If you enjoy learning about wellness and discovering small local businesses, come by! I’m personally looking forward to the in-person connection with the wellness community, and meeting specialists in pelvic floor rehabilitation, acupuncturists, and physical therapists.

The fair is next Thursday, October 1st. Tickets are discounted when you buy two, and you can also use the promo code WISEBODY10 for ten percent off. I’d love to see you there!

Details:

Annual Williamsburg Wellness Fair

Thursday, October 1st

5:00 PM - 8:30 PM

100 Sutton Street Brooklyn, NY, 11222 United States (map)

Tickets

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. A former midwife with over ten years of experience, Jane founded Wise Body for women who want healthcare that sees all of them—body, heart, mind and spirit.

Jane’s approach to women’s health is feminist and spiritual. She’s on a mission to put spirituality back into healthcare, and provides integrated care that blends evidence-based treatment, nutrition and lifestyle counseling, and intuitive wisdom.

Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, painful periods, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. Learn more here.

On Tuesday, I taught an in-person workshop on cervical health. We sat in a circle and I shared information and answered questions. We meditated, we stretched, we learned, we commiserated.

Thursday my friend held her 20th Animal Medicine Circle, which I’ve been part of for about 10 years now. We smudged. We gave gratitude. We created a witch’s brew with our words, to cultivate intention and discipline and wisdom.

I know it sounds simple. But I can’t overstate how nourishing and empowering a circle of women can be.

I have another live event coming up in two weeks. It won’t be a circle of women exactly, but it should be fun. I’ll be at the Williamsburg Wellness Fair doing some women’s health myth-busting and offering free “ask me anything” sessions. You can get tickets here, and use the promo code WISEBODY10 for 10% off.

Thanks for reading and happy circling. Which bad guy should we vanquish next?

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to intuitive and energetic cues often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. We are currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

Participants will receive:

• Evidence-based facts to reduce anxiety regarding abnormal paps and how to prevent getting one in the first place

• A deeper explanation of paps than you get in a typical doctor’s visit

• Tips for supplements, nutrition, and lifestyle changes that help prevent or clear HPV

• A guided meditation for cervical health and healing

• A confidential, warm setting in which to ask questions and get support

If you or someone you know is looking for support and guidance on cervical health, join me! The workshop is free but space is limited and RSVP is required. RSVP to hello@lifted-lotus.com. I hope to see you there!

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. We are currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

My introduction to Ayurvedic cleanses was in India many years ago, when I did a panchakarma at a retreat center in the south of the country. It was a two-week endeavor that involved a special diet, herbs, daily massage, drinking herbed ghee, tons of rest, and purgation (a day of diarrhea, sorry to be graphic). That was a formative experience for me as a healthcare practitioner, and a story for another newsletter!

It’s recommended to do cleanses at least once a year, usually at the turn of the season. How auspicious to be reminded of this at the end of Summer as we transition into Fall.

An Ayurvedic cleanse is a significant undertaking, with multiple components to it beyond just having a strict diet. It’s very different from the fad cleanses you might be familiar with. As Shakthi explained in our conversation, it’s important to have guidance from an Ayurvedic practitioner when employing these practices.

However, firestarter, independent Aries that I am, I decided to go ad-hoc. I dusted off my Ayurvedic cookbook and spent three days eating only kitchari (a kind of Indian porridge made from rice and mung beans), resting a lot, drinking tons of water, and eating dinner before 7pm. I also ate some fruit and seeds, and a little coffee each morning.

While this was not a full cleanse, and was more of a cleansing diet trial, I found it really beneficial. I would like to do a “real” cleanse guided by a practitioner soon. This was a great way to dip my toe in and get a sense of what kind of commitment a cleanse requires, and how I might feel during it. Below are a few takeaways from my 3-day experiment.

Some Foods Are Addictive

I could feel the withdrawal symptoms from sugar and carbs almost immediately. I got pronounced energy crashes and strong sugar cravings. When these crashes happened, I tried to rest as much as possible. The experience illuminated how addictive some foods are and made me want to avoid those foods more in my day to day.

Sleep is Medicine

Without the sugar and other unhealthy carbs to keep me going, I crashed hard and early. The first night I slept 10 hours. And I really needed it. Not just due to the withdrawal symptoms but on a deeper level. Without the quick fixes that stave off fatigue, I was able to feel the exhaustion that was underneath them. My body wanted sleep and I had no choice but to rest. I felt incredible the next day.

The Cleanse Applies to Emotions and Spiritual Practice

Ayurvedic cleanses are holistic. They are not just for the body, but also for emotional and spiritual wellbeing. I felt this. I had more mental clarity because the question of food had become radically simplified. It reminds me of how people on GLP-1’s talk about a reduction in food noise. I also experienced a reduction in food noise. I already knew what I was eating for breakfast lunch and dinner, and I prepared it each morning in one go. That freed up a lot of mental space for me, and that led to more clarity in my meditation practice and a freer emotional state.

Kitchari as Answered Prayer

Starting about a year ago, before I eat I say a gratitude prayer for my food: “Thank you for this food. May it nourish my body and give me energy for my sadhana. May it give me good health and no bad health. Om shanti shanti shanti.” I say this even when I’m eating something unhealthy. And when I do, I can feel something in me that knows this food isn’t good for me. I still eat the food, but in that moment I believe a course-correction seed is being planted.

