We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicole Sartini and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?

There are many ways to define success and many factors that play into it. For me, success means serving the greater good to the best of my ability using my own unique gifts while still honoring and respecting myself. We continue to keep mutual respect for ourselves and others as a guiding force in our business(es). We believe that there is power in getting to know who we are beneath the conditioning of the world and that honoring and developing that unique expression truly serves the whole. No one can be the highest expression of us but us. Juniper Owens and I opened Bridge Counseling and Wellness, an integrative mental health center, because we wanted to create a space where people passionate about serving the mind, body and spirit of our community could be well supported in doing that as well as have the freedom to offer their clients services outside the box of traditional talk therapy. We believe that well-supported clinicians are better therapists for those seeking services. And as our company continues to grow, we continue to increase that support both to our clinicians though improved contracts, our clients through high-quality care and to our community through steadily growing volunteer efforts. Our company feels wonderful to be a part of, does well financially for a business of our size, and we are making an impact that matters. For us, mutual respect for self and others is the key to success in the broadest most inclusive way.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Bridge Counseling and Wellness was the first mental health practice in our region to offer free yoga, meditation groups and nutritional consulting to our clients to support the whole self on-site as part of mental health care. The consultation group in which my business partner, Juniper, and I met, lovingly suggested that perhaps we were out of our scope of practice by including these things in our services. To ensure we were operating ethically, we dove further into the research and ended up creating a semester-long training on integrative mental health (https://academyimh.com/3-core-integrative-certification-course/), called 3-Core Integrative, that includes these types of offerings. That training has now been board-approved for CEUs so other clinicians will have evidence to support this once outside-the-box approach. This research and Integrative Mental Health Practitioner certification we created led us to create a second company called the Academy of Integrative Mental Health where we now offer multiple continuing education opportunities for mental health professionals throughout the country.

Mental Health is a female-dominated field, and oftentimes, people drawn to this work end up working in settings where they are carrying a lot of emotional weight without the pay or resources that allow them to provide their best services as they most desire. We are most proud of creating an environment where clinicians are truly able to offer high-quality care while respecting both themselves and others within a healthy environment as they do this important work. We believe that our clinicians having room to care well for themselves carries over to the quality of care received by our clients and thus has a positive ripple effect throughout our community.

We celebrate 9 years in January of 2024. We have learned so much about ourselves and this work along the way and are incredibly grateful for the now 55+ team members and tens of thousands of clients who have helped grow this beloved integrative mental health community. These last couple of years, the business has afforded me the opportunity to start hosting community events in my home which I refer to as Edenside Sanctuary, and I have been able to start taking what I have learned over two decades in the field and sharing it more broadly beyond 1:1 therapy work as a writer and public speaker. I am so grateful for the opportunity to develop these skills and hope to have a greater positive impact by following this call.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would start our day with a walk around the Cherokee Park loop stopping to enjoy the deer and various seasonal attributes. Then we would go explore the Nulu galleries, like RedTree and Revelry, making a special stop at the 21C Museum hotel. While in the area, we would grab some carryout from local favorite, the Mayan Cafe, and hop onto the Riverwalk to stop for a picnic at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. Throughout their stay, we would spend some time riding the city bikes, get massages at High Vibe Living and catch the sunset on top of Hotel Genevive. We would check out local music venues, The Whirling Tiger and The Monarch, for some live music, KMAC for some local art and check out the record collection at Surface Noise. We would have cocktails or mocktails at Shop Bar, dine at Ramsi’s Cafe on the World, and go shopping at Dot Fox and Clay and Cotton. We would also stop in for yoga at the Inner Warrior and visit my favorite plant store, Mahonia, where we would design and create self-made terrariums.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shoutout to the children of St. Joe’s Children’s Home in Louisville KY, where I entered the “helping” profession at the age of 19 as an unlicensed “Residential Youth Counselor”. It was hard and emotional work, but I fell in love with those kids. They taught me a lot about resilience and helped me realize how passionate I was about accompanying others on their healing journey as I continued to be accompanied on mine by my therapist at the time, Rosella Rudd. Shout out to Rosella as well for encouraging me to pursue this profession. And definitely to my beloved business partner and friend, Juniper Owens, for growing and evolving alongside me as we continue to build our businesses together. And of course, huge shout out to the Bridge Counseling and Wellness team who show up to life with their hearts leading the way and make Bridge what it is today.

Website: Personal work: www.nicolesartini.com Bridge Counseling and Wellness: www.bridgemindbody.com, The Academy of Integrative Mental Health: www.academyimh.com,

Instagram: Personal work: @edensidesanctuary Bridge Counseling and Wellness: @bridge_mindbody The Academy of Integrative Mental Health: @academy.imh

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-sartini-266065135/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bridgemindbody/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@academyintegrativementalhealth

Other: Thank you for the opportunity to share a bit about our small businesses and about the passion I have for what I do! It is an honor to connect with you.

Image Credits
The pic in the pink spotlight is by Natasha Via and the one on stage in the green suit is by Tiffany Perry.

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.