When I think back to the person that I was before 2018, I recognize that I've experienced significant personal growth. Why? I committed to changing the way I think, which was a challenging but rewarding process.

My name is Melissa Parsons. For much of my adult life, despite being successful in my career as a pediatrician in Columbus, Ohio for the past 20 years… despite being married now for 25 years and raising two sons with my husband, Jon, and looking like I had it all together on the outside, I was struggling on the inside.

In December 2017, I discovered life coaching through a podcast by Katrina Ubell, M.D. I decided to invest in myself by joining her coaching group as a student. Through this experience, I was introduced to "The Thought Model," developed by Brooke Castillo. Combining my experience as a physician with these coaching tools, I began to approach my life in a new way. For me, at first, it was about weight loss, but over time it was about working on my perfectionism, people-pleasing, and control enthusiasm and learning the skills to experience life in a different way.