Staff Bios

Thank you for your inter­est in Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter. I opened the well­ness cen­ter because I am pas­sion­ate about help­ing clients live their health­i­est and hap­pi­est lives. 

I received my well­ness coach train­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the Mayo Clin­ic in Rochester, Min­neso­ta after grad­u­at­ing from Indi­ana State Uni­ver­si­ty with a Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion degree. I am a nation­al­ly board-cer­ti­fied health and well­ness coach. I have been a licensed mas­sage ther­a­pist since 2006 with a license to prac­tice mas­sage ther­a­py in the state of Illi­nois as well as Mon­tana. After grad­u­at­ing from mas­sage school, I com­plet­ed a colon hydrother­a­py train­ing pro­gram in San Anto­nio, Texas. 

My vision for Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter is to help every­one feel their very best, not just phys­i­cal­ly, but also men­tal­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly. I am com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing the high­est qual­i­ty of ser­vices with your health and well-being fore­most in mind.

I hope to see you soon!

Amy Brooke Upchurch
Owner/Founder

Below is a list of practitioners you can find at Willow Tree Wellness Center:

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Dr. Gretchen A. Boules, PsyD, MSCP, BCTMH, Licensed Pre­scrib­ing Psy­chol­o­gist
Licensed Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist
Board Cer­ti­fied Tele-Men­tal Health Provider
Reg­is­tered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200)

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Dr. Bran­di K. Boan, PsyD, ASPPB, MSCP
Licensed Pre­scrib­ing Psy­chol­o­gist
Licensed Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist
Clin­i­cal Neuropsychologist

Dr. Boan’s approach to treat­ment involves a com­bi­na­tion of bio­log­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and philo­soph­i­cal prin­ci­ples to bet­ter under­stand behav­ioral, cog­ni­tive and neu­ro­log­i­cal func­tion­ing. This frame­work allows for a thor­ough con­cep­tu­al­iza­tion of a person’s per­son­al­i­ty, his­to­ry, health, and assess­ment per­for­mance. Ulti­mate­ly this con­cep­tu­al­iza­tion guides med­ical and holis­tic treat­ment rec­om­men­da­tions, which will help the indi­vid­ual per­son and his/her fam­i­ly. She believes that treat­ment is most suc­cess­ful when holis­tic approach­es are com­bined with med­ical inter­ven­tions. She also believes that treat­ment should include inter­ven­tions that will lead to imme­di­ate suc­cess, but also lifestyle changes that allow an indi­vid­ual to lead his/her best life. Bran­di has been licensed as the 2nd Pre­scrib­ing Psy­chol­o­gist in the state of Illinois. 

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Hel­lo! My name is Mike Kit­tle and I am a Reg­is­tered Nurse. While I am an Illi­nois Native, my time in both the U.S. Army as an infantry­man and the U.S. Navy as a Nuclear Electrician’s Mate has land­ed me in many places world­wide. When it was time to set­tle down I, along with my wife and daugh­ter, relo­cat­ed back to our roots in the Cham­paign area where my wife and I attend­ed nurs­ing school and became RNs in 2011. I have spent my Nurs­ing career in Emer­gency Med­i­cine and am a cer­ti­fied Trau­ma Nurse Spe­cial­ist as well as a reg­is­tered Adult Advanced Car­diac and Pedi­atric Advanced Life Sup­port RN. While I tru­ly love my time in the Emer­gency Room, and still do it on a part-time basis, my real pas­sion is pro­vid­ing health and well­ness options that keep peo­ple out of the Emer­gency Room in the first place. To achieve this goal, I have teamed up with a Board-Cer­ti­fied Emer­gency Physi­cian to estab­lish Hydra­tions, LLC. You can find me at Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter pro­vid­ing you with focused and effec­tive health and well­ness options which include intra­venous ther­a­py and injec­tions. I am very excit­ed to be a part of the Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter team and hope to see you soon.

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I’m Julie Baum and I’ve been a reg­is­tered nurse for over 20 years. I grad­u­at­ed from MacArthur High School and Mil­likin Uni­ver­si­ty. I’m the proud mom of 3 boys and I have 4 grand­kids that I love to spend time with. I also love boat­ing and snow ski­ing.  I’m cur­rent­ly help­ing out at Hydra­tions and Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter with Vit­a­min IV drips, shots, and labs. I hope to see you soon! 

 

 

 

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Hi! I’m Ani­ta and I am a cer­ti­fied Clin­i­cal Ther­mo­g­ra­ph­er through the Amer­i­can Col­lege of Clin­i­cal Ther­mol­o­gy and a Board-Cer­ti­fied Natur­o­path­ic Doc­tor through the Amer­i­can Nat­ur­al Well­ness Prac­ti­tion­ers Board. I have direct­ed Mid­west Med­ical Ther­mog­ra­phy and Health Ser­vices since August 2016 and am excit­ed to offer my ser­vices here in cen­tral IL. See you soon!