It’s as if the prayer marinates in me over time, shifting something at the unconscious level that will guide me toward the very thing I’m praying for. That shift, I believe, guides me toward healthier choices. It has nothing to do with shame, guilt, or getting a flatter stomach. It’s about love and care for my body and devotion to my spiritual practice. When Shakthi spoke about cleanses I was inspired to try one. The prayers had laid a foundation for that. In that way, the cleanse is an answered prayer, because it is delivering to me the food that truly does nourish my body, unlike the food that may have been in front of me when I said the prayer.

If you would like to learn more about Ayurvedic cleanses, reach out to Shakthi. I’m also including Shakthi’s recommended resources below.

• Dr. Sarita Shrestha — an Ayurvedic teacher. Her website is drsaritashrestha.com

• David Frawley — Ayurvedic/Vedic scholar and author, founder of the American Institute of Vedic Studies: vedanet.com

• Vasant Lad — Ayurvedic physician and educator, founder of The Ayurvedic Institute: ayurveda.com

Upcoming Events

HPV and Cervical Health Workshop

In this intimate workshop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I’ll answer frequently asked questions about abnormal paps and offer tips for supplements, nutrition, and lifestyle changes that help prevent or clear HPV. I’ll also lead a guided meditation for cervical health and healing. The workshop is free but space is limited and RSVP is required. RSVP to hello@lifted-lotus.com

Tuesday, September 15th, 6:00-7:30pm

The Lifted Lotus, 202 N 4th Street, Ground Floor, BK NY 11211

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. We are currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

Have you started from the end?

We all have an inner crone. A wise woman. Have you met yours?

We talk a lot about anti-aging. Of course. Humans have been seeking the elixir of youth since the beginning of time. But we also wonder where our leaders are. We might find them among the crones.

“I don’t feel like myself.” I hear this a lot from perimenopause patients. Because they’ve gained weight and the scale won’t budge no matter what they do. Because they’re more irritable, and they don’t want to have sex as often as their husbands do. And now we have a solution in hormone replacement therapy. And that’s good. I’ve had lots of happy patients who find HRT to be life changing.

But I can’t help but wonder: when my patient says she doesn’t feel like herself, which self is she talking about?

I can’t help but wonder if she is supposed to be changing, rather than going back to a former self. What would happen if we midwifed the change, instead of fighting it?

That might look like supplements instead of hormones. It might look like new sleep and exercise habits. It might look like using that irritability to put a few people in their place who deserve it.

What if we asked the world around us to change to suit our bodies, instead of the other way around? Why should we have to bend over backwards to resist the aging process, which is as natural and normal as being born?

What if our bodies are wise, and are telling us something important? What is so terrible about slowing down a bit, taking an afternoon nap? Maybe the quantity of time spent being productive goes down but the quality of our contribution to society goes up. There’s value in having models for slowing down, especially in a time of move-fast-and-break-stuff leadership.

I don’t want perimenopause to become yet another area in which women feel they have to change their bodies to fit external expectations. We’re in the midst of an important sea change for women. There’s more awareness about perimenopause, which leads to better treatment options and significantly improved quality of life. But we need to be thoughtful. As a midwife, I learned how potent the birth process can be, and that it’s a rite of passage when we allow it to be—much more so than most people know.

I wonder if a similar thing is happening with menopause. Are we burying a jewel under all those estrogen patches? Or maybe the patches are fine, but we’re still not tending enough to the transformational process, fanning its flames and encouraging the wise women to step into their full power.

This is an area I’m passionate about exploring with my patients. To consider deeply, at each step in the journey: what is the most empowered choice? What does freedom look like?

Whether you are in menopause or not, I encourage you to listen for the crone. Your own inner wise woman. Journal about her, or imagine speaking to her. The one who has already walked your path. She’s there. And she has much to offer.

Upcoming Events

HPV and Cervical Health Workshop

In this intimate workshop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I’ll answer frequently asked questions about abnormal paps and offer tips for supplements, nutrition, and lifestyle changes that help prevent or clear HPV. I’ll also lead a guided meditation for cervical health and healing. The workshop is free but space is limited and RSVP is required. RSVP to hello@lifted-lotus.com

Tuesday, September 15th, 6:00-7:30pm

The Lifted Lotus, 202 N 4th Street, Ground Floor, BK NY 11211

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. We are currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

Photo: Doncoombez

In this intimate workshop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about abnormal paps and offer tips for supplements, nutrition, and lifestyle changes that help prevent or clear HPV. I’ll also lead a guided meditation for cervical health and healing.

If you or someone you know is looking for support and guidance on cervical health, join me! The details are below. Space is limited and RSVP is required. RSVP to hello@lifted-lotus.com

Let’s Talk: HPV and Cervical Health

Tuesday, September 15th, 6:00-7:30pm

The Lifted Lotus

202 N 4th Street, Ground Floor, BK NY 11211

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. We are currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

Yesterday I sat down with chiropractor, acupuncturist and herbalist Sara Scrivano to talk about the Chinese medicine perspective on menopause. Sara shared some expansive and poetic ways to think about this life stage which defy the youth-obsessed messages we get from mainstream culture.

