2 MOMtrepreneurs Juggling It All: Meet Celeste and Laura of Well Within, Massage and Integrated Health
Starting a business with a friend can be tricky endeavor, but it’s working for Celeste Woodside and Laura Viale of Well Within on Washington Street (between Cabots and Whole Foods). As business owners, they each balance the other’s strengths and weaknesses. In fact, it’s this collaborative culture that infuses Well Within with an integrative approach.
Not only do they offer multiple modalities that includes massage (many, many types!), yoga, accupuncture, mat pilates, guided meditation, Reiki and holistic health coaching for nutrition, but they will actually refer clients to outside wellness practitioners if they feel that is best for the client!
Let’s meet them!
1. When did you decide to work together?
Celeste Woodside
Celeste: “We have worked together in the integrative health community for 8 years and have developed a wonderful friendship during that time. We both shared office space in Newton for about 5 years before coming together in October of 2010 to form Well Within.”
2. Tell me about your families. How many kids and what ages?
Laura Viale
Laura: “I remember the day we were running around Newton Town Hall with kids in tow and thinking, “What are we getting ourselves into??” I had my 2 year old daughter, and Celeste had her 4 year old daughter and her 6 month old son. We had just made the decision to create Well Within and had to file the proper documents with the town. Since we were in a time crunch, we had to get many things done without childcare – it was a bit interesting, but we pushed through and made it happen. Celeste and I are blessed with supportive, loving husbands, and our joyful children.
Celeste has two beautiful children: her super smart, energetic 5 year old daughter, who is an avid gymnast and clearly has her parents’ gifts of creativity; and her adorable son, who will be 2 in a couple weeks and just idolizes his big sister. My happy 3 year old daughter keeps us entertained with endless “dance recitals” in every room of our house. Our extended families have also been incredibly supportive of us in every way allowing us extra time to do what it takes run a proper business.”
3. What is the most challenging aspect of juggling your own business with parenting and taking care of yourself?
Celeste: “Time. More specifically, not having enough. We are definitely learning (on the job training) the delicate and unique art of how a work-from-home-and-also-in-
4. What made you decide to take an integrative approach to health?
Laura: “One of the reasons our private practices were quite successful was because we actively sought out opportunities to work in combination with other health care practitioners to improve the results of our clients’ treatments. The dramatic improvements our clients experienced when integrating treatments really inspired us to create a place where our clients could come and utilize both massage and acupuncture, for example, to relieve their symptoms. The team approach of our staff and the variety of services available, gives us a great opportunity to really make a difference in the health and wellness of our clients.”
5. You also have a blog? Tell me more! What do you write about?
Celeste: “In our blog we talk about all things integrative health. We share articles we love, have guest posts by other local wellness professionals (and authors!) and sometimes we even talk about our kids!”
Well Within is going to host a FREE event in March for cancer patients and their caregivers. They will enjoy a day of pampering and treatments and go home with a goody bag. More on that later…
