Who hasn’t wished they could help their hurting pet simply by touching them? Well, that might just be possible thanks to a holistic energy-based healing therapy known as Healing Touch for Animals (HTA). The treatment, an offshoot of Healing Touch (HT), uses the science of energy medicine and biofield noninvasive therapy to stimulate healing responses in patients.

HT was developed in the late 1980s by Janet Mentgen, a nurse who shared her energy-based hand healing methods with other medical professionals. She eventually found the Healing Touch Worldwide Foundation, which taught the technique to others and supported the program’s research. In 1996, a veterinary technician and HT Certified Instructor/Practitioner, Carol Komitor, realized the same methods could also be used on animals and launched HTA.

The Spy recently sat down with Blair Hope, HTA Practitioner, and area Training Coordinator, to talk about her experience with this method.

At first glance, Hope is not someone you would expect to see in this field. With a degree in Psychology from Virginia Tech, she worked in social work/human services and then as a pre-school director and teacher. “To me, it was a natural progression,” she said. “I have always been passionate about working with children and animals.”

Currently living in Royal Oak, she was inspired to explore energy work to help her dog, a lab named Bear. He had just turned 12, and she wanted a holistic way to keep him healthy. Her research led her to HTA and an intro class in Baltimore. “It was the most amazing experience,” she said. “I could physically feel something in my hands; I didn’t quite know exactly how or what that was at the time. But I could feel some tingling, and that something was happening, and it felt good.”

Hope began to ‘play’ with that experience, practicing and seeing health improvements both in her dog and on animals of friends who would allow her to ‘experiment’ on them. After a couple of years, she decided to take an additional class. By this time, Bear was having mobility issues, and she brought him with her. They learned a technique that worked on the energy of the spine. “He had limped into the class,” she said, “and when I took him out for a potty break, he was walking like a young puppy.” There was no other explanation for it; this stuff was real, Hope thought and began her study for certification in this field. At first, she started offering her services on a volunteer basis, and when referrals started coming in, she knew it was time to make it her life work. She now offers sessions to a variety of animals and, for now, only through distance healing, as it allows her to help more clients.

Hope told us that people are most curious about how energy healing works: “Energy exists in each of us. We’re made up of electromagnetic energy and have energy fields around us. If you’ve ever felt somebody come up behind you, and you didn’t know that they were there, that’s the energy fields interacting with each other. Also, if you’ve ever walked into a place and get a strange feeling and don’t know why, it’s again the energy field working.” In her practice, Hope begins by assessing that energy system in the animal and then uses various techniques to clear, strengthen, and balance it.

You can see it happen, Hope says. There is a noticeable physiological response to the healing in animals. Most often, it will trigger a relaxation response where the animal might lie down, yawn, and maybe fall asleep. This happens in combination with the owner’s feedback that their animals were changed in some way; they were moving, behaving, eating better, or otherwise improving. “I love working with animals,” she says, “because people can explain away anything. But animals don’t have that preconceived notion that they should feel different because they received energy work. And when they are different, it’s just confirmation over and over again that it’s working.”

So who are Hope’s clients? Usually, she told us, they are people who have a strong bond with their pets and consider them part of the family. They want to understand and help resolve whatever pain or distress their animal may be in. “Majority of the people who reach out to me have gone to the vet, a trainer, or a behaviorist and feel there’s still a piece missing. So many people who come to me have tried something else already.”

It’s important to note that HTA does not replace traditional medical or veterinary health care. The teaching promotes a cooperative model that bridges holistic animal care with conventional veterinary medicine. “I feel like my job is to help provide another way to find pieces of the puzzle,” says Hope. “A different perspective and additional information to try to find the solution for your pet.”

That solution, at times, might take an unexpected form. There is one more feature to Hope’s healing which came about quite unexpectedly and much to her surprise. It happened while she was working with a dog that was quite ill and whose owner was upset and didn’t know what to do. “I did some Healing Touch techniques just to give the animal support and help with comfort and pain whether he needed to heal or if it was his time to pass. While working on him, I kept seeing a picture of a golden key. As I was leaving, I mentioned this golden key, telling the owner I didn’t know what it was about but felt it was really important. An hour after I left, she called and said, ‘you’re never going to believe this. I went to my room to put something away in my jewelry box, and there was a key in it that I don’t even know how long it’s been there.’ The key was engraved with the words: ‘Let Go.’ And she knew looking at the key that he had sent her this message and it was his time. She understood what needed to be done and felt at peace.”