She characterized menopause as a gateway or a portal, rather than an ending. She explained how in Chinese medicine, there is a connection between the heart and the uterus. Because of that connection, when we stop menstruating, this results in increased nourishment for the heart. Since the blood no longer leaves the body but instead goes up into the heart, this is thought to be a time when the spirit becomes enriched.

If you’re curious about a more holistic and affirming approach to menopause, I highly recommend watching the replay of this conversation. In addition to the concepts I shared, Sara also gives her top recommendations and resources for healthy aging, and explains what it looks like to receive care during perimenopause that includes both Western medicine and Chinese medicine.

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. We are currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

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Insomnia. Digestive problems. Weight gain. Hormone balance. Frequent yeast infections or frequent UTIs. These are problems which usually don’t have a quick fix. And if they did, you would have found them already. Solving these problems involves something we don’t talk about much in healthcare. Something that’s certainly not a feature of the modern medical system: patience.

Humans are not inherently patient. Patience, you may have heard, is a virtue. It’s a virtue because it doesn’t come naturally. It’s something we have to cultivate. When I was a midwife I would encourage women in labor let go of time, to let go of wondering how long it would last. The body works on horticultural time; not clock time. You can’t schedule when a peach will be ripe. And you can’t schedule when labor will start, or when it will end.

It’s the same with other aspects of health. You body is slow. It’s so much slower than your mind wants it to be. When you make a change to your diet, start a supplement, or try a new exercise routine, it takes several months to see the full benefit.

Not only does it require patience to make a change, but it often requires patience to even find the change that works. You need to be methodical about it, make a list of all possible solutions and try them one by one, crossing each one off the list as you go.

Poor sleep, for example, can have so many causes and so many solutions. Very often I see patients who have tried one or two, or maybe four or five, solutions and then stopped. Life gets busy. They become discouraged. They think maybe this is just the way it is and they’ll never find a solution. Maybe. But probably not. There’s probably something out there for you. But it takes patience and discipline to find it, as well as the belief that change is possible.

That’s what I offer my patients. I start with the belief that there is a solution. This is the most important part. And we go from there, ticking things off the list and giving each thing a real shot to work. We let it take as long as it takes, until we find the way that works for them. And if we can’t find it, at least we’re somewhere new. The patient is no longer eddying in “what ifs” and self-diagnoses and incomplete information. At the very least they have a partner in their search, but more often than not they have finally found a solution that works.

If you have a health problem that you have not been able to crack, and would like support in a methodical approach to solving it, come see me. It’s slow healthcare. Slow and steady for the win.

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. We are currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

Photo: Luca Ambrosi

In labor that could mean getting the mom in a different position, changing the lighting, kicking someone out of the room, giving her some water, playing music, giving her a blanket, taking off her blanket… anything. And if the first thing I tried didn’t work, I tried something else until she was in the zone again.

Sometimes all you know is what isn’t working. And you don’t have the solution. All you can do is throw something at the wall and hope for a different result. Movement. Newness. Maybe the problem is the stuck-ness itself. In Traditional Chinese Medicine they call it stagnation.

It’s easy to get caught up in complexity. We think xyz has to happen in order to make a change, and it becomes a kind of paralysis. You want to exercise more, but you don’t know how what routine to do or which clothes to get. Just do anything. Do some jumping jacks right now.

One of the side effects of always being sold to is we start to be conditioned that we need something outside of ourselves in order to change. You can’t just start exercising or eating better, you need some sort of “program” and some sort of “expert.” Sometimes yes. But probably a lot less often than most of us think. Being sold to is a form of disempowerment. Part of the pitch is “you don’t have it.” It has to be, because that way the salesperson can say “I do have it, for a price.”

And yes, I am good at getting people unstuck—come see me if you want some help. As a double fire sign (Aries sun, Sagittarius rising), I’m into movement. And I’m obsessed with transformation, not sure which astrological sign to blame that on. But first, try it yourself. Get as far you can on your own, then come see me.

You heard it here first: the quick and sloppy way to improve your health is to change literally anything. You can do it. I believe in you. Wishing you well in your new endeavors and the very best of health.

Stay tuned for the next newsletter in which I share the slow and scientific way to improve your health!

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. We are currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

For those who are looking for more support with HPV, I offer a series of visits in which we discuss your pap results in detail and take a holistic approach to addressing your cervical health. This includes a personalized plan including stress reduction, nutrition and supplements, and repeat testing as indicated.

We also address the energetics of cervical health. Having HPV can bring up shame, resentment and other complicated feelings that might affect how you feel about your body, your sexual experiences, and your health. Through practices like guided meditation, we work with the energetics of cervical health in order to invite more love and healing into the body. Because I believe that’s part of truly holistic care. This is an integrated approach to HPV for those who want evidence-based treatment, practical and personalized advice, and energetic support.

This is for you if you just received your first HPV positive pap, have had a series of abnormal or HPV positive paps, or even if you’re just due for a pap and would like to get it done with more education, care and attention than you’ve received in the past. I used to be a midwife, and now I’m here to midwife you through your cervical health journey.

