A Room of Our Own: Why I Built a Space, Not Just an Office

Hi friend,

For almost the whole life of Rooted & Nourished, I’ve met with clients through a screen.

And I’ve loved it, truly. Virtual work has let me sit with women in their kitchens, their parked cars, their closets-turned-offices, the quiet corner of a hotel room on a hard day. It has made therapy possible for people who otherwise couldn’t have made it possible at all — the mom whose toddler naps for exactly 47 minutes, the woman recovering from surgery who can’t yet drive, the client who needed her first session to happen somewhere she felt safe enough to cry.

I’m not going anywhere with virtual. That’s staying.

But starting June 1st, there will also be a door you can walk through.

The Lake Air Drive Office

The new space is on Lake Air Drive here in Waco — close enough to home that I can still pick up my little one from daycare on time, and (I hope) close enough to your home that coming in feels doable on a Tuesday after work.

I thought a lot about what this room should feel like before I thought about what it should look like. Because here’s the thing: a lot of therapy offices feel like therapy offices. Fluorescent. Beige. That one weird abstract painting. A tissue box positioned with surgical precision.

I wanted something else. I wanted a space that felt like the inside of the work we actually do together — grounded, warm, a little bit alive. Wood that has grain you can see. Plants that are real (mostly). Lamps instead of overheads. A chair you can actually settle into without performing okay-ness.

If my brand has a feeling, this room is supposed to be that feeling.

Here is a picture of the work in progress! Still have a lot to do but it is coming along 🙂

Why This Matters for the Work

I want to say something honest here, because I think it gets lost in the shuffle of “we have a new location!” announcements.

The space you do healing work in is part of the healing work.

For the women I sit with — women navigating bariatric surgery, postpartum, disordered eating, the long quiet rebuild of a relationship with food and body and self — the body is already the conversation. It’s the thing that hurts. It’s the thing that’s changing. It’s the thing other people have had opinions about for as long as you can remember.

So the room your body sits in for an hour a week? That matters. Whether the chair fits you. Whether the light is kind. Whether you feel like a guest or a patient or, ideally, a person.

I wanted the Lake Air Drive office to feel like a person space. Somewhere your nervous system can exhale a little before we’ve even said hello.

What’s Staying the Same

Everything that’s always been true about working with me is still true.

I still see women across Texas virtually. I still take a small, intentional caseload so the women I work with get my real attention. I’m still private-pay (you can read more about why on the site, but the short version: it lets me practice the way I believe in practicing, without insurance companies telling us how long your healing is allowed to take).

And I’m still me. The lowercase, occasionally-too-honest, deeply-uninterested-in-shame me. The new office isn’t a rebrand. It’s just a room.

If You’ve Been Waiting

A couple of you have told me, gently, that you’d been waiting for an in-person option before reaching out. If that’s you — hi. I see you. June is for you.

A few practical things:

• In-person availability opens June 2026
• Virtual sessions continue exactly as they have been
• In-person is for adult women in the Waco area; Texas residents anywhere in the state can still see me virtually
• Consultation calls are free, 15 minutes, and you do not have to know what you want to say before you book one

The booking link is in the usual spot on the website, or you can just reply to this email and I’ll get back to you myself.

One Last Thing

I’ve been a therapist long enough to know that the women who reach out are almost never the ones who feel ready. They’re the ones who got tired of waiting to feel ready.

If that’s where you are this month — somewhere between I should probably do something and but not yet — I just want you to know the door is, for the first time, a real door. And it opens June 2026.

Schedule your session here!

I’d love to see you in the room.

With warmth,
Hannah

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Hannah Short, LCSW is a licensed therapist and Board-Certified Bariatric Counselor in Waco, Texas. Rooted & Nourished Psychotherapy offers private-pay individual therapy for women navigating bariatric surgery, postpartum, body image, and disordered eating — virtually across Texas and, starting June 1st, in person at the Lake Air Drive office.