A Pull to the Land - Dr. Mindi Jentes

Series Introduction

This is the second of a 12-part series on community builders who participate in Activate Selma NC.

The author is Cindy Brookshire, one of the co-founders of Activate Selma.

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Caption: Dr. Mindi Jentes

A Pull to the Land

Like so many newcomers to Selma, North Carolina, Dr. Mindi Jentes, her husband, Mike, and members of their family, came seeking where God wanted them to go, but also, a slower pace of life from the big city – first, Los Angeles, and then, Raleigh, where Dr. Mindi worked in a busy chiropractic practice and tried to shut out the constant street noise from their apartment.

“Most of my life has been around starting new things, faith-based and organic,” she says. “I long to create an authentic community.”  

The singer, motorcycle enthusiast, and author grew up a pastor’s kid, moving around the South and Midwest, where her dad was a church planter. She met Mike at Grace College and Theological Seminary in Indiana while he was studying to become a pastor and she was earning a bachelor’s degree in opera performance. They married, spent time in Germany, and as they grew their family of four children, they moved around the U.S. planting churches.

It was in California that she used her own experiences healing from chronic migraines and joint pain to study and earn her Doctor of Chiropractic from The Southern California University of Health Sciences.

So, when they came to North Carolina, and a real estate agent showed them a ranch-style home, tucked away on wooded farmland about four miles from Selma’s small town “main street,” something stirred inside her.

“We walked out back, where the fields open up beyond the picket fencing,” Dr. Mindi describes. “It was Fall, and the evening was near. When I turned around, the sky was on fire with the sunset. When I saw that, I was like, I didn’t even care what the house is like inside, I have to have this. I felt this strong pull to the land.”

Brio Wellness Center in Selma

As Dr. Mindi worked in Raleigh, Dr. Kayla Jentes-Sagester, her oldest daughter, opened Brio Wellness Center, a women-owned holistic chiropractic wellness clinic on Selma’s Anderson Street – the only open business on the block at the time, other than KS Bank.

“Jeff Hamilton and his sister, Zena, were renovating the building -- we called it our Stuart Little house, because it was so tiny. It was perfect for us, but starting a practice in the middle of Covid, with vacant buildings, seemed crazy.”

They sensed they would be filling a niche, though, with little local health care other than dental practices and one other chiropractor between Clayton and Goldsboro. The area was considered low-income, with transportation challenges.

Ron Hester introduced them to Activate Selma, and the weekly connections helped the family meet the community and find new patients.

“That helped to spread the word, and we grew much faster than any practice typically grows,” said Dr. Mindi. “Patients were coming in not just for chiropractic care and pain management, but also a kind of pseudo triage at the time when local doctors and hospitals were overwhelmed because of Covid.”

A wellness center with a holistic approach offered trust for the rural Selma community. Then Dr. Mindi had to adjust her own work schedule in Raleigh and Selma when long Covid challenged her own physical and mental stamina.

“Kayla and I were both training in functional neurology at the time and I discovered that my left brain – the part I use for logical, mathematical reasoning, and science – was still healing. Any time I exerted it was like opening a wound. That made it difficult to work.”

“I found that sound bowl therapy was very calming for me,” she added. “I worked with these crystal bowls, started painting with watercolors, and exposed myself to different art forms. The art was allowing me to massively use my right brain so my left brain could rest. We said, ‘Okay, how can we use this to help our patients?’”

Dr. Mindi began incorporating the crystal sound bowls, art, and even restful day retreats into their client offerings. She pointed out that Renée Fleming – one of the most celebrated sopranos of our time – advocates for the neurological study of the impact music has on the brain. Fleming was scheduled to visit Durham (an event and concert cancelled by a snowstorm) to lecture with UNC neuroscientists, and published a collection of essays called Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness.

“At Brio, we focus on women's health, because women are those who tend to be most concerned about the whole family, and lead the way,” says Dr. Mindi.

Brio Wellness Center outgrew the “Stuart Little” house and expanded their practice in July 2023 to Brio House, a 102-year-old house at 805 North Pollock Street just beyond Selma Elementary School and the Boys & Girls Club of Johnston County’s SECU Community Clubhouse.

In August of 2025, Dr. Kayla spread her wings.

“She and her husband Zach moved to Indiana. It was time for that – for her own maturity and growth. She was like ‘Mom, I need my own sky to fly.’” Their youngest daughter, Katja Jentes Bruton, also has married and moved to Michigan, after working alongside her mom and sister in Selma.

Dr. Mindi continues to serve their established and new patients with certified chiropractic assistant Lorrie Myrick. They tailor their care to each patient’s unique needs, blending gentle chiropractic adjustments, physiotherapies, nutrition, and supplements into everyday wellness.

Dr. Mindi facilitates community workshops, such as “The Power of Creative Rest,” on March 7, 2026 from 10:30 am to 1 pm at Vibe Central Events, 127 N. Raiford Street in downtown Selma. The workshop is hosted by Vibe Central Events and WhenUPause. (Register at www.vibecentralevents.com/events)

She also writes a monthly wellness column in JNOW, Johnston Now magazine, and has authored the book, Pain to Peace: Setting the Songbird Free. She is currently leading a nine-week book study on the book.

