Today we’d like to introduce you to Janelle Phillips.
Hi Janelle, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Republic, Ohio — a tiny town where everyone knows everyone and hard work runs deep. My parents owned a little restaurant called Fathead’s. I worked there part-time until I was 38, even while growing my own dreams. Being raised by entrepreneurs shaped me completely — I learned early that when you want something, you don’t wait for permission, you build it.
I can’t tell my story without mentioning the impact that my favorite Ohio Grown band Ekoostik Hookah has had on me. That community — and their twice-yearly music festival, Hookahville — changed everything for me. It’s where I met my husband, many of my dearest friends, and even found the inspiration for what would eventually become Soul Circle.
Music has always been medicine for me. Through some of my darkest chapters — including an 11-year fertility battle that included 5 pregnancy losses and several surgeries — live music was the one place where I could still breathe, still feel alive, and remember who I was.
For a long time, I was known as the life of the party. My love for live music was deeply intertwined with alcohol. But over time, and after the traumatic birth of my second child, that lifestyle began to feel misaligned with the deeper healing I was craving. Giving up booze became the doorway to rediscovering my purpose.
Alcohol was my number one coping mechanism all of my adult life. It was the thing I turned to in celebration and in grief and everything in between. During the pandemic I was freshly sober unemployed for the first time ever. (I had to close my massage therapy practice due to covid) and I was desperate for some way to release and heal all the emotions I had numbed with alcohol for years and that is how I discovered the healing power of breathwork and womb healing.
I soon became certified in breathwork, I knew exactly where I wanted to begin offering it — at Hookahville. In 2022, I reached out to the festival’s promoter, and they welcomed me with open arms. I’ve been leading breathwork journeys there ever since. Those early sessions planted the seed for what would become Soul Circle, a women’s healing community built around authentic connection, nervous system healing, and remembering our innate wholeness.
Soul Circle was born from that same festival community — the same field where I danced barefoot with my friends. But this time, it was about creating a space where women could gather not to escape, but to come home to themselves. A place for truth-telling, breathwork, and sisterhood.
Today, my work has evolved into a holistic wellness practice I call Bee Well with Janelle — a name that reflects both my love for nature’s rhythm and my mission to help others reconnect with their own. What began as a passion for massage therapy has blossomed into a multidimensional space for healing, integrating breathwork, bodywork, energy work, and women’s circles.
Every offering is about helping people come home to their bodies — to move from survival mode into safety, softness, and self-trust.
But the deepest layer of my work — and what I’m most proud of — is my women’s community, Soul Circle. It’s a modern-day gathering place for women to breathe, feel, release, and remember who they are beneath all the noise.
Through monthly in-person circles, retreats, and now an online community, SoulCircle offers a sacred container for women to explore breathwork, nervous system healing, moon cycles, and spiritual growth. It’s where self-care meets sisterhood.
Another cornerstone of my work that I am deeply passionate about is Womb Healing and I recently completed my training in Womb Hara Massage and Ceremony, a deeply restorative form of abdominal and pelvic bodywork that reconnects women with their womb space — whether for fertility, trauma release, or simply coming back into body wisdom.
After my own 11-year fertility battle and the emotional toll it left behind, I knew this was sacred work I was meant to carry forward. I see women who have experienced everything from miscarriage and hysterectomy to disconnection from their sensuality — and I help them soften back into trust with their bodies.
What makes my work unique isn’t just the techniques — it’s the energy of community that surrounds it. I’m not just creating a service, I’m creating a movement.
In a world that rewards overdoing, Soul Circle and Bee Well with Janelle are reminders that healing can happen in stillness, softness, and connection. It’s where women come not to be fixed, but to be felt.
My hope is that when women come to work with me — whether in person or online — they feel the same sense of belonging I found all those years ago dancing under the stars at Hookahville. That they remember that healing doesn’t have to be lonely. That we rise, breathe, and remember our wholeness — together.
