We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Brooke Fantin, DPT. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Brooke below.

Dr. Brooke, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Taking risks… ironically, the concept of “taking risks” has been coming up a lot recently in my daily writing practice. “I say that I am open; but how open am I really? How willing am I to take risks and give X a shot?”

Now, as I sit with this prompt, let me reflect on the risks I have taken – big and small – which have carved the pathway I’ve walked in this journey of self (career / business) discovery.

One of the first risks I’ve taken, leaping into an unplanned situation, was when I decided to say yes to my acceptance at the University of Miami’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program. I had been accepted the week before classes started and was given 48 hours to make my decision on joining the cohort or not. I had already committed to another school, but after deliberating with myself and getting feedback from others I decided to course correct and book my flight down to Miami, FL the day before classes started. I had no where to live and only a carry-on of personal items. But within minutes of meeting my cohort, I was offered a place to live with people who are now my forever friends. It was also during this program that I became more connected to the field of Women’s Health and Pelvic Health studies.

After PT school I moved to The San Francisco Bay Area. Another risk; leaving community I had built to charter unknown territory. Met with many challenges, years laters I could reflect on the amount of growth this place has offered me as I continued to learn and come more into myself and my profession. As I’ve followed my interests, this place has connected me with communities and jobs that have offered subtle yet pivotal moments in the unfolding of my pathway.

For example: taking nearly a 40k pay cut to pursue a field I felt passionate about – it was during this role that I had a conversation with the CEO that set me off down an avenue of studies that I had no idea existed, but was the most resonant field of information I had come to know through my own learned experiences.
Once I began to study more from experts in this specific field, so many things about who I am, my own life experiences and how I’m meant to serve others began to click. And the rest is (still just) history.

So, after all these years of taking chances I remind myself, “why stop now?”
I remind myself to follow the spark, be open to different and be willing to live through change.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I finally committed to my craft of empowering and elevating women to take ownership over their health and who they want to be. But where did I begin?

A detective, an interior designer, a psychotherapist… all inclinations I had as a kid of what interested me and what I was good at. Then, as an active and athletic child playing sports, I experienced injuries and, naturally, the thing to do in my household was go to physical therapy. After my first time in physical therapy, I couldn’t tell you what they did to help me, but I could tell you that I really enjoyed the environment they created and got to work in…

An open floor plan, moving around, interacting with patients and getting to crack jokes from across the room – I liked it.

Now, having my sights set on physical therapy I began to take advanced anatomy and physiology classes, to which I completely nerded out and fell in love with the material. I was sold.

As I achieved my goal in becoming a doctor of physical therapy and began to practice – patient after patient, repetition after repetition – I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. I wanted to provide more holistic care. I felt the need to address people’s pain in more of its entirety, from its root, but I didn’t really know what that looked like or how to figure that out – especially while staying in the “lane” of a physical therapist.

Then once the field of somatics found me, it all made sense.
All of my innate qualities and gifts made sense.
All of my lived experiences and personal development through trial and error made sense.
All of my education and gravitation towards mind-body practices, philosophies and medicine made sense.

Through my own lived and formal education, I empower and elevate women to take ownership over their health and who they want to be. I take a mind-body, bottom-up approach to help women address the root of their stress and pain so they can metabolize what’s holding them back from being in the driver’s seat of their health and quality of life. The work we do together is unique in that we organically co-create a therapeutic template that intertwines what the mind, body and spirit need.

I’ve created what I call the M3 framework, which, at its foundation encourages positive movement of the mind, body and spirit to gently process whats been stagnant, creating healthy flow and new space for updated patterns and behaviors.

While 1:1 offerings are the majority of services currently provided, I am excited to share that a self-paced program will be coming out in early 2026 to serve more people, near and far, in a profound way!

Celebrating where things stand today, I am most proud of following my intuition and pursing the passion I have for deeply understanding the components of total health and true well-being. The WholeSoul brand is all about normalizing holistic health care because these parts of us are not siloed, they are inextricably linked; and we strive to provide spaces and services reflective of this understanding.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Listening and Lived experience.

Duh, of course listening is important! But I mean realllly listening. When I listen to the dialogue being used and to the body’s non-verbal cues, a powerful entry point to facilitate care typically always reveals itself.

Empathy is layered. We all walk different paths with different life experiences, and the deeper I have been able to feel and experience life myself, the more I can be an empathetic witness with an arsenal of holistic health care practices for those I work with.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Yes, I would.

But don’t get me wrong – there were times of intense questioning, “Is this really for me?” “I can’t do this for the rest of my life.” “Why couldn’t I have landed in a different industry?”

These were all questions I asked myself when I was burnt out, boundary-less and operating out of alignment. But I wouldn’t change that part of the process for anything. Because of that I kept seeking and learning, I found gateways into serving others in the way that lights me up, and I fell back in love with my niched profession.

I am extremely grateful that my access point to people is through the physical body as this is the landscape where pain can be alchemized and healing happens.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wholesoul.club/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-fantin
• Other: Contact Link: https://wholesoulptp.as.me/

Image Credits

Credit for main photograph: Lyam Bewry