We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Rebecca Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Rebecca, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

At Balance & Birch, our mission is to help people feel like their whole selves again — mind, body, and spirit. That means we don’t treat symptoms in a vacuum or hand out one-size-fits-all solutions. We look at the big picture: your nervous system, your relationships, your past, your hormones, your spiritual connection (or lack thereof). We do the deep work, without the bullshit.

Why does that matter to me? Because I know what it feels like to be doing “all the right things” and still feel stuck, disconnected, or like something is just… off. I’ve lived it, and I’ve worked with hundreds of clients who’ve lived it too. And frankly, I got tired of watching people fall through the cracks of a broken healthcare system that sees them as either a body or a diagnosis — not a whole human.

This work is personal. It’s about creating the kind of care I wish I had access to sooner: integrative, science-backed, and deeply human. Our team is made up of clinicians and healers who get it — who know that true healing isn’t linear, isn’t always pretty, but is 100% possible when we stop trying to compartmentalize wellness. I prioritize hiring individuals who practice what they preach and refuse to give a textbook answer to problems. I never give my clients tips I don’t follow myself, and I expect the same of my clinicians.

I’m also a big believer in paying it forward — healing shouldn’t be reserved for the privileged few. That’s why I created our innovative membership model: to make high-quality, integrative care more accessible, flexible, and transparent. Insurance likes to pretend it’s inclusive, but the reality? It boxes clinicians into rigid codes and time limits that force us to perform care instead of actually providing it. You don’t get what you need — you get a show. And we’re not interested in playing along. Our membership model lets us do the work that actually matters, without the smoke and mirrors. Clients can mix and match services based on what they actually need — not what insurance decides is “medically necessary.” And because I’m not interested in being the kind of business owner who hoards all the wins at the top, I built a profit-sharing system that grows with our team. The more we thrive, the more our clinicians earn, the better benefits they get, and the more we’re able to reinvest in our community. I didn’t build this to be a one-woman empire — I built it so all of us could rise together.

We’re flipping the system on its head and building a community where people get real support from real humans — no hoops, no gimmicks, and no bullshit.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I didn’t start Balance & Birch because I thought the world needed another wellness brand. I started it because I was sick — in every sense of the word — of being dismissed, misdiagnosed, and told I was “exaggerating.” I had overlapping medical issues, confusing symptoms, and no one seemed willing to zoom out and look at the whole picture. I was shuttled from one specialist to another, given bandaid fixes, and offered a lot of “normal labs” while my body and mind were screaming that something was wrong.

Eventually, I realized no one was coming to save me — so I started saving myself. I researched, experimented, unlearned, and rebuilt. I found healing through a mix of science, intuition, nervous system work, spiritual practices, body awareness, and therapy that actually saw me. And I wanted other people to have access to the same kind of integrative, empowering care — without the gaslighting.

That’s why I built Balance & Birch. And that’s why I only hire clinicians and healers who’ve been there too — people who’ve had their own “what the hell is happening to me?” moments, who’ve also fallen through the cracks of a system that treats symptoms in isolation and people like numbers. None of us are blank slates pretending to be neutral observers. We’re real people who lead with humanity, not hierarchy.

We offer psychotherapy, sex therapy, hypnotherapy, hormone and PCOS support, strength training, naturopathic medicine, breathwork, past life regression, spiritual consulting — and here’s the thing: you don’t have to believe in all of it. We’ll never force a modality on you. We’ll meet you exactly where you are, and invite you to stay in the driver’s seat the whole time. This is your healing, not ours. You get to choose the pace, the approach, and the providers that feel right for you.

What makes us different isn’t just our services — it’s how we show up. We talk like humans. We listen like peers. We cross-refer like a real team. And we don’t hide behind clinical jargon or rigid roles. Our clients know they’re working with people who care deeply, collaborate behind the scenes, and never give out advice we wouldn’t take ourselves.

I’m most proud of the fact that we’re building something that doesn’t just look good on a website — it actually changes lives. For our clients, for our clinicians, and for a larger culture that’s starving for real connection and whole-person care.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the hardest lessons I had to unlearn is that being the “good girl” — following every rule, staying in the lines, doing everything by the book — would protect me.
That it would lead to healing. Or success. Or at the very least, safety.

I grew up believing that if I followed the evidence, got the degrees, built things the “right” way, and stayed neutral and professional, I’d be taken seriously. I thought I could outsmart the brokenness of the system by mastering it — that if I was smart enough, prepared enough, regulated enough, no one could dismiss me or call me dramatic.

That didn’t work. Not when I was the patient being gaslit by a dozen specialists. And not when I became the clinician or the business owner trying to fit myself into a mold that never made space for my full humanity. I had to learn — the hard way — that doing everything “right” doesn’t guarantee that people will listen, or that healing will happen, or that your business will thrive. Especially if what you need — or what your clients need — doesn’t fit neatly into someone else’s protocol.

So I stopped trying to be palatable. I stopped playing by rules that were never designed for someone like me — someone complex, intuitive, passionate, and deeply human. I started leading from a place of wholeness instead of perfection. I let my own story matter. I let my voice get louder. I created a business that reflects the truth of who I am: someone who believes in both evidence and experience, science and spirit, structure and softness.

Unlearning that lesson cracked everything open — and it gave me permission to stop performing and start showing up as myself. Fully. And that’s when everything actually started to work.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Oh yes — I’ve had the “this might be the end” moment. From the outside, everything looked fine. Clients were happy. The brand looked polished. But behind the scenes? I was laying on the floor crying, wondering if I’d just watched my business go up in flames.

The accounting firm I trusted had completely wrecked our books — over $100,000 mishandled through stolen funds, misclassified transactions, and missing payroll and tax filings. I did everything right: hired the pros, paid the premium, followed every rule. None of it protected me.

There was one week I pulled money from my personal savings just to make sure my employees got paid. Another where I genuinely thought I’d have to file for bankruptcy. I couldn’t afford a forensic accountant, so I rebuilt our financials myself — every single line, every single month. And when I applied for a loan to keep us alive, we only qualified because I had worked extra hours to make our books look clean and reputable to the lenders. I was holding it together with sheer will and spreadsheets.

What saved this business? Me. My refusal to give up. My belief in what we do — even when the bank didn’t believe in me, and when some people around me started pulling away. I stayed. I fought. I rebuilt.

And I changed. I stopped trying to do everything alone. I got out of the weeds and started working on the business, not just in it. I let my office manager do what she does best — manage — so I could lead. I built systems to make sure no one in this company ever has to white-knuckle their way through that kind of chaos again.

We survived because I refused to let someone else’s negligence write our ending. And now? We’re stronger, wiser, and more unapologetically rooted in integrity than ever before.

This experience also changed how I show up for other women in business. I talk about the hard parts. I share the numbers. I don’t gatekeep the reality behind the scenes — because none of us should have to figure this out alone in the dark.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.balanceandbirch.com
• Instagram: @balanceandbirch
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@balanceandbirch