Today we’d like to introduce you to Laurena White

Hi Laurena, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

Since I was a pre-kindergartner, I knew I wanted two things: to be a doctor and to be a mom … in that order. High school was easy for me, and it was the first time I realized that health disparities existed even though I didn’t know that was the name for what I was witnessing.

Once I got to college, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in medicine erroneously thinking that I wanted to be a pediatrician. However, once I got to medical school, I quickly realized that I loved the children; however, I did not like their parents. Pediatrics was not for me. I also hadn’t really considered any other specialty until then.

By the grace of God, my Obstetrics/Gynecology rotation started with Obstetrics and that is when I knew I wanted to be an obstetrician/gynecologist. Previously, I hadn’t considered it because I asked myself, ‘Do I want to be looking at vaginas all day?’. The answer was “no”. However, obstetrics made me fall in love and by the time I started my gynecology rotation, I realized that there was so much education that was missing. From menarche to menopause, girls and women did not know the truth about how their bodies operated, including proper anatomy and physiology. During that rotation, I realized I was also a good teacher, especially when the subject matter was something about which I was passionate.

The more I learned about what others hadn’t learned coupled with the state of the US healthcare system, specifically women’s health and especially Black maternal health, my passionate interest grew and grew. My desire was to the thing that was missing… a healing presence.

Fortunately, my thoughts and plans for how I desired to take care of clients did not neatly fit into the US model of care. As there was no comfortable seat at the table for me in the conventional medicine system, I created my own table and opened the doors to The Eudaimonia Center, a reproductive medicine and women’s health firm, in 2018. In 5 years, we have grown from a team of 3 to a team of 15 and have expanded to 2 offices in the DC Metro Area.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

A smooth road? Definitely not.

Starting my own firm was an easy decision for me to make; however, the road that followed was not smooth at all… it was scary and quite lonely in the early days. The only thing I knew for sure was that I knew how I wanted to care for my patients and how that differed from the standard of women’s health care that existed. I had no idea how to run a firm including hiring, whether to accept insurance, operations, and many of the other granular details it takes to open our doors. I bet on myself anyway.

I had limited mentorship because there was no one at the time practicing like me… bonafide integrative medicine grounded in a womanist ethic of care. So much of my learning came from asking questions, researching on my own, weighing the pros and cons, trial and error, and making decisions even though I rarely had sufficient answers.

So, I did it… AFRAID. My former colleagues didn’t believe in me and placed bets on how soon I would return to conventional medicine. That was my impetus to never go back, to succeed (even when failure seemed imminent). Prove the naysayers wrong… not to stroke my ego, but for the betterment of my patients. They needed, wanted, desired, and deserved better, more, and different. However, in the first 6 months, there were many days that I feared that I was proving the naysayers right. I had spent way more money than I was making. I was concerned about how I was going to pay the rent on our office space because I did not have sustainable clientele to keep the doors open. I had hired a team and wasn’t sure if I was going to have sufficient funds to make payroll.

Consequently, I decided that finding clients until they could find me WAS my job. Within 7 months, our client base increased in unexpected yet favorable ways, and we’ve been on the upward health, wellness, and healing journey ever since.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Eudaimonia Center?

The Eudaimonia Center is an integrative reproductive medicine and women’s health firm grounded in the womanist ethic of care. Eudaimonia means “human flourishing” in Greek, and it describes our goal for our clientele the moment they cross our threshold. While we tend to ALL clients, our firm specializes in healing complex women’s health challenges including and not limited to uterine fibroids, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, fertility challenges (male and female factor), (peri)menopause syndrome, and hormonal imbalances… all without the employ of unnecessary pharmaceutical drugs (including painkillers and birth control pills) and fruitlessly invasive surgical interventions.

Our firm focuses on healing, resolving the root cause of the problem, while conventional medicine focuses on managing the symptoms. Healing works from the inside out while curing relies on something external to the individual. In healing, we don’t focus on symptoms. Symptoms become the guide for the resolution of the deeper imbalance or dysfunction within the individual. Healing is the inner resolution through which symptoms resolve on a much more profound level. True healing is a journey of self-discovery and inner growth.

Brand-wise, we’re proud of our firm’s holistic commitment to healing. Healing is a longer process than symptom-chasing, and it results in sustainable results. Our brand is one of healing and teaching our clients HOW to tend to and take care of themselves so that trips to the doctor are more for “tune-ups” and not always for treatment.

As a firm, we work together for the individual’s wellbeing. Our services range from acupuncture to herbal therapy, bodywork to nutrition, and doula to lactation services. Our work is synergistic. Our signature programs provide for 3-5 practitioners to tend to a client over the course of 3 months to address their condition in a multidisciplinary way, facilitating the healing process and aiding in the remembering of how one’s body can function optimally when it is given the attention it needs to do so.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?

The most important lesson that we learned during the COVID-19 crisis was that we were doing things the correct way. While most of the practices and offices in our area were closing, either temporarily or permanently, we had built a healthcare model that withstood the test of a pandemic. Not only did we remain open during the pandemic, but our firm grew exponentially which enabled us to expand geographically in the Washington, DC metro area.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://laurenawhite.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeudaimoniacenter/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theeudaimoniacenter/
• Twitter: https://x.com/eu_daimonism
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-eudaimonia-center-columbia
• Other: https://womenshealthwisdomandwine.buzzsprout.com/share

Image Credits

N/A