Meet the two amazing women behind Metta Moxie, Jess + Jesse. Not only best friends but sister-in-laws too. I had the chance to meet them both and experience their incredible space and learn about everything they offer. They believe every woman is worthy of being seen, heard, and abundantly cared for. Read on to learn why Metta Moxie is so important for the women and moms in our community.
How many children do you have and what are their names and ages?
Jess- My husband, Clisby and I have 3 boys and a baby girl: Clisby IV (12), Hayden (10), Ari (8), & Caia (18 months)
Jesse – My partner and I have 2 children: 4.5 (Sawyer) and 2 (Juniper)
Where do your kids go to school?
Jess – Harlan Elementary School
Jesse – Little Eagles Ferndale Early Childhood Center.
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You’re the owners of Metta Moxie, tell us what made you start the business and your background.
We always tell people we created what we so badly needed for ourselves. We are sisters-in-law and best friends who have an incredible love and respect for one another. We are also both clinical social workers and yoga teachers. Over the last handful of years we have repeatedly heard women in our professional and personal communities say they feel a general loss of connection, a need for renewed strength and restoration, and a desire to find their unique purpose and identity. This, along with good old-fashioned life experience, has brought us to the start of Metta & Moxie. We believe every woman is worthy of being seen, heard, and abundantly cared for. We believe connection with your mind + body + spirit, as well as connection with others, is vital in order to discover the best version of yourself. When connection begins, we believe it cultivates feelings of restoration, strength, capability, resiliency, and a loving kindness for yourself and others.
Metta Moxie offers some incredible services for moms (and women), therapy, yoga, retreats and so much more. Tell us about these offerings and what our community can expect.
When we started dreaming up Metta + Moxie a whole decade ago, we knew there was something missing in the way women gathered. Through personal and professional experiences, we both noticed that there was not a lot offered for women to gather together and find strength in telling and sharing their stories. We can learn so much from each other when the competitive, judgemental walls are broken down. We firmly believe love and openness is what bonds us. We have experienced such a profound beauty in holding space for women to take a moment to pause and reflect on who they are, what they need, and how they want to move forward with healing. Everything we do at Metta + Moxie has a component of integrating mind + body so that you can find deeper connection to yourself, and in turn deeper connection with the world around you.
During a typical week you will find women and couples coming in for their individual therapy sessions. We specialize in supporting women through trauma treatment and recovery, perinatal mood disorders, infertility/pregnancy/infant loss, grief & loss, anxiety, and depression to name a few. We also offer private and small group yoga classes (we have training in trauma sensitive yoga techniques), support groups, and lots of fun extras in our beautiful space.
You also have the most incredible space. I’m so happy I got to experience it (and your delicious lattes). You allow space rental, group sessions and some girls nights. Spill the extras with us. I can see my friends coming for a girl’s yoga night soon.
Oh, we just LOVE our space!! It’s our happy place – and is quickly becoming many others’ happy place as well. It has been a dream come true sharing our space with so many women in our community. So many have walked through our doors and said it feels like a ‘warm hug’ – the highest compliment we could receive!
Yes! Our space was created to be shared!! We both are extremely flexible and open – if you have something you want to share with the world and it aligns with our mission to help women care for their mind, body, and spirit – you are welcome! We’ve had everything from photographers, pelvic floor physical therapists, acupuncturists, and sexual health therapists; to groups of women looking for a place to gather that’s not a restaurant or someone’s home! We are even hosting a baby shower in a few weeks! And yes – we LOVE hosting yoga nights for gal pals…it’s always fun to have some bubbly after class and catch up and connect!!
Anything else about Metta Moxie we should know?
One of our passions is curating private corporate workshops for businesses in our area. We love to create a day full of restoration and connection for especially women in the workplace. Our focus can range from work/life balance, ways for employees to feel fulfilled in their workplace to maximize retention, building trusting relationships between team members, confidence vs. competition, etc. We offer gentle yoga classes, time for rest and reflection, and planned sessions that meet the specific needs of the client. We love to talk with companies in the area about how we can design a day of restoration for their employees!
