Today we’d like to introduce you to Lala Huseynova and Tomris Ahmad Shah.
Lala and Tomris, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When we moved to Atlanta with our family in 2005, we came as part of a wave of refugees from post-Soviet countries through the International Rescue Committee. Our transition, like the experience of many new immigrants, was not an easy one. We had to trade in our higher-education degrees, family, and friends for minimum-wage jobs in a place we had only heard of on television.
Slowly, we learned to pick up the pieces of our former lives and build a new reality for ourselves. I decided that the only way to do this was to go back to school, so I enrolled in an MBA program at Georgia State. Being a full-time parent and a student was a different kind of challenge on its own. Long nights of studying would be continued by early-morning lunch packing and carpool duty.
After two long years of juggling academics and parenting, I finally entered the workforce in a position I desired. At least that’s what I thought. Getting an inside peek at the healthcare industry as a financial analyst allowed me to see the gap in our healthcare system: instead of working to keep healthy people healthy, we only treat people at their sickest.
This concept never laid easy with me since it never allows people to address their root causes and really get to the bottom of what’s really going. I kept wishing there was a place where you could go to maintain your health ignorer to not get to that stage of being really sick. I slowly began creating a space like that in my mind. I pictured a wellness center that was a one-stop shop for all health needs.
That idea became a bigger reality as I started slowly putting money aside, actually contacting a real estate agent and began telling my friends and family about it. Fast-forward a few years, and Heal Thyself Atlanta is a place that has turned out to be much more than I could have ever hoped for. Our place has allowed us to meet so many people that have become family.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. However, the obstacles we’ve faced were ones that we were able to overcome- they were never impossible. Knowing that allowed us to keep going because it meant that nothing was so far out of our reach. Our struggles were those of any business: form construction woes with MIA contractors to getting our name out the door.
In fact, my daughter, Tomris, and I found ourselves laughing just the other day after a really busy day. She was asking me if I remembered the days when we first opened up, just a year-and-a-half ago when we would get really excited when the phone rang because it meant that people were finding out about us.
And a lot of the time it would be just telemarketers, but that still made us happy because it means we were “on the grid.” Nowadays, thankfully, it’s a totally different story when the phone rings.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
After Identifying the need for a less clinical setting, we have combined efforts and created a place for all people to come in and take charge of their emotional and physical needs in a relaxing atmosphere. At Heal Thyself, we focus our approach on three vital areas: body, mind, and spirit.
We believe that a combination of the three can achieve the ultimate well-being we all seek. Our wellness center is a one-stop shop to help our clients get on track with their health, unwind and feel rejuvenated. We offer services from colon hydrotherapy to massages, organic facials, foot detoxes, and hip baths. And the best part (what really keeps our clients coming back) is our organic herbal tea which is made with a special blend for each client at our tea bar.
What really sets us apart, however, is that when our clients come in, we don’t simply render services, we provide them with the knowledge they need to make the changes necessary to create the healthy lifestyle they desire.
We always hear our clients talking about how much they learned about themselves and their bodies after just one session of a colonic, massage or facial. We pass on our knowledge to our clients because we want them to take charge of their well-being and essentially heal themselves.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
After being a new small-business in Atlanta for the last year and a half, my daughter and I were actually just talking about how Atlanta is the perfect place to have started. In the last few years, it seems like Atlantans have become more invested in all things health and wellness.
This city is growing with its desire to become fit, health and conscious and we’re helping them grow as well. I think if we had opened Heal Thyself about a decade or so ago, it would have been a much slower start. Not enough people were talking about the importance of preventive care yet.
But now, in 2018, self-care, health, fitness, and wellness seem to be buzzwords just about everywhere! Similarly, if we had created our space in a city that had many wellness centers, we would have gotten lost in the crowd. Therefore, Atlanta is a wonderful starting place, and we hope to grow with the city as it goes through many changes.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1040 Grant St. SE, Suite 200
- Website: www.healthyselfatlanta.com
- Phone: 4048841942
- Email: healthyselfatlanta@gmail.com
- Instagram: healthyselfatlanta
- Facebook: Heal Thyself Atlanta
Image Credit:
Tomris Ahmad Shah
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
