Creative Healing Arts Studio on Crane Valley Road (426), adjacent to Palm Memorial Sierra Chapel, is a place to become creative with clay, relax with yoga, or delve into a world of dreams. Coarsegold residents David and Jeannemarie Caris opened the business over the summer and are hoping to add more classes and get more community members involved.

"We chose the name because we're both working in the arts," David said. "We think of dream work and yoga as things that are healing. We also think of clay work because students say how relaxed they are when doing it. When the body is relaxed and not stressed, it's a healing experience."

They also hope other artists will offer classes at their studio.

Classes already being offered include:

Meditative Yoga: 6 p.m. on Mondays; 6:45 a.m. on Wednesdays; 1 p.m. on Thursdays; and 9:30 a.m. on Saturdays.

Limited mobility yoga: 11 a.m. on Wednesdays.

Wheelchair yoga: 10 a.m. on Thursdays.

Ceramics: 9 a.m. on Mondays; 12 p.m. on Wednesdays; and 12 p.m. on Fridays.

Embodied Imagination (Dreams): TBA

Yoga

David says meditative yoga is actually regular yoga, but the results are like meditation.

"I focus on the quiet mind and having people go inward and let go of the stress of the world," he said. "It's like a meditation, but in reality, it's like yoga. "

The limited mobility yoga class is for those who have lost some of their mobility either through the aging process, surgery, obesity or illness. All yoga moves are done in a chair or standing, but never on the floor. David hopes to start wheelchair yoga classes and is currently accepting students.

"I think people in wheelchairs can have the yoga experience and it can help them physically and psychologically," David said.

He has been a yoga instructor for 16 years. It all began when Jeannemarie asked him to attend a yoga class with her. Not enthusiastic about the idea, he agreed to go because if one of them really wants to do something, they do it together.

"I went with her and didn't even know what it was but I fell in love with it," David said.

He loved it so much he went through a six month certification process. When the couple moved to Coarsegold in 1999, David started instructing in his home studio. He also teaches at The Fitness Zone and the Chateau du Sureau.

"I like the way it makes my body feel because if you really get into it, it can increase your flexibility and strength," David said. "Most of all, it allowed my mind to be quiet while still engaged in the corporate world."

But David doesn't just do it for himself, he teaches to help others.

"It's making a difference for a lot of people and I benefit from that," he said. "I think it's wonderful to have work that makes people happy and healthier."

Ceramics

David also offers three hour ceramics classes three days a week and include all stages of sculptors from beginners to advanced. David says the classes are about working together, sharing ideas and helping each other. David does teach the steps it takes to create an object out of clay and the proper glazes to use. There has been such a big interest, he might add another class.

Karen Clark has been taking ceramics classes from David for about six years.

"It really is fun, you never know what you're going to end up with," Clark said.

She says she enjoys the camaraderie with her classmates and says it's very relaxing and nice to be able to create something to share with friends and family.

As a teacher, Clark says David is very calm.

"He's one of those kinds of guys that doesn't come in and take over," she said. "He doesn't criticize. He may offer a suggestion, but he never says you should do this or that. He lets you be as creative as you want to be. He's just great."

Embodied Imagination

Jeannemarie, who has a Ph.D. in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, plans to start teaching Embodied Imagination or Dreamwork -- working with dreams, memories and personal images to stimulate healing. She received her training from founder and creator of the process Robbie Bosnak, a Jungian Analyst, who received his degree in Zurich. Bosnak is head of the Santa Barbara Healing Sanctuary.

"I'm very excited about it's potential," Jeannemarie said, adding it's not interpretive or therapy. She doesn't tell the dreamer what their dreams mean. She said people have stories and images in their dreams that stem from the archetypal realm of the collective unconscious and, if they are thoroughly searched for meaning, healing will be stimulated in the body. Jeannemarie says embodied imagination dates back to ancient times.

Jeannemarie has been doing dreamwork since 2003 and was certified in 2011. She's worked with photographers, musicians and writers to help them overcome creative blocks and become more artistic. She says it's not only for healing, but also helps improve peak performance. She says it enhances the imagination, and it's not just for artists -- even those in the business world, such as CEOs, can stimulate business ideas through dreamwork.

"Anytime a person needs to access your own inner wisdom, that's what this is and it's very powerful," she said. "The power is not in images, but in your relationship to those images."

Jeannemarie will hold small group sessions and individual sessions. Through a series of techniques with the eyes closed, Jeannemarie says people can go back and re-visit their dream, slow it down and remember every aspect of the dream and try to understand the emotions associated with the dream.

"You have to go with the images you're psyche gives you, even if you don't like the image, and it tells you how you work," Jeannemarie said.

She plans told hold sessions the first and third Thursdays of the month and one Saturday session a month, plus a lecture series.

Both David and Jeannemarie say they hope to see other community members sharing their creativity and healing through classes at the studio.

"We're hoping this place becomes a focal point of people who live here to bring what they know and share it," Jeannemarie said.

Details: dcaris@sti.net, (559) 683-3322, (559) 760-0978.