Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Summers.
Amber, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My journey into holistic healthcare began long before I ever imagined becoming a business owner. In fact, it began when I was just five years old, struggling with severe health challenges that would ultimately shape the course of my life.
After years of debilitating symptoms, hospitalizations, and conventional treatments that weren’t providing the answers we desperately needed, I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. My mother refused to give up on finding a way to help me. Together, we discovered holistic healthcare, and through changes in nutrition, nutritional supplementation, and other natural approaches, I began experiencing remarkable improvements in my health. That experience planted a seed that would eventually grow into my life’s work.
My fascination with the human body led me to pursue a degree in Biology at Mount Holyoke College, where I graduated with high honors in 2000. I went on to conduct research in the Division of Hematology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), contributing to two peer-reviewed scientific publications.
While working at the NIH, I continued my scientific education through graduate-level coursework in biochemistry at Johns Hopkins University. At the same time, I pursued my passion for holistic healthcare at the Washington Institute of Natural Medicine, where I studied from 2001 to 2003, earning certifications in Holistic Health Care, Holistic Nutrition, Homeopathy, Reiki, and Angel Therapy.
This combination of scientific research and holistic education helped shape the foundation of my approach to wellness. I became passionate about bridging the gap between conventional science and holistic healthcare, recognizing the value of understanding both the intricate biochemical processes of the human body and the interconnected nature of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
In 2009, I began teaching holistic healthcare certification courses, and in 2011, I took the leap into entrepreneurship and opened Thrive Wellness Center in Northeast Pennsylvania. My vision was to create a place where people could feel heard, educated, supported, and empowered to take an active role in their health.
In 2019, my personal and professional worlds collided when my mother, who had been instrumental in my own healing journey, was diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer. Suddenly, I found myself navigating an overwhelming diagnosis from the perspective of a daughter and caregiver, despite having years of experience as a holistic health practitioner. Supporting her through that experience profoundly deepened my understanding of what individuals and families face when confronted with a serious diagnosis. It also inspired me to write my book, Stop Cancer Overwhelm, along with a companion guidebook designed to help people navigate the fear, confusion, and difficult decisions that can accompany a cancer diagnosis.
In 2020, I transitioned my brick-and-mortar wellness center into a virtual practice, opening the doors to working with clients around the world. Thrive Wellness Center evolved into Thrive Worldwide Wellness, allowing me to expand my reach while continuing to provide highly personalized, one-on-one holistic health coaching.
Today, I work internationally, offering individualized wellness programs, education, and retreats. My work combines my background in biology and scientific research with more than 15 years of experience in holistic healthcare. I specialize in supporting people navigating complex and chronic health challenges, helping them understand their bodies, explore contributing factors, and develop personalized strategies for improving their well-being.
My journey has also brought me to Costa Rica, where I’ve been developing a wellness retreat experience on our beautiful cacao farm, bringing together nature, education, relaxation, and holistic living.
Looking back, I see that every chapter of my life—from my childhood health struggles and scientific research to entrepreneurship and my mother’s cancer journey—has contributed to the work I do today. My mission has remained remarkably consistent: to empower people with the knowledge, resources, and support they need to become active participants in their own health and create lives in which they can truly thrive.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not! My journey has been filled with challenges, unexpected detours, and moments when I had absolutely no idea what was coming next. But looking back, I can see how some of my greatest struggles became the catalysts for my greatest opportunities.
The challenges began early in life. Growing up with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis was difficult enough physically, but there were also the emotional challenges of being different. I experienced bullying, criticism, and feelings of isolation. When I shared stories about the holistic healthcare approaches that were helping me, including nutritional response testing, I was often met with skepticism and ridicule. People would dismiss my doctor as a quack or tell me that what we were doing couldn’t possibly work. As a child, it was difficult to navigate those judgments while experiencing such profound changes in my own health.
By age seven, my health had improved dramatically. But at age ten, believing my illness was behind me, I abandoned many of the healthy habits that had helped me recover. I wanted to be a normal kid, eating candy and doing everything my friends were doing. Unfortunately, I experienced a relapse and had to face the physical and emotional challenges of my illness all over again. It was a difficult lesson about the importance of maintaining the foundations of health, one that has stayed with me throughout my life.
