The Well Lived Woman is blooming soon at Pine Tree Circle, the new business opens this May. Founder Jaimi Brooks, M.A., is a licensed marriage and family therapist who is building a space where women on all spectrums of therapeutic needs can gather to tend to personal growth, creative growth, as well as reinforce their real desire to connect meaningfully.
Jaimi is a therapist in practice and in training but she has also worked in a creative industry. “A lot of the people in my community, and a lot of the women that I know through therapy, are entrepreneurs,” Jaimi says. “What I want to do is bridge these two. Many that come in and see me for therapy are doing pretty good, for the most part they are not in crisis, they’re wanting to live intentionally, be connected, and wanting to grow in their life. It will be a place where yes, you can get therapy, but you can also come for a postpartum group, or maybe you’re going through a divorce or you’d like to pop in for a class where you can learn about money consciousness.”
Jaimi aims to foster connection; deep and emotional, frivolous and light hearted, by providing a pathway and an opportunity for people who are curious to learn about themselves and looking to grow in all the different ways that contribute to a good life.
“So many people are wanting to have real conversations, a real connection in a place where they can allow themselves to be known in an unguarded way. This will be a safe space where you can let your guard down a little bit, it’s going to be beautiful.”
Jaimi explains that she traversed an unconventional pathway to becoming a psychotherapist. “While I was in graduate school I started a beauty business, she says. “I was a manicurist and had my own beauty agency. Almost everyone in my life is a designer or creative.”
She grew up in La Crescenta, California, surrounded by women. Her mother was a manicurist and many women in her family were hairstylists and manicurists. “I love listening to women talk and being surrounded by women,” Jaimi says.
Anticipating the long road ahead of her on the way to becoming a therapist, Jaimi became a manicurist to put herself through school and make a living. “I was really successful at it, in a way that can only happen in Los Angeles or New York,” she shares. “Photoshoot sets to celebrity clients. It was fun and exciting.”
Between sets she was finishing school at UCLA and Pepperdine, living what almost felt like parallel lives. Today, she exudes an ease in her role in helping others, something consistent with women founded businesses.
“For me what’s exciting about being my own boss as a therapist is that I can bring freshness and a different perspective,” Jaimi says. “The psychotherapeutic community can be very stodgy and old fashioned. This field isn’t the only life I have had and I get to recreate how I feel my clients are best served. Therapists can be very risk averse, more traditional and conventional, often nervous, that’s something I think I do very differently that speaks to people.
“So much of what we are taught in therapy is to not let anyone know what you’re about. That way you bring everything to the table and who I am doesn’t influence what you feel about me. That feels so uneasy and inhuman. Some people really just want to know who they are doing their most intimate deep work with. I decided that I am not hiding.”
The Well Lived Woman will be opening in May at Pine Tree Circle. Notably, almost every business that has opened its doors at Pine Tree Circle in the last three years has been founded by women.
The Well Lived Woman will also include a retail aspect, with objects Jaimi feels can enhance quality of life, things that bring joy, or ease. Among these offerings, she’s designed a deck of cards that can be tapped into for therapeutic value. “The Values Deck will be there,” she shares. “I love design. This deck is an exercise that I love to do with my clients and in my women’s groups. I wanted it to be as beautiful as it was useful. It started off as a deck that I made that was a little haphazard that people were buying. The finished offering is beautiful. Other therapists were using it for their practices or buying it for events. It takes about 40 minutes for the practice, from start to finish.”
Her doors will be opening in May with interior design done by Sarah Sherman Samuel.
The space, designed by Sarah Sherman Samuel, and inspired by Gertrude Stein, the American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector famous for her 1920’s literary salon in Paris, celebrates generational women from all walks of life.
“We are so fortunate to have The Well Lived Woman opening up at the center under Jaimi’s guidance and leadership,” Nate Daneshgar, owner of Pine Tree Circle, shares.
Jaimi embodies all of the qualities we look for in operators and her mission is inspired and intentional. The space will be a powerful and meaningful contribution to the center.”[email protected] @welllivedwoman