And in a way, it all circles back to that little restaurant in Republic, Ohio — the one my parents built from scratch. Just like them, I’m still building something that brings people together — only now, instead of serving meals, I’m serving medicine for the soul.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Honestly, I’ve been my own greatest obstacle. The biggest challenge I’ve ever faced was overcoming my relationship with alcohol. Choosing sobriety was the best decision of my life, but also the hardest—it forced me to really look at myself, to face all the parts of me I had been avoiding. Sobriety became a mirror, showing me everything that needed to be healed and repaired.
That journey taught me vulnerability—how to show up fully as myself, even when it’s uncomfortable. It helped me move through layers of shame and guilt and taught me what true self-acceptance feels like. And yet, to this day, being vulnerable remains one of my greatest challenges—allowing myself to admit when I need help and to actually receive that help when it’s offered. It’s an ongoing practice, one that keeps me humble and human.
Another defining challenge has been my fertility journey. Losing multiple pregnancies changed me at my core. That kind of grief is something words can never fully hold, but it shaped me into who I am today and deepened my capacity to hold space for other women’s pain and healing.
And of course, my children have been some of my greatest teachers. They’ve shown me what unconditional love really looks like and constantly remind me of the kind of person I want to be. More than anything, I want to make this world a softer place—for them, and for everyone walking through their own healing.
As you know, we’re big fans of Bee Well with Janelle and Soul Circle . For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Bee Well with Janelle is more than a wellness studio — it’s a sacred space for women to slow down, reconnect with their bodies, and remember their wholeness. My work weaves together over 23 years of experience and training in therapeutic massage, a long with breathwork, energy healing, and a specialized ceremonial bodywork called Womb Hara Massage — a deeply restorative practice that helps women release tension, trauma, and emotional residue held in the belly and pelvic space.
I specialize in supporting women through life’s major transitions — fertility, postpartum recovery, perimenopause, and the many seasons of change that ask us to soften and listen inward. I have walked the path of healing my own fertility issues and feel deeply called to work with women who are seeking to heal after pregnancy loss and other fertility related trauma.
What sets my work apart is that it’s not “just a service.” Each session is an intentional ceremony — integrating touch, breath, ritual, and nervous system support to help women feel safe in their bodies again.
Alongside my hands-on work, I created Soul Circle in 2022, a women’s healing community that gathers monthly in Marion. We also have an online membership community launching next month (November) to broaden our reach and connect more women across the globe. Soul Circle is a space for sisterhood, breathwork, and embodied connection — where women can share, release, and grow together.
What I’m most proud of brand-wise is that Bee Well with Janelle and Soul Circle are rooted in authenticity. They’re not trends — they’re living, breathing ecosystems of healing born from my own journey and my deep belief that when women feel connected to themselves, they change everything around them. My mission is to create spaces where women can exhale — where healing feels real, personal, and sustainable.
And for those women who experience that healing to send loving ripples out into the world🤍
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I believe we’re entering a time when energy medicine and the mind–body connection will no longer be seen as alternative, but essential.
Healing communities, women’s circles, plant medicine ceremonies are becoming common, and now we’re seeing men beginning to gather, too — stepping into their own divine masculine energy and learning the power of emotional and energetic awareness.
Quantum physics is validating what ancient wisdom has always known: everything is energy, and frequency is medicine. Sound, breath, touch, and intention are tools that will continue to rise as people seek holistic ways to regulate, connect, and heal.
Western medicine is catching up to what healers have practiced all along — that true wellness happens when science and spirit meet, and when healing becomes something we do with the body, not to it.
Pricing:
- Womb Hara Fertility Ceremony and massage 2.5 hour service starts at $277
- Massage and energy healing experiences start at $95/hour
- Breathwork journey $111
- Soul Circle $44
Contact Info:
- Website: https://BeewellwithJanelle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beewellwithjanelle?igsh=d2trdzcwN3ZmeWlh
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1A6EzS49U5/
