Life Wellness Center
Before starting her training in massage therapy, Khadijah Tudor worked at the New York Department of Transportation. Her partner, Ade Collman, was already a seasoned massage therapist and acupuncturist working at health clubs and doctors’ offices across the city.
“I was always complaining about having to go to work, and he was never complaining,” Khadijah says of the influence Ade had on her. “He was happy.” Providing massage therapy proved to be a similarly powerful direction for the Flatbush native. “As soon as I started working on people, this light flickered in me,” she says. “I tapped into something that I didn’t know was there by being of service to people.”
In time, the couple of 20 years was working together from the same Manhattan doctor’s office. But Ade wanted more for them and their blended family of eight children.
“One morning he said, ‘We need to be unbelievable. We need to commit ourselves to being the very best that we can be,’” Khadijah recalls. “That’s the challenge he put into our relationship.” They quickly envisioned their own space, and in 2016 Life Wellness Center was born: a massage and acupuncture studio/apothecary/plant shop in the heart of Bed-Stuy.
“When we opened, it took on an energy unto itself where, what the community needed, we were able to give.”
“We made a concerted effort to make the space feel like an oasis.”
The work that we're doing is spirit work,” Ade says of the services offered at Life Wellness Center, which include acupuncture, deep tissue and restorative massage, cupping and more. A native of Jamaica, Ade says his passion for healing comes from the type of nurturing his grandmother gave him as a child.
“When a practitioner puts their hands on someone in a therapeutic manner, working from that spirit space, it’s a great and powerful thing.”
While providing serious support for physical pain, Ade and Khadijah are equally concerned about their community’s emotional wellness. The pristine, eucalyptus-scented environment of Life Wellness Center alone — from the storefront apothecary carrying medicinal herbs, curative teas, elixirs and tonics; to its inviting backyard where clients can relax, plus buy lush plants and flowers — creates an immediate sense of calm.
“You take a deep breath when you walk in and go, ‘I’m here in this moment,’” says Khadijah. “And that begins the journey toward finding what your own particular wellness is.”
At Life Wellness Center, Ade and Khadijah are especially gratified to serve their Bed-Stuy community after years of having taken their massage work to places like midtown, Chelsea and Williamsburg. “We always wanted to be in our own neighborhood,” says Khadijah, who also co-owns the plant and lifestyle shop Botanical Life & Style a few doors down.
“We made a concerted effort to make the space feel like an oasis. Bed-Stuy doesn’t always feel that way, but this is what we were trying to create here.”
In every aspect of the Life Wellness Center experience, from their high-quality treatments to its calming atmosphere, the couple has thought through the details.
“We’re not cutting corners,” Khadijah says. “Whenever you see anything at Life Wellness, trust me, it’s been the product of long conversations and sometimes arguments, and sometimes not speaking to each other; then coming back to say, ‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do.’ Because we’re that committed. We are all in.”
376 Tompkins Ave, Brooklyn, 347-461-9939, lifewellnesscenter.life
