11/05/2024
Howdy folks, hopping on here to tell you about how I'm re-launching my Nutritional Therapy / Wellness career! It's been a while since I've made a long, deep share on social media, but as per usual, this will be another deep sharing of the process of how I live my life, and now, how I work.
Many of you know that, after a lifetime of independent study in the fields of health, nutrition, and wellness, I graduated from my formal training in Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Training Program with the Nutritional Therapy Association in 2018.
After having my business on hold while serving my primary role as Vincent's stay-at-home parent for the last 4 (almost 5!) years, I've had a lot of time to reconsider how I want to present myself in this role of helping people as a health professional which I am so eager to occupy in earnest again. Now that Vincent is in school for half days 5 days a week, I finally have time to devote to my calling!
When people ask me what I do, what do I tell them? What DO I do as a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP)?
I balk at how the words "nutritional therapy" are sorely inadequate at describing what I actually do. I decided that I definitely don't want to limit my image to that of "nutrition" because it's really a small part of what I focus on. The term "wellness" is much better suited to describe my broad focus and end-goal with my clients.
When starting a wellness business, choosing a business name is a non-trivial process. I wanted to put more thought into it this go-around than I had when I was initially starting up my business back in 2018.
Eager to just get started, I just called my business "Chelsy Iorio Nutritional Therapy" for being at a loss for another name. I already knew "nutritional therapy" was too limiting, and then my name... my name is kinda bonkers to spell - many of you still don't realize that first letter of my last name is a capital i, not a lowercase L, and it's funny to hear people outside of Pittsburgh (land of crazy Italian last names from which I hail) try to pronounce it.
Okay, so I'll call it "*Something* Wellness". What's that *something*?
I had still been at such a loss for what to call my business. I knew I wanted it to represent what I do and also to represent *me* as I fully ascribe to this aspect of Millennial American culture which emphasizes gushingly meaningful individualistic self-expression.
After brooding over it for years, I only recently landed on a business name which encapsulates the symbolic role I wish to play in my clients' lives and the world at large. I'll tell a short version of the story of how it came to be.
I'll also tell a kinda funny and surprisingly (to me) vulnerable story at the end of this post about a name which I liked but decided it was too weird for those who want to read about it.
THE BUSINESS NAME
As I prepare to share this, I'm sitting here thinking to myself, "Oh, Chelsy, you're such a silly, vulnerable, over-sharing creature." I do feel so silly and vulnerable sharing this, but I love it and it's me. Thanks to those of you who validate my over-sharing by telling me how much my stories touch you.
I have been engaged in a spiritual practice which has become very dear to me, as have the members of the community who I practice with.
My very dear friend, Doug, revealed a spiritual song of sorts, a hymn, that came to him about me, but maybe more accurately about the essence of my being.
It's called "Light of the Night" - the hymn basically acknowledges this quality in me which uses love and compassion to cleanse and illuminate those whom I encounter, leading them out of their darkness. The melody is so sweet and soothing to me, and those who have heard it have echoed as much.
The hymn is actually called "Luz Da Noite" which means "Light of the Night" in Portuguese, and there are some Portuguese lyrics to it. Though I have been learning Portuguese, I don't intend on practicing in Brazil or Portugal, so we're going to falamos Inglês for my business 😉.
Doug said the hymn wanted to be sang slow and soft as a waltz at first and then as a 4x4 upbeat march, which is overly-complicated and unconventional in this spiritual tradition, but that's me, so that is how it is sung. This kind of "more is more" quality really resonates with me and I love it 😂.
I'm posting the lyrics and a video of myself and Doug singing just the hymn together with Doug playing the piano at the bottom of this writing if you'd like to hear it ❤️.
I love this hymn so much, and I'm naming my business after it because, while I don't pretend to be a perfectly loving or compassionate being, I hold this archetype of "Light of the Night" so dear to me as my North Star for my own becoming in this life, and also in my work, which I couldn't possibly separate from my life. I feel like it is who I am at my core, and who I am at my core is who I work to embody more and more each day.
