5 minute read
Health
HEALTH WELLNESS
Summer 2021
Your Local Guide to Better Living
BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA
Contributor
Two free “Healing with Purpose” classes are being hosted by Jenny Preece, owner/operator of Blue J Way Creative Healing in Chandler.
Healing with Purpose classes center on grief resulting from loss. Such loss can result not only in an emotional response, but physical, cognitive and behavioral responses as well, Preece said, explaining it can result from death, divorce, job loss – or even the loss of hopes or dreams.
The hour-long classes are 2:30 p.m. June 23 and July 21 at Tuk Urban Kafe, at 15815t S. 50th St. in the Liv Generations building in Ahwatukee.
As with her private and tailored sessions held at her Chandler studio, Preece said the classes will help people use the creative process to “move toward a healthy, fulfilling life.” Dealing with grief isn’t limited to death. As Preece knows first-hand, it can result from other losses including health, divorce and other big life changes.
“Life is like photography,” said Preece, who is also a professional photographer who has worked with corporations like Pottery Barn and Avnet, Inc. “You need the negatives to develop.”
Preece speaks in a soft voice, which some of her patients consider a calming mechanism. In fact, it is spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder
affecting the vocal cords. Former NPR host Diane Rehm was diagnosed with it in 1998.
For many years, Preece consulted various doctors but wasn’t diagnosed until 2004 at Scottsdale’s Mayo Clinic.
The disorder was life-changing.
“I didn’t know what was going on with my voice. I used my voice daily for years in my professions; it was my identity,” recalled Preece, who worked in marketing and sales, event planning for large hotels, led aerobics classes and worked for a time as a radio announcer.
“My voice was my lifeline. I literally had to start again,” said Preece. “Yet SD (spasmodic dysphonia) is what started me on my path to healing.”
Preece spoke of “rough patches” following a divorce and then raising her three children as a single mother.
“I went through some pretty dark times. Learning to manage my own emotions and realizing I needed to go
back to school and get a master’s as a single mom in order to have other options for other professions. I received a scholarship for my masters program,” she said of the creative life, humanities and depth psychology degree she earned at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara.
“While in school I realized that this was not only what I needed but other people needed to help them heal,” she said. “After graduation Blue J Way was born. I help people work through tough emotions in a creative way while helping them understand emotional health’s connection with the body.”
Blue J Way Creative Healing services are professionally-priced, but Preece has a reason for offering the free classes to the community.
“COVID-19 has affected a lot of people’s finances or brought loss of family. The world has changed. I’ve been a strong supporter of RAK - random acts of kindness, and it’s something I practice. I have been given much by those around me, so over the years, I’ve tried to find community events to participate in or hold myself,” she explained.
“So, I wanted people in the community to be able to attend these classes free of charge. RAK has helped me and my children get through life’s darkest moments. So, if I can be that light for someone else. I am happy to be.”
When Preece quotes Ziad K Abdelnour’s “Life is like Photography…,” she knows of what she speaks.
“My family moved to Saipan, an island in Micronesia, when I was 12. It was there that photography entered my life. I was so mad at my parents for taking me away from everything I knew and thought I loved,” she said.
“After being angry and upset, my dad said to me, ‘Jenn, you can either look at the negative and all the things you’re mad at and keep hitting your head against a brick wall OR you can choose to find the positives.’ I decided I was tired of hitting my head against the brick wall.
“We bought several of those disposable cameras as well as a regular camera and I started focusing on the beauty of the Island. The differences of the culture and people and seeing those as unique and wonderful. Little did I know photography would be a passion and a career that saved me during the darkest moments of my life.” She was a professional photographer for 20 years and recently published a photography book, “Sunrise. Sunset. Repeat.” One of her Instagram accounts remains an outlet for her photography. “I use @creative_adventuristsfamily as my therapy, and love that I can use my photography talents again on a smaller scale,” said Preece. “I also love teaching my clients the art of photography as well.” From her youth, Preece has traveled the world. Her undergrad work was at the University of Utah in recreation management and travel and tourism.
“I’ve been to 46 states and hope to get to all 50 by the age of 50, a lifelong dream of mine. I’ve also been to 19 countries including an internship in Japan.”
The monthly Ahwatukee classes were the result of LivGenerations Ahwatukee’s Senior Leasing Director Sheri Simpson’s desire to offer grief coping classes. The Tuk Urban Kafe is a popular eatery and coffee house in the main building.
“I wanted to start grief sessions, but I wanted something a bit different so when I learned more about Jenny and Blue J Way, I asked her if we could partner together,” said Simpson. “These monthly meetings are open to the public though they need to make reservations by phoning me.”
Attendees can join at any time as long as they reserve ahead.
For more information on Jenny Preece and her services, see BlueJCreativeHealing.org or phone 480-6568385.
Preece and Blue J Way are also on Facebook and can be followed on Instagram: @bluejcreativehealing and @creative_adventuristsfamily . The latter has photos of her life in Saipan.
To reserve a space at the Healing with Purpose classes in the Tuk Urban Kafe, phone Sheri Simpson at LivGenerations Ahwatukee at 480-800-7304.
Jenny Prrece, owner of Blue J Way Creative Healing, is conducting some free grief-management courses at the Tuk Urban Café at Liv Generations in Ahwatukee, just across the I-10 from Chandler. (Pablo Robles/Staff Photographer “I went through some pretty dark times. Learning to manage my own emotions and realizing I needed to go back to school and get a master’s as a single mom in order to have other options for other professions. I received a scholarship for my masters program.” – Jenny Preece
