ER physician alters career path with joy-generating Aura Health & Spa
During her tenure as a successful emergency room physician at multiple hospitals throughout the U.S., including most recently at Livonia’s St. Mary Mercy Hospital, Dr. Reema Gupta Sethi has helped people navigate through the worst days of their lives.
“After the pandemic, the ER became a difficult environment to work in, but I’ve always been a compassionate person who has it in me to show my patients grace, no matter how they treat me,” Sethi said, flashing a soft smile. “I knew it was often the worst day of my patients’ lives, but it was every day of my life, and it started to wear me down.”
As “compassion fatigue” built up in the Plymouth mother of three, she completed a course titled “Doctor Differently”, which educated her on alternate careers in which she could use her medical
“For instance, they discussed tele-medicine and medical legal work as options,” she said. “Another one was aesthetics.”
“During my free time, I dabbled in just about all of them to see what would work. I took a course in aesthetics in March of 2022 and I loved it. I started injecting my friends and family over the next six to eight months.”
Something new
In February of 2023, while still working almost full-time at St. Mary, she rented a room inside Aura Health & Spa (851 S. Main St. in Plymouth) and started a part-time business she named Rejuvenate & Glow Skincare.
When Aura’s owner decided to get out of the aesthetics industry, he offered Sethi an opportunity to take over the business.
Ten months later — in December of 2023 — she officially took ownership of Aura (in addition to continuing to work in the St. Mary emergency room).
“My professional experience has always been in medicine, not business, so I hired a business consultant, because when you’re trying something new, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Sethi said.
Fast forward some months, Aura’s expanded menu of services now includes: injectables (Botox, fillers, PRP), medically-supervised weight loss programs, hair restoration (including the first-in-the-Midwest Federal Drug Administration-cleared laser for hair restoration), laser hair removal, facials, chemical peels, micro-needling, laser resurfacing, and more.
“It’s a lot like my emergency room physician job because it’s hands-on and I’m working with people all day,” Sethi said. “The difference is, when my patients come in for their treatments, it’s one of the happiest days for them, not the worst.”
Refreshing renovation
Sethi has renovated the office at 851 S. Main St. to create a comfortable and inviting atmosphere, while building a highly-qualified staff to make her customers’ experience optimal.
“My goal is to educate my patients on the procedures we offer,” Sethi said. “I want to empower them with the knowledge to be involved in making their own aesthetic decisions.”
Sethi said her efforts at Aura are rewarded by the joyful reactions she sees in her patients practically every day.
“One young lady, who was probably 22 or 23, came in and explained to me how she’s been self-conscious about her thin lips since she was 12,” Sethi said. “I generally won’t treat really young clients because they have a natural beauty to them. However, after hearing this young lady’s story, I added just a little bit to her lips and she was on cloud 9.
Still impacting lives
“It feels good to be able to have an impact on people’s lives like that. We believe that our services can enhance the quality of life for individuals of all ages with safe, effective and personalized wellness solutions.”
Sethi has already established herself as a difference-maker in the Plymouth community, serving as a sponsor for Wilcox Wednesdays in Kellogg Park, a summer program that features music for children.
Aura is hosting a grand re-opening on Oct. 2 from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Along with give-aways and raffles, individuals can discuss membership programs with Aura’s staff.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.