The Dream Continues

© Copyright 2025 by Dr. David Meredith, D.Ac.

A message from Dr. David Meredith, D.Ac., founder of Very Well…

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before.

The seeds for the current incarnation of Very Well began in a small boutique hotel in Porto, Portugal, across the street from the cathedral and just up the block from the world-famous bridge that spans the Rio Douro. It was January 2023. I was on a journey to recover my equilibrium after the craziest few years I’d ever experienced—being an acupuncturist during the Covid pandemic. And in fact, I was finding the trip deeply restorative.

In the year previous, I had rapidly been approaching burnout. Part of my solution to this was to join an online discussion group for like-minded entrepreneurs, and we gave each other weekly suggestions and challenges to create more peace and prosperity in our practices. My schedule was full; I only had two treatment rooms and only did acupuncture, but I liked the idea of working as a community to shape our businesses around our values.

The group moderator sent her weekly prompt, to get us thinking and taking action. I responded that I would be taking the week off because I was on vacation. She responded: Then your assignment this week is to bring the energy of your trip to your clients back home.

I didn’t give this much thought in that exact moment, but when I laid down to go to sleep a little while later…

The vision of Very Well as a multidisciplinary wellness center popped fully formed into my mind. Sometimes when I tell the story, I use the word “downloaded,” because that’s literally what it felt like, ideas pouring into my brain from seemingly somewhere else, one after another. Acupuncture, of course… some sort of massage… maybe PEMF, which I had just learned about but had been resisting trying… definitely red light therapy, which I was already been experimenting with…

My thoughts bounced around, picturing one detail after another, different modalities, ancient treatments combined with cutting-edge technology… how everything would work together, where I would get the funding, what I should charge. There is almost no detail in the Very Well offices today that did not originate in that inspirational, but completely sleepless, night. I knew what I wanted to do, I knew what energy I wanted to bring to my clients, I knew how I wanted to help them to heal and grow, how they could show up in the world after they felt better, what they could accomplish for themselves, for us all.

The June 2000 message of the Hopi Elders flashed repeatedly in my head: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Making the Dream Real

And then I flew back to the United States, secured my funding, purchased the equipment, found the new office suite, designed the space, hired the staff, worked on the marketing…

I guess all of this could have burned me out again, but it didn’t. I was too inspired. I did, however, occupy pretty much every waking hour with all of these logistics, on top of continuing my schedule of treating clients full time. And in that busy-ness, something got lost.

I think one thing I didn’t do consistently was convey how I had researched and designed our many therapies as an interdependent system of care. Yes, I wanted to tell everyone who walked in the door, you could keep coming to us for acupuncture alone, but do you understand how much PEMF and red light therapy enhance the physical benefits of acupuncture? Can you imagine how much our Modern Sound Baths supercharge the mental benefits? Do you know how deeply I believe in these treatments? How much evidence supports them? The miracles I’ve seen them create for people’s health concerns and overall wellness and mental state when they have been consistently used?

But… more often than not, I didn’t say these things. (Dammit, Jim, I’m an acupuncture doctor, not a salesman!) And then… the people who could have had better care… didn’t. The people who could have felt good enough to create positive change in their lives, and in the world around us… didn’t. 

This letter is my way of changing that.

I’ve come to realize that Very Well hasn’t yet grown into the full expression of the vision I carried home from Portugal—but that’s exactly what this next chapter is about. The pieces are all here; now it’s time to connect them fully. 

Every aspect of Very Well—all of what we have to offer—is here for every aspect of you. Body, mind, spirit. Pain reduction, symptom management, peace of mind. Your daily comfort, your overall quality of life, your vision for your future. What do you want to create in the world, for the world, and how can we help you make that a reality?

We have begun to evolve. You can continue to enjoy our powerful offerings the way you always have, or you can take a new step in the dance along with us.

What’s New?

We are offering new packages. In addition to the bundles of one treatment we’ve always offered, we are now offering Health Foundation Packages that curate and combine all of the therapies we offer toward specific goals. Pain relief. Stress relief. Cellular health. Prevention. Women’ Health. Detoxification. Energy. Longevity. Performance. And more. We wanted to take the guesswork out of combining our therapies, while offering steep savings.

Click here to learn about our new package structures.

Along with our new packages… come new membership tiers. Our basic level, the Optimal Living Community, is now called THE CORE membership. The next level up, THE ENHANCED, now features an acupuncture, massage, or cupping treatment of your choice every month! (Yes, we listened to your many requests.) And get ready for… THE UNLIMITED: two attended treatment per month, PLUS you can use all of our other therapies as often as you like! Come every day, get the benefits you need, and save a fortune.

Click here to learn about our new membership tiers.

And to tie everything together—in many ways the crown jewel of the new offerings—are our new free consultations. You can talk to your acupuncturist about acupuncture and your massage therapist about massage, but who are you going to talk to about putting it all together… where you’re starting, where you want to go, and what will help get you there? Now our Wellness Concierge position finally steps into the spotlight I always envisioned. Meet with Shai Andrews for a free initial 30-minute consultation to help put together a plan… and feel free to check in along the way with our free follow-up consultations… to measure progress, keep your motivation alive, and make tweaks to the plan as you go. No pressure, just clarity, an investigation into what’s possible.

Click here to learn about our free consultations.

So this is where we are now—standing on the threshold of what Very Well was always meant to be.

If you’ve been with us since the beginning, thank you. Truly and deeply. Your trust and encouragement have shaped every step of this journey. If you’ve only experienced one part of what we do, I invite you to explore what happens when everything begins to work together.And if you’re brand new to Very Well—welcome. You’re arriving at exactly the right time.

These past few years have been challenging for so many people—stressful, uncertain, disorienting. I believe more than ever that places like Very Well are essential. We help people remember what it feels like to be balanced again, to breathe easily, to feel good in their own skin. And when people feel good, they do good. They bring inspiration to the people around them. They create a better world for us all.

The vision that began in a sleepless night in Porto is still unfolding. The next stage is about connection—between therapies, between people, between the life you’re living and the one you want to create.

This is your invitation to take part in that unfolding. 

I brought the energy of that trip home with me, and I still feel it every day in this space. I hope you can, too.

With gratitude and anticipation,

David