My twenties brought an entirely different kind of struggle. Despite my scientific education and background in holistic healthcare, I hadn’t yet discovered my true calling. I worked in medical publishing, nonprofit fundraising and development, and chiropractic office management, among other positions. I gained valuable experience, but I also experienced considerable professional instability and spent years searching for a sense of purpose and direction.
That began to change in 2009, when Dr. Goldstein invited me to teach holistic healthcare certification courses through the Washington Institute of Natural Medicine. Teaching reignited my passion for holistic healthcare, and I began seeing clients through a small wellness practice. As my teaching and practice developed, I experienced what I can only describe as a download of inspiration to write the business plan for Thrive Wellness Center. In 2011, I opened my first brick-and-mortar wellness center in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Of course, entrepreneurship brought an entirely new set of challenges. Building a business requires tremendous dedication, resilience, and a willingness to adapt. There were financial challenges, growing pains, and countless lessons along the way.
Then came one of the most difficult periods of my life.
In 2019, my mother was diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer. The woman who had fought so hard for my health as a child was now facing a life-threatening diagnosis of her own. Despite my professional experience, navigating her diagnosis as her daughter was incredibly overwhelming. We pursued an intensive integrative approach that included treatment at Hope4Cancer and a comprehensive wellness program through Thrive. Watching her regain her health was an extraordinary experience, but the journey itself was emotionally, physically, and financially demanding. It ultimately became the inspiration for my book, Stop Cancer Overwhelm.
Just as we were emerging from that experience, another major challenge arrived: COVID-19.
January 2020 had been our most successful month in business. We were preparing for a major expansion, and on March 12, 2020, I signed a five-year lease for a new location that would give us approximately 1,200 additional square feet. Within days, the world changed.
Our expansion plans collapsed, and the financial realities of the pandemic made it impossible to continue operating our brick-and-mortar wellness center as we had envisioned. We ultimately canceled the new lease and transitioned the business online.
At the time, it felt like everything I had worked so hard to build was being turned upside down. But what initially appeared to be a devastating setback became one of the greatest blessings of my entrepreneurial journey.
Moving my practice online allowed me to work with clients around the world and eventually gave me the freedom to relocate much of my life to Costa Rica. We still maintain a home office and supplement apothecary in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, but I’ve been able to devote much of my time to developing our wellness retreat location on a beautiful two-acre cacao farm in Costa Rica.
And while living in paradise sounds idyllic, moving to another country and developing a property in the tropics has presented an entirely new collection of challenges! Things we often take for granted in the United States, like reliable electricity and water, aren’t always guaranteed. We have more than 800 cacao trees to care for, extensive property maintenance, and the ongoing responsibilities of operating an international wellness practice, welcoming retreat guests, and writing my book.
Yet this experience has also opened the door to a deeper exploration of the spiritual, energetic, and physical aspects of plant medicine, particularly cacao, and the profound relationship between nature and well-being.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life rarely unfolds according to our carefully constructed plans. Some of my most difficult experiences have forced me to surrender, reevaluate, and embrace an entirely new direction.
My journey hasn’t been smooth, but it has taught me resilience, adaptability, faith, and the importance of trusting that even our greatest challenges can lead us somewhere extraordinary.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
At Thrive Worldwide Wellness, my work is centered around one fundamental belief: everyone deserves to feel empowered, educated, and supported in their journey toward optimal health.
I’m a Holistic Health Practitioner, Holistic Nutrition Consultant, educator, and author. I specialize in working with individuals navigating complex and chronic health challenges, including cancer, autoimmune conditions, digestive disorders, hormonal imbalances, environmental toxicity, and other conditions that can significantly impact quality of life.
Many of the people who come to me have spent years searching for answers. They’ve seen multiple practitioners, undergone countless tests, and tried numerous treatments, yet they still feel that something is missing. Others have recently received a life-changing diagnosis and are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and decisions suddenly confronting them.
My role is to help them make sense of it all.
What sets my practice apart is the combination of my scientific background, extensive holistic healthcare education, and deeply personalized approach to wellness. My education in biology, research experience at the National Institutes of Health, graduate coursework at Johns Hopkins University, and certifications in multiple holistic healing disciplines have given me a broad foundation from which to approach complex health challenges.
I believe that understanding the body requires looking beyond individual symptoms and considering the intricate relationships between nutrition, biochemistry, the immune system, hormones, environmental exposures, emotional well-being, and lifestyle.
