Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Guntherberg.
Hi Heather, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I came into this work through medicine first, not aesthetics — and that order still shapes everything about how OM Laser & Wellness runs today.
My foundation is clinical pharmacy. I hold a Doctorate of Pharmacy and was Board Certified in Pharmacotherapy. I have spent more than 28 years in healthcare. Pharmacy trains you to look at a whole person before you look at a complaint: what else they’re taking, what their health history actually means, what could interact, what the safer path looks like. You learn to assess before you act. That’s the discipline I brought with me when I moved into laser medicine.
For the last half of my pharmacotherapy career, that work took a much broader shape. I served as Chief of the Health Management Clinic at McDonald Army Health Center, where I oversaw nutrition, managed the diabetes program, and developed patient education for chronic pain management, along with the anticoagulation program. In my role as Deputy Chief of Pharmacy Services, I was responsible for patient safety, Joint Commission readiness, and quality control for every medication stored and dispensed in the organization.
That combination pulled me past the prescription itself and into the bigger question of what actually keeps people well. It’s also where my training in yoga and meditation, along with my own personal interest in health and nutrition, became part of my professional practice rather than something I pursued on the side. I was weaving those threads into my pharmacotherapy work long before I ever picked up a laser.
The way I actually found this world was through a friendship. In 2015 I met a wonderful woman on a women’s retreat — someone who has owned a med spa in Massachusetts for more than twenty years. She invited me up to Boston, and what began as a visit became a routine: I would fly up, we would laser each other, go to yoga, have lunch, and I’d fly home. Over the years I collaborated with her, and she was genuinely the inspiration for OM. She didn’t hand me a business plan; she showed me what this work could look like when it’s done with care, by someone who loves it.
That’s what eventually moved me out of the clinical setting. I could see the limits of what I was able to offer from inside it, and I wanted to expand — to bring non-toxic education and care to people in a way the clinical structure didn’t leave room for. So I made that transition deliberately.
The bridge was training. I became a Certified Laser Technician and a Laser Safety Officer — and as a Laser Safety Officer, the job is literally to be the person accountable for the safety of every treatment in the building. So I never experienced aesthetics as something separate from healthcare. I experienced it as healthcare delivered through a different tool. That’s the distinction I built the practice on. We approach aesthetic treatments from a medical perspective, not purely a cosmetic one.
What I found as I went deeper was that the clinical side still wasn’t the whole story. I’m an E-RYT 200 yoga instructor and a certified meditation teacher, which formalized something I’d already been practicing for years. Skin doesn’t respond in isolation from stress, sleep, hormones, or how someone feels when they look in the mirror. So OM Laser & Wellness was built around a simple conviction: wellness involves more than appearance, and mind, body and spirit are interconnected parts of the same thing. That’s why our mission is to improve skin health and increase confidence for *all* skin types — through patient-centered care, non-toxic practices and evidence-informed alternatives, using advanced energy-based technology.
Jonathan, my now husband, joined the practice three years ago to champion our Tattoo Removal and Red Light Therapy services. His prescence, knowledge, and business strengths compliment mine perfectly.
Today that means we invest in platforms that let us treat safely and honestly: the Candela GentleMax Pro for laser hair removal, PicoWay for tattoo removal and safe treatments for melasma and collagen induction, UltraClear for skin rejuvenation and resurfacing, Exceed and Matrix Pro for microneedling and radiofrequency, HydraFacial, and LIGHTWAVE red light therapy. Not because new technology is exciting — because it lets us treat more skin types, more safely, with fewer compromises. And it means the education matters as much as the device. People deserve to understand what’s being done to their skin and why.
So the short version: I started as a clinician who was trained to be careful, then spent years building clinics and programs for people who needed more than a prescription. A friend on a retreat showed me a different way to do that work, and it took a few years of flying to Boston before I understood she was showing me my own future. I added laser expertise and a safety officer’s accountability, and then I built the piece most practices leave out — the understanding that confidence and health are not separate projects. That’s the practice.
*We are committed to provide a holistic experience that increases your health in Mind, Body, and Spirit.* — as I put it on our site.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’d say “smooth” isn’t quite the right word, and neither is “bumpy.” It’s been a wonderful growth experience — which is its own thing entirely.
The part I’d describe as genuinely hard was the beginning: leaving a career that came with stability and structure to step into entrepreneurship. That was intimidating. There’s a safety in a defined role, a known path, a predictable paycheck, and walking away from that takes a certain leap of faith. It has been amazing. The best part, I’m constantly challenged, and I’m pushed to think in ways I never was before.
Have I made decisions I’d tweak? Absolutely. Every business owner has. But nothing has been so difficult that I haven’t been able to overcome it. Looking back, certain challenges that felt enormous at the time turned out to be growth, not obstacles.
And I haven’t done any of it alone. My wonderful husband Jonathan, my two daughters Olivia and Esther, as well as my mother have all played a role in our growth and success. Jonathan and I differ in strengths, and we complement each other in so many ways. That partnership is a large part of why the challenges are manageable.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The work is energy-based aesthetic medicine — practiced from a healthcare perspective rather than a purely cosmetic one. My training is in clinical pharmacy, and I’m a Certified Laser Technician and Laser Safety Officer, so the assessment always comes before the device. The credentials that surprise people in this industry are the other half: I’m an E-RYT 200 yoga instructor and a certified meditation teacher.
My specialties are laser hair removal — including for the skin types many practices turn away — laser tattoo removal, and skin rejuvenation, along with microneedling and radiofrequency. In practice that means the Candela GentleMax Pro for hair removal, PicoWay for tattoo removal, UltraClear for rejuvenation, Exceed and Matrix Pro for microneedling and radiofrequency, HydraFacial, and LIGHTWAVE red light therapy.
What sits underneath all of it is non-toxic care for your skin. Wellness education is intertwined with every consultation and every treatment — not added on at the end, and not reserved for clients who ask. If you’re going to change something about your skin, you should understand what’s in it, what’s being done to it, and what supports it between visits. That’s part of the treatment here.
If there’s one thing I want to be known for, it’s this: that every skin type is treated here, safely, and that people leave understanding what was done to their skin and why. Not everyone walks into a med spa expecting to be educated. I think that’s what makes people trust us.
There’s a reason for our name. **OM**, pronounced *AUM*, is an all-encompassing vibration — a frequency that includes all others, the sound seed of the Universe. As it’s pronounced and shared, our name evokes a frequency of inclusion and blessing. That was deliