Two businesses, one space

Belle Therapy+Wellness, Dragonfly Lactation, serve local women

Two businesses are sharing space to serve the area’s women.

Ally Capps, physical therapist/owner of Belle Therapy + Wellness, a concierge service, and Melanie Kondrat, owner of Dragonfly Lactation, recently opened their businesses at 10805 Kingston Pike Suite 100, next to Costco.

“It’s great,” they both said about opening.

“We have a lot of people stop in just to say ‘hi’ and see what’s going on in here,” Kondrat said. “They see us and look at Costco.”

“We’re here to celebrate Belle Therapy + Wellness,” Farragut West Knox Chamber of Commerce president/CEO Julie Blaylock said during an FWKCC-sponsored ribbon cutting Tuesday, Nov. 28, at the business.

Capps, a pelvic floor specialist, works primarily with women, especially in the pregnancy and post-partum realm.

She explained pelvic floor physical therapy is an umbrella term, which includes pregnancies, but “it’s not just for childbearing.”

Her clients’ ages range from 21 to 72.

“There’s a larger percent of women, as we go through puberty or menopause, (whose) bodies change a lot and that, ultimately, leads to a lot of pain, a lot of tissue changes, “Capps said. “And just think about the injuries … everyone’s slipped and fallen sometime in their life.”

Capps started Belle Therapy + Wellness as a mobile business about two years ago. She graduated from physical therapy school in 2016 as a generic physical therapist. After she married and became pregnant, Capps realized the trauma of childbirth and later became pelvic floor certified.

As a mobile business, “I started out driving around, taking my table and my equipment, to clients’ houses,” she recalled. “I finally got busy enough to where I could afford to do an office space.”

Additionally, she provides traditional physical therapy services such as rehabilitation, preventative care, education workshops and classes.

Kondrat, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, provides lactation services to help new mothers navigate the feeding experience.

“I help families feed their babies,” she said. “I primarily work with breastfeeding families, but I work with bottle feeding, formula feeding and pumping families.

“I provide educational services to help prepare pregnant mamas for upcoming feeding journeys with their babies,” Kondrat added.

Sharing the same space, “We run workshops and educational services together,” she said about herself and Capps.

“I’ve always been after Ally (to) ‘be ready for an office space,‘“ Kondrat added.

“I needed a dream to become fruitful,” Capps said. “This is, honestly, a bigger space than I originally was looking for but my kids go to school five minutes down the road,” she said.

Belle Therapy + Wellness is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and weekends by appointment, which can be booked at 865-315-7515, by e-mail at ally@belleknoxville.com or online belleknoxville.com

Dragonfly Lactation is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays and Wednesdays. Book appointments in one of three ways: 865-268-3970, mkondrat@dragonfliylactation.com or www.dragonflylactation.com