That was the beginning of that aspect of her practice—communicating with animals, a connection that comes to her in various ways. Sometimes it’s like a picture or a movie, she says; sometimes, it’s a thought, a word, or even several words. A lot of times, those words are ones she usually does not use or images she doesn’t have any personal experience with. For instance, she recounts the time when the owner wanted to know how to get their sick and stubborn horse to take their medicine. The horse, Hope said, asked for the remedy to be put on the ‘sticky stuff.’ Hope had no idea what that meant, but the owner did, and the problem was solved.

There are many stories like this and many clients who are thankful she got involved.

Just ask Krystle Smothers from Chicago. She’ll tell you about her dog Java, a nervous rescue with anxiety issues. “Blair worked with both of us to get us balanced. She’s given me little phrases and things to use with him when things set him off, to help pull him back into reality and let him know he’s safe. She’s helped me understand how my words, emotions, and thoughts affect him. And it’s helped me stay grounded, as well.”

But not everyone is a believer. At least not at first. We spoke to Jane Brown, who lives on the Eastern Shore and owns Charlie, a Yorkie who was born brain-damaged and who, at ten weeks old and unable to eat, was still being fed through a syringe. “Even the vet said he wouldn’t make it,” said Brown. A friend told her about Hope, and when Brown expressed skepticism, she offered to pay for the session. “So Blair called and did what she does. She worked with Charlie and told him he had to eat so he could thrive and grow. After she hung up, it was almost like a light bulb went off in him. He got up, went to his food bowl, and started eating. She saved him, and yes, I’m a believer now.” Charlie will turn five years old this year.

Hope is no longer surprised by these stories. What still astonishes her, however, are the changes she has experienced since starting her practice. More specifically, the unique understanding she now has of life and death, something that her beloved dog Bear first taught her. “He was 17 and getting weaker and weaker. I saw how much physical comfort the energy work brought him and how much peace it brought to both of us. And it was such a gift to be able to give back to an animal who always gave me such unconditional love. That’s why I love working with senior pets, end-of-life, and hospice. I knew I wanted to share that peace and that comfort with other people and their pets.

I have learned something from every single animal I work with. They have so many lessons to teach us, and I’m in awe of how much better than us they are at understanding unconditional love and the whole process of life.”

For more information, Blair Hope may be reached at: https://www.blairhope.com

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

Eat Sprout in Easton and St. Michaels has always been trendy. For good reason–they serve nutritious and innovative food. Next week when they open in Annapolis, the other side of the bridge will find out why this unassuming business is so popular.

Not that it came easy. Some successful businesses are inherited, while others result from a lifelong dream. Then there are the accidental businesses, such as this one.

It all started when Ryan and Emily moved to Easton in 2012. She had been in the Air Force. He had a Masters in Nutrition, and they both had a job helping start someone else’s business. All was going well; they bought a house and had a child, but then in 2015, both lost their jobs.

That’s when things got bad. But people they had met throughout the years reached out wanting to help. Including a friend/client who owned Tiger Roofing in Cambridge—Gary Sampson. Sampson needed someone to cook for him while he tended his burgeoning business. Could the Grolls help?

And so Ryan and Emily began cooking for Sampson as a way to pay for their mortgage while continuing to look for jobs. But the Grolls’ cooking became known. Could they also cook for some of Sampson’s friends? “We decided it probably wouldn’t be that much more challenging,” says Ryan, “since we were already doing it.” Before too long, two became three, then four, and soon they found themselves cooking for about a dozen people.

As can be imagined, that became challenging. The couple was getting up at dawn, shopping, making and packaging the meals, and delivering them (with baby in the back) to their various clients. They would then come home, do the dishes, and research recipes for the following day. Emily compared it to cooking a large family Thanksgiving meal every day, seven days a week.

