About US
The Edith Irby Jones Wellness Retreat Center provides the tools to gain mental clarity, physical and emotional healing, physical and mental strength and internal and external peace.
Massage to manage pain and promote healing and relaxation
Detox Treatments to boost the immune system
Stretch Sessions to build strength, endurance and flexibility
Nutritional Counseling to foster good health and performance
Meditation to feed the soul and quiet the mind for vision and growth
Retreats for obtaining and maintaining optimal wellness
The Safir Sanctuary is a part of the Edith Irby Jones Wellness Retreat Center offering a whole new personal experience for healing and sustainable optimal wellness
LIFE COACHING to help create a balance in all areas
YOMASSAGE CLASSES to combine stretch, massage and breath work
DANCING QIGONG MEDITATION CLASSES to align the body with the soul
DESTINATION RETREATS to focus on self and to rejuvenate
Mastering the Art of Luminescence
Harnessing your power, talents and greatness so that external circumstances do not determine your prosperity or joy. You Glow from the inside out.
Did You Know!?
Did You Know?
Obesity can make you 2 to 6 times more likely to develop high blood pressure!
High blood pressure can damage the brain, eyes and kidneys!
Hypertension may lead to heart failure or stroke!
7 out of 10 people with diabetes also have high cholesterol!
Why Holistic Healing?
Main Entry: Well·ness
Pronunciation: \wel-nes\
Not just the absence of illness but a state in which there is sustained functioning of the physical, mental and emotional person at a level that minimizes limits on the physical movement, increases cognitive functions and promotes a sense of well-being.
The Wellness Industry has a combination of many holistic and alternative treatments and services which should be used in conjunction with traditional medical care for a comprehensive treatment of the whole person for optimal results.
Myra Jones Romain, J.D., R.M.T.
Myra Jones Romain is the founder and director of the Edith Irby Jones Wellness Retreat Center and the Safir Sanctuary. In August 2009, the Wellness Center officially opened, sharing the building with the medical office of Dr. Edith Irby Jones, in the heart of Third Ward in Houston, Texas. The Center promotes lifestyle awareness, education, modification. and support. The treatments and services are part of an holistic approach that complements western medical treatments to prevent, control and alleviate diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer. Together, Ms. Romain and her mother, Dr. Edith Irby Jones created a comprehensive approach to tackle community health issues, including access to quality healthcare.
In 2015, the Safir Sanctuary was founded to honor the memory of Ms Romain's youngest daughter, Safir Romain. The treatments and services were expanded by partnering with Eden Life Rejuvenation Centre in Nevis, West Indies. Destination retreats and chiropractic care are now offered to provide intense healing of the body, mind and spirit.
In early childhood, Ms. Romain ‘s talents and ambitions were nurtured, in Houston. By 15 years old, she had begun exploring the world and becoming aware of the need for healing on an international scale. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, with studies in Saltillo, Mexico and Barcelona, Spain. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in International Relations, including studies and travels to Western Europe and West Africa. After obtaining a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center, Ms. Romain practiced law in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts for 20 years. In 2002, she changed her focus from advocacy in the judicial system to promoting self-care in the health care arena.
Ms. Romain obtained her licensed as massage therapist and became certified for medical massage, nutritional counseling and Yomassage. Her many years as a musician and dancer helped decrease limitations for those feeling trapped in their bodies. Ms. Romain has continued her training in additional holistic techniques to help her patients and clients maintain optimal health of their mind, body and soul.
Ms. Romain speaks and motivates at conferences, health fairs and workshops. She has received awards for her accomplishments and community volunteer work as an attorney and as a holistic healer. She is the mother of 4 daughters, Kani, Aita, Rebia and Safir (now deceased).
Dr. Edith IRby Jones, M.A.C.P.
Dr. Edith Irby Jones, a trailblazer for over 50 years in medicine and bringing health care to those most in need, was inspired to become a doctor by the death of her older sister during a typhoid epidemic in Arkansas in the 1930s. The daughter of a sharecropper (who died in a riding accident when she was eight) and a domestic worker, Dr. Jones recalls thinking, "The children who were able to have medical care would live; I saw the doctor going in and out of their homes. Although it may not be true, I felt that if I had been a physician, or if there had been physicians available, or we had adequate money, that a physician would have come to us." As it was, a doctor saw Dr. Jones' sister only once -- the family could afford no more -- and she died. It was a life-defining experience for Dr. Jones, who in 1948 broke racial barriers and made national news when she became the first African-American to attend the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. She received her M.D. in 1952.
Nominated as a Local Legend by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18), Jones was the first African-American woman resident at Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospitals in Houston and the first female president of the National Medical Association. She is a charter member of Physicians for Human Rights, and the Chief of the medical staff at Riverside General Hospital in Houston.
After a successful career in Arkansas, Dr. Jones established a private practice in internal medicine and gerontology in inner city Houston in 1962. A co-founder of Houston's Mercy Hospital, she also has taught and consulted on health care in several countries and established medical clinics in Veracruz, Mexico and Vaudreuil, Haiti. Sheila Jackson emphasizes that "What truly makes Dr. Jones stand out is her deep desire to help the less fortunate.
She has founded or collaborated in the creation of numerous medical clinics throughout Latin America." While in Arkansas, Dr. Jones worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights movement and was a member of the "Freedom Four" (along with Attorneys Floyd Davis, Harold Flowers, and Bob Booker), speaking out mostly across the Deep South at churches and private homes to urge people to join the struggle for justice and equality. Recipient of numerous awards and citations, the City of Houston honored her in 1986 with an Edith Irby Jones Day. In 1988, the America Society of Medicine named her Internist of the Year and, in 1998, the former Southeast Memorial Hospital named its ambulatory center in her honor.
Dr. Jones taught medical students at Baylor College of Medicine with rotations her private practice. Dr. Jones focused on her values: "I let them know the real truth, that if they are really concerned about their fellow man, they will enjoy medicine. If they are going into medicine as a money making project, then they ought to select something else; medicine continues to be a service that we render to all."
Dr. Jones died on July 15, 2019, but her memory and her spirit of healing lives on.