What if the secret to wellness and longevity was hidden in a med spa, and the keyholder was an experienced, board-certified licensed physician assistant? Meet Theresa Labranche, the CEO of Front Door Med Spa, whose personal experiences battling autoimmune problems led her to develop a unique holistic approach to health and wellness. As a seasoned medical provider who has worked across neurology, neurosurgery, and family practice, Theresa brings a wealth of knowledge to the table, offering insights that go beyond the standard aesthetics of med spas.
In this enlightening conversation, we uncover the array of services offered at Front Door Med Spa - from traditional treatments like Botox and facial fillers to unique offerings such as medical weight loss, hormone therapy, skin resurfacing, and regenerative treatments for intimate wellness. Theresa breaks common misconceptions about med spas, demonstrating that her work is not just about vanity, but about improving the overall quality of life of her patients. With stories of personal triumph, the power of alternative treatment methods and the realization that wellness goes more than skin deep, this episode is a treasure trove of information for those curious about med spas or seeking ways to improve their wellbeing. Don't miss out!
What if the secret to wellness and longevity was hidden in a med spa, and the keyholder was an experienced, board-certified licensed physician assistant? Meet Theresa Labranche, the CEO of Front Door Med Spa, whose personal experiences battling autoimmune problems led her to develop a unique holistic approach to health and wellness. As a seasoned medical provider who has worked across neurology, neurosurgery, and family practice, Theresa brings a wealth of knowledge to the table, offering insights that go beyond the standard aesthetics of med spas.
In this enlightening conversation, we uncover the array of services offered at Front Door Med Spa - from traditional treatments like Botox and facial fillers to unique offerings such as medical weight loss, hormone therapy, skin resurfacing, and regenerative treatments for intimate wellness. Theresa breaks common misconceptions about med spas, demonstrating that her work is not just about vanity, but about improving the overall quality of life of her patients. With stories of personal triumph, the power of alternative treatment methods and the realization that wellness goes more than skin deep, this episode is a treasure trove of information for those curious about med spas or seeking ways to improve their wellbeing. Don't miss out!
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftney.
Speaker 2:
Hi everyone and welcome to episode number 93 of the Good Neighbor podcast. Today we have with us Good Neighbor board certified licensed physician assistant who is also the CEO of Front Door Med Spa, teresa LaRanche. Hi Teresa, how are you doing today, hi, lisa?
Speaker 1:
thank you so much for having me. I'm doing very well today.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for being a guest, so let's start off by telling everyone about your business. Tell us about Front Door Med Spa.
Speaker 1:
Okay, well, front Door Med Spa is a full service med spa. We do all of the typical treatments a med spa would do like Botox, facial fillers, facials but we're a little different. We have full non-surgical fat reduction services. We have three choices for that. We do medical weight loss, we do hormone therapy, skin resurfacing, and we also treat medical conditions and we really focus on regenerative treatments for intimate wellness, including stress, incontinence, erectile dysfunction. We treat acne, rosacea, other autoimmune skin conditions like lichen, sclerosis. We even do hair regeneration. So we don't treat just your aesthetic, we treat patients more on a functional level and as a whole being and we really strive to improve people's quality of life and kind of increase their standard of living throughout their life, even in the later decades.
Speaker 2:
And your spot is amazing. I have personally had some services done there, so that is really good.
Speaker 1:
Thank you.
Speaker 2:
Tell our listeners about your journey. How did you get started?
Speaker 1:
You know, when I was growing up, my sister had a physical disability and I myself was diagnosed with autoimmune problems and it gave me a very unique perspective to be a medical provider. So you know, I kind of fell into the longevity and wellness through working in a variety of fields in medicine. Physician assistants can kind of travel between different disciplines of medicine. So I worked in neurology and neurosurgery, family practice. I learned a lot about treating menopause without hormones through herbal means. We were using infrared lights to heal nerve injuries and neurology. And I spent time in plastic surgery where we were using like hyperbaric oxygen to treat wounds.
Speaker 1:
So really my own journey of having an autoimmune problem and my own doctors telling me oh, we need you to take this medication or use this cream and basically there's nothing we can do for you. You're going to be like this the rest of your life. Through that experience and all of the other disciplines of what I had learned, I kind of delved into treating things outside of the standard and I actually was able to cure myself, which really kind of propelled the business to take the shape that it's taken, offering people options If a parent doesn't want their child to be on oral antibiotics for their acne. Most of the time we can help them without any medication. So there's a lot of different things like PRP that can heal just incredible amounts of different things. There's over 2,000 medical papers on platelet-rich plasma and the benefits of how it can cure things, regenerate things, improve people's quality of life. So it was my own personal experiences that kind of propelled all of it.
Speaker 2:
Wow, that is amazing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's been an interesting journey.
Speaker 2:
So can you tell us any myths or misconceptions that you hear about in your industry?
Speaker 1:
Yes, you know I've been in aesthetics and kind of the wellness space for almost two decades and it's really been. At first it was kind of taboo. People thought, oh, if you came to a med spa you were very superficial and vain. And but you know, research has inequivocally shown that your image of yourself and how you perceive yourself is directly related to your happiness, and it's not just about the image of how you look. They've shown that. You know, having self-discipline and following a diet or taking some action to make yourself healthier, like taking care of scars or taking care of obesity you know these things are not just about vanity, it's actually about making yourself well.
