Yvette Page, owner of A New Page, a healing store at 644 Main Street, has been promoting eclectic spiritualities in Middletown for almost two years now.
According to Page, who moved her store to 644 Main Street in January 2003, her shop is a feel-good store that promotes the well being of the body, mind, and spirit.
The store carries products such as wind chimes, candles, puzzles, incense, pendulums, jewelry, and healing herbs such as peppermint, jasmine, and chamomile.
“Herb is the oldest magic in the world,” Page said, adding that they are also at the center of healing methods of Eastern cultures and religions. “Our [Western] society is just catching on to the benefits of Eastern medicine and religions. We need to turn back to what the earth has offered us.”
The New Page store also has a small but growing section of recovery and spiritual books. Many of the books in Page’s store focus on getting over addictions.
“I always wanted a recovery bookstore,” Page said. “People really do want to feel better, and my goal is to get the tools that they need in their hands.”
Over a decade ago, Page turned to recovery books to help her battle alcoholism. Though she was attending Alcohol Anonymous, she said that she still needed something more spiritual.
“Something like AA only treats the symptoms and not the problem,” Page said.
According to Page, Eastern and alternative healing modalities better target heath problems. Page also said that she has noticed that alternative healing modalities are being incorporated increasingly in more and more medical practices.
“Today doctors are being trained in herbalism,” Page said. “There are lots of things that we have been trained not to recognize. But now this archaic knowledge is coming into mainstream.”
Page was motivated to open up A New Page in September 2003 when she was laid off from her job. She drew a blueprint of the store and kept it on her refrigerator. Soon thereafter, Page began to write a business plan to submit to investors.
Page said the store’s name was inspired by her son. Initially, she wanted to call the store Page’s, but that name, however, was already taken by a store in Deep River, CT. Page had just celebrated a birthday, so her son suggested that she call the store A New Page.
The name of the store is not only a metaphor for Page herself, who has been sober for the past 10 years, but also for her new entrepreneurial skills.
One of the factors that compelled Page to open up her store in Middletown was the presence of Wesleyan University. In her proposal, Page wrote that students pursing a liberal arts education are generally more accepting of alternative lifestyles, less loyal to conventional thinking, and seeking new ways of thinking.
“There is a sensitivity up there [at Wesleyan] that is filtering downtown,” Page said. “It starts with the cultural diversity of the school; this made it okay for this shop to open.” Page also said that there is support from the Middletown community for alternative healing modalities. According to Page, there is a significant population of Buddhists in the Middletown area with the interest in the peaceful tactics and organic living of Western Buddhism.
Running a business in the North End of Main Street, Page said that she feels the same pressures as any other starting businesses.
‘Sometimes people are put off by the neighborhood, but I feel safe here,“ Page said. ”This is all part of the revitalization of Main Street’s north end. The neighborhood here needs healing, too. We need to get more people up here.“
Dorothy Goertz, a customer who frequents A New Page, said she found a book that she has been looking for many years.
”It was a book about esteem and love, that I have given to a coworker,“ Goertz said. ”When I saw it in the store front, I ran in quickly because I had wanted to give it to my husband to-to-be as an engagement gift.“
Page is looking to expand the book collection and also begin offering massage therapy in her store.
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