Exploring Life & Business with Melisse Prusinski of Watershed Wellness Co-Op

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melisse Prusinski

Hi Melisse, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Perhaps my story starts with being an underpaid/over worked mental health clinician or maybe it was being an exploited patient of healthcare. Until I woke up, I just accepted both. I do know that one story begins with me as a new practitioner many seasons ago and I quickly became frustrated with mental health care approaches and the whole industry. I was not alright with the norm for clients to go to therapy each week and just talk about the same problems over and over with minimal change.

I was a light house in the dark sea of post grads searching for another way when I was introduced to clinical hypnosis. Since then, hypnosis has been one of my favorite obsessions for the past 11 years. This modality really needs to be better understood and taught in all graduate school courses. It makes sense with a simple brain science explanation but brings the possibilities of magic into reality, which is so much fun.

I realized our current health culture is just not doing what our ancestors knew to do and what modern medical science is begging us to do. Community and creating new neural pathways. It is actually pretty simple. I’m tired of talking about it at dinners among collegues, but propelled to be a part of the solution

There can’t be a mind/body connection or integration if we don’t take the time to percolate, let the waves settle and then move forward with true knowing in how we will make the changes we want. We can’t be “client centered” unless clients get true ownership of their care with a vote on how to spend profits/surplus and what services they want offered. Unless healthcare workers are able to have ownership in the decisions of the company and have profit share, we can’t say we are, “putting the workers first.”

Every day i’m amazed that I get to make a living in this line of work. There is no greater thrill in this world than being able to witness someone move from being a victim of their thoughts to what I call “vastness”, where they go beyond insights, remember who they are and add so much to the world. Those quantum leaps of awareness. The exact second when they have that personal moment that propels them forward in life. I am so grateful to be the one that gets to hold the space for people during that time.

I joined with 4 other women to create, Watershed Wellness Co-Op, a movement that transcends boundaries of space and time when it comes “wellness”. There is also an actual building in Madison, TN that has a spa area for that true integration. The spa area is open for the community to use as well. The hope is to allow more humans to realize the vastness of possibilities, get into their own personal flow, then impact everyone they meet and let the ripples change the world.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My biggest obstacle continues to be that sometimes I believe my own stories and stories I’ve heard from others. I never thought it possible that I be a therapist. I’m abrubt, impulsive and didn’t want to sit in a room all day wearing cardigan sets. Turns out, that just makes me a better therapist because then I’m not co-dependent on the client’s results. The adventure is much more rewarding when the client is the driver and I act as the guide.

When it comes to Watershed Wellness Co-Op, the moment I gave up my old story that I had to do it alone, the universe took us founders for a ride. We are four single moms with full time jobs and trying to balance our own lives, but committed to the movement of changing “wellness” expectations in society, That is going to happen with increased society knowledge of the changes that happen when someone is in their own personal flow. We are also committed to promoting a solution to the problem of exploitation in healthcare for the “clients”, “workers” and the “lenders” (investors) with true ownership by profit sharing and voting rights. I could say the words before, but came into my true knowledge that, “we all go farther together.”

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Watershed Wellness Co-Op?
At Watershed our practitioners, support staff, lending members and clients are all OWNERS of the LLC. We share in collective decision making and share in the success of the collective.

We each have a body, we form a body together and these body’s have ripple effects that change the world.

We orient ourselves by nature’s generative cycles and strive towards our own truest expression of being.

We believe in the power of rapid and long-lasting change that happens in liminal spaces along with the integration.

Watershed Wellness works with multiple practitioners that offer talk therapy, hypnosis, breathwork, lymphatic massage and spa integration with dry sauna, steam room, cold plunge and a garden area.

“The Wash”, a day-long intensive where participants will be moved through various offerings.These can include massage, hypnosis, various types of somatic movement and breathwork etc….

2-5 day intensives for individual and small groups. All of our intensives are specifically curated for the individuals participating and the specific guides.

The spa and garden area is available for public use and can be booked on our website. It’s $30 for an hour with memberships available.

I’m still available for hypnotherapy sessions.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Proposals for the Feminine Economy by Jennifer Ambrust
Dreaming Down Heaven by Gini Gentry
Different Drummer by Erik Lokkesmoe

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.watershedcoop.org
• Instagram: watershedwellness