Whether it's on a yoga mat, in a workshop, university classroom or at home, Christine Kiesinger said her goal is to guide and inspire others into taking risks to express who they are.

Kiesinger, 49, an Avoca resident, is a wellness educator and coach at the Sapphire Destination Spa and Salon in Pittston, a certified yoga and meditation instructor, a children's yoga instructor and a certified Usui and Karuna Reiki master teacher who completed certification in aromatherapy.She is a workshop and seminar leader and presenter on personal growth, relationships and wellness and a chief instructional officer and master coach of Divorce Essentials, a service which offers guidance for those who are considering divorce, in the midst of divorce or post-divorce.And, she is the mom of two children, Isabel, 15, a student at Holy Redeemer High School, and Walker, 13, a student at Wyoming Area Catholic School.Kiesinger adopted her children when their mother died of hyponatremia, a condition that occurs when the sodium level in blood is abnormally low. She collapsed while running a marathon. Her son was 9 months old and her daughter was 2 at the time of their mother's death."They've had a rough journey in having that really early loss. So, these things that I do, which I've been doing for a long time, really came to be very important for me in managing coming into a family that endured this very great loss," she said. "I feel lucky because I teach all of these modalities, but I live them. It helps me to be a better parent."Kiesinger is committed to teaching children how to do yoga and meditate. She teaches wellness classes and yoga classes at Sapphire twice a week. The spa and salon began offering aromatherapy and skin care in March. Aromatherapy involves using essential oils as forms of medicine while Reiki is a form of hands-on healing that works like acupuncture without needles, she said."My goal in all of what I do is to, first and foremost, get people to feel better," she said. "Once people start feeling better, they start making changes in their lives that really helps to elevate who they are into taking risks."Kiesinger encourages people to meditate for at least two minutes a day. Physically, this lowers blood pressure, it's healing for the central nervous system and it can help with symptoms of chronic illness and pain, she said."It helps us to be less reactive in life," she said. "When I meditate daily and something happens throughout my day that really pushes my buttons, I am definitely more able to just pause before I react. It's phenomenal in the realm of parenting."As a chief instructional officer and master coach for Divorce Essentials, Kiesinger said she focuses on how to break the news about divorce plans to partners and children."We are really committed to having a healthy divorce, one that tries to maintain an amicability between partners and really focuses on if you are going to divorce, it being a growth experience as opposed to something that is devastating," she said.Kiesinger formerly was a professor in relationship and family communication studies at Wilkes University, the George Washington University, Southwestern University and The University of South Florida.She earned her bachelor's degree in communication studies from Wilkes University in 1988, her master's in communication studies from The University of Virginia in 1990 and a Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of South Florida in 1995. Soon, she will be publishing blogs about spiritual growth, healthy relationships and managing the divorce transition.