Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew Dinges.
Hi Drew, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I began my professional career as a graphic designer + illustrator, working with small firms in St. Louis’ Central West End. After several years of balancing design work with a full-time career in small-business retail, I met my now-husband, Jared Earnhart, an established creative director at Purina. Watching him thrive in the design world inspired me to revisit my own creative interests from a different angle.
That led me back to school to study horticulture with an emphasis in landscape design, the same love of design, color theory + aesthetics, just expressed through living plant materials.
I spent nearly a decade working in the local green industry at businesses including Garden Heights Nursery + Bowood Farms. Along the way, I began teaching classes on folk herbalism, sustainable + edible gardening and holistic horticulture, with a particular interest in the intersection of the metaphysical + the mundane.
Four years ago, Cabanne Schlafly hired me as Director of Healing & Design for what is now Chakra Wellness. The role evolved into something uniquely suited to my varied background. Upstairs, I work as a digital strategist + marketing account director at Kaleidoscope Management Group (also owned by Schlafly) while downstairs, I serve as Director of Chakra Wellness, where I curate one-on-one services, workshops and specialty wellness events. Within Chakra, I am the onsite horticulturist, Crystal Resonance Therapist, Reiki Master and resident house witch.
A typical day might include developing a marketing campaign for a local hotel, photographing a restaurant’s new menu, interviewing a Peruvian shaman about an upcoming sound bath and finishing landscaping plans for a walking labyrinth in our healing gardens.
My path has certainly not been linear, but it has shown me that our passions don’t always have to fit neatly into one box, and that even the unexpected, off-the-beaten-path dreams really can come true.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The two greatest challenges in my career have been finding the courage to believe in my own vision and building a life stable enough to keep pursuing it.
Learning to trust myself, especially when the path ahead wasn’t traditional or clearly defined, has been an ongoing process. Just as important has been figuring out how to follow those dreams while still creating financial, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Believing in yourself is one thing; building a life that allows you to act on that belief is another. Much of my journey has been about balancing creative risk with the security, boundaries and resilience needed to sustain it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work lives at the intersection of wellness, creativity, horticulture and ritual. At Chakra Wellness and through my practice, Vessel STL, formerly Confluence Crystals, I curate experiences centered around personal healing, plant wisdom, crystal resonance, Reiki, vibrational sound healing and other holistic practices.
What sets my work apart is that everything is grounded in genuine relationship and lived experience. I’m not interested in adopting practices simply because they’re popular. I want to understand where they come from, how they connect to my own personal or ancestral lineage and how they can be shared with integrity + respect.
I’m most known for bringing together the spiritual + the practical (the metaphysical + the mundane) in a way that feels approachable. My goal is never to prescribe what healing should look like, but to offer tools and experiences that help people deepen their relationship with themselves, their surroundings and their own intuition.
I’m most proud of creating spaces where people feel comfortable exploring those ideas in a way that feels personal, accessible and entirely their own.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think risk has always been part of the equation for me. I’m a millennial, non-binary, queer witch living and working in the middle of the Bible Belt…what’s more risky than that?
More seriously, I’ve learned that risk doesn’t always look like one dramatic leap. Sometimes it’s choosing to be fully yourself in spaces where that may not be the easiest option. Sometimes it’s walking away from a conventional path, starting over, or building a life around interests others might see as too niche or impractical.
My career has been full of those choices; from design to horticulture to wellness + spirituality, and eventually into a role that brings all of those worlds together. Each step required trusting myself before there was any guarantee it would make sense to anyone else.
I don’t think risk means being reckless. For me, it means choosing authenticity over certainty while still protecting my financial, mental and emotional wellbeing. The biggest risks I’ve taken have been allowing myself to live and work openly as who I am, and trusting that the right people and opportunities would meet me there.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chakrawellnessstl.com
- Instagram: chakrawellnessstl (wellness center) good.witch.of.the.midwest (personal) vessel.stl (practice)
- Facebook: chakrawellnessstl (wellness center) drew.dinges (personal)
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/drewdinges/
