Strength in Struggles: A Love Note to Chronic Illness Business Owners
Sep 10, 2026There's a version of wellness center ownership that gets talked about a lot: the strategy, the hiring, the systems, the culture building. And then there's the version that happens before any of that—before the team meeting, before the patient intake, before the leadership decision. The version where you wake up and your body is telling you it doesn't want to cooperate today, and you have to decide, again, whether you're going to show up anyway.
For wellness center owners living with chronic illness, that decision happens every single day.
In this brief, unscripted episode—no notes, no agenda, just Kendall speaking directly from the heart—she addresses the community within her community: the practitioners, clinic owners, and wellness center creators who are building something meaningful while simultaneously navigating chronic pain, chronic medical conditions, ongoing diagnoses, or the exhausting process of trying to get answers from a healthcare system that doesn't always move quickly enough.
Kendall speaks from experience. She has lived with multiple sclerosis for 20 years. She knows what it is to manage a disease-modifying medication that renders you severely immunocompromised every two months, to wake up feeling genuinely unwell on a day when the work still needs doing, and to navigate a new and frightening symptom—in her case, debilitating migraines—that forces a complete cancellation of an entire day's commitments.
She doesn't dramatize any of it. She doesn't minimize it either. She simply says what chronic illness business owners rarely hear from someone who actually understands: "I see you."
The episode touches on something that sits at the intersection of leadership loneliness and chronic illness loneliness—two forms of isolation that can compound each other in ways that are difficult to articulate to anyone who hasn't experienced both. "Leading the business can be a lonely place," Kendall acknowledges. "Holding the responsibility can carry a loneliness with it. And having chronic illness can carry a loneliness with it, particularly if there aren't many people around you who understand the feeling."
But she also offers something important: perspective on why so many wellness practitioners end up building the kinds of practices they build. "Many of us have started our businesses because of our own experiences, our own health and illness journeys." The chronic illness experience—the navigation, the advocacy, the learning to listen to a body that communicates differently—often becomes the foundation of exceptional patient care. And the spaces built by practitioners who have experienced healthcare from the patient side tend to be spaces where patients with chronic conditions feel genuinely welcomed and understood.
Kendall also names something that chronic illness business owners frequently struggle to give themselves permission to do: cancel things. "I did cancel my whole day last week because of that. And that's okay too." This simple statement—delivered without apology or elaborate justification—offers a quiet but powerful counter-narrative to the grind culture that tells business owners they must show up no matter what.
The episode closes with a gentle reminder that cuts through the noise of everything else: "Most of the time we feel great, and maybe some of the time or a lot of the time, we feel super sh*tty and we're doing it anyway. And you're making a huge impact. You're doing amazing work and your team loves you, your community loves you."
This is not a strategy episode. There are no frameworks or checklists. It's something rarer and perhaps more necessary: a moment of genuine recognition from someone who is in it too, offering both solidarity and permission to any wellness center owner who needed to hear that they are seen, their work matters, and it's okay to not be okay sometimes.
If you are living with a chronic condition and building something meaningful through it anyway—this episode is for you.
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About Anna Rudel
Anna Rudel, L. Ac is the owner and founder of Lokahi Acupuncture Clinic in San Jose California, founded in 2003. Anna is a master organizer and clinician, and as a Coach she specializes in working with Clinic Owners in the state of California, and Acupuncturists and Acupuncture Clinic Owners, or groups wanting to add Acupuncture worldwide, as well as teams that need support with employee retention and satisfaction. Born in the UK, Anna has traveled extensively in Asia and now has a thriving multi-practitioner clinic in the US!
Anna's Website and Links
- Website: https://lokahiacupuncture.com/
- Learn Group Coaching: https://www.wellnesscentercreators.com/group-coaching
- For info about Individual Coaching: https://www.wellnesscentercreators.com/individual-coaching
About Kendall Hagensen
Kendall is a Somatic Mental Health Therapist, Multidisciplinary Clinic Owner and Business Coach. She specializes in, and is passionate about, working with healthcare professionals to create the businesses of their dreams. Big goals always have a psychological component beneath the surface, so Kendall uses her background in Somatic Psychotherapy and EMDR Therapy mixed with Business Coaching tools to help clients develop a healthy relationship with their business and their strength as a leader.
As someone who lives with a chronic illness herself, Kendall feels that health happens best within community, which is why she takes a holistic, integrative, and collaborative wellness approach to her personal and professional life.
Kendall’s Web/Social Links