“The study gives women time to come together and systematically walk through the book in a way that is refreshing, because, of course, you're going to be talking about things that are painful. They can share with the others, or don’t share – be as comfortable as they want to be. The goal is to create a safe space for people to process and allow their hearts to heal. That’s how we begin to see an authentic community grow, a little bit bigger than what they've experienced so far.”

Home Retreats and Setting Her Spirit Free

At home, Dr. Mindi has offered day retreats for those seeking instruction in health and wellness to relax and be at peace, and to enjoy the wide-open space and solitude.

Her country kitchen has been the testing ground for her soon-to-be-published cookbook, with recipes for kombucha, lavender tea, homemade fire cider, sourdough bread, blackberry muffins, and hearty soups like pumpkin or ham-bone and turnip greens, chockful of turnips, potatoes, carrots, and onions. She is working with her daughter Katja long-distance on the photography and production.

Her living room is an ever-changing flow of Dr. Mindi’s personal and group craft projects, from watercolor paintings to bead embroidery to ribbon skirts for powwows -- public celebrations of Native American culture, music, and dance.

She loves experimenting with beading around flowers she painted on a felted hat, or designing and sewing her own ribbon skirts worn by Indigenous women for generations. Some are simple; others are more elaborate with beading and appliqué.

“I have a dream that I could design and bead an heirloom piece that would tell our ancestral story, in one beaded tapestry, Indigenous and German, Earth and animals, farmers and faith, Scriptures, and everything that represents the land we’ve lived on, in one large tapestry, the size of a dining table,” she says.

Dr. Mindi traces her Indigenous ancestry through matriarchal lines as far back to 1791, when her seven- and eight-times great-grandmothers, Indigenous women, married German immigrants in Fulton County, Pennsylvania (formerly part of Bedford County), along the Juniata River where the Tuscarora and other tribes of the Haudenosaunee alliance of nations migrated to do their trading.

“I can't officially claim Tuscarora, because that would be very offensive to the tribe. But I’ve experienced spiritual things that are happening to me here on my land that haven’t happened in all the other places I have traveled,” she explains. “I feel rooted to this land. It calls to me. We call that blood memory.”

One of her patients, an accomplished Fancy Shaw dancer, introduced Dr. Mindi to a local intertribal community. She has since become not only a regular participant as a vendor with her practice and art, but also as “Auntie Mindi,” grafted into the family.

Captions- Above Pic:  Dr. Mindi (right) with Fancy Shaw dancer Tehya Martinez Maiden (Haliwa-Saponi, Apache, Yaqui).

Below Pic:  Dr. Mindi (right) with women representing a variety of Tribal Nations: (Left to Right) Nina Martinez (Haliwa-Saponi, Apache, Yaqui), Celestine Raineri-Smith (Blackfeet, Taíno), and Nina Locklear (Lumbee).

“This would not happen if not for the intercultural or intertribal powwows that bring us together,” she says.

She’s been very intentional about creating that same kind of welcoming environment at Brio Wellness Center in Selma, offering a sense of belonging and a sense of peace for the community.

“It is safe at Brio House,” she says. “You can come in, you can be real, authentic, you can laugh, you can cry. You can even pray with your doctor. You can come and sit on the couch or sit on the swing and swing as long as you want to. You can arrive an hour early and leave an hour late. It does not matter. This is home.”

“Everything we do is with that in mind. Don't fear. Be authentic. That's the hardest part to create – authentic community.”

“I think if people experience it here in Selma, they'll start to live it.”

Dr. Mindi’s suggestions for Activate Selma

Dr. Mindi has hosted several Activate Selma meetings at Brio House, and more importantly, her husband Mike Jentes has been very active as a volunteer, serving as the nonprofit’s executive secretary last year, and vice president this year. He led the way for the organization to become a nonprofit.

“Mike and I believe, when you come to know the Lord, you are given a full-size Jesus and Holy Spirit, not a tiny one, right?” she says. “And with it, you have the host of heaven with you. Everywhere you go, Jesus goes. We don’t need to live in constant fear. What does that mean for the community?”

“God will supply all of our needs. He will provide for our businesses. He will bless the efforts. We don't have to fear, but we have to do the work. You’ve got the King of Heaven and the host of angels with you everywhere you go.”

“For Activate Selma as an organization to thrive, our biggest challenge is to open up and welcome everyone. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. Look at the census. Look at the population of Selma. It’s diverse. In the past, it’s been very difficult for people who aren’t like you [meaning the white interviewer] to be accepted. They’re allowed to be there, but they’re not integrated.”

“Activate Selma should welcome everyone to participate. Get past the small-town mindset of ‘this is the way things have always been done.’ Learn how to navigate people from other cultures and languages and other places around the world who are moving here from other states and countries and figure out, how do we work together?”

She adds: “Don’t fear the newcomer business with a knee-jerk reaction. You cannot possibly service the entire 7,000-member community in your single business, period. It is always good to see competition. It makes you better.”

If you'd like to see more photos and one of Dr. Mindi's recipes from her upcoming cookbook, go to https://cindybrookshire.substack.com/