To get started, book a Foundation Session with me. It’s a 75-minute in-depth assessment of your health. From there I will tell you more about the cervical health series and whether I think it’s right for you. If it’s not, I’ll give you a detailed plan on next steps and any referrals as needed. If it is, we’ll work together to make sure you’re on the best path possible for your cervical health. There are a lot of mixed messages about HPV out there. It can be confusing, scary and lonely. But it doesn’t have to be.

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP, offering a different kind of women’s healthcare. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. The practice is currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

Enter: the fresh green smoothie. This smoothie is my tried and true way of front-loading my day with veggies. It’s easy to make, and it’s easy to have most of the ingredients stocked in your fridge for a while without going bad. The only exception is the greens, which you have to get at least weekly.

You can do lots of things to spruce up the recipe, like adding fresh mint or turmeric root, but I’m keeping it simple intentionally. The purpose here is to make it as easy as possible to get your veggies. You can stock your freezer with frozen berries, and your fridge with lemons, and then all you need to do is buy some greens every now and then. When you make the smoothie a daily habit, you build a foundation for yourself that can carry you through the busy times. I drink it in the morning while I’m making my coffee.

This smoothie is packed with nutrients. It’s very high in vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K. You also get plenty of potassium, folate, iron, and antioxidants. Although lightly cooked veggies are ideal for digestion, and I personally need to chew my food in order to feel satiated (this is not a meal replacement), for the modern person on the go, this is a reliable way to make sure you get your veggies every day.

And now, the recipe.

Fresh Green Smoothie

Ingredients

2 packed cups fresh spinach

1 small handful frozen strawberries

2 small handfuls frozen blueberries

Juice of half a large lemon

2 cups water

1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled (optional)

1 kale leaf, leafy parts only (optional)

Preparation

Put all ingredients in a blender, Vitamix or Nutribullet. Blend for 2-3 minutes. Enjoy!

Bonus Recipe

To balance out the uber-healthfulness of the smoothie, I’m also sharing with you my favorite recipe for quick, easy comfort food. It’s called “Easy Chicken with Rice,” from the New York Times, and it really is easy. Unlike most recipes, it actually takes the amount of time to make that it says it does: 30 minutes start to finish.

There are really only four ingredients—rice, onions, lemon and chicken. Most of the ingredients are usually already around, except maybe the chicken. It’s difficult to mess this up because the chicken cooks in water, so it doesn’t dry out. And while the rice comes out a bit mushy, it has a bit of fattiness to it from the olive oil that makes it satisfyingly savory. Somehow it always feels like grandma made it.

Skip the saffron, I can never taste it and it’s expensive. Instead top with any fresh herbs you have around—I recommend oregano or dill. Serve it with plenty of fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. You can find the recipe here, or if you don’t subscribe to the NYT cooking app, from a friend who does.

About Wise Body Women’s Health

Wise Body Women’s Health is an integrative gynecology practice in New York City founded by Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP, offering a different kind of women’s healthcare. Appointments blend evidence-based medical care with attention to the body’s deeper signals—intuition, emotion, and the wisdom often dismissed by conventional medicine. Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, chronic symptoms, or simply want a provider who sees the whole picture, Wise Body offers unhurried, whole-person care. The practice is currently accepting new patients for both telehealth (anywhere in New York State) and in-person visits in NYC. Learn more here.

Photo: Alina Karpenko

The best thing about how I work is that no two people will have the same experience, because it’s entirely individual to you. I take a midwife’s approach, letting your body lead. But there is a basic structure to how it works.

Every new patient starts with a Foundation Session. It’s a 75-minute appointment in my office in the Flatiron district in Manhattan. The appointment includes many of the basic features of any GYN appointment: medical history, discussion of your main concerns, and testing or an exam if needed. It also includes a deep dive into areas of your health that are not part of a typical visit. We’ll touch on not just health basics but also nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental health, focus and concentration, spiritual practice, pleasure and joy, and sexual health. The hope is that you will leave the Foundation Session with practical needs met, such as being up to date on your cervical cancer screening, as well as with a more expansive understanding ways to improve your health and wellness.

The Foundation Session may be enough for the time being, in which case you can continue to book visits with Wise Body as needed going forward. Or, if you’re ready for sustained, deep care, you can move into the Wise Body Passage: six months of comprehensive care that addresses body, mind, and spirit through individualized care planning, accountability, ritual, and community. The Wise Body Passage is the jewel of Wise Body, a container in which to create genuine partnership over time. But it starts with the Foundation Session.

Why I Created the Foundation Session

When I left conventional medicine, I wasn’t just leaving behind the pace of it. I was leaving behind a structure that made deep listening impossible.

The 15-minute appointment isn’t a bug in the system. It’s a feature. It keeps patients moving through, keeps billing volume high, and keeps providers from forming the kind of long-term relationships that make great care possible.

Every new patient in my practice starts with a 75-minute Foundation Session. Seventy-five minutes where your medical history and your life story both matter. Where I’m not just reviewing a chart—I’m listening for the thing underneath the thing. Where your “crazy” hunch about what’s causing your chronic BV, your sense that something shifted after a particular loss, the pattern you’ve noticed between your stress and your symptoms—all of it is welcome at the table.

This is not a luxury add-on to “real” healthcare. It is real healthcare. It is what medicine is supposed to be when it hasn’t been stripped of the elements that make it actually work.

