Pulse December 2015 | Page 16

MEMBER PROFILE BODISCIENCE WELLNESS CENTER & SPA Seeing an Opportunity in Crisis B Y M A E M A Ñ AC A P - J O H N S O N W hen life throws you lemons, you make lemonade. This was certainly a life lesson BodiScience Wellness Center & Spa President Dawn Tardif learned when faced with life-altering events. The idea of launching her own business was inspired by two major events that took place at a crucial point in her life: the breast cancer diagnosis of her mother and the need to support a friend about to take a career change in cosmetology. “These two life events engaged me in seeking out alternative health modalities, leading me to 14 PULSE n December 2015 study East Indian philosophy.” Her mother’s diagnosis has certainly left a profound impact on Tardif, which led her to leave a gratifying career in the retail and fashion world as well as question, investigate and take an unorthodox approach to her mother’s disease. “Seeking this path was because, as a child, I had a deep sense that there was more to health and wellness than what appeared to be the mainstream of allopathic medicine. Over the next 25 years, I would begin a journey that I had never expected,” she says. Tardif drew her courage to start her own spa business from her mother, Dorothy, (right in photo with Jane Iredale) who showed deep resilience even in the face of a cancer diagnosis.