A new business in downtown Waterloo has been active for several months now, offering a variety of methods for folks to improve their mental, physical and spiritual wellness.

Jake and Jamie Hahne are the minds behind Kodiak Hollow, a crystal shop and wellness lounge located at 118 W. Mill Street in the same space Philomena + Ruth occupied for nearly a decade.

The downtown Waterloo location simply serves as the most recent home for Kodiak Hollow as the business has been active in Columbia as well as at various fairs and other events for some years.

While neither are originally from Waterloo, both have always lived fairly close by, with Jake originating from South County and Jamie graduating from high school in Freeburg.

Both of them have moved around quite a bit, with Jake recounting a move to Florida and Jamie noting how eager she was to get away from small-town life and head to St. Louis.

They wound up coming to Waterloo together in 2001, and have been quite happy with the community’s blend of small-town and city elements.

“Started dating, moving on, forward, moved to St. Louis, a couple different locations in Illinois, and we found ourselves back here in Waterloo for the time being,” Jake said. “Really love the community. The people here are a good group. It’s been a good experience for us.”

The couple have also had plenty of experience in fields besides the metaphysical work they currently focus on, with Jake working at Coca-Cola for 10 years before more recently becoming a union carpenter and Jamie working retail for some time.

Jamie’s experience in retail was followed by an education at the Healing Arts Center in St. Louis, a school teaching massage therapy as well as other holistic wellness techniques.

“I worked in retail for too long, and then in 2009 I graduated massage school from the Healing Arts Center, and that’s pretty much when everything kind of tipped for me as far as what I wanted to do,” Jamie said. “I realized that service to others really helps fill my cup.”

She further explained that her interest in spiritual and other healing stemmed from her family and her experiences as a child.

“My grandma was a reflexologist,” Jamie said. “It’s a modality where you only massage the person’s feet, and every aspect of the body is connected through the feet. I remember watching her when she would work on her clients and thinking ‘This woman is doing magic.’”

Alongside Julie Flowers, a more recent graduate of the Healing Arts Center, Jamie provides several forms of massage therapy for Kodiak Hollow customers such as deep tissue, Swedish and acupressure.

Kodiak Hollow also offers different forms of energywork for those interested in healing methods such as Reiki, a form of therapy in which a practitioner hovers their hands above or lightly places them on the subject.

Jamie and Jake also detailed several other forms of therapy and wellness services they provide, many of which involve light in some way.

Red Light Therapy is meant to stimulate mitochondria, increase cell growth and help injuries heal more quickly. The full spectrum infrared sauna is intended to help with detoxing alongside other benefits.

These sorts of therapies, as Jamie described, are based in chromatherapy and the idea that different colors on the light spectrum are meant to serve different purposes for the body.

Kodiak Hollow also offers a halotherapy salt room in which individuals breathe in nanoparticles of salt meant to address mucus production, helping with inflammation and other sinus problems.

Workshops and other classes on yoga are also available.

Jamie explained that she is interest in making these forms of wellness help more accessible given her previous experience in the massage industry.

“Being a massage therapist and having been through the industry of it, I’ve seen how privileged and exclusive spas are, and we don’t want that,” Jamie said. “We want everybody to be able to come and utilize the services.”

While a variety of therapies and other services are available, folks stepping in to Kodiak Hollow will likely first notice the tremendous collection of stones, geodes and related jewelry lining the store’s shelves.

As they explained, a family trip to Arkansas several years ago had the Hahnes mining for various minerals, and both the couple and their kids quickly developed a strong interest.

“We really enjoyed being in nature and bringing these little treasures home,” Jake said.

As Jamie pointed out, the stones naturally have a novelty to them.

“It’s wild to think that you’re the first person who’s ever touched something that’s been growing in the ground for forever,” Jamie said.

Given the shop’s metaphysical focus, these minerals are also meant to assist with customers’ spiritual wellness.

Jamie noted that while the stones themselves don’t have any inherent power or healing ability, they can play a role for people looking to have a physical manifestation of their own intentions.

“It really has to deal with the person’s intention,” Jamie said. “We’re not necessarily saying these are gonna cure your life, but when somebody sets an intention on something, and that clicks in their head and they’re like ‘This is intentional to me. This is going to make me feel more joy. This is going to help me set better boundaries. This is going to help me get up and move more often,’ because they look at it and it reminds them to do the thing. That’s where the magic is.”

Another core part of wellness for Jamie and Jake is community. Many of Kodiak Hollow’s therapy offerings are designed to accommodate pairs, with the shop also offering discounts for folks who sign up for a session with a friend.

The shop’s monthly metaphysical fairs are also meant to encourage folks to not only introduce themselves to these forms of wellness but also simply come together.

“Community is a big portion of your health, how well you feel connected,” Jamie said. “Here, we would like to normalize that kind of self care and health and wellness across the board, for the whole demographic.”

With the business having been active in Waterloo for some time now, the Hahnes were positive about the response they’ve gotten from the community.

Going forward, they expressed an interest in expanding their services, though they’re also happy to focus on the shop’s current state while considering any needs they perceive in the community.

They are also eager to make Kodiak Hollow more of a hub for the community in downtown Waterloo.

“We just want to be kind of the catalyst for anything that brings people together or heightens their awareness,” Jake said.

For more information on Kodiak Hollow and its other offerings, visit kodiakhollow.com or the Kodiak Hollow Facebook page.