Speaker 1:
So there's no shame in coming to a med spa, especially a medical practice that you know is a med spa. There's so many things that we can help people with outside of just making bigger lips. You know those patients aren't just there for lip filler. I mean, we do a ton of lip filler. You'll see that all over our social media because it's really popular and you know young people consume this social media more. So we put the lip filler on there. But you know we're really doing a lot more inside the spa. It's not just about how you look. That's a misconception that the spa is just foofy things like massage. We don't even do massage, and then it's all about how you look. We're really doing more than that.
Speaker 2:
And how you look also helps people with their self-esteem and confidence, like you said.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah. It's definitely a whole feedback loop about, you know, somebody who has like a too small of a chin, and how they can actually even advance their career just by having more confidence and putting themselves out there, because they no longer are, you know, held back by what they think everyone else is looking at, you know.
Speaker 2:
Right, right. So tell us, what do you like to do for fun when you're not working in your business?
Speaker 1:
Well, the business is fun. No, all right, I read a lot, I like to study business and marketing and I like to really keep up on the latest advances in research. I've longed to like the Cellular Medicine Association, so Dr Reddles is really good about sending out all the latest and greatest white papers and research and there's a lot in the pipeline of what's coming to medicine. It's really an exciting time in medicine as far as regenerative medicine, so it's kind of a hobby to keep up on all that, just because I've had such great success using some of these things helping people. I have perennial gardens, massive, massive perennial gardens so if anyone wants seeds that's a side hustle you can come to the spa and get seeds for free perennials. I walk and I bike and I hike and I actually just got married in Maine on a mountain top, so that was pretty epic. We hike for seven days, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, yeah, it was awesome. So yeah, I'm kind of an outdoors person, oh, amazing.
Speaker 2:
So can you describe one hardship or life challenge that you rose above and can now say because of that challenge that you're better for it and are stronger?
Speaker 1:
Yes, I think being diagnosed with something myself as a medical provider, you really spend your life taking care of other people and that's my purpose.
Speaker 1:
But when it became my turn and I was diagnosed and traditional medicine really didn't give me the answers that I wanted, I wasn't willing to accept the answers that I heard and so I kind of went outside of that and tested the threshold of what might be acceptable and I was successful with that and it's really given me courage to help other people to take that leap outside of what the insurance company says is the treatment for X, Y or Z? There may be something else out there that could help you. There's sometimes a financial barrier because insurance doesn't cover it, but when it comes to your quality of life, there's very few things that are not worth it spending the money, Because if it makes you more functional and it makes your life more enjoyable, it's worth the money. You know people spend so much money on their purse or their car or their house or your body is your most important thing. You know if you don't have your health, nothing else matters. So I would say rising above my own autoimmune condition is what really helped me.
Speaker 2:
That's good and you truly care about people.
Speaker 1:
I do, we all do yeah.
Speaker 2:
What is one thing that you want our listeners to know about your business today?
Speaker 1:
Our business is a medical practice. We have the name of a med spa because that's the environment. We want you to come in and feel relaxed and feel at home and feel comfortable. You know we're really taking care of people in their most vulnerable problems, right? It's difficult for a person to come in and talk about stressing continents. I mean it's embarrassing, right Embarrassing if you feel like your face is crooked. So I wish that people would understand that we are medical providers. I'm a physician assistant and I have been since 1996. Dr Zemili is an interventional cardiologist. We now have three interventional cardiologists on our team. Lauren is an RN. She works in the hospital also, so she sees the worst, which is why she's so good in the spa, because we like helping people. Even our esthetician is licensed and she's going to be a licensed phlebotomist soon too. So we're all medical providers. It's not a practice that's owned by just a business person. Everyone here has chosen to be in medicine because we want to help people.
Speaker 2:
Great, that is awesome. So our listeners are now intrigued. They want to learn more. So how can they contact you?
Speaker 1:
Well, most of our consultations are free, so you can come in and tap our brains and we can kind of help you along and make a plan. There's only a few consultations that require deposit because it takes a very long time for some of the consultations like an hour but the best way is to just call the office 248-BEST-SPA, or you can log into our website, wwwfrontdoormedspacom. We also have a full array of social platforms Instagram at frontdoormedspa. We have Facebook, pinterest, youtube, twitter, tiktok, linkedin. So stop by. We offer people to just walk in. We'll give you a tour. We're located on Walnut Boulevard in downtown Rochester. It's one road off of Main Street and we're right next to the brunch house. Many people have been to the brunch house, so we share a parking lot. We're right across the parking lot with the brunch house and we're right across from the new St 1881. So it's kind of fun. There's music on the street and lots of people walking the leader dogs and it's really just a nice in-town atmosphere there.
Speaker 2:
That's amazing. Well, Teresa, I really appreciate you being a guest today on our Good Neighbor Podcast. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1:
I so appreciate you and helping us get the word out that we want to help more people. We're having a great time and so far, patients have been happy, and I'm looking forward to helping more people.
Speaker 2:
Great, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, rochester. Denominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show.
