Around Town

‘This Is the Remedy’: Integrative Mental Health Practice Returns to New Canaan Library for Follow-up to Anxiety Film, Talk

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After packing the room at New Canaan Library for a film and panel discussion about anxiety earlier this year, experts from an integrative mental health practice are returning next week for an interactive follow-up event. “From Angst to Ease: A Community Conversation” is to be held 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22 in the library’s Lamb Room (register here). At the free event, attendees will learn techniques such as breathing and focusing exercises that focus on mindfulness, gratitude and interpersonal relationships, according to Elissa Stein, founder of Stamford-based Riverwalk Group. “There was such an overwhelming response to the last event, we were all really kind of stunned,” Stein told NewCanaanite.com. “And we realized how many people are walking around with angst.

Around Town

New Canaan Library, Integrative Mental Health Practice To Present Documentary ‘Angst,’ Panel Discussion

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An integrative mental health practice and New Canaan Library are teaming up to present a documentary film and panel discussion next week that address what local experts call some of the most prevalent health-related challenges facing youth in town. “Angst,” a much-discussed documentary designed to raise awareness about anxiety, with an emphasis on youth and families, is to be presented at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 22 in the Lamb Room at the library. The screening and discussion are sponsored by Stamford-based Riverwalk Group and the library (register here). Elissa Stein, founder of Riverwalk Group, which provides therapy, support and programming to people in all stages of life, said New Canaan forms a major piece of her clientele and that she arranged for the free event since “we are hearing more and more from all pieces of the family—parents who are anxious, children who are anxious, grandparents who are anxious.”

“We have cases where children are coming back from college and they cannot have success at college because they are so riddled with anxiety that they come back home,” Stein, a resident of north Stamford, told NewCanaanite.com on a recent morning during an interview at Zumbach’s.

Business

‘InstaGroom’: Area Woman Turns Love of Dogs Into Mobile Grooming Biz

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Though her dog-centered business is brand new, Marie Maguire’s love of “man’s best friend” goes back decades. A yellow Labrador retriever, ‘Sammy,’ arrived in the Maguire family’s home on the north side of Dublin, Ireland when she was 13. Sammy was “a perfect yellow ball of love and licks” who would “talk” with Maguire and her four siblings on the phone when they were away from home,” Maguire, 43, a Stamford resident, recalled on a recent afternoon. Maguire and her brothers and sisters—Susan, Patrick, Ciaran and Roisin—considered Sammy a “fifth sibling,” she said. Though the beloved yellow Lab has passed, Maguire’s abiding love and respect for dogs has endured, and after eight years of laying the groundwork—with a few detours along the way— she’s recently launched her own mobile dog grooming business.