Dr. Janice Campbell is one of the coaches that we found this month and we did a little interview with her. She impressed us with her dedication and uniqueness.

She didn’t plan to become a coach, she became one by simply being who she is. Dr. Janice Campbell, lovingly known as The Story Medic, grew up as the answer to a wish, and that sense of meaning and belonging has shaped her life’s mission: helping others create stories big enough for all of us to live in.

She brings a truly one of a kind background to her work, blending stage management, acupuncture, somatic healing, and storytelling into a deeply intuitive coaching style. Whether it’s assigning unexpected “homework,” guiding a somatic meditation, or using a children’s book to spark transformation, she tailors every session with heart and precision.

She specializes in working with emotionally intelligent, creative, and often overwhelmed individuals, people like her. Having walked through her own fires, Janice leads others with compassion, curiosity, and honesty, helping them return to themselves, heal deeply, and move forward with a renewed sense of purpose and joy. Here is what she said…

Meet Life Coach Dr. Janice Campbell:

Name: Janice Campbell, Dr.

Pillar: The Spirit, The Mind, The Body, The Heart

Who is this coach for: Nonlinear, adrenaline dependent, creative, emotionally smart, overcompensators who want to ‘name’ and ‘tame’ the ‘elephant’ in the room so they can tell BIG stories about themselves that change the world.

How they can help: By using her own experience, intuition, and various tools, tricks, and techniques guiding people back into their bodies, like somatic meditations and qigong exercises, just to name a few.

First of all, how are you and your family doing after these Pandemic times?

Generally well, considering the state of the world.

Life continues to be full and interesting.

How did the coronavirus pandemic affect your clients? Did it affect you at all?

My clients (patients) had the whole array of reactions to what was going on… fear, depression, anxiety, lack of direction, anger, relief at having some time alone, etc.

As for me, while I went through the same gamut of emotions, a small part of me responded “Bring it! I’ve been preparing for this my whole life!”

Which turned out to be a good thing because I was called to respond in hugely creative ways on all fronts.

For starters, I started reading kids’ books to my adult patients online, pulling questions from them, and creating spur of the moment somatic meditations based on those themes.

That eventually evolved into my podcast, Once Upon A Moment, which leads people home to their bodies and to who they’ve always been, while reminding them of their deepest resources, in the face of what is.

Also during the pandemic, I was the Director of Clinical Education at a graduate school for acupuncturists and I ended up putting a 3000+ year old medicine online in a way that not only deepened the masters and doctoral students’ learning and skills…

It also continued to provide relief for the physical, mental, and emotional issues that their patients were experiencing during that time.

This later evolved into the service I call Distance Mind Body IntegrationSM, a combination of what I developed for the school and the somatic meditation model I adopted with my own patients.

Tragically, on a more personal level, right after the first vaccines came out, I flew to Cairo, Egypt to bury my sister and settle her estate there.

Honestly, the whole experience was a movie script in the making and I’d be happy to tell it to you sometime.

Typing just doesn’t do it justice.

I will say that one of the most powerful things I did during that time was float in a boat on the Nile in the dark of night with only a tiny sliver of moon up above.

It was one of the most energetically magical things I’ve ever experienced.

What are the biggest lessons that you learned in this pandemic?

So many…

Having a boss that lets me play to my strengths is a huge gift, and having one that puts me in too small a box can be both a curse and an impetus for change.

I need to take my own time to rest because the rest of the world is not going to give it to me.

I’m still a little irked I didn’t get to lay around the house, do DIY projects, and play games on Zoom with friends.

My academic role took up so much of my life.

I felt like I needed a vacation from quarantine when it was over.

I also learned that not only am I a nonlinear thinker, I’m also neurodiverse and I’ve made friends all over the world because of it.

And finally, I have spent far too much of my life manifesting other people’s dreams and plans.

I’m much happier when I’m only working on mine.

I haven’t done anything or talked to anybody I didn’t want to since March of 2022, when I quit the school.

I’m a happy human.

The Origin:

Tell us about you, your career, how you started with your coaching career?

Careful what you ask…

In short, it just happened.

I never really “started” it.

I can tell this story many ways.

Here’s one…

I am the youngest of six (12 years behind my closest sibling and 21 years behind my oldest).

I know what you’re wondering, was I a mistake?

