More Than Skin Deep
By every conventional measurement, Revive Health & Wellness in Malvern is an unqualified success, growing its clientele in less than three years to the threshold of opening a second location to meet demand — which is interesting, considering the visionary behind the practice said she never wanted to open her own place to begin with. That is, until someone approached her with a novel suggestion.
“I was approached about working with people who are underserved, underprivileged and living with drug addiction, alcoholism, things like that,” said founder and nurse practitioner Courtney McKinney, who worked in emergency rooms and intensive care units before opening the business. “Those people are very near and dear to my heart, so it weighed upon me to try to help in some capacity.”
Wellness clinics such as Revive are not typically among the centers of care for such populations; however, “typical” is not a word easily applied to the clinic, which emphasizes wellness services as the path to optimal living, regardless of patient background.
Revive’s primary care includes routine wellness exams, physicals and screens; mental health support; women’s health; and care coordination, including referrals to other specialists. The business also offers hormone replacement therapy, weight loss management, functional medicine and other services.
McKinney said such offerings are generally out of the reach of many people in the community, which is why she structured the business to be accessible to virtually anyone.
“A lot of these people have never had access to true healthcare because they either didn’t have insurance or they were embarrassed to go to a provider because of their addiction,” she said. “Anybody that has an addictive personality or is underserved or underprivileged still needs the same basic services that you and I do.”
As far as the type of medicine she practices, McKinney said personal experience led her to hormone replacement and other elements within the field of functional wellness.
“I had a hysterectomy at age 29 and went into menopause,” she said. “I was a medical practitioner at the time, and six years after I had my hysterectomy, I was not OK. Medically, mentally, physiologically — I was not OK all around. I went to multiple providers, trying to see what was going on, and nobody could ever give me a definitive clear answer.”
Through continuing education about hormone replacement therapy, McKinney’s eyes were opened to some of the fallacies that were being sold to the public through the channels of conventional medicine.
“I was dumbfounded because I had been doing this for so many years myself at that point, and I was so stuck in mainstream traditional practices,” she said. “I really was disappointed with myself because I felt like there had been patients in the past that I failed; they weren’t really seen or heard because they didn’t fit the normality of what we were trained to do.
“It was a huge awakening for me to be able to really see and respect and understand that treatment is truly not a one size fits all and that we really need to take a functional approach with individualized care for every single patient that walks through the door. I never want any patient to ever feel the way that I did and not be able to get answers they need.”
McKinney said her next venture is to create a development through her nonprofit that will provide a community center for disadvantaged and homeless individuals locally. The center will serve as a hub for other services, providing a holistic means of addressing homelessness.
“Those patients that are underserved and underprivileged, a lot of times, they need additional care that’s not under the medical realm,” she said. “My nonprofit helps with housing, a food pantry, clothing, and I have purchased a piece of property locally for a community hub that I’m going to open up for us to have a homeless shelter and a warming station for the winter. We’ve got multiple things that we’re working on.”
Photo provided by Revive Health & Wellness
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