Grow With Grounded
About

Grow With Grounded.

A life giving company, helping whole people and whole families grow healthy in mind, body, spirit, and relationships.

Begin The Grounded Way
Who we are

A life giving company.

Our mission: Grounded creates simple tools and offers guidance and support that help people grow healthy in mind, body, spirit, and relationships, through every season of life.

Our vision: Whole people and whole families, living well in every season of life.

Our direction is simple: from death to life. Years beside people at the end of life showed us what matters most, and it turned us toward living well now, with whole and nourishing food, water, movement, rest, time outdoors, real connection face to face, and unplugged time. Grounded stands for living sober, with a clear mind and a healthy body.

The Grounded Way: Tend Four. Grow Two.

The Grounded Way is how our family lives, gathered into one app for every age. A tree grows strong when it is tended, and so do people. Each day you tend four parts: Roots: Spirit, Bark: Mind, Leaves: Body, and Branches: Relationships. From that tending, two grow in their season: Trunk: Meaning and Fruit: Hope.

Inside are Grounded Recipes sized for your table, workouts for every level at home or at the gym, guided meditations and Morning Quiet to begin the day, and one growth plan built from your check-in.

A young seedling in fresh soil beside a path through a meadow at sunrise.
Growing whole, one day at a time.
How we work

What you can count on.

  • Everyone is welcome, whatever your budget. If money is tight, tell us, and we'll find a way.
  • All faith traditions and everything in-between. We talk about faith when it helps you, and your beliefs lead.
  • Research-informed. Everything we make grows from current research and years of real chaplaincy work.
  • Your story stays yours. What you share with us stays with us, except where the law or your safety requires otherwise.
  • Independent. Grow With Grounded is our own practice, separate from any hospice, hospital, or church. Families on service with the hospice where Chris works receive all their support through that hospice, and we gladly begin once their hospice service ends.
Our story

Kayti and Chris Joy.

Married 22 years. Four boys. One family table.

We are a family first. We have raised four boys around our own table, with real food, movement, rest, time outdoors, and unplugged time together. Chris has lived sober for 18 years, and a clear mind and a healthy body shape every day in our home.

Kayti chooses a sober path too. She lost her father to alcohol, and it shapes how our whole family lives. We keep our bodies free of what harms them, from alcohol to fast food to drugs, and fill our days with whole food, movement, rest, and each other.

Chris is a chaplain. His years in the ICU, on a behavioral health unit, through the COVID pandemic, and now in hospice taught him that presence matters more than answers, and that every day is worth living well. Kayti has taught in classrooms and yoga studios, and spent seven years caregiving for her family.

Raising four boys taught us that life's biggest moments are easier to walk through together. Today we write and lead ceremonies for those moments, from weddings and blessings to new beginnings, and we built The Grounded Way so your family can live this way too.

  • Chaplain, with four units of Clinical Pastoral Education
  • Master's degree in seminary and theology
  • Ordained and legally able to officiate in Minnesota
  • Certified yoga, breathwork, and meditation instructor
Chris and Kayti Joy on their wedding day.
Chris and Kayti on their wedding day.
The founders

Email us directly: and .

Kayti Joy

Kayti Joy

Co-founder & Director

Kayti brings more than fifteen years of walking with people across education, wellness, and caregiving. A former physical education teacher and a certified yoga, breathwork, and meditation instructor, she has worked with youth in state care, bringing a calm, steady presence to kids who need it most. She now serves as a paraeducator.

Credentials

Grow With Grounded
  • Co-founder and Director
  • More than fifteen years across education, wellness, and caregiving
Certifications
  • 300-hour certified yoga instructor: yoga, breathwork, and meditation
Education and Youth
  • Former physical education teacher who taught conflict resolution through the Resolving Conflicts Creatively Program
  • Ten years volunteering in schools, leading weekly student mentorship groups with school counselors
  • Activities coordinator and lead direct support professional with youth in state care
  • Paraeducator
Caregiving
  • Seven years caregiving for her family, working with nurses and physicians
Read more

Kayti began her career teaching physical education and yoga, including a conflict resolution program for students. For a decade she volunteered weekly in local schools, leading mentorship groups alongside school counselors. She spent seven years caregiving for her family, working closely with nurses and physicians, and has led ongoing yoga, meditation, and breathwork sessions for adults. As an activities coordinator and lead direct support professional, she worked with youth in state care living in group homes, many carrying significant trauma and behavioral needs. She designed daily one-on-one and group activities, adapting each session to what a young person needed that day, and became a trusted, steady presence for kids others found hard to reach. She is a trained mandated reporter for youth and adults.

Chris Joy

Chris Joy

Co-founder & Chaplain

Chris is a chaplain. He holds a master's degree in seminary and theology, is an ordained minister legally able to officiate weddings, and writes Grounded, a weekly publication on Substack.

Credentials

Chaplaincy
  • Hospice chaplain
  • Hospital chaplain in the ICU, pediatrics and the NICU, behavioral health, and through the COVID pandemic
Education
  • Four units of Clinical Pastoral Education
  • MA in Biblical and Theological Studies, Western Seminary
Ceremonies
  • Ordained and legally able to officiate in Minnesota
Writing and Community
  • Writes Grounded on Substack
  • Founder of For Love Of People
Read more

Before chaplaincy, Chris served as an elder and youth pastor in a non-denominational church and spent twenty years in graphic design and print production, experience he now brings to the design of everything Grow With Grounded makes. On a behavioral health unit, he led daily meditations for inpatients and weekly sessions in intensive outpatient care, using crystal sound bowls, body scan meditations, and mindfulness practices, along with grief groups and workshops. Ordained through the Universal Life Church, he leads weddings, blessings, and memorial services for people of all faith traditions and everything in-between.

What we believe

What we believe about this work.

  • People are made to thrive. Whole, healthy, and connected, in mind, body, spirit, and relationships.
  • Presence matters more than answers. Most of the time, the most helpful thing is to stay.
  • You are the expert on your own life. Your faith, your doubts, your family, your way.
  • Grief keeps its own schedule. It continues long after the funeral, and it asks to be honored rather than fixed.
  • Caregivers need care too. The people holding everyone else together deserve someone in their corner.

We would love to hear from you.

We are based in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and travel for ceremonies and speaking. Much of our work also happens on Zoom or by phone. We reply within two days.

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