Meet Andrea Bailey
If you have not yet joined us for a Leadership Luncheon, then you don’t know the power of these events! Take this as a midday opportunity to calibrate your goals and get on the right track, especially as we enter a new year bursting with promise. Our speaker at January’s luncheon is Andrea Bailey of Ludlow, Mass., owner of Evolving Mind and Body, LLC. Dine with us as she presents “Helping People Reset, Reconnect & Rise.”
Bailey has worked in mental health since 2003 across acute, residential and outpatient settings. She is a licensed mental health counselor, mindfulness-based ecotherapist, reiki master and functional fitness instructor. Most importantly, she is a human that knows what it means to carry weight emotionally, physically and energetically. For more than 20 years, she has guided individuals and groups out of survival mode and into deeper alignment with nature-based healing, movement and mindset shifts. She calls on her own experience from times when she was married to a Marine Corps veteran and occasions when she felt inadequate in mind, body or spirit to ensure her practice is especially geared toward first responders and women in need of empowerment.
“I opened Evolving Mind and Body, LLC, in August of 2020,” Bailey explained. “At the time, I was the program director at Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Academy in Springfield, Mass. The pandemic allowed me the opportunity to open my telehealth practice during a time when people felt isolated. I gave my notice in January of 2021 and moved to full-time self-employment by July of 2021.
“I value physical fitness, so I trained in functional fitness, and I substitute teach group classes at the Scantic Valley YMCA. As I have been healing and growing, energetic work became a focus in my life, so I became a reiki master and human design reader.”
She’s coined the terms “Therapeutic Rucking” or “TheraRuck” to describe her own brand of grounded therapy combined with real-world grit. A TheraRuck is a three-month experience that pushes participants beyond what they perceive as possible; they enjoy biweekly two-hour treks through various terrain to push through mental and physical barriers and off-week reflections to create lasting transformation. Bailey describes the off-week reflections as “a time to practice what was discovered, challenged, learned and developed during an outdoor session. These reflections provide time for the seeds planted in an outdoor session to germinate.”
Evolving Mind and Body, LLC, has partnered with multiple fitness and wellness groups to present public events, including Boston Bulldogs Run Club, The Mom Walk Co. and Breathe to Empower. Bailey has been featured at events like the Boston Outdoor Expo, the She’s Local: Pioneer Valley Women’s Conference and multiple national publications.
When asked how her presentation helps listeners take the reins in their own lives, especially during the start of a new year, Bailey said, “I will be teaching mindfulness-based ecotherapy, grounding, breathwork and sensory integration to maximize the benefits of this restorative time of year called winter.” To Bailey, winter is not a time to hibernate, but rather a time to do the inner work necessary to thrive through all other seasons.
Bailey stated she is “looking forward to sharing tools that help maximize the experience of the powerful rest and reset that winter can bring by settling our nervous system through practical, easy to learn and easy to implement skills. I thank YPS for this opportunity!”
YPS of Greater Springfield is eager to welcome you to our first event of the new year: a Leadership Luncheon with Andrea Bailey of Evolving Mind and Body, LLC, on Tuesday, January 6, at the UMass Center located on Main St. in Springfield, Mass. Register now at SpringfieldYPS.com!