Our Founder's Story

after graduating, i moved to california in 2018 looking for a fresh start and the chance to grow into the kind of nurse i had always imagined becoming, this time with a little better winter weather.

as it happened, the man sitting next to me on the plane ended up helping me land my first nursing job. that unexpected conversation became the opening chapter of my nursing career.

early on, i worked in psychiatric and addiction nursing, supporting patients navigating trauma, substance use, and complex mental health challenges. being so close to those stories changed the way i understood care. i witnessed how deeply emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing can be. my first workplace approached treatment through a holistic lens, and it shaped me profoundly. i began to see that nursing is not just clinical work. it is emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual work for both the patient and the nurse.

by 2020, i reached the wall that so many nurses quietly encounter. i was only a couple years into my career and already feeling the weight of burnout. i tried the things we are often told will help (i.e new routines, job changes, more self-care practices, & pushing through). but burnout does not disappear simply because we try harder to manage it. it asks to be acknowledged. it asks us to slow down and listen. that season became an invitation to begin supporting myself in a different way.

"My relationship with burnout began back in nursing school. I called it “senioritis” and laughed it off—but it was real. By the time I graduated in 2018, I was proud and determined, yet completely drained." - kelly dubowski msn, rn

in 2023, i founded my first holistic nurse coaching private practice, hope with kelly. through that work, nurturing the nurse naturally grew as a space dedicated to supporting nurses in restoring balance, reconnecting with themselves, and navigating the realities of the profession with greater support. 

my mission is simple. nurses should not have to abandon themselves in order to care for others. i believe the people who hold so much for their patients deserve spaces where they can restore, reconnect, and feel supported too.

through this work, i hope to help create a different path in nursing, one where the caregiver is nurtured just as much as the care they give.

together, we are creating a different path in nursing, one that nurtures the caregiver just as much as the care they give.

my story begins growing up in the suburbs of massachusetts. for nursing school, i ventured just 45 minutes into the city of boston to begin my nursing training.

between 2021 and 2023, i returned to school and earned my master of science in nursing with a focus in holistic nurse coaching. during that time i immersed myself in the research around burnout, trauma, and holistic nursing, not only to support my own healing but to better understand what nurses are truly carrying.