How To Find The Holistic Practitioner That Fits You Best

I recently tried looking for a hypnotist in my area, and after a few hours of aimless searching, I gave up. Gynaecologists, dentists and therapists are all pretty easy to find, but when it comes to anything more “alternative,” whether it’s something tame like a meditation guide or more woo-woo, like in my case a hypnotist, you’ll quickly find that you’re getting nowhere. 

Kelli Steckler is a tech expert, beloved podcaster, and wellness practitioner whose mission is to provide access to unconventional healing modalities. She recently created The Well Well, the first holistic healing platform that bridges healing practitioners of all modalities with individuals, as well as a hub that hosts workshop and program offerings. 

The Well Well's mission is to create an equitable healing experience for all humans, regardless of race, gender, background and sexual orientation. 

I sat down with Kelli to find out more.

Congratulations on the launch of The Well Well! Tell me a little bit about how it all started?

Thank you! So, I’ve been building it out for the past year. I worked between tech and advertising for seven years, and during the pandemic -like most people- I went into a complete existential crisis. I was working at Facebook at the time, and I was thinking, is this really what I want to be doing with my life? During lockdown I realised, this is not the path I want to be on. I’ve always had a big love for all things mental health, dipping into the spiritual world, I’ve been on a personal healing journey for a long time… I’m a certified yoga teacher as well, I’ve always tried to find a personal balance between my life in tech and alternative modalities. 

I've always felt passionate about the healing space, about helping individuals on their journeys -whatever that looks like, because it’s so multifaceted and unique to the individual- and the idea behind The Well Well came to me while I was meditating. I had this idea that sort of flashed into my mind of, you’re meant to quit Facebook and you’re meant to explore a path in feeling, and I didn’t know what that meant. What really set things in motion is, I was so unfulfilled at my job but I didn’t know what my next step was… I needed help, and while I do think therapy is really great, it mostly deals with your mind —a lot of therapists are starting to incorporate the body, meditation, intuition work, but the therapy that I’ve done in the past was always focused on the mind and something just wasn’t clicking. 

That’s so interesting, I’ve had a very similar experience. I found that when it comes to more alternative things it’s all word of mouth or Instagram, and you never really know what you’re dealing with. 

Exactly! I started trying to find people on Instagram, on Google, and I found that there’s no consolidated platform for holistic healers. I was looking for a tarot reader, a guide to help me unpack my feelings in a different way, and I couldn’t efficiently find someone and I was really curious to explore what the gap was. 

I started to ask my friends who are yoga teachers, meditation guides, inner child coaches, and they all said “I hate that my business relies so much on Instagram, I want a place to showcase my services and I’ve been waiting for a platform like this.”

I did a lot of market research and my idea was totally validated. It also feels like a great time because our generation is getting used to talking about mental health, and going to therapy, that's going to open up the doors to a more holistic mindset and approach. But a lot of people don’t know where to start, and who to talk to. 

So the question became, how do we make sure we capture the practitioners who would want to be part of a platform like this? How do we make sure the consumers are supported in guiding them through the experience of connecting with holistic healers?

So how do you do that?

The easiest way to visualise it is to think of Yelp through a spiritual lens. You have the ability to search for something specific if you already know what you’re looking for, or by category, and find someone who deals with the type of issue you’re experiencing. You can type in “trauma” and it will curate coaches who have trauma in their profile, or “LGBT+” if you want someone from a refined community to make sure they fit what you’re looking for. 

Oh, that helps feel more safe, I love that. 

It’s review-based, which validates the practitioner. We all want to know what we’re getting with, especially if you’re sharing intimate details about your life. If you work with people you’ve found through Instagram, you could be left with the feeling that you should have vetted them more, and you just had no way to. 

You have the ability to enquire, which sends a direct message to the practitioner and you can coordinate with them off the platform. 

That’s the biggest issue I found with looking for people on Instagram, you don’t have reviews. They might post a screenshot of a DM of someone going “you helped me so much” but it could be their cousin! It just doesn’t feel great, and reviews feel more vetted and safe. 

With the way Instagram works almost as a directory these days, it’s forced practitioners to become content creators, which is a strange dynamic. “If you’re healing someone from sexual trauma, I don’t necessarily think you should be spending 10 hours making Reels for the week. It feels like a misalignment, and I want to alleviate that.” And people resort to social media because it’s the best way, right now, to help them find someone, but Instagram wasn’t built for that, so it’s not a streamlined experience. 

How many people are you working with at the moment?

We have 300 practitioners on a waitlist right now, with people reaching out from London, Canada, all over the US, and we’re getting more each week. And the feedback is so overwhelmingly positive! The amount of messages I get, from friends and strangers, saying I’ve been waiting for this -it feels very validating. It’s so nice to know I wasn’t alone on this journey. 

Is there a vetting system, some way to make sure people have the right certifications and won’t harm their patients?

That was the biggest concern for me, creating a good experience for the consumer and not allowing anyone on the platform without vetting them first. One of the downfalls of the gig economy and this world of entrepreneurship —it’s almost this weird MLM system with coaches helping other coaches, it feels almost exploitative and gets away from the true nature of helping people who are struggling. So, we do go through a vetting process. We have an ID verification system, because one of the biggest issues among practitioners is spam accounts reaching out to their followers and pretending to be them, which feels violating on both ends. You have to upload some type of credentials, as a baseline measure. The rest can be subjective, because if someone has their credentials and is who they say they are, they should be allowed to showcase their services. But we will have a strike system and if there’s negative responses or experiences, we will take it into a review process and it will always be our final decision as a platform whether they get to stay on or not. 

It’s so exciting -honestly, something like The Well Well could help me so much, and I’m sure I’m not alone. 

Thank you so much. It’s so nice to hear someone say “I would use this” and hear people be excited about it. I hope it becomes a community where people care about growth, they care about learning more about themselves, connecting their mind, body, and soul. That’s what I’m passionate about, and The Well Well is a home for anyone who feels the same. 

We definitely feel the same here at Dandy, and we’re so excited for more people to get to connect to holistic practitioners in their area and discover incredible new paths to healing! It’s a long road, and an uphill one, but having the right people in your corner can make all the difference.