ANDOVER — Carol Emery is bringing it all together — her education, her community and work experience, and most of all, her passion to help bring balance and peace to people’s lives.

On Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Jan. 15-16, she is officially launching her new business, Sunrise Center for Healing Arts and Education, with a two-day wellness weekend at her warm and comfortable home on Church Street.

“I feel like I’ve pulled everything together,” said the 61-year-old certified energy medicine practitioner.

For 38 years, she has taught many age groups and subjects, operated a preschool, or worked with the local River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition to improve the health of local people through administering a state grant that promotes workplace and community health, nutritious diets, quitting smoking and getting plenty of exercise.

Now, she plans to focus on bringing balance to people’s lives through what some may term the alternative healing arts.

She began by offering Wheel of Wellness workshops for individuals and small groups who want to find a new way to reduce stress, alter limiting beliefs, heal emotional wounds, and change relationships, among other physical and psychological issues. And her new business will continue to do that.

Emery, who with her husband, John, a recently retired elementary school teacher, moved to Andover 38 years ago from other Maine towns, uses a variety of techniques such as meditation and art to bring an issue to the forefront, as well as working with the body’s seven energy centers.

“We need relief from some of the issues we carry. Relieving stress is important because it is detrimental to health,” she said.

She spent 18 months studying energy medicine with True North, Falmouth, to become certified as an energy medicine practitioner. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in early elementary education, a master’s degree in human services, and certificates in several other alternative healing arts.

The name for her new venture came very naturally.

“Every new day is a new beginning. That’s what I’d like people to believe. That’s what the healing arts are fostering,” she said.

The January weekend, however, and others planned for the future, will give participants a chance to try a variety of healing arts such as yoga, reiki, massage, intuitive tarot readings, and intrinsic coaching.

Sessions by individual practitioners will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 15, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

For a complete schedule and cost per session those interested should call Emery at 392-3161 or contact her through e-mail at [email protected].

Between sessions, walking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing will be available.

Emery believes that many people and the community as a whole is often filled with stress.

“We need to balance technology with caring and being human. We need to give ourselves permission to do what makes us happy and less stressful. I feel like I’ve been preparing for this (Sunrise) for many years,” she said.

[email protected]