With that came the realization they were on to a good thing that just might be worthy of their time and investment. What they needed now was a commercial kitchen that would allow them to keep up with their demand. Instead, a family member suggested, what about a food truck?

Ryan found a place in Michigan that retrofitted old school buses. With the company’s help, the Grolls designed one that would fit their needs. They licensed it, hooked it up to their well and septic, and in 2016 opened Eat Sprout, a subscription-based meal delivery business. “We would do this once a week,” said Ryan. “And when we got busier, we did it twice a week, and then three times a week. Then we brought on our first employee, then our second employee. We sold Emily’s car to buy a delivery van. And then we got our first delivery driver. And it just grew and grew and grew from there.” The growth included a start in the retail business when they began providing food to a couple of companies that allowed them to keep a refrigerator at their location.

Clearly, it was time to expand beyond their 120-square-foot food truck space. After an extensive search, they found a building on Aurora Street and a bank to finance it, and in 2018 Eat Sprout became a place where people could come in and pick up a meal, snacks, and drinks. “One of our mottos,” Emily said, “is ‘if you keep good food in your fridge, you’ll eat good food.’ So it’s up to us to make that happen for you.”

Just as with their personal chef experience and then with their delivery business, soon the clients increased to where the Grolls felt they could grow even further. They opened in St. Michaels at the beginning of 2019 and started to plan going over the bridge. And then, like all stories that begin and end around this time, COVID hit, and doors and plans were shut down.

Once businesses began to reopen, owners were finding a whole new set of problems, including the need for and retention of staff. Where around them, restauranteurs were making do with shorter hours and less help, the Grolls continued to attract a talented group of employees. It may have had something to do with perspective. “Our staff is incredibly talented, and everybody is important,” says Ryan. “The chefs I know work terrible hours, so, for instance, we told our chef we could offer him a different lifestyle. He could make his own schedule, have paid time off as needed, as well as nights, holidays, and weekends. Plus, there are no tickets to fill since this is a production-style kitchen. So how do we keep our staff? By providing them with what they want.”

The Grolls are also thankful for their employees, believing that the creativity of their staff contributes to the success of the products they carry. It is the staff, they say, who tweaked what was already on the menu to make it better or interpreted what the guests were looking for and then made it happen.

Whatever the reason, Eat Sprout is well known and appreciated on the Eastern Shore and is about to be introduced to a new audience. The pause contributed by COVID allowed the Grolls to plan the approach to their expanding business. Location is everything, and they think they found it in Annapolis, next to Home Goods and in the same shopping plaza as Trader Joe’s. It will be a sit-down café with the same feel as the St. Michaels location but with the grab-and-go concept of Easton. But the Grolls’ strategy also includes a hub-and-spoke business model that so far has been working and which they hope will be the blueprint for all future locations.

The hub, at the Easton location, is their central kitchen. That’s where all the talented chefs are and where all the production, logistics, manufacturing, packaging, and quality control happens. From there is the distribution to the various spokes, which has been St. Michaels for the last two years and will now also be in Annapolis. “So the idea is consistency,” says Ryan. Since everything is still made in Easton, they can expect the exact same quality of bread, drinks, snacks, and entrees at all locations because it was all made fresh that day.”

Consistency will also extend to the atmosphere of the Annapolis shop, as some of the Eastern Shore employees will be commuting to help establish the new location. But the Grolls are also excited about this new location for another reason. Both were born and raised in Anne Arundel County, and both lived in Annapolis. So to them, it is almost like coming home and reconnecting with old friends.

“I was at the Annapolis shop doing some work, said Ryan, “and took a quick lunch break. As I’m walking to the parking lot, I hear my name called, and it’s an old friend that I went to high school with years ago. They said they were so excited to see Eat Sprout coming and are bragging to their friends about knowing the guy who owns it. So it’s kind of like some old friends I probably haven’t seen or talked to for over 15 years promoting this for me, just because they know who we are.”

If history repeats itself, it won’t be long before a whole new clientele in Annapolis will also know who they are.

P.S. In case you’re wondering what happened to their old food truck, it is now in the care of another Easton favorite, Four Sisters Kabob and Curry.

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

For more information: https://www.eatsprout.com