Introduce yourself! Who are you?
My name is Hayley Wood and I’m a wholistic esthetician with a practice called Therapeutic Skin Coach living in Los Angeles, California.

Did you always know what you wanted to do as a career?
No, but I had an idea of the type of environment and energy that I wanted to attract for my worklife. I knew that I wanted to help people and work in an atmosphere where I could continuously learn and grow. I also didn’t want to be boxed in where if I wanted to pivot within my field, I would be able to. I might have known that I would have wanted to be an esthetician if I knew what it was when I was growing up. I had chronic inflammatory skin issues growing up and loved creating beauty rituals for myself, so as soon as I discovered that there was a job that helped others with skin issues using beauty rituals, I immediately knew in my heart that this was my path to pursue my purpose.

Were you scared to start the process?
I started school to become an esthetician at 18 which was a time when fear was a huge part of my life. I was painfully shy, introverted, anxious, and terrified of stepping out of the box in any way. My inner light was barely flickering when I was a freshman in college because I didn’t really feel good with just taking the same steps forward that everyone else was doing at the time. I didn’t see the benefit in the end game of obtaining a college degree just to have one. Especially since it was expensive and I didn’t qualify for any loans/grants. Or at least I didn’t have to guidance to search for the ones that would support my Canadian citizenship status. I was lost because I barely knew myself and was in the midst of a lot of life transitions. When I discovered there was such a thing as being an esthetician, my fears were completely trampled over by my strong intuitive pull to pursue this career. I believe that my naivety served me well at the time because if I were to really think about the long term consequences of this choice and how I may become overwhelmed with how hard it would be to really thrive in such a physically demanding job.

What is one thing no one really knows about you?
Up until recently it was that I was struggling with chronic pain due to undiagnosed endometriosis. It felt like my biggest secret that I’m so liberated to finally have the vocabulary to discuss what I’ve been experiencing with people in my life. Other than that, it would be probably that my first language is French (though I’m barely fluent anymore) or I have a huge passion for the entertainment industry. I love movies, television shows, and all of the media outlets that passionately reviews and reports on them. My idea of a great time is listening to movie review podcasts by Vanity Fair and attending a movie q+a here in Los Angeles. I find that certain story lines help us become aware of greater social issues we have to be willing to face in order to change. If it’s done well, it can create empathy in a way that no other forum can.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
I’m so lucky to work with as many people as I get to. All of my clients overtime have taught me something that I needed to learn at the time that I needed to learn it. The best advice is basically to trust the process when people, things, and opportunities start to lose a space in your life. If you trust in letting go of what no longer serves you, you are making space for what will.

And honestly just that “whatever you resist, persists.” 

What would you say to 16 year old you?
I was 16 back in 2003 and living in a predominantly conservative part of the country. I was already feeling some prejudice over being an immigrant (yes, even if you’re from Canada there can be some major bullies out there triggered by how you’re different than them), but I didn’t realize how much of our culture was still stuck in oppressing women. Just thinking back about song lyrics, story lines in popular television and movies, and even magazine articles promoting the importance of getting a man to want you, it can be a little saddening to think that this was only 16 years ago. I didn’t have many empowered females to look up to or talk to about traumatic experiences with. So I would probably tell my 16 year old self:

Hayley, you’re not fat or ugly so dump your loser boyfriend who is shaming your developing body, make more mistakes because perfection is an illusion, and one day you’ll be honored for being yourself so you might as well start now.

Have you ever had anyone doubt you? How did that make you feel?
Yes, people doubt me all the time. Even clients who reach out to me for help! I’m sort of used to it because I started young in my career so a lot of the commentary would be; “You’re too young to know anything…”. It made me work a little harder to prove myself. There have been times where it’s really made me doubt myself but usually that’s just because I’m stuck at a level and need to evolve. I do think that a person doubting you is either a projection of their fear or a mirror of your own self-doubt. I let it guide me in the lessons I need to gain in order to grow.

What message do you think every woman should hear?
There are two that I think are important. One is that we have to keep advocating for ourselves even when we are continuously dismissed. Especially when it comes to our health. So many of us are quietly suffering and told that that is what being a woman should be like. Painful periods, infertility, chronic pain, etc. But life is hard enough as it is and you are allowed to want to feel better in your body. Secondly, it would be that the beauty beliefs can shift. The conventional fear-based beauty standards that we have to strive for perfection and are not being allowed to age don’t allow for us to be human. Beauty beliefs can be love-based but it takes practice to shed what’s blocking your inner light! We are all beautiful but it’s a matter of how much we believe and trust in our authentic selves. Just be you and your reflection will always be one that you will recognize and love.

Have you always had confidence in yourself?
Absolutely not. My confidence is something that shifts day to day based on how I’m feeling physically and emotionally. I know that I have to work on my mental health in order to feel my best physically and I have to be active in my physical health to feel my best mentally. It’s a daily choice to just try my best and I’m constantly acquiring tools to help me feel like my best self. Confidence for me is more of a journey and not a destination.

What do you love most about yourself?
This has taken me a while to learn how to love but I love how I process information differently. I used to think that I was dumb because I couldn’t just read something and completely absorb the information. I need to be physical in order to gain information because I’m highly empathic and intuitive. Once I stopped shutting that part of myself down, I realized how much more I love learning through different ways. I’m a sensitive vessel and my strongest skill and communication language is all energetic so I value that in myself and love what it has taught me about being human.

Do you remember a specific time you overcame adversity?
I’ve had to overcome adversity a lot ever since I was a child. I moved a lot (7 times by age 10 including to a different country), was chronically sick as a child, was never French enough for my French Canadian community, and also never American enough for my American community. But nothing compares to how I have pushed through being dismissed from doctors, friends, and other community members about my chronic illness. I’ve been pushed to the point where I wasn’t sure if I could even work anymore because of my endometriosis yet somehow I could find the strength to smile and keep going. Being of service to others so they can feel seen, heard, and deserving of care is what drives me to move through any challenge.