At A Walk In The Woods Holistic, Practitioner Jessica Woods Hawkins believes in treating the whole person and using non-invasive, alternative medicine modalities and functional lab testing to get down to the root cause instead of covering up symptoms with labels, and pharmaceuticals. At A Walk In The Woods Holistic, she provides clients with the tools and knowledge necessary to be their own best doctors, supporting, teaching, and guiding the client along the way.

*Tell us about your small business

My small business means everything to me, it was born out of passion and love. I changed my entire path in life when I realized after I had such a monumental life-changing experience with holistic medicine and herbs that I wanted to be of service and help show, teach, and make a difference in other people’s lives using the same tools and life skills.

*Tell us more about yourself!

I am a one-woman team for now until I expand my business into a physical business, I am overly passionate about all things natural health. Coming from a western medical background gone natural my life is completely turned inside out and for the better.

I come from the streets and a broken home, although I realize my parents did the best they could with what they had, I was raised in tents, and hotels and we moved around a lot. I turned to books to fuel my fire and my imagination kept me pushing through, I knew deep down that I was meant for more. The compassion and empathy I now hold because of my lived life experience have ultimately guided me in this direction. I believe that everything happens for a reason and I’ve learned to trust in the universe. 

To add even more challenges to my life I am a Lesbian woman married to a future environmental scientist wife named Hollie, and our life is pretty much a badass fairytale that we have built together from the ground up.

* What issues have you faced in the medical/holistic health industry as a lesbian woman?

Honestly being LGBTQ in the medical field isn’t as hard anymore. They are very LGBTQ friendly and celebrate us. Personally, as a lesbian woman what I find difficult is the patients when they ask if I’m married and or reference a husband.  Sometimes I just don’t know how they will take it and I never want to make them feel uncomfortable or myself. People are fickle when it comes to that, so I try and gauge the personality whether or not I can be honest. Sometimes I know I can and other times I just divert the question. 

* What were you doing before you started your business?

Before I started my business I worked in the healthcare field and still do for 14 years as a Certified nursing assistant and patient care technician. I was in school to be a psychologist and I have always been in the field of helping those around me.

* What made you want to do this?

The extreme drive and need to help people actually heal and find their root cause, when I went through what I had gone through I would cry myself to sleep. I realized that Billions of people around the world were suffering and feeling stuck in the medical system we had. 

* How did you get started with holistic health?

When allopathic western medicine refused to help me, and sent me away with medication and labeled me without answers, I started digging deep and my wife would tell me that I “ate, slept and breathed holistic medicine for months”. I sought help from a holistic Dr and Practitioner and I didn’t stop until I had answers and understanding.

I realized the truth behind all the lies we have been told and that healing chronic health issues and lifestyle diseases was attainable with the right kind of guidance and knowledge. I quit Conventional school and poured all my time and money into school for natural health. I never looked back and I opened my business where I now help and teach other people to heal their bodies, mind, and soul. 

* What does a typical day look like for you?

Personally, my day starts off with mindfulness and meditation, depending on how many clients i have and what they are dealing with I spend my day digging into the research and creating plans that will support them in the best way possible. Right now I’m also creating a curriculum and courses that I will be putting out for clients and customers as a DIY option. 

I’ve also been researching more options on marketing, it’s exhausting. We live in such an overly marketed stimulated world. I want to reach my clients, I want to help change people’s lives for the better but it’s difficult for someone like me who doesn’t want attention but also needs to be able to pass this barrier because it’s the only way that I can reach people. 

* Where do you want to end up \ What goals do you have?

I want to end up with my own holistic health physical building, a line of CBD products, and a company with other individuals who also want the same things. I want something so much bigger than I could ever imagine and I can imagine a lot! My favorite quote is to be the change you wish to see in the world and I plan to live my life according to these values and words.

We plan on building on acres from the ground up, having a store.

* What is one thing that would help you reach your goals?

A Grant would help me reach my goal, as finance will be my next step. I found this cute corner building up for lease in ALKI Seattle where dry cleaners use to be, the windows are huge and the building is perfect for a holistic store/office. Every time my wife and I walk past it she knows I’ll linger just a little bit so I can dream. We will have to hope it’s still available by the end of the year when finance might be possible.

I know what I want, and having an assistant who’s good at taking my ideas and plans and helping execute them is another priority that would help my business succeed. 

* What are some of the more memorable obstacles you’ve had to overcome?

Being afraid that people wouldn’t understand. Coming from a career and life where people only believe in western medicine and pharmaceuticals it took me a while to be able to tell my story without worrying about what others would think. The history in natural health is sadly bad-mouthed and if you were to look into how the Rockefellers even created big pharma it’s insane.

Now I live authentically in my truth because what others think has no stance on the fact that I change people’s lives daily by just being who I am and sharing my knowledge and intuitive guidance.

* What advice would you give to someone wanting to start their own business?

Go for it, if you want it bad enough you’ll keep reaching. It’s not easy either, you have to push through and take all the steps yourself but it’s 100% worth it. Especially when the business is something you are meant to do and fueled by passion. 

Don’t be afraid of the unknown, don’t let fear keep you waiting in the shadows, life is meant to be lived, and take risks.

* What is your favorite thing about what you do?

Watching clients’ faces as they listen to me, it’s the sweetest thing watching them have aha moments as they connect the dots as I explain and correlate their health issues to causes and root causes. 

Hearing a client or reading an email from a client who’s getting better and feeling better, makes everything right in the world and further pushes me to climb every obstacle to reach my end goal.

A few months ago I was in a crowd of people just answering a question a lady had about a certain health issue and the next thing you knew it was 40 minutes later and words just spilled out of me and one of the people standing by said “I could listen to you passionately talk about this for hours” and that right there lifted me so high because other people could feel it too.