Rather than offering a standardized program, I spend considerable time investigating each client’s unique health history, reviewing laboratory findings, identifying potential contributing factors, and developing individualized wellness strategies. Depending on the client’s needs, these may incorporate nutritional support, lifestyle modifications, targeted supplementation, functional laboratory testing, and complementary holistic approaches.
Education is one of the most important components of my work. I don’t want clients to simply follow a protocol without understanding why they’re doing it. I want them to understand their bodies, recognize patterns, ask informed questions, and become confident participants in their own healthcare decisions. I also encourage collaboration with their physicians and other healthcare providers, particularly when they’re navigating serious or complex medical conditions.
I often describe my approach as connecting the dots. Sometimes the most valuable insights emerge when we begin looking at seemingly unrelated symptoms, environmental factors, nutritional deficiencies, and health history as pieces of a much larger picture.
My personal experiences have also profoundly shaped the way I work. Having navigated serious illness as a child and later supported my mother through stage four kidney cancer, I understand how frightening and overwhelming health challenges can be, not just for the individual but for the entire family.
That experience inspired me to write Stop Cancer Overwhelm, a book and companion guidebook designed to help individuals and their loved ones navigate the emotional, informational, and practical challenges of a cancer diagnosis. My goal is to provide people with a framework for moving from fear and confusion toward greater clarity, confidence, and empowerment.
Beyond my one-on-one practice, I’ve expanded my work into holistic health education and wellness retreats. Our retreat location in Costa Rica, situated on a beautiful cacao farm, offers an opportunity to reconnect with nature, explore holistic living, and experience the restorative benefits of stepping away from the demands of everyday life. I’m particularly passionate about the relationship between nature, spirituality, and well-being, including the traditional and ceremonial uses of cacao.
What am I most proud of? Without question, it’s the relationships I’ve built with my clients and the opportunity to witness their personal transformations.
There’s something incredibly rewarding about watching someone who initially feels frightened, exhausted, or defeated begin to regain confidence, understand their health, and feel empowered to make meaningful changes in their life. Some of my clients have worked with me for many years, and being trusted to accompany them through different chapters of their health journeys is an extraordinary privilege.
I’m also proud that I’ve remained true to my original vision for Thrive, even as the business has evolved from a small wellness practice in Pennsylvania into an international practice offering virtual consultations, education, and retreats.
Ultimately, I believe what distinguishes Thrive Worldwide Wellness is that we don’t approach wellness as a one-size-fits-all solution. We recognize that every person has a unique story, and that story matters. We take the time to listen, investigate, educate, and develop strategies that reflect each individual’s needs, goals, and circumstances.
My greatest aspiration isn’t simply to help people feel better today. It’s to give them the knowledge, confidence, and tools to become lifelong advocates for their own health and truly thrive.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I believe we’re entering one of the most exciting and potentially transformative
periods in the evolution of healthcare. My greatest hope for the next five to ten years
is that we begin to experience a fundamental paradigm shift in our medical system,
moving away from what has become largely a reactive model of “sick care” and
toward a truly integrated system of proactive healthcare.
One of my fundamental goals, both personally and through Thrive Worldwide
Wellness, is to help support this transformation.
Our current medical system is extraordinary when it comes to emergency medicine,
surgical interventions, and many life-saving treatments. However, I believe we’ve
developed a system that too often focuses on managing disease after it develops
rather than creating the conditions that help people remain healthy in the first place.
We have become heavily reliant on pharmaceutical interventions, sometimes without
adequately addressing the underlying factors contributing to chronic illness. While
medications can be absolutely necessary and life-saving, they can also produce
significant side effects, create additional health challenges, and, in some
circumstances, place additional demands on the body’s organs and metabolic
processes.
I would love to see a future in which we place as much emphasis on restoring and
maintaining health as we do on managing disease.
To me, that begins with making preventive healthcare a primary focus. Nutrition,
appropriate nutritional supplementation, physical activity, environmental health,
stress management, and mental and emotional well-being should be foundational
components of our healthcare system, rather than afterthoughts.
I also believe we need to place much greater emphasis on the impact of emotional
trauma and the experiences we accumulate throughout childhood and adulthood. Our
physical health doesn’t exist independently of our emotional experiences,
relationships, environments, and the way we respond to stress. Supporting people in
addressing these aspects of their lives is an essential part of a comprehensive
approach to wellness.
