Twenty years ago, Joanne Dinsmore took a risk expanding her living-room meditation group into a new business venture in the Claremont Village. Two decades later, she continues to reap the rewards.

The longtime owner of Claremont Healing Arts Center, a practice eastern medicine dedicated to providing a holistic healing alternative, will be honored Wednesday evening in a special ceremony by Claremont City Council and Chamber of Commerce for her service to the community.

“It’s hard to believe it has been 20 years already. I’m stunned,” she said. “It all started at home with my meditation group and since then it has just evolved and become this beautiful, evolving experience.”

As Ms. Dinsmore prepares to celebrate the center’s landmark anniversary, she is also preparing for another important milestone. The businesswoman will be releasing her first book, tentatively titled The Healing Arts Practitioner’s Manual, toward the end of 2012.

Though thrilled for the new adventures, Ms. Dinsmore says she is just thankful for the opportunity to continue pursuing a career she fell in love with many years ago. Her second Claremont business, a traffic school located next door to the healing arts center, allows her the financial security to continue her true passion.

“I am very lucky to be able to support what I love, and continue to pursue that,” she said.

Ms. Dinsmore opened her center in 1992, but her journey into holistic healing began as a drug and alcohol counselor many years prior. She became intrigued with meditation and other alternative healing methods to help her clients achieve a smoother recovery process.

“What I readily realized was that once addicts are off their drug of choice there is an enormous amount of stress that they live with and they cannot take [prescribed] pills because of their addictions,” she said. “I immediately saw a need for natural options.”

Ms. Dinsmore began her Claremont practice leading meditation groups, and “it just kind of progressed from there,” she said. Meditation opened the door to acupuncture therapy, yoga, and other natural medicines and remedies. She also sells personalized aromatherapy for her clients.

“It became a professional awareness and a real personal passion,” she said. “I love it and I believe in it.”

She noted her business slogan, “West Meets East,” intends to encourage those who come to the Healing Arts Center to not rely solely on the healing powers of holistic medicine.

“When western medicine is needed, then use it. This is not a supplement,” she says.

However, Ms. Dinsmore says she has seen the positive effects of Eastern medicine on many people she has worked with over the years.

“There is absolutely no doubt that I have thousands of clients who have been able to reduce their stress and pain levels to a point where they did not need medication, which hurts the body in the long run,” she said. “I have seen them recover more quickly from injuries when using the mind to help heal the body. The mind is a pretty powerful thing.”

Ms. Dinsmore continues to not only provide services at her shop in the Claremont Village, but traveling to groups within the community, including local senior centers teaching easy yoga,  and classes to help alleviate arthritis, as well as other exercises and meditation.

“Right now I am really enjoying working with the seniors, and of course I will always continue doing my counseling and healing. I will probably even write another book,” she says. “I guess I am just excited to continue what I am doing.”

Ms. Dinsmore will be honored in a brief ceremony tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the Claremont Holistic Healing center, located at located at 480 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Suite 1A. For more information on the center, write to claremonthealing@aol.com or call 909-946-9098. 

—Beth Hartnett