My name is Nicole Licato and I am the founder of WitchBeWell LLC. Below I share my story and how I got to where I am today. I think our personal stories shape who we become so I hope by reading my story you can get to know me, my perspective, and WitchBeWell LLC more intimately. 

I’ve been in the health and wellness field in some form since 2009 and a nurse for over 10 years. Although I graduated with a Neuroscience degree from Johns Hopkins initially, I decided that public health and nursing were more in line with my passions rather than medicine and research. It felt closer to the community and putting knowledge into practice to produce real-time change for people.

 I started my health career working in public health as a program manager for a non-profit called Project Health (now called Health Leads). The organization at that time put college students in underserved clinics in Baltimore to help families connect to resources they needed in the community that greatly impacted their health (access to food, transportation, shelter, etc.).  Not only did I work for this organization, I had volunteered with them as a college student. I learned so much about the foundations of good health that certainly come before traditional medicine. These social determinants of health likely account for over half of our health and include things like food access, transportation, safe communities, healthy housing, the ability to afford electricity, and the impact of underlying social structures such as racism and health inequity. To this day I find these aspects of health paramount and always try to incorporate them in any care I provide.

I decided then to pursue nursing school at the University of Pennsylvania.  I loved reproductive health, especially in caring for folks during pregnancy and childbirth. I volunteered with Nurse Family Partnership during nursing school which is an amazing nurse home visit program. I also became doula trained and offered those services on a volunteer basis. A doula, in short, is a labor, pregnancy, and postpartum support person and is a non-medical role. I decided to work in Labor and Delivery after graduating as a nurse for about 2.5 years and then moved into working for an Urgent Care so I could more easily go back to graduate school. 

I pursued a Family Nurse Practioner and Doctor of Nursing Practice education at East Carolina University and graduated in May 2020- yes right at the onset of the pandemic! After working in covid tents and testing locations, I started working as a nurse practitioner in a primary care internal medicine practice (adults only). I did this for about 2.5 years.

Up until now, this seems like a very traditional story, climbing the ladder, advancing my education, and getting that dream job. But this is where my path started to meander off that trodden course…

I found myself 2.5 years in completely burnt out. I absolutely loved working with my patients but the container I had to do this in every day was not a good fit. People to me are complex as are their health concerns. Supporting someone in their health and wellness journey meant delving into peoples’ stories, learning their history, unpacking mental health, understanding the relationships they had with people and their communities, and having real conversations with people about their goals and struggles. I saw how all of those things impacted the physical symptoms they were experiencing. While my patients loved this kind of care, I could not fit it into a 20-minute visit. However, rather than sacrifice the care I wanted to give and that I felt people deserved, I sacrificed my time and energy.  With patient care, forms, charting, phone calls, and messages– I was working well over 70 hours per week and mentally was at work even more of the time.  I was so depleted. I had no time for myself, felt disconnected from my friends and loved ones, and started to fall into a state of depression. Grinding every day in that hustle culture was making me sick.

So this left me bewildered, scared, and confused. How could I have gone through all this training and not be able to do what everyone else seemed able to do? Why am I not good enough at this job? Why am I so slow? How could I do any less for patients? How can I leave this “dream job” after finally making it and paying all this money for graduate school? There were months of back and forth and getting advice from different people. Ultimately after doing a lot of soul searching, reading, thinking, listening to my body and intuition…. I decided to leave that job in Aug 2023. I left without a plan. My only goal was to take a little time off and for the first time tune into what my ideal career and path would be like.

I used my time off to remember who I was underneath it all and explore what I value and how I want to use my healing gifts in a more aligned way. I found a coach (thank you Coach Chels!) and communities that lit me up and spoke about wellness in a way that resonated with me. I found places like Haven Farm, Current Wellness, and people like Brooke Belden, The Sisters Enchanted that combine wellness with spirituality, mindset work, and nature. I started seeing my friends again and deepening relationships with loved ones I had dearly missed.  I had wanted to learn herbalism for so long but felt I never had the time- so I used this time to begin my studies. 

I decided that I value freedom, flexibility, slowness, peace, being in nature, and depth. To me,  wellness is not just about removing disease. For me wellness is a holistic approach to how we want to feel. It ensures we feel vibrant, have self-trust, can meet the goals we have for our life, and feel purposeful, resourceful, and amazing in our bodies.  It means we have the energy to care for ourselves and those we choose to nurture around us. I love working with people one on one and helping them heal and reach their wellness goals. I love solving difficult problems, looking at how the web of health is related to so many things, and helping people get to the core of what might be going on to make them feel unwell. Breaking down problems into small bite-size realistic solutions is also a passion and strength of mine.

To live in alignment with my values and serve the community in a way that felt good to me, I decided that becoming an entrepreneur was the best idea for me. I created WitchBeWell LLC as my current vessel to do just that. I am still in the early days of my herbal studies however I believe that herbalism contains all of the values I have for health and wellness. Herbalism offers individualized remedies and works at the foundation to support our wellness. It requires us to go deeper though and look at how we live our lives, the foods we eat, body movement and our thoughts to truly get the most medicine from these plants and to improve our health and wellness. 

I do still work as a nurse in behavioral health which I absolutely love as well!

I am excited to continue writing my story and offering any gifts I have to the world. I am hoping to continue having offerings to help people heal from within, getting back to the basics and core of why we feel unwell, and using nature’s medicine as much as possible. Ultimately each person knows what they need to feel whole and well, and I hope to be a guide and provider of education and resources to help you meet your own wellness goals.