And here’s where I envision a significant departure from our current healthcare
model: I don’t believe physicians need to become experts in every aspect of nutrition,
holistic healthcare, emotional healing, or lifestyle medicine.
Instead, I envision a truly integrated healthcare system in which physicians, holistic
health practitioners, nutritionists, mental health professionals, and other specialists
work collaboratively, recognizing and respecting the unique contributions each
discipline brings to the table.
Imagine a healthcare system in which a patient showing early signs of metabolic
dysfunction is connected with a nutritionist and holistic practitioner, receives
appropriate medical evaluation, and is supported in making meaningful lifestyle
changes before their condition progresses. Or a patient struggling with chronic
inflammation receives coordinated support addressing nutrition, sleep, stress,
environmental exposures, and emotional well-being alongside appropriate medical
care.
When clinically appropriate, these interventions could serve as first-line approaches,
with medications introduced when necessary rather than automatically becoming the
starting point for every health challenge.
For individuals already navigating serious or chronic diseases, I envision a
collaborative model in which holistic practitioners and physicians work together to
support the patient’s recovery, improve quality of life, address potential contributing
factors, and, when medically appropriate, reduce dependence on medications under
their prescribing physician’s supervision.
I’ve witnessed an example of the possibilities of integrative healthcare through my
mother’s experience at Hope4Cancer. Their model brings together conventional
medical evaluation with a range of complementary approaches, nutritional support,
and attention to emotional and spiritual well-being. While individual treatments must
be evaluated on their own scientific merits, the collaborative, whole-person
philosophy represents an important aspect of the future I envision.
I’m also incredibly excited about advances in personalized healthcare. Developments
in functional laboratory testing, genetics, microbiome research, and our
understanding of the immune system are creating new opportunities to investigate
the complex relationships between our biology, environment, and lifestyle.
Artificial intelligence and digital health technology will likely accelerate this
evolution, giving practitioners new tools to analyze complex information, recognize
patterns, and develop more individualized approaches to wellness. At the same time,
we must ensure that emerging technologies and testing methods are scientifically
validated and used responsibly.
Another area I believe will continue to grow is the recognition of the relationship
between nature, spirituality, and well-being. As our lives become increasingly
dominated by technology, stress, and constant stimulation, I anticipate greater
interest in experiences that allow people to reconnect with themselves and the
natural world.
This is part of the vision behind our wellness retreats in Costa Rica, where we’re
developing opportunities for individuals to explore holistic living, reconnect with
nature, and experience the traditional and ceremonial aspects of plant medicine,
including cacao.
Perhaps most importantly, I believe the future of healthcare must place greater
emphasis on education and personal empowerment.
We have unprecedented access to health information, yet people are often more
confused and overwhelmed than ever. I want to see a system in which individuals are
given the knowledge, tools, and professional support to understand their bodies, make
informed decisions, and become active participants in their own healthcare.
Ultimately, I envision a future in which we address the systemic barriers that have
prevented truly integrative, preventive healthcare from becoming the norm. I want to
see health insurance companies expand coverage to include qualified holistic
healthcare practitioners, nutritional counseling, appropriate supplementation, and
comprehensive preventive wellness programs, making these services accessible to
everyone rather than only those who can afford to pay out of pocket.
I also hope to see meaningful changes in the pharmaceutical industry’s influence over
how we think about healthcare, particularly direct-to-consumer advertising that can
make taking prescription medications appear to be the answer to everyday health
challenges without giving equal attention to prevention, lifestyle interventions, or the
potential risks of those medications.
Equally important, I want to see physicians have greater freedom to explore and
recommend evidence-informed integrative approaches without feeling constrained
by institutional policies, reimbursement structures, or concerns about professional
repercussions when their recommendations extend beyond conventional treatment
protocols.
My vision is a healthcare system in which medical doctors, holistic practitioners,
nutritionists, and mental health professionals can work collaboratively, with
appropriate professional standards, to offer patients a broader range of options. A
system that invests in preventing disease, supports the body’s capacity to maintain
health, and recognizes that meaningful healthcare reform requires changing not only
how we treat patients, but also the financial and institutional structures that influence
those decisions.
That’s the paradigm shift I hope to contribute to through Thrive Worldwide Wellness.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thrivewellnessworldwide.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thriveworldwidewellness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thriveworldwidewellness/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThriveWorldwideWellness
- Other: https://www.linktr.ee/thriveworldwidewellness