What made you decide to raise your family here?
The short answer is family. We both lived out of state for several years (Jess in Chicago and Jesse in Colorado) and eventually decided to migrate back to the mitten to be close to family as we raised our own. It takes a freaking village, are we right!?
Where can we find you and your family one the weekends? Favorite restaurants, parks, activities?)
Jess – I live in Birmingham and love spring/summer/fall especially in our area! On weekends you can find my family at the Farmer’s Market, baseball games, one of the many parks in the area, and walking downtown for ice cream and Brooklyn pizza…we are pretty low key!
Jesse – We call ourselves somewhat of weekend warriors. Most of our closest friends don’t live nearby, so we spend a lot of time visiting them in various parts of the state as well as exploring new places we haven’t been. In winter, we try to get a ski in as often as we can and in spring/summer/fall you can find us hiking, fishing, camping outside! We also love a good cozy weekend in our area walking to our favorite coffee shop or ice cream store.
What are you and your family looking forward to most this summer?
Jess – While many families head north in the summer, my family loves to head west to our cabin in the woods in Saugatuck, MI. We get away as often as we can and love spending time outdoors at Lake Michigan, on a hike at the State Park, or shopping in amazing downtown Holland or Saugatuck. It’s our favorite place to recoup.
Jesse – My family has a house in northern Michigan that provides us with the best form of reset. We get time together, time outside, and soak in time in a place that has all the heartwarming memories we crave to feel connection.
Do you have a favorite place you travel with the kids?
Jess – Marco Island, FL will always be my happy place. I grew up visiting my grandma there every winter and now love to visit my parents there with my family. We go as often as we can!
Jesse – We love taking our littles back to our previous home in Colorado. To take your kids somewhere that was so formative for you is such a special feeling! We are all things mountain and outdoor lovers and hope to instill the same love in our girls.
What do you do to balance your own life and motherhood? What do you do for “me” time? Juggling your own business and kids is always hard work.
Jess – Oh man this is a hard one. I try to prioritize time for myself every week and am getting better about actually scheduling it into my calendar. For me, yoga will always be the very best way to reconnect with my mind/body/spirit. I love to take classes and teach as often as I can. I am blessed to have a really good group of girlfriends who are as honest, real, and raw with one another as it gets. There is nothing like a night with them full of laughter and good conversation. I am so thankful that my husband is so supportive and encouraging of me and our business too. We try to take time away from our chaotic life as much as we can to spend time one on one.
Jesse – We have a very special group of friends who have become more like family and anytime we can spend time together our cup is so full after. On the day to day front, if I can get a yoga class in my day is completely different – the time to just be by myself on my mat, move my body and intentionally breathe is so needed. If I’m in one of those really hard seasons – therapy! It can feel like such an undertaking to add yet another thing to your schedule, but I have never once regretted adding it in and giving myself just the 1 hour a week to focus on me.
Anyone special you’d like to thank for helping you through parenthood?
Jesse – Oh Gosh – too many people to count!! Mostly – our families. They’ve instilled such a beautiful gift of teaching us the importance of loving others well, and that has carried us so far. We also have an amazing, like – minded group of friends who we’re able to bounce ideas off of and get support from when things get hard. They may not live next door, but being able to text or facetime is such a gift.
And I have to say that Jess has been one of my number ones…the way our lives have aligned and the way she just ‘gets me’ and challenges me while also holding space for me and jumping right in when I need someone is one of my life’s greatest blessings.
**Jess: I have to agree with everything Jesse said and add in that she has been an incredible support system to me too. We are so lucky to have each other. When one of us needs extra support, the other one steps right in and fills the gap in the business and also provides love, encouragement, and support personally too. We work really well together!!
Thank you for sharing your families and your business. It’s truly amazing what you do for women and moms! We appreciate you both so much. Give them a follow on Instagram and for sure reach out to them.
General Info: [email protected] | mettamoxie.com | IG: @mettamoxie
Jess – 248.215.2956 / [email protected]
Jesse – 248-221-2644 | [email protected]
