Business & Tech

Family Tree Yoga Branches Out to Fill Different Needs

New ownership seeks to make yoga studio into a gathering point for the Nesconset community.

Family Tree Yoga & Wellness center has planted its roots in Nesconset and is now reaching out to welcome a variety of different people in the community. 

Debbie Holohan and Kim Emery, co-owners of Family Tree Yoga, said they are hoping to make the yoga center into a place where local residents can come to take a quiet moment to focus on themselves.

"I would like to see the studio serve the Nescosnet community and become a community-centered studio," Emery said. 

Family Tree Yoga & Wellness opened its doors in the Nesconset shopping plaza on Smithtown Boulevard on Aug. 31. After months of construction, the yoga studio has taken over part of the space formerly rented by the Nesconset branch of the Smithtown Special Library District. 

Holohan, who works in the dental industry by day, formerly worked for Smithtown Hot Yoga on Smithtown's Main Street. In opening her own studio, Holohan said she's like to break through stereotype that yoga is for women. 

"I'd like to see half the male population get into a hot yoga room and try it," she said. 

Family Tree has two yoga studios: One that's heated for classes like Bikram, hot yoga, and Warm Vinyasa, as well as a traditional yoga studio for beginner yoga, candlelight restorative yoga and other gentler practices. 

"We are trying to offer as many different varieties of young as possible as diferent people have different needs," Holohan said. 

Among the yoga studio's specialty classes are offering of pre-natal yoga for pregnant mothers along with classes for young children through teens. 

Emery, an English and Science teacher at Smithtown School Districts, said she's seen children and teens gain the ability to calm down and focus through yoga. 

"Kids are more open to trying yoga and get similar benefits as adults," Emery said. "Many kids want to come back and I've had positive response from their parents." 

Over the first days, Family Tree has seen a variety of students walk through its doors ranging from 5 to 70 years old, according to Holohan, who hopes that diversity will continue. Classes for those with special needs can be formed and scheduled upon request. 

For its first month, the yoga studio is offering a special of 30 days of classes for $30. It is also honoring and recognizing any students with leftover memberships from Smithtown Hot Yoga, despite being under different ownership. 

In the future, Holohan and Emery said they'd like to continue to expand the center's wellness offerings by having a space for massage, reiki and other holistic practices. 


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