About Us
James Polo
MD, MBA, CPE, FACHE
Dr. James Polo joins the team at Beyond Well, with a background as a general physician, as a child psychiatrist, and as a general psychiatrist. Dr. Polo brings over 20 years of experience and previously served as Chief Medical Officer and senior psychiatric physician for Western State Hospital in Washington.
He led development and oversight of psychiatric services in various military hospitals, served at the Pentagon as the Health Policy Advisor to the Secretary of the Army. He helped orchestrate complex care delivery for a children’s health care network in Washington state.
Dr. Rhonda Wells-Wilbon
LCSW-C, LICSW
Dr. Rhonda has been a social work educator for 25 years teaching at the undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. level. She is an author, psychotherapist, trainer, and holistic wellness coach. She has expertise working with adult survivors of sexual abuse and assault and financial planning. She is the mother of two young adult sons who are both in graduate school.
Marissa Alert
Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist and Associate Director at Johns Hopkins
Dr. Alert is a licensed clinical psychologist and speaker who is passionate about making wellness accessible to everyone and helping individuals achieve lasting lifestyle changes. She has experience working with adults to help them better manage stress, improve their health habits, and live a life that is in line with their values.
Jenna LeJeune
Ph.D.
Jenna LeJeune, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and President and co-founder of Portland Psychotherapy Clinic, Research and Training Center in Portland, Oregon. She is the co-author of the forthcoming book, Values in Therapy: A Clinician’s Guide to Helping Clients Explore Values, Increase Psychological Flexibility, and Live a More Meaningful Life. Jenna is also a peer-reviewed ACT trainer and provides ACT trainings to professionals around the world.
Norman E. Rosenthal
M.D.
Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D. is the world-renowned psychiatrist, researcher, and best-selling author, who first described seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and pioneered the use of light therapy as a treatment during his twenty years at the National Institute of Mental Health. A highly cited researcher, he has written over 200 scholarly articles and authored or co-authored ten popular books. These include Winter Blues, the New York Times bestseller Transcendence, and the national bestsellers The Gift of Adversity, and Super Mind. His latest book is Poetry Rx: How 50 Inspiring Poems Can Heal and Bring Joy to Your Life.
Cathleen Beerkens
Cathleen Beerkens is a Nurse, Health Educator and Integrative Health and Wellness Coach. Cathleen graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Health Education and received a BSN from Georgetown University School of Nursing.Cathleen was a nurse for 12 years at Georgetown University Medical Center in the ER, Surgical, and High-Risk Labor and Delivery units. Here Cathleen also taught childbirth education. After moving to Amsterdam to raise three children, Cathleen launched a private health coach and holistic healer practice and graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. In 2018, she founded A Wellness Revolution (Awellnessrevolution.com) which trains and certifies hundreds of Health and Wellness Coaches throughout the world. The course,which is accredited by the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC), International Coaching Federation (ICF) and BLCN (Dutch lifestyle coaching certificate) exposes students to new scientific understandings of the body, mind and spirit that help the students bring a much deeper, more robust definition of self-care. Cathleen truly loves to help people improve and regain their health and is humbled by the healing and miracles that she witnesses happening every day.
Dr. Christine Gibson
Dr. Christine Gibson is a family physician, trauma therapist, and author of The Modern Trauma Toolkit. She’s also on social media as TikTokTraumaDoc. She has a masters in medical education and is halfway through a doctorate, and has been involved in academics and education - creating Calgary’s fellowship in Health Equity.
Dr. Gibson runs an international non-profit Global Familymed Foundation and a new company to train professionals how to manage workplace trauma - Safer Spaces Training (and a non-profit The Belong Foundation)
Sheila Hamilton
Founder and CEO
Sheila Hamilton is founder and CEO of Beyond Well Media. As a five-time Emmy award winning journalist, Sheila has written and reported on mental health for more than a decade, including the award-winning memoir, ‘All the Things We Never Knew, Chasing the Chaos of Mental Illness.’ Sheila’s podcast, Beyond Well With SHEILA HAMILTON is Spotify’s fastest growing mental health podcast.