One of the things I hear often from new patients is some version of “This might sound weird, but...” or “It’s probably not related but…”

And then they say something that sounds, to me, quite reasonable.

I want to hear all of it. Not because I’ll simply validate whatever you believe—I am a clinician, and I hold myself to rigorous standards—but because I know that the wisdom we carry about our own bodies is real data. It belongs in the room. It often holds the key to what no lab panel has been able to explain.

Wise Body exists at the intersection of the scientifically sound and the spiritually profound. Those are not opposites. They are, in fact, the complete picture.

Who This is For

You don’t have to have a diagnosis. You don’t have to know exactly what’s wrong or be able to name it in medical language.

The Foundation Session is for the woman who:

Has tried to get answers and keeps leaving empty-handed. You’ve done the appointments. You’ve had the bloodwork. You’ve received diagnoses that don’t quite fit, or you’ve been told everything looks fine while you keep feeling like it isn’t. You’re ready for someone who will actually sit with the complexity of your situation.

Is in the middle of a transition. Perimenopause. Postpartum. A significant health event. A life change that’s written itself into your body in ways you’re only beginning to understand. These thresholds matter, and they deserve more than a prescription and a six-month followup.

Has been told her intuition is wrong. You’ve been gaslit. You’ve felt the gap between what you know in your body and what you’re being told about it. You need a provider who will validate your inner knowing while offering the medical expertise and safety to actually do something about it.

Is simply done settling. You know you deserve better care than you’ve been getting. You’ve been looking for it. You’re ready.

What Happens Afterwards

The Foundation Session is a beginning, not just a one-time consultation. After your initial 75 minutes, you can continue with individual visits as your needs arise, or you can begin the Wise Body Passage. At the Foundation Session we will talk about what next step makes the most sense for you. If we’re able to address everything in one session, we will. If here are things you need that I can’t provide, I will refer you to someone who can help. If you would benefit from a deeper dive with me, I’ll explain more about what that would look like.

Are You Ready?

If any of this landed for you—if you’ve been waiting for an invitation to finally get the care you’ve always known you deserved—this is it.

Book your Foundation Session →

And, if you’re interested but not quite sure, you can book a free 15-minute Zoom consultation at the same link to talk over any questions you might have. I look forward to meeting you.

— Jane

Jane Riccobono, CNM, WHNP is a Certified Nurse Midwife and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner with over a decade of experience in women’s health. She specializes in reproductive health, perimenopause, and the intersection of medical care and embodied wisdom. She is a mindfulness teacher, published author, and the founder of Wise Body Women’s Health.

Wise Body serves patients throughout New York State via telehealth and in person in New York City.

Book a Foundation Session

Photo: Valeriia Miller

After months of dreaming, planning, and more than a little trusting the process, Wise Body Women’s Health has a new home in the Flatiron District—and I am now accepting new patients.

If you’ve been waiting to work together, or if you’ve been quietly wondering whether this kind of care even exists for you, this is your moment.

Why This Feels Important

When I left corporate healthcare, I wasn’t just leaving a job. I was leaving a model of care that I believed—and still believe—was failing women. Fifteen-minute visits. Rushed explanations. Symptoms treated in isolation from the full human being who was experiencing them. A system that often treats our bodies as problems to be managed rather than as the wise, complex, self-healing organisms they are.

Opening a new space in Flatiron is, in some ways, a small act of resistance to all of that. It’s an expansion of something I want more women to be able to access: care that actually has time for you.

What We Do at Wise Body

We work at the intersection of evidence-based medicine and the deeper intelligence your body already carries.

My background is in midwifery and women’s health—I’m a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and Certified Nurse Midwife with over a decade of experience—but what I bring to each appointment goes beyond credentials. It’s a commitment to listening. To making space for your full story. To honoring the body, heart, mind, and spirit as one interconnected whole.

What we treat:

• Preventive care and sexual health — Paps, birth control, UTIs, chronic vaginitis, sexual wellness, and more.

• Perimenopause support — Comprehensive care including both non-hormonal options and HRT.

• Menstrual health — For those navigating painful periods, PCOS, irregular cycles, or other cycle-related concerns.

How we work:

• Longer visits — Because your story deserves more than ten minutes.

• A midwife’s approach — Evidence-based care that also supports the body’s innate capacity to heal itself.

• Practical mysticism — We hold space for your intuition alongside your medical options, because intelligence comes in many forms.

Where to Find Us

The new Flatiron office is located at 928 Broadway, Suite 703, New York, NY 10010.

Appointments are available in-person or via telehealth for anyone in New York State if you’re not able to come in.

To book visit www.thewisebody.co

A Note to Those Who’ve Been Waiting

I know that for many of you, the healthcare system has let you down. You’ve been dismissed, rushed, or handed a prescription when what you really needed was someone to actually listen.

That’s what Wise Body is for.

If you’re ready for care that sees all of you, I’d love to meet you.

— Jane

Jane Riccobono, WHNP, CNM is a nurse practitioner and former midwife with specialties in reproductive health and perimenopause care. A lifelong meditation practitioner, her approach to women’s health is both feminist and spiritual.