 

 

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Hel­lo! I’m Han­nah Lan­dis I am a Cer­ti­fied Pro­fes­sion­al Mid­wife (CPM)  and Inter­na­tion­al Board Cer­ti­fied Lac­ta­tion Con­sul­tant (IBCLC). I have a Mas­ter’s in Mol­e­c­u­lar and Cel­lu­lar Biol­o­gy from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois, where I stud­ied preg­nan­cy metab­o­lism, pla­cen­tal dynam­ics, and foun­da­tion­al nutri­tion in depth.  I also spe­cial­ized in pre­ci­sion nutri­tion­al ther­a­pies for keep­ing preg­nan­cy low-risk.

I am the author of “How to grow a baby: a midwife’s cook­book”. I live in Danville with my hus­band of over 20 years and 4 chil­dren. I enjoy nature, sci­ence, and cof­fee. I am pas­sion­ate about com­ing along­side fam­i­lies dur­ing the child­bear­ing years and offer­ing pre­na­tal care, lac­ta­tion sup­port, and home birth services. 

We are so excit­ed to share our space with Han­nah. You can find Han­nah at Beau­ti­ful Things Mid­wifery and Lac­ta­tion Ser­vices, LLC. She is avail­able for office and home visits.

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Greet­ings! My name is Wendy Shaf­fer, and I am a licensed mas­sage ther­a­pist. I have enjoyed the priv­i­lege of giv­ing mas­sage since grad­u­at­ing Lake­land Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege in 2005. Pri­or to that, my train­ing includ­ed: CNA, Phar­ma­cy Tech, and Chi­ro­prac­tic assis­tant. Mas­sage is one of the best ways to approach and main­tain well­ness and I feel very blessed to pro­vide this ther­a­py here at Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter. In my free time cook­ing and bak­ing, spend­ing time with my daugh­ter and learn­ing about rocks and min­er­als. I hope to see you soon!

 

 

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Hi every­one! My name is Liz Puli­do and I am a Licensed Mas­sage Ther­a­pist. I was born on the West Coast and raised here in Cen­tral Illi­nois. I enjoy spend­ing time trav­el­ing with my fam­i­ly and find­ing new things to try. After work­ing many years in restau­rant man­age­ment around the Champaign/Savoy area, I want­ed to set out on a health and well­ness plan to cre­ate a bet­ter rou­tine for my dai­ly lifestyle. I obtained my Asso­ciates in Applied Sci­ence and com­plet­ed Park­land’s Mas­sage Ther­a­py Pro­gram in 2021. I became pas­sion­ate in teach­ing and empow­er­ing oth­ers in what they are feel­ing with­in their body and find­ing the cor­rect solu­tions to heal­ing. My goal is to pro­vide a rou­tine of stretch­es and soft tis­sue manip­u­la­tion to our clients to help increase range of motion and reduce pain felt through the body on a dai­ly basis. See you soon!

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Hel­lo my name is Tanya, I com­pet­ed the mas­sage ther­a­py pro­gram at Park­land Col­lege in 2022 and is begin­ning a spe­cial­iza­tion in Mayan Abdom­i­nal Mas­sage. She con­sid­ers her­self a life­long learn­er and enjoys mak­ing con­nec­tions across mul­ti­ple modal­i­ties.  The tech­niques that she uses with clients include yoga, dai­ly move­ment, breath­work and mas­sage.  She enjoys demys­ti­fy­ing the body and how it func­tions in order to fos­ter under­stand­ing and heal­ing in her clients.

Tanya began prac­tic­ing yoga in 1997 as a way to cross train while run­ning marathons. While her prac­tice was ini­tial­ly very phys­i­cal, it sparked a fas­ci­na­tion with the human body.  Over the years, she used chal­lenges in her own body to inform her areas of study and prac­tice.  This result­ed into a deep dive into foot func­tion to treat bunions, plan­tar fasci­itis and plan­tar pain, core and pelvic floor func­tion to help with back and pelvic pain.  These explo­rations led to the real­iza­tion that many of the com­mon issues that we con­sid­er to be “nor­mal aging” can be addressed through move­ment strate­gies. She enjoys help­ing her clients find ways to weave move­ment into their days. Loss of func­tion does not have to be an inevitabil­i­ty as we age.