Thus, I have changed the name of my business to:
✨ LIGHT OF THE NIGHT WELLNESS, LLC ✨
FYI, it feels so personal and vulnerable to be doing this! This business name encapsulates how I feel about how I relate to you, my client, in my work: I see myself as a force of healing for those who encounter me in an emotional sense with the love and compassion I (mostly, but not perfectly) occupy in how I approach the world, and also in how I approach my nutritional therapy work.
This is what drives me: I love you! I want to heal you! I want to ease your pain and suffering! I want to see you thrive in all your human glory! I want to use my love and the knowledge my love drives me to pursue to teach you how to heal yourself! I am so enthusiastic about this!
So, in order to achieve this goal, I know that my first step in engaging with you must be to convey to you that I see you where you are and have compassion for you there.
In order for you to succeed at achieving wellness with me as your guide, I know that I need to make you feel safe with me. You need to be able to relax into the process with me by trusting that I will listen to you and that I won't invalidate or judge you. Nothing can move forward if we don't start there.
Then, I consider it my job to retain your trust by showing you that I am a capable and diligent guide throughout the process and that you are in good hands on this ride we are traveling together towards your health.
I will be chipping away at elaborating on my answer to the question of "What do you do as a Functional Nutritional Therapy PRACTITIONER (FNTP)?" in the coming days to give you all a better introduction to my work so that you can decide if working with me might be something you're interested in.
In addition to announcing my new business name, this post is serving as a soft opening for my business to start taking clients! I've been taking clients *really* casually up until this point the whole time my business has been in hibernation, but it's been messy. Now that I have ample time and have spent the last few months getting all my systems in place, I'm actually ready for the hoards of suffering, weary souls to bring me their woes and worries to soothe.
I want to be your LIGHT in the night of your suffering to guide you to a more illuminated place of WELLNESS. I want you to be well and I would be so honored to be a part of helping you find the light of your own wellness. I am so excited to be stepping into this role for my community.
This got really long so I'm continuing more of my short novel on how and why I do what I do in another post!
For now, please enjoy the lyrics and sound of the hymn which inspired my new business name. It really is such a beautiful song.
Stay tuned for more from Light of the Night Wellness, and go ahead and give my page a like and a follow. If I've helped you with anything over the years, please leave a comment or review about your experience!
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LUZ DA NOITE (LIGHT OF THE NIGHT)
Luz da noite, light of the night
Soothe and comfort
With calmness and firmness
Here in my heart
Luz da noite vem aqui (light of the night comes here)
Para limpar (To cleanse)
Para perdoar (To forgive)
Para luminar (To illuminate)
Luz da noite, healing light
Light of my heart
Be with me now
With all of your love
Luz da noite f**a aqui (light of the night stays here)
Para limpar (To cleanse)
Para perdoar (To forgive)
Para luminar (To illuminate)
Luz da noite, guiding light
Light divine
Light of mine
Light of my heart
Luz da noite vive aqui (light of the night lives here)
Para limpar (To cleanse)
Para perdoar (To forgive)
Para luminar (To illuminate)
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Okay, so the kind of funny story about the weird business name that I couldn't bring myself to use:
Many years ago, before I even went to Nutritional Therapy school, I was in a women's group with Heidi Mattern (it was so lovely). Heidi prompted us on a creative writing exercise in which we were to write a poem about ourselves as though we *are* a thing that we feel we embody the qualities of. I am obsessed with food and healing, so naturally my mind went to feeling like I embody or aspire to embody being a healing broth 😂 🤦♀️. To add nuance and meaning to it, I qualified this image of myself as a "catalytic cauldron of healing broth" - "catalytic" because I want to catalyze healing in people; "cauldron" for the quality of also being the magical, mystical, and overtly witchy vessel in which the healing substance is alchemized.
I ran the business name idea "Catalytic Cauldron Wellness" to a bunch of people, and, while some people liked it and understood what I was going for, I mostly got 😬 cringe responses because it was either too witchy, or it reminded them too much of a catalytic converter on a car 😂. Being the linguistical literalist that I am, I was annoyed by the push back, but ultimately agreed that it was just a little too weird for the general public. So, while I am fully embracing myself as Light of the Night, I am also secretly stirring my inner catalytic cauldron of healing broth to heal you all behind the scenes. 😘
Stay tuned for more half-baked though wildly enthusiastic ramblings about what I do and why and how much I love it.
