Balanced energy is the key to success at Gayle Nielsen’s new healing arts practice in West Salem.

The business will be called The Primary Balance. Nielsen is also the owner of Northwoods Martial Arts, a business housed in the same building at 124 Leonard St. in downtown West Salem.

“I’m going to be transitioning out of the martial arts part of the business to concentrate more on the healing things I like to do,” Nielsen said.

One of her senior students will be teaching the bulk of the courses in Tae Kwon Do, Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, Blue Wave Escrima/Kali/Arnis.

Nielsen, however, will continue to teach a couple styles of Tae Kwon Do; she’s been involved with the martial arts for more than 25 years and doesn’t want to give it up completely.

So how did a young woman then in her 20s decide to get involved in the martial arts in the first place? Nielsen blames it on Billy Jack.

“Those Billy Jack movies really tripped my trigger when I was a kid,” she said with a laugh.

Even though she was fascinated by martial arts, there was nowhere to practice them back when she was growing up in Menominee. Not until she was in her 20s and living in La Crosse did she take her first martial arts course.

She loved it immediately, but there was one major problem: she was a heavy smoker and wasn’t in condition to keep up with the rest of the class.

“I promised myself I’d come back after I quit smoking — obviously I haven’t always had a healthy lifestyle,” Nielsen said.

Although she got heavily involved in learning different styles of martial arts, Nielsen never saw herself running her own studio. She tells how the radio station Z93 was having a benefit for leukemia and she called in a pledge and got a reading from a psychic on the air.

“She said ‘I see you working with lots of kids that aren’t your own,’” Nielsen recalled.

“My friend heard that over the air and had to laugh. She thought ‘No way!’ Then, all of a sudden I found myself working in a school with 40 kids who weren’t my own.”

Nielsen had worked for 16 years with Isola — also known as Norplex — before that company moved to Arizona.

“It was fortunate for me that they left town. It allowed me to say ‘I don’t want to move to Arizona; I’m going to stay right here and do what I always wanted to do,’” she said.

Nielsen started teaching martial arts for the West Salem Park and Recreation Department in 1999 and was surprised at how well the interactions with her students went.

“People tell me I’m a good teacher and very patient with kids,” she said. “It feels good when I get through. I enjoy working with kids and adults in ways that enhance their life overall. Body, mind, spirit — you need it all and martial arts incorporates all those.”

As her class sizes grew, Nielsen started thinking about owning her own studio.

“I never saw myself running my own school, but it was the beginning of my real life,” she said.

With her husband Dan, she bought the current studio, a former Dollar Store, in 2003; Dan, incidentally, owns the Wine Guyz in downtown La Crosse.

“It was really synchronistic how we bought this building. We walked down the street, saw it, found out it was available, then bought it from the bank and moved right in,” she recalled.

The facility covers 3,000 square feet and, besides the spacious areas for practice, it has a lounge with a fireplace, meditation rooms, an infrared sauna and a lending library of wellness books and videos.

Nielsen said she was fascinated by hypnosis since she was about 10. She’s currently studying for her Ph.D. in clinical hypnotherapy and only needs to complete her dissertation. She uses hypnotherapy for clients interested in losing weight, quitting smoking or reducing fears.

She’s also a Reiki master who, besides giving sessions, trains others in Reiki. Nielsen uses a number of other healing modalities to assist clients in removing negative habits, easing phobias and anxieties and exploring aspects of spirituality and personal growth.

“I’ve had people walk in with severe back or neck pain and walk out pain-free. I’ve had amazingly good luck with back issues,” she said.

Nielsen provides private sessions either at her West Salem studio or at her home. She says the infrared sauna at the studio is great for health.

“Some people don’t tolerate a regular sauna well. The infrared rays penetrate just below the skin and are really beneficial for detoxification,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen is constantly on the lookout for new techniques. Lately she been getting into Nia.

“It moves every muscle and joint in ways that don’t hurt. Basically, it’s dancing barefoot to music, but it can produce great results,” she said.

It’s obvious from the sparkle in her eye that Nielsen has no regrets about leaving her 9-to-5 job and that she truly enjoys helping others find their own way to health and balance. “I never realized that helping others would give me so much back,” she said.

The Primary Balance can be reached at 386-7403. For more information, visit perfectspirit.com or www.northwoodsakf.com.