My mom told me once that when she found out she was pregnant again, she wanted me to be twins, so that I’d have somebody to play with, and so she’d have 7 kids, since both she and my dad came from families of 7 kids.

Then she found out there was only one of me and she decided she wanted me to be a little red headed boy, because then she’d have 3 boys and 3 girls and she’d always wanted a redhead.

She got me.

Now, you may be wondering if I was a disappointment.

But neither of those are the story I grew up in.

Even before I was born, whenever my youngest sister was asked what she wanted for Christmas or her birthday, her answer was always the same, “a baby sister.”

She turned 12 on May 27th and I was born on July 27th.

So, when anyone in my family is asked if I was a mistake or a surprise or a disappointment, they always say “no, she’s a wish.”

Is it any wonder that my mission in life is to help us all tell stories big enough to live in?

For ourselves?

For our communities?

And for the world?

I’m Dr. Janice Campbell (a.k.a. The Story Medic) and I am many things:

A recovering theatrical stage manager, an acupuncturist, an herbalist, a somatic touch practitioner, a meditation coach, a speaker, a storyteller, a teacher, a mom, a partner, a friend, an artist, a musician, a nonlinear thinker, a curiosity seeker, and… a wish.

My job, in all that I do, is to name and tame the elephants in the room so that, together, we can begin to tell stories big enough to live in, creating stealth belonging for all of us.

To that end, I’ve set up my proverbial tent right here behind the front lines of the resistance.

Come on in!

I’ll pull whatever’s needed out of my bag of tricks and help lead you back home to your body, to who you’ve always known yourself to be, while reminding you of your deepest resources, in the face of what is.

Then, when your thermos is full, I’ll send you back out there to use your force for good.

Who are my “ideal clients”?

Nonlinear, adrenaline dependent, creative, emotionally smart, overcompensators.

Any of that sound like you?

Why those folks?

Because I’ve been in that hole, and I know the way out.

Let me explain:

When I was a kid, I’d pack my bag 3 days before going on a trip and then the night before, I’d take out a third of the stuff, just in case I got something on the trip.

When I was a college student, I’d do my laundry BEFORE going back home, because it would take up less room in my suitcases then. (Duh…)

And for most of my adult life (before 9/11), I’d get to the airport 2 hours early, watch my luggage go through the flappy things, rush to the gate and find an actual person to tell me that the sign was correct, then go grab food and run back to the gate to wait.

In my first career as a stage manager, my job was to put out fires before they started, before folks even smelled smoke.

I was good at it.

When I finally began climbing out of that hole, my husband and I were headed back to Minneapolis to visit.

He was trained by this point to follow my crazy airport routine.

It was after 9/11.

I got us to BWI a little over an hour before our flight.

I walked away before they picked up our luggage at the ticket counter.

We stopped and got food and had a drink first.

We arrived at the gate just in time to slip onto the plane before the doors closed.

Once we were seated, I’m sitting there all relaxed and unbothered, and he looks at me and says:

“2 things:

1) I have prayed for this day as long as I’ve known you and

2) at this point, I am not prepared to start paying attention.”

Like I said, I know the way out.

Living outside that hole looks like arriving at your destination, not complaining about the gridlocked traffic, and instead telling everybody about how cool it was to see a family of deer grazing on the side of the road.

This is why I say that if the process of getting there isn’t as rewarding as the final product, I haven’t done my job.

Life is just too short not to be having a good time.

We’re all in this together.

Holler if you need me.

What was your biggest obstacle that you had to overcome in your life that made you who you are today?

Oh, wow.

I’m not sure how to answer that.

In many ways, I’ve led a charmed life and I’m very thankful.

However, I have also had the deep losses of family members, the sudden loss of friends, the challenges of being freelance and later, those of being an entrepreneur, some terrible bosses and bad choices.

I’ve had my health issues, my disappointments, my screw ups.

They all are steps in the path to who I am now.

Each one felt like the biggest when it was going on, and things get smaller in the rearview mirror.

The Coaching Style:

How do you innovate with coaching your clients?

As I mentioned above, my bag of tricks is diverse and extensive.

For one, I’m known for giving interesting homework, anything from a qigong exercise to house laps to breaking glass to a specific comedian’s routine, or even a soup recipe.