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In yoga philosophy, Shiva and Shakti are inseparable. They’re energies that exist within each of us and we also relate through them. Shiva is pure consciousness—the ultimate witness, presence itself. Shakti is creative energy, the life force that animates everything. Together they form a divine union: Shiva giving direction and structure to Shakti, and Shakti making Shiva come alive.

These energies speak to what makes a good doctor’s visit. I write a lot about the shortcomings of the medical industrial complex. Another way to describe what needs to change in healthcare is to say we need more Shiva and Shakti in our healthcare.

Presence is one of those words we use without really knowing what we mean by it. We know presence when we feel it, and we like it when we feel it from our doctor. But what is it actually? Presence, you could say, is Shiva. He is the ultimate witness. When a doctor or nurse practitioner brings Shiva energy into a visit, they also invite in Shakti. The doctor holds the witness role, creating the container for the patient’s story to be heard and for their body to be understood.

This is true in the dynamic between doctor and patient, and also within each person. Presence generates access to the shakti within, allowing for a more creative approach to the patient’s problem. The more access a doctor or nurse practitioner has to their own inner shakti, the more they can be guided by intuition, recognize patterns, and connect dots that aren’t so obvious. Shakti is both a goddess and creative energy itself. She is aliveness. What could be more important to health and healing than cultivating aliveness?

These concepts are vast and I’m only touching the surface here. But I find it genuinely useful and exciting to think about Shiva and Shakti as a framework for what we’re missing in modern healthcare.

So the next time you leave a doctor’s appointment feeling unheard, unseen, or like your symptoms were just plugged into an algorithm, know that what you’re sensing is real. And it’s important.

You deserve a provider who shows up as a witness and applies their full human capacity to their work. Not someone who just mindlessly orders tests according to the protocols. Not someone who could be replaced by AI (and probably soon will be), but someone whose presence creates space for your body’s intelligence to be heard.

That’s what I’m building at Wise Body. If you’re ready for healthcare that includes both the rigor of modern medicine and the aliveness of Shakti, I’d love to meet you.

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Photo: Souvik laha

It changed everything.

There was something about having more people there that softened the whole dynamic. The visit felt less transactional. I learned more about who this person actually was — their life outside this appointment, the people who mattered to them. Meeting someone’s family is humanizing in a way that a chart never is.

It also kept me sharper. More eyes in the room means more heads in the game. I was more present, more accountable. The patient was calmer. There was a palpable sense of safety that I couldn’t manufacture on my own, no matter how warm I tried to be.

I’ve thought about this a lot since then. What those families were doing, without knowing it, was acting as doulas.

Most people associate doulas with birth. But the research on doulas reveals something more universal: even just having someone physically present for the entire duration of a labor — sitting in the corner, not trained, not doing anything in particular — leads to measurably better outcomes. They don’t need to coach or advocate or even say a word. Their presence alone is the medicine.

I’ve found this to be true for all kinds of medical appointments, not just birth. As both a patient and a provider, I’ve watched the energy in a room shift the moment someone brings a friend. The provider becomes more human. The patient becomes less afraid. Things that might have gone unsaid get said.

So here’s my suggestion: bring someone with you to your next appointment. Your Pap smear, your annual physical, your follow-up with the specialist you’ve been dreading. It doesn’t have to be your best friend. It just has to be someone on your team.

And if you’re the friend being asked — say yes. It costs you an hour. It might mean everything to your friend.

We are wired for far more communal living than modern life provides. For most of human history, the healer came to you. For an “appointment” you were on your own turf, surrounded by your people. The medical system as it exists today was built around efficiency and liability, not around the nervous system of a human being who needs to feel safe in order to heal.

Bringing someone into that room with you is a small act of resistance. It’s a way of saying: I’m not just a patient. I’m a person. And I brought a witness.

About Me

I’m Jane Riccobono, WHNP, CNM — a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and Certified Nurse Midwife with over a decade of experience in women’s health. I work with women who feel a disconnect between the care they’re receiving and the care they need.

I went into healthcare thinking I could change things from inside the system. But after years of watching myself become what I didn’t want to be — rushed, burned out, unable to provide the care I knew women deserved — I had to choose.

I could keep trying to fit myself into a system that treats women’s natural cycles as inconveniences to be managed. Or I could step into what I know to be true: that women’s bodies are wise. That our cycles are sacred. That the pain we experience often carries messages we need to hear. That healthcare can be both scientifically sound and spiritually profound.

This is healthcare for women who know they deserve better. Book a call to learn more — I’d love to meet you.

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Ritual, though serious and meaningful, is a form of play to me. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why. Perhaps it’s the impracticality of it. The way it exists outside of the pursuits of the ego or of survival.

At a weekend retreat I attended last Fall, we did 108 prostrations for the maiden, the mother and the crone. As we bowed to each archetype, we honored her role in our life. We said goodbye to the phases we’ve completed, and embraced the phase we were entering. It was led by fellow Substacker and teacher of ancient spiritual traditions Greg Cascale (check out ). At one point he proclaimed, “We are starving for ritual.” That hit home. Even as I write this I feel the truth of it deep in my being.

Ritual is deeply nourishing and yet how many rituals are practiced in the dominant culture? We have weddings, funerals, birthdays, the Super Bowl, and a few Hallmark holidays. Compared to so many other cultures that are filled with rituals and sacred celebrations, mainstream culture feels depraved and empty.