Tanya loves work­ing with clients who are curi­ous and want strate­gies to get at the root cause of their pain, weak­ness and dys­func­tions.  She wants peo­ple be able to live their lives more ful­ly. It’s not about being able to do the splits but rather about being able to take walks, get up and down from the floor, recov­er when you fall, and get things done that are impor­tant to you.

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Hel­lo, my name is Miri­am Ric­si-Perez and I am a licensed mas­sage ther­a­pist. I am a grad­u­ate of Park­land College.

Mas­sage ther­a­py and heal­ing peo­ple are my pas­sions. I have stud­ied many tech­niques, but my main focus is relief from mus­cle pain and ten­sion.  I believe in the pow­er of touch and being in the right place at the right time. 

The cor­rect envi­ron­ment is ben­e­fi­cial for the body, spir­it, and mind. It is the begin­ning of your heal­ing process. I am a firm believ­er in prac­tic­ing grat­i­tude and mind­ful­ness in day-to-day life. I am orig­i­nal­ly from the coun­try of Peru but have lived in Cham­paign Coun­ty for ten years.

Ever since I was a young child, I have been pas­sion­ate about ani­mals and nature. I love explor­ing new places to see ani­mals in their nat­ur­al habi­tat. I am grate­ful to be work­ing with the clients at Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter and look for­ward to help­ing as many peo­ple as I can.

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Hey there! My name is Joshua May­ol, I grad­u­at­ed from the world-renowned Berkana Insti­tute of Mas­sage Ther­a­py in Long­mont, Col­orado, in 2021 and received my 200-hour yoga cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from Kind­ness Yoga in Den­ver, Col­orado, in 2020.

I incor­po­rate move­ment and length­en­ing as much as allowed dur­ing the mas­sage expe­ri­ence but can also accom­mo­date if you sim­ply want a relax­ing Swedish mas­sage to calm the ner­vous sys­tem. I believe meet­ing peo­ple where they are most com­fort­able when facil­i­tat­ing your relax­ation or heal­ing is essen­tial. I am a licensed mas­sage ther­a­pist in Col­orado, Illi­nois, and Florida.

We are excit­ed to have Joshua join the team here! 

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Hel­lo!  My name is Jolene Wright and I am a Nation­al­ly Board Cer­ti­fied Health & Well­ness coach and yoga instruc­tor spe­cial­iz­ing in pos­i­tive ener­gy ther­a­py, Thai body­work and reflexology.

I was raised in Sul­li­van, IL but have been blessed to be able to trav­el the world. I have been teach­ing yoga since 2013 and learned ear­ly on that phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions were pre­vent­ing peo­ple from get­ting on the yoga mat. This real­iza­tion land­ed me in Thai­land where I stud­ied Thai Yoga Mas­sage. Human touch is a pow­er­ful tool and I am inspired to cre­ate a safe place where one can deeply relax and release ten­sion that forms in the body & mind. 

Through heal­ing touch, I hope you meet your desired out­come, so that you can live your best life. 

As a coach, I guide indi­vid­u­als to build rela­tion­ships with their mind, body, and spir­it using holis­tic tools to imple­ment a health and well-being plan spe­cif­ic to their needs.

The body talks, as does the heart, the brain, and the gut.  It is in still­ness & relax­ation that we give our bod­ies the oppor­tu­ni­ty to shift into change.

Each indi­vid­ual is unique and no one knows the “self” bet­ter than any­one else.  Work­ing with a coach can help over­come obsta­cles and habit­u­al habits that have impact­ed your over­all well-being. 

Tools that may be imple­ment­ed in one on one sessions:

• Pos­i­tive Ener­gy therapy
• Colon hydrother­a­py
• Infrared sauna sessions
• Func­tion­al med­i­cine with
• Breath-work
• Mind­ful movement
• Devel­op­ing affirmations/mantras
• Meditation/Mindfulness
• Jour­nal­ing. 

The first guid­ing ques­tion I will ask you is “what do you desire?”.  I hope to see you soon!

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Hi! I’m Teri Miller and I offer yoga here at the well­ness cen­ter. I live in Arthur with my hus­band, Men­no, and my lit­tle dog, Jacie. I have three won­der­ful grown daugh­ters who are off mak­ing their own nests.

I am a Chris­t­ian yogi and hav­ing per­son­al­ly ben­e­fit­ted immense­ly from the emo­tion­al, spir­i­tu­al, and phys­i­cal heal­ing pow­er that yoga prac­tice can pro­vide, I love shar­ing what I have learned through my per­son­al prac­tice and training.

I am a 200 hour reg­is­tered yoga teacher (RYT), a cer­ti­fied Ayurvedic Nutri­tion­ist and a Trau­ma Informed yoga instructor.