I often pull those suggestions out of their own lives and the words they use to describe being alive.

I also tell teaching stories and use those or kids’ books as springboards for somatic meditations.

And always, I’m guiding people back into their bodies, their inner resources, and what their wise teachers (symptoms) are telling them.

What’s unique about your coaching approach?

Is there anybody else out there pulling on my particular life experiences and intuition to help people tell big enough stories for us all to live in (in our bodies, minds, hearts, and world)?

I’ve got no other way to answer this.

What benefits do your clients get after working with you?

I’ll let some of them answer:

“Janice is gifted. What I appreciate most is the amount of time she gives, and how she very much personalizes every session. She is very thoughtful in determining the best course of treatment. I enjoy getting a list of things to work on after each session. This has directly sped up the treatment because she taught me how to do my part at home. She genuinely cares for her clients and works in a very honest way.”

“Up until recently, I would have not considered ‘wellness’ an art form. This experience has helped me live a fuller life.”

“I was badly injured by childhood trauma when I first started seeing her. Soon, I knew what she was doing was working. A secret to the healing was her compassionate influence on me. It took several years and I can now say that I feel very close to fully healed. Best of luck to anyone seeking Janice’s skill. She’s outstanding!”

“Words can’t express how good she is at what she does. I’m fortunate to be back in her caring and professional hands. As a practitioner she is unmatched only by her empathy and compassion for her clients. She heals mind and body.”

“As a postman, I carry her cards with me on my route and recommend people to her all the time for physical, mental, and emotional issues.”

“Upon first impression, Janice was warm and empathetic to my healing process and I was taken aback by her honesty and good nature. Janice’s attention to detail and her work with me has been crucial to my recovery post-trauma. I know that the stresses of this recovery would have been even more difficult had I not found a way to healing. I have recommended Janice to many of my friends and colleagues.”

Do you use any specific tools to be efficient with your clients?

Beyond scheduling apps and the way I take notes, I’m not sure what you mean.

The Impact:

If you had a super megaphone that, when you speak into, the whole world will hear your message, what would you say?

Everyone, take a moment.

Become of aware of the back of your head… now let that awareness expand down through your neck, slide over your shoulders and roll down the backs of your arms… down over your shoulder blades, the space between your shoulder blades, the backdoor to your heart… down through your midback, your low back, the seat of pants, the backs of your legs, your heels, the soles of your feet, and the pads of your toes.

Now let all of who you are rest back into your back body, turning the full weight of you over to what ever is holding you up, any structures under that, the dirt below that, and ultimately, the entire planet.

Notice what’s different.

Let that awareness seep through all of you like a sponge, becoming aware of how deeply you belong in this body, in this lifetime, in this point in time and space, just as you are, and let your senses expand to feel your connection to all of the rest of humanity, just as they are, and the rest of nature itself.

Notice what’s different… when you let yourself be accepted and held by everyone and everything… belonging no matter what.

Let that sink in deep.

With this kind of backup, feel into what the best use of you is in this world and let that bring a radiance to your heart, letting it expand out through all of who you are, until it rises up into your head and tickles the back of your eyelids, so that your eyes just have to open, so your heart can see the world.

Now, shall we tell some stories big enough for us all to live in?

You’ve got this.

I’m here if you need me.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned in your life?

That no matter what, no matter where I am, I always show up as forthrightness, flexibility, and belonging.

It’s called my promise in being, something we had to do before entering acupuncture clinic as masters students.

Five Element Acupuncture makes sense to me the way the world did when I was small.

Studying it has changed my life completely and made me a better person in all the ways I am in the world.

Your final thoughts?

As I’ve said before, be careful what you ask, I will answer.

Sorry if my responses were too long.

Where Can You Find Dr. Janice Campbell?

If you liked this interview and if you would love to see how Dr. Janice can help you name and tame the “elephant” in the room so you can tell big enough stories for us all to live in, go to her website and learn more about her services.

If you want to dive deeper into her story we strongly suggest to listen to her podcast.

OR feel free to watch this episode where she is a guest:

If you’d like to peak a glimpse into her coaching, follow her Instagram and Facebook accounts.

And if you’d like to connect more personally with her, you can do that through LinkedIn or by sending her a direct message on her WhatsApp or her Email [email protected]. It was an honor having this interview with her.