Despite being outside of day-to-day life, ritual does have a practical effect on our lives. When I was on another retreat a year and a half ago, I had an insight about a healing ritual that I myself needed. It came to me during meditation like a craving, a need. You could say it was a ritual I was starving for. I needed a ritual to help me heal from a surgery I’d had. Physically my body had long since healed. But I still felt the ghost of pain where my scars were. It was a dull ache I’d felt almost daily for a year.

A few months later on New Year’s Eve, I performed the ritual that had come to me on retreat. I gathered a couple of close friends and a pile of flower petals. I set up an altar and we held a ceremony to honor and bless the site of my surgery. After that, I never felt that ache again. I’d felt it every day for a year, and then poof it was gone. This is the power of ritual.

The ritual I held for myself was inspired by a postpartum ritual called “The Closing of the Bones.” It’s an ancient ritual from Central and South America to promote healing after childbirth. It assists the mother in reclaiming her body, processing the childbirth experience, and healing physically, emotionally and spiritually. It’s a specific thing, but the wisdom within it can be extrapolated to other situations. I created my own ritual from the bones of that one like a witch making a brew. I kept many of the same elements and added new ingredients sourced from my own intuition and experience.

When I told my friend who’d had a double mastectomy about my ritual, she lit up. Here was a missing piece in her healing process. Something that needed to be done to help her move forward after breast cancer. Something she was starving for.

How many others need something like this? For those who hear the call, I offer healing rituals for postpartum and post-surgery. The rituals are lovingly created according to your needs, whether you are a “ritual person” or not. In fact especially if you’re not, but there’s something in you that says yes to this or yearns for this, I want to hear from you.

The rituals happen within a sacred container and include intention setting, mantra, and the opportunity to be held in loving presence as you process your experience. We take it seriously, but we also invite in play and joy. If you’d like to know more, reply to this email or send me a message on my website. We’ll schedule a time to have a no-pressure conversation and explore whether you’d like to do a healing ritual. Ritual is serious medicine—and also, I believe, our birthright. If some part of you is starving for it, let's talk.

Photo 1: Brandy Cunningham

There is a power dynamic built into the doctor-patient relationship. The patient is sick or injured and needs help. Even if they don’t have a health problem—at an annual check-up for example—they’re sharing intimate details about their health and allowing the doctor to see and touch their body. Being a patient requires surrender and trust, and it’s vulnerable.

But despite all of Brené Brown’s efforts, we don’t like vulnerability. There is a tendency in the culture to replace that which implies weakness with something not just neutral but emphatically strong. Somebody who has experienced sexual assault isn’t a victim, they are a survivor. Someone with autism doesn’t have a disability, they have superpowers.

It’s not necessarily wrong to re-frame a painful or challenging dynamic to make it more empowering. But I worry that we sometimes do so as an avoidance tactic. On the surface it seems like we’re supporting the injured party, but on a deeper level we’re ignoring their truth. It puts a pretty bow on something difficult and messy, and sends a signal not to talk about such things.

A friend of mine was in a terrible accident. I sent her a care package in the hospital with a note telling her she was strong. She came out with a song years later called “Strong.” It was about how, at that time in her life, everyone kept telling her she was strong when she truly did not feel that way. I realized how crass it had been of me to tell her she was strong. What I meant was I believed in her ability to get through that hard time. But “strong” was not the word for that moment. I was skipping ahead to something easier for me to handle, and in the process making her feel more alone.

Once we’re able to be with the truth of vulnerability, then we can begin to actually support someone. What we long for when we’re sick or injured is not just to be well, but to be cared for. That’s part of being human. It’s also part of the healing process itself. When we shy away from using the word “patient,” we send a subtle message that it’s shameful to need others and it’s shameful to be weak. It’s a vestige of the patriarchal “boys don’t cry” idea.

Another part of the move away from “patient,” I believe, is that many have felt mistreated by the medical system. In an effort to acknowledge patients’ dignity in a system that often exploits or diminishes them, well-meaning marketing people attempt to elevate them by making them clients instead of patients. A client is a more like a customer than a sick person. But the problem was never their vulnerability; it was our failure to meet them in their vulnerability.

Whether we like it or not, there is a power differential between doctor and patient. Calling someone a client doesn’t take that away. What patients need, and what we all need (because we’re all patients sometimes), is doctors who take responsibility for their power and treat their patients with care and respect, without missing the truth of their vulnerability.

In my practice, I understand how vulnerable it can feel to be a patient. I pride myself on inviting my patients to bring their whole selves to appointments, tears and all. I see patients for a range of different women’s health concerns, including perimenopause, painful periods, birth control, vaginitis, UTIs, and more. If you’re exhausted by a medical system that treats your body as machine and your symptoms as noise, reach out. This is healthcare for women who know we deserve better.

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Photo: Nathan Dumlao

As a midwife, I know how often the body is blamed for a problem that our culture created. I know about the preventable vaginal tears that happened because male doctors wanted to be able to sit down when they delivered babies. This forced women to give birth on their back, which is usually the last place the body wants to be when pushing out a baby. And that led to more injuries, more stalled labors and cesareans, and more “evidence” that we need medical interventions to safely have a baby.