I also enjoy work­ing one on one with pri­vate clients, offer­ing this ser­vice here at the well­ness cen­ter as well as in the client’s home. These ses­sions are great for the clients as they are often more com­fort­able than in a class as they begin prac­tic­ing and pri­vate ses­sions allow for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op a prac­tice at their own pace, accord­ing to their spe­cif­ic needs and abilities. 

If you are inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about Ayurve­da, the sis­ter sci­ence of yoga, which con­sid­ers food as med­i­cine and pro­vides insight for bal­anced liv­ing through self-study and car­ry­ing out dai­ly activ­i­ties such as eat­ing, sleep­ing, and exer­cis­ing accord­ing to our indi­vid­ual com­po­si­tion or dosha, I would love to have a one on one con­sul­ta­tion with you. 

Fun fact:
Moun­tain pose, also known as tadasana in the San­skrit lan­guage, is my favorite yoga pose. Among the most foun­da­tion­al pos­es in yoga, moun­tain pose teach­es us to stand with con­fi­dence, tall and strong, open, and assured­ly aligned.  I hope to see you soon! 

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Hel­lo! My name is Lau­ra Mele­cosky-Zach­man, and I am a 20+ year Cer­ti­fied Res­pi­ra­to­ry Ther­a­pist, wife to a won­der­ful and sup­port­ive hus­band, mom to triplets, anoth­er daugh­ter, (whom are all grown and out of the house) and a dog mom to Man­do­lo­ri­an, a 2‑year-old Ger­man Shepherd/ Blue Heel­er, Service/Support Dog.  I was born and raised near the Danville, IL area.

I have worked in many capac­i­ties as a Res­pi­ra­to­ry Ther­a­pist through­out the years includ­ing the ER, ICU, NICU, OB, Pul­monary Func­tion Test­ing, Sleep Med­i­cine, recep­tion­ist work, DOT phys­i­cals, drug test­ing and Pul­monary Rehab.

I decid­ed to take an adven­ture of a life­time after I found myself lost in the sys­tem as a patient and health­care work­er, feel­ing as though I could­n’t advo­cate or help guide my patients. 

I found my true pas­sion in Ener­gy Med­i­cine and Detox­i­fi­ca­tion specif­i­cal­ly using FDA approved PEMF (Pulsed Elec­tro-Mag­net­ic Field) ther­a­py and Ion­ic Detox Foot Bath Treat­ments which helped me with my own healing.

I have earned cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in Ener­gy Med­i­cine, Com­ple­men­tary & Inte­gra­tive Health, and cur­rent­ly I’m work­ing towards my Nutri­tion, Food, Health Cer­tifi­cate in Glob­al Health Systems.

I love explor­ing herbal reme­dies and am always look­ing for nat­ur­al meth­ods to exper­i­ment with. I am pas­sion­ate about edu­ca­tion in the func­tion­al and alter­na­tive med­i­cine space and love learn­ing about uti­liz­ing what God gave us on this earth to help our bodies.

I have an empa­thet­ic per­son­al­i­ty and want to help oth­ers in any way that I can. I love ground­ing by walk­ing in nature as well as prac­tic­ing yoga to cen­ter myself. This is often where I get my inspi­ra­tion for ideas on how to help assist others. 

Togeth­er we can work to improve your body, mind, & spir­it through detox­i­fi­ca­tion and ener­gy medicine. 

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Hel­lo! My name is Kristi­na, and I was born and raised in Delaware! After our daugh­ter grad­u­at­ed col­lege, my hus­band and I decid­ed we want­ed to slow things down and enjoy life, so here we are in cen­tral Illi­nois! Pri­or to mov­ing, I worked as an Oph­thalmic Tech­ni­cian for over 10 years. I joined Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter in May 2021 and enjoy being able to have a part in help­ing oth­ers in their well­ness journey.I am a huge dog lover and cur­rent­ly have 3 that I love and spoil very much!! In my spare time I enjoy trav­el­ing with my hus­band, bak­ing, and spend­ing time with fam­i­ly and friends! I am look­ing for­ward to explor­ing and expe­ri­enc­ing not only the nat­ur­al beau­ty and cul­ture of Illi­nois, but the entire mid-west!

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My name is Monte, and I was born in The Hoosier State on Jan­u­ary 2, 2019. I moved to Arthur on St. Patrick’s Day in 2019 and start­ed work­ing as the Chief Hap­pi­ness Offi­cer at Wil­low Tree Well­ness Cen­ter the very next day.   I love all my co-work­ers and clients here and some­times I show­er them with hugs and licks. I enjoy long walks and tak­ing naps when­ev­er I get the chance. My favorite food is bacon…yum!  I hope every­one enjoys the well­ness cen­ter as much as I do.

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