodyimageboutique.com.

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