Deneine Powell says she originally conceived a business that combined spa treatments with movement classes, such as yoga, Nia, T'ai Chi and Pilates because she is such a strong advocate of yoga, which she has been practicing for years.

Of course just loving yoga won't make a business fly. But Powell's M.B.A. and years working as a manager in the financial services industry gave her the business acumen to give her dream wings.

Three and a half years in the making, through cobbling together bank loans and a lot of support from her silent partner and "backbone," her husband Tom Swokowski, Powell opened Seven Stones Center for Wellness in a newly built residential/commercial building on Farwell Avenue. Here, in a series of uncluttered spaces with warm lighting and relics of the East, clients can get nutritional counseling, take a yoga class, get a deep tissue massage or a facial with a professional aesthetician.

Most Milwaukeeans intuitively know that the East Side is probably a good place to offer these services and less common services such as acupuncture, Reiki and Moor mud wraps, but -- ever a businesswoman -- Powell will tell you about market research that identified the East Side as the perfect location for her "one stop shop for wellness."

Trying to wade through the dozens of services offered could be a daunting task, so Seven Stones has Wellness Counselor on staff who is there to "listen to clients concerns and help them draw up a plan to address them. They're not there to sell you stuff," says Powell. A path to wellness could mean lifestyle changes, so counselors are also there to troubleshoot by phone to answer a question or even talk you out of a McDonalds craving. They lead fieldtrips to a local health food store to show you those "interior isles" that have food items that perhaps you've never used. She also gives cooking classes, juicing classes or can teach you to cook in bulk.

A stress management and nutrition expert helps clients learn about diets like "The Zone" which is often used in controlling insulin levels, although Powell says her expert doesn't delve into what are deemed as fad diets that are dangerous or extreme.