Beth Brown-Rinella celebrated the 10th anniversary of her Naples store, Goddess I AM, on January 1. She says, “The time flew, and this anniversary crept up and surprised me. We were like the little engine that could, cruising along. We changed locations one time, in the same plaza. Goddess I AM had its start in the unit next to Bambusa Bar & Grill. We were there for about 18 months and we quickly outgrew it, so we moved to a double unit, which is our present location next to The Rooster restaurant.

“I didn't realize there was such a need for classes such on meditation, spirituality and metaphysical things such as mediumship circles. When I first opened the store, the circumstances were similar to when yoga first arrived on the scene, and for years, there were only three studios in the area. We had nothing to base our forecast for business on, so we just start doing things we thought would be fun, and that we would like to do.”

After trying out different classes, Brown-Rinella narrowed the focus. “It didn’t take me long to figure out that people are mainly interested in learning about themselves. They want to know what makes them tick, why they are afraid of success, etc. To a greater degree, they’re also curious about why they still do not love themselves and why are they still struggling with life. They’re wondering about the foundational way that energy works in this world. What that really comes down to is the initial and most important part of energy work is about you. Yes, you.”

The classes that Goddess I AM offers for this purpose include two weekly guided meditations, a group hypnosis, crystal bowls, creating sacred jewelry, chakra balancing, reiki and a class that Marvin Dragonclaw, a lifelong devotee to the reverence of the female deity, teaches weekly on goddess archetypes. “There is so much information on self-development that comes out in that class. People get to the essence of who they are and answer the question, ‘Why am I this way?’ I prefer to call it a class on awakening the hero and heroine in each one of us. It’s the journey that we are all on, whether you call it the goddess journey, awakening or the journey of self-discovery, Goddess I AM is here to support any one on that journey,” advises Brown-Rinella.

Several healers offer classes. “I’ve done psychic healing work for years, but I find the more powerful classes are those in healing work,” says Brown-Rinella. “We cover so many different modalities, and I mentor people because it allows me to curate the healing individually for each person. We do energy clearing, cord-cutting, releasing the past, lineage and ancestral clearings, and aligning the chakras. A lot of deep healing takes place in individual sessions. Every month, I offer a Light Code activation and a channeled message from the Council of Nine for the group and a one-to-one healing for each person. “If I were to sum up what we do in a few words, I’d say we're a safe space to open up and be yourself and very invested in helping people find their peace and their joy.”

Goddess I AM works with archetypes that people can understand. Brown-Rinella states, “We go through a series of archetypes in our life, right? You’re not born into one archetype—it’s as you move along the path, the architects change.”

Goddess I AM is located at 600 Goodlette Rd. N, Ste. 103, in Naples. For more information, call 239-228-6949, email [email protected] or visit GoddessIAM.com.