Good River: A New Wellness Model for the Gorge

Meager said that most people wait until they are ill or in pain to see a doctor, when instead they should be investing in their health and taking care to prevent big traumas in the first place. His practices dive into the roots of peoples’ problems rather than prescribing something to mask symptoms. “This work couldn’t be more necessary,” he said.

Meager opened Good River in June 2023, hosting a grand opening later in October. Aside from his work as an ND, he has other health-related accolades like founding the Sustainable Asana Yoga Foundation and designing user-friendly software for wellness professionals. “I build systems to help the world be healthier,” he said.

He described how the Good River process begins, with an overall wellness assessment and inventory. The comprehensive health assessment can involve lab work and physical examinations, though the goal is to learn about who you are at your core.

“We want to know your traumas and complications at the root, not just superfluous consultations or check-ups for vitamin recommendations, though we do that too,” Meager said. After the health assessment, Meager reviews results and helps in choosing a membership.

Each membership level offers various perks, such as tokens to use as credit towards services and events within the network. Currently, Good River has 10 partners who accept tokens and Meager plans to expand to 30-40 partners within the next year, including gyms, restaurants and spas.

By offering members a network of services, Meager wants to move people to a more consistent state of health and help their bodies better handle disturbances like disease, injury, or emotional traumas. “I want people to learn to allow the body to take care of itself. It usually knows how to do that if you fuel and care for it correctly,” he said.

The same self-care practices Good River offers are practices that Meager personally uses to stay healthy, especially in difficult times. Some services are offered at their office on the Heights while others exist throughout Hood River and the Columbia River Gorge. A few of the services listed in the Good River Wellness network include:

• Meditation, yoga asana, dance

• Hydrotherapy, breathwork, craniosacral therapy

• Therapeutic bodywork (massage, acupuncture)

• Energy work, spiritual counseling, coaching

• Community events (retreats, herb walks, workshops)

Though not necessarily a novel approach, this model of wellness is often shelved for the new norm of hospitals, surgeries, prescriptions, and minimal-coverage health insurance plans, Meager said. He believes that market issues and insurance companies have inherently created a system that benefits from illness rather than wellness, and Good River offers a shift in those market-dominated healthcare options.

He aims to recreate a model of care where there is a deep relationship between caretaker and patient, where health is the top priority. “We need to disrupt the healthcare model and let employers and employees have more control to dilute the flow of money,” he said.

“People start to see the benefits of the naturopathic approach and no one goes back once awakening to these options. The biggest obstacle is that our services are not usually on healthcare plans,” he said. Despite obstacles, he thinks the Gorge community is ready for his wellness model, as community members and employers alike prove they want to support healthy lifestyles.

“The area has an abundant history and connection with nature and a great, loving community that cares about agriculture and sustainable lifestyles. The health model I support is viable here and people are willing to take responsibility for their health,” Meager said.

He hopes to expand his options for retreats, courses, and hydrotherapy in the near future and plans to continue weekly community events, like Wednesday brown bag lunch wellness talks. Other events and services, like soundbaths and forest bathing, can be found on the Good River monthly calendar.

Though he said there is still much work to be done, the opening stretch has been successful. When asked for a main takeaway about Good River and his style of well-care, Meager had just one thought:

“Love is the only healer, and Good River is a river of love. With love, healing is inevitable.”