Ten years ago, Aubrey Poglajen became frustrated with allopathic means to treat her various physical symptoms. After searching deeper and discovering how acupuncture enabled her body to heal from emotional childhood traumas, she made the mind-body healing connection and embarked on a quest to heal others, becoming a licensed acupuncturist while also continuing her own healing journey. Recently, other wellness practitioners joined her to form Ananda Healing Collective, a rebranded version of the practice that she formed in 2015, Ananda Acupuncture & Healing Center.

Poglajen was born in Illinois but moved to Genoa City, Wisconsin, when she was in third grade. She later attended UW-LaCrosse, but while there, she became uncomfortable with the lack of diversity and transferred to UW-Milwaukee. “I felt a hindrance in development as a human to not have diversity,” she remarks. After earning her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, exercise and fitness at UW-Milwaukee in 2008, she attended Midwest College of Oriental Medicine where she received her master’s degree in Oriental medicine and acupuncture in 2012. That year, she founded Ananda Acupuncture at an office on Knapp Street, on Milwaukee’s East Side.

In 2013, she moved her practice to Shorewood and rented space in a chiropractor’s office until 2015, when she opened Ananda Acupuncture & Healing Center in the current location. Shortly after her son was born, she moved her residence to Shorewood to be near more families. During that transition, Poglajen became interested in incorporating other healing modalities into her acupuncture practice.

During her six-plus years of practicing as an acupuncturist, Poglajen always had a strong desire to work in a collaborative space—but also in a space that encourages independence and autonomy while working toward the goal of serving patients to their highest good. This fall, she made that ambition a reality when she joined with other like-minded practitioners and rebranded as Ananda Healing Collective.

“It was founded in divine feminine energy rising,” Poglajen declares. “We’re shifting into the Age of Aquarius, and it’s about awakening and embracing the feminine-type qualities that every human on this planet embodies—it doesn’t matter one’s race, gender or sexuality. It’s all about receptivity, collaboration and nurturing. Part of that has been quieted by gender role stereotypes, but the essence of why we’re focusing on bringing awareness to this energy is to encourage balance of the masculine and feminine in order to heal society.”

Therapies offered at Ananda Healing Collective include acupuncture services; CranioSacral Therapy; SomotoEmotional Release (a therapeutic principle built upon CranioSacral Therapy); massage; reiki; and morphogenic field technique (MFT), a non-invasive therapy that works with the body’s natural energy field.

Poglajen discovered MFT shortly after working through her son’s colic and food intolerance issues. Poglajen describes the benefit of the modality. “The layer I love about MFT is that we have a way to find toxins in the environment and see how they affect us,” she explains. “We’re testing for Roundup, BT, immune challenges, environmental toxins and cellular dysfunction, and we find the exact energy in natural supplements that the body needs to get through that process.”

CranioSacral Therapy, pioneered by the Upledger Institute, is a technique based upon self-empowerment, and one which trains the practitioners in mental, emotional and spiritual release. “We’re trained to listen to the tissue and the rhythm of somebody’s body, and to not impose our own thoughts and feelings into the process,” Poglajen reveals.

She asserts that all practitioners are dedicated to meeting each client where they’re at in life. “Some therapies dive in deep, and if you’re ready to dive deep, it’s there. Then we have more therapies that help with connecting to the self, where one can stay safe in the body and learn how to receive,” she explains. “Some people have layers of trauma and distrust that need to be worked on, and it’s a process of unfolding many layers.”

She notes that while some collective-based practices are modeled with the renters all doing their own thing and coming and going as they please, Ananda is truly one in which the practitioners come together as a community to serve. Future plans include women’s circles, and Poglajen is dedicated to extending Ananda beyond their clinic walls, creating community in Shorewood and beyond.

Ananda Healing Collective is located at 4528 N. Oakland Ave., Shorewood. For more information, call 414-791-0303 or visit AnandaHealingCollective.com.

Sheila Julson is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Natural Awakenings.