Stacey Roten

I've been in the field since 2022 for natural health and therapeutic body work. Before that, I spent 25 years as a clinical exercise physiologist, working in non-invasive cardiology doing diagnostic stress testing and cardiac rehabilitation. I loved the field and working with people on a diagnostic level, but it got to the point where I became very limited on what I was able to share with people as far as information regarding health and wellness. So I decided to go back to school for my more advanced doctoral degree of natural health. Right when I started was when we had COVID hit, so that made for a somewhat challenging and interesting introduction into the field of natural health. I was learning and going to school for one modality but still working actively as an essential worker in diagnostics. What I found out during that time is that I really didn't feel like I could actually make the biggest impact if I just stuck with one approach. I always felt like for me, personality-wise, and where I best was able to make a difference and an impact, was to take both sides of the information. That's when I founded Rising Star Integrative Health Services. I'm a sole proprietor and see clients as an independent contractor through TOFA Massage Therapy. I found that with a lot of my clients, they were asking if I do body work. I was like, why am I referring out for massage? If I just go and add that back onto my schooling, then I can really actually be someone who is able to offer any of the services, depending on what that individual client may need. I took a little detour from natural health and focused on therapeutic body work. I found that was not only my niche, but especially in the area that I'm located in, it was more acceptable and had a more palatable introduction to the world of natural health if people came in to see me for craniosacral or massage. In the natural progression of discussion and getting to know my clients, they began to ask certain questions, and because we had already established that trust and foundation, I found that my natural health practice began to expand. I'm very much still probably about 75-80% of my clients are massage clients, but I'm turning them more into my natural health clients, which is really cool. I've been very blessed - even before my website went live about 2 months ago, I've gotten probably about 90% of my clients through word of mouth.