I’m wary of just chalking brain fog up to aging when we’re in the midst of an unprecedented ambush on our attention spans. Maybe we should look at how our environment is affecting cognitive function before we throw hormones at the problem.

Let’s face it: most of us are addicted to our phones. Discomfort is part of the human experience (see the First Noble Truth in Buddhism). Smartphones act as a numbing tool for this discomfort. Whether it’s via scrolling, answering texts, or taking in too much news, in the digital age we have constant access to distraction.

And that’s just in our free time. Many jobs these days require you to be checking Slack or email throughout the day. The appearance of working—by being in touch with colleagues—takes precedence over doing actual work. AI is compounding the issue by making everything go faster and faster. All of this is bad for our quality of life and bad for our attention spans. Brain fog anyone?

There’s a better way. In the same way you can cut out junk food from your diet you can cut out junk internet from your day. The book Deep Work, by Cal Newport, is a classic on this topic and has lots of great suggestions. The one that stuck with me the most is to literally exercise your attention span.

To do it you designate a couple of hours as screen-free time. For example, you decide that for the next two hours you won’t look at any screens. The most important part of this is the moment that you want to look at your phone. That is the moment in which you can strengthen your attention span. Biceps get stronger when you lift heavier and heavier weights. It’s the same with attention. Each time you want to abort ship and check your texts—and don’t—you strengthen your ability to focus.

I’ve been incorporating as much phone-free time into my day as I can manage, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a vital way to reclaim our lives from the hungry ghosts of the digital age, brain fog or not. But especially if you are experiencing brain fog, it’s something to look at.

Hormones are one possible cause of brain fog in perimenopause. Stress, lack of sleep, and nutrient deficiencies are also possibilities, among many others. Beyond the physiologic reasons, we need to look at what role phone and internet use is playing. It’s so entwined with how we live that it might be hard to see and almost scary to contemplate. But we owe it to ourselves, and our bodies, to do so.

If you’re exhausted by a medical system that treats your body as machine and your symptoms as noise, reach out. My practice, Wise Body, is healthcare for women who know we deserve better. Who are ready to trust our bodies again while having the medical support we need. Who refuse to sacrifice our wholeness on the altar of efficiency. The witches are returning. And we’re bringing both the ancient wisdom and the modern science.

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Photo: Carly Seller

I recently came across the work of Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy, in which she describes the Shambhala warrior prophecy. It’s a Tibetan legend about a time when “all life on Earth is in danger. Barbarian powers have arisen. Although they waste their wealth in preparations to annihilate each other, they have much in common: weapons of unfathomable devastation and technologies that lay waste the world.”

According to the prophecy, at this dire moment the Shambhala warriors emerge to dismantle these destructive forces. These warriors don’t wear a uniform or carry guns. It’s not easy to tell they’re warriors just from looking at them. They have two weapons: compassion and insight into the interconnectedness of all things. They use these weapons to dismantle the barbarian forces, which as it turns out, exist within all of us. It’s a beautiful and inspiring story about being a force for good. I highly recommend reading it.

It got me thinking about interconnectedness, not just as an abstract concept but as a practice. What does interconnection really mean in our day to day lives? How do we practice interconnection in our relationships and in the way we live in the world?

When I think of interconnection I think of strengths and weaknesses. Everybody has ways they contribute to the world and areas in which they need help and support. Truly everyone. Someone who seems very high-powered and successful needs entire teams of people to run their life. Conversely, someone who seems like a total failure has beautiful gifts once you get to know them better.

As I see it, interconnection in action is giving what you have to give, and being open to receiving what you need. The first part—offering your gifts—requires courage and vulnerability. This second part—receiving—requires humility and honesty with yourself about your weaknesses.

Interconnection as a practice of giving and receiving is weaving and creative. It’s a practice of healing one another. What is required of us changes depending on the circumstances. One moment calls us to act, to give to another. Another calls us to accept help.

There are millions of ways to take action, millions of ways to receive. But there is always a best way. The best remedy for the moment is always changing because each moment is unique. So we need to honor that with openness, space, and allowing for not knowing and for mystery.

Interconnection cannot be standardized. Just as the Shambhala warriors don’t wear a uniform—i.e. they are not standardized like a product made on an assembly line—the practice of interconnection is never quite the same twice. It’s always flowing, moving, changing.

I practice interconnection in my work with patients. Healthcare as usual wants you to fit into a neat little box so it can ship you off efficiently, lower costs, and increase profit. Standardization is a hallmark of corporate medicine (and of corporate anything). My method is not about standardization. It’s about creating the conditions for compassion and interconnection. Because from there, solutions arise that neither of us could have predicted. From there, the magic happens.

But I got ahead of myself. The prophecy specifically says not interconnection, but insight into the interconnectedness of all things. The insight is the weapon. That is a subtler thing than the actions we take out in the world. Those actions must start with the insight, and be imbued by it. To live that way is truly the way of a warrior.

If you're exhausted by a medical system that treats your body as machine and your symptoms as noise, let’s talk. My practice, Wise Body, is healthcare for women who know we deserve better. Who are ready to trust our bodies again while having the medical support we need. Who refuse to sacrifice our wholeness on the altar of efficiency. The witches are returning. And we're bringing both the ancient wisdom and the modern science.

Learn More

Photo: Anis Rahman