Dawne Russell on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly

When a successful clinic owner encounters something that reshapes her entire understanding of healing, the story that follows tends to be worth hearing. Dawne Russell built her foundation in medical aesthetics before her path took a significant turn — one that led her to explore regenerative medicine, including umbilical cord stem cell therapy she encountered in Costa Rica. She sat down with Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour to talk through that journey: where it started, what she discovered, and what she believes it means for the future of health and wellness.

The conversation covers significant ground, from the entrepreneurial realities of building a clinic to the broader landscape of integrative health practices, including psychedelics as a complementary dimension of emotional and physical healing. Throughout, Dawne Russell speaks from her own experience and her company's approach — sharing what she has witnessed and what shapes her work, while acknowledging that the field is still evolving.

About Dawne Russell

Dawne Russell is an entrepreneur whose career began in medical aesthetics before expanding into the broader space of regenerative and integrative wellness. Her clinic, Slate Natural Wellness, reflects her interest in combining conventional and emerging approaches to health — including regenerative therapies that she encountered on her own personal and professional journey. She has been drawn in particular to exploring how stem cell approaches, in the context of her company's work, may relate to conditions involving inflammation, autoimmune responses, and trauma.

Alongside her clinical work, Dawne has also developed a perspective on the role of psychedelic-assisted experiences — including ceremonial use of plant medicines and discussion of microdosing — as part of a broader view of emotional and physical wellbeing. She is candid about the complexities involved, including questions of safety, legal status, and the importance of appropriate guidance. Her conversation with Sean Kelly reflects the kind of entrepreneurial curiosity that leads people to build new things in spaces that traditional medicine has not yet fully mapped.

What Dawne Russell and Sean Kelly Talked About

• Dawne Russell's account of how her journey from medical aesthetics led her to explore regenerative wellness
• Her experience discovering umbilical cord stem cell therapy in Costa Rica and what drew her to it
• How her company's approach addresses conditions involving inflammation and autoimmune challenges, as she describes them
• The intersection of psychedelic experiences — including ayahuasca ceremonies and microdosing — with her view of holistic healing
• Her perspective on the current landscape of psychedelic safety, legal considerations, and responsible access
• A look at exosome therapy and other emerging modalities discussed in her practice's work
• What burnout taught her about the limits of conventional approaches to health and performance
• The entrepreneurial path of building a wellness clinic and the challenges that come with operating in an evolving field

Why This Conversation Matters

Dawne Russell's episode offers a first-person account of what it looks like to build a business around emerging wellness approaches while navigating genuine uncertainty about what the science will eventually confirm. Her willingness to share both the inspiring moments and the practical complications of this work makes for a conversation that is honest, thoughtful, and genuinely useful for anyone curious about the frontier of integrative health. Listeners should treat the therapeutic approaches discussed as her experience and her company's perspective — not as established medical guidance.

▶  Watch the full episode on YouTube

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