Tending mind, body and the garden
Take a dollop of horticulture; mix it with yoga; and for good measure, throw in some ‘ultimate’ stretch therapy and massage at a Mashpee spa. It is not your typical career – but it is one that is prototypically Cape Cod.
It lets Catherine Jane Paulson capitalize on the peninsula’s environment and native species, address the growing needs of both its retirees and second-home owners, and participate in the growing fields of fitness and organic living.
“No matter whether I am focusing on horticulture, yoga or massage, the core of my work stems from inviting people to come into balance, to thrive in their lives and connect to nature and wellbeing,” she said.
That may sound somewhat ethereal, but think where we are. “People come to the Cape for these experiences,” she noted.
The fascination surrounding Paulson is that she is working diligently to connect all three pursuits into a single business model, from Web sites to locations and associates in Barnstable, Yarmouth and Mashpee. Recently, she expanded her practice as far as Ireland and Costa Rica.
Horticulture
Paulson is not a landscaper, nor does she operate a nursery. She is a horticultural consultant with sea jane garden in Barnstable, which services residential and nonprofit clients Capewide.
“I don’t mow lawns. I have no desire to run machines or crews. My niche is very defined. I do the fine-tuning of gardening – how to pay attention to your property; the development of maintenance programs. I teach people how to prune and divide perennials. I bring a fresh eye to an old garden,” explained Paulson, who is a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist.
“People need to develop a strategy so not to be overwhelmed with their property.” For her design work, she charges $100 per hour; consulting, $75 per hour; maintenance, $40 per hour.
“I take a sky-down approach; I try to understand what works for the client. I look at their property as well as the entire neighborhood to make sure it all will be compatible. I don’t try to make drastic changes unless a client is looking to do so.
“What I do with my horticulture is what I do with my yoga practice. I try to listen to my clients and hear what kind of space they want to inhabit during their downtime.”
Paulson, who is 35, particularly enjoys working with herbs, wildflowers, native species and organics, and she’s gratified to see so many customers gravitate in that direction. “I definitely am seeing this trend. I think it is great because it makes me aware that people understand how important it is to take care of our aquifer and stretch of sand. We drink this water.”
You won’t find her horticulture consulting business in the phone book. It is all word of mouth. She claims she has enough business – especially since she is dedicated to her two other lines of work.
Yoga
Growing up in Plainville, Massachusetts, Paulson gravitated to the Cape for summer work in 1989 after graduating from high school. She completed the hospitality program at Cape Cod Community College in 1992. Paulson then studied nutrition at Arizona State University. “I thought I would be pursuing a career related to nutrition or whole foods preparation.” Upon her return from ASU, she took a job in Chatham, propagating annuals, perennials and herbs in two greenhouses for a nursery and garden center. That job lasted more than five years.
“Little by little, I was being pulled in different directions. I was managing the greenhouses, teaching cooking classes, teaching gardening at the Sandwich and Harwich community schools. I found myself developing an interconnection between gardening and nutrition.”
In 1990, Paulson discovered yoga – more as a personal strategy to stay healthy than as a business. “I grew up accustomed to very physical work. I found yoga practice was a good way to relieve physical tension and bring ease of movement to my entire being. My practice allowed me to begin to understand my body’s needs and to take better care of myself.”
That revelation has evolved into a second business, Pranashanti Yoga, which offers ongoing private and classroom yoga instruction, as well as a unique yoga-and-gardening workshop that she has taught as far away as Ireland, where she plans to spend Memorial Day in 2007 in County Limerick.
“I created the workshop because two of my passions go well together. As a gardener, I appreciate the benefits of working in a meditative way. It is good for the body. Consider that when you garden, you’re in a crouching position, reaching and pulling. It can be very stressful. This forward bending does activate the parasympathetic nervous system, but you’ve got to balance this insular work with some opening. The backbending postures of yoga help to accomplish this balance.
Paulson calls all this “Mindful Gardening,” and she is talking with a Boston publisher, Shambhala Publications, to write a book by the same name.
“Last year, when I offered [the workshop] in Ireland, two women who came had recent deaths in their lives,” she said. “They were grieving. They looked at gardening and yoga to find a place to deal with that grief; to let it seep into the soil.
“Another woman had moved from South Africa to escape an abusive marriage. She used the workshop to cleanse herself. I had no idea when I developed the workshop that it would serve as such a vehicle. I was totally humbled.”
On the Cape, 80 percent of her clients are women. “Why? I don’t know,” she said with a laugh. “My male students who take yoga absolutely love it.”
Paulson markets herself as a Certified Kripalu Yoga instructor at her own Web site, www.pranashantiyoga.com and at portals such www.kripalu.org. Literally defined, kripalu means compassion. Instructors emphasize that, plus self respect, while de-emphasizing the need to please the teacher or do it ‘right.’
Massage Therapy and Asian Bodywork
Her headquarters for this third business is Bodywork in Mashpee Commons, located in a maze of second-floor offices that include a real estate agency and law firm. There, Paulson works alongside its owner, Renda Beck Coughlan, and LMT Kelly Powers Crosby. In addition to her Ayurvedic treatments and therapeutic massage, Catherine offers a modality that she calls ‘the ultimate stretch’ – a treatment that has its roots in Positional Therapy.
Her yoga philosophy does translate into one better business practice that can be a value to anyone: “It is customer-centric. I don’t impose my way on anybody. It is up to me to recognize how I can best serve you.”
Her Bodywork can bring $90 a session; as does hourly private yoga instruction. “Since I have to work, I have created a series of jobs that let me love what I do,” she said. “Through Bodywork I encounter a lot of people who can’t say that. I help people deal with the stresses brought on to their bodies by the work that they do. On the massage table, my intention is to help them let go of repetitive stain and chronic stress. When we remember to honor our bodies by getting a massage, we help to promote health and vitality to our bodies, minds and spirits – then we can go out and work.”
Originally published in the March/April 2007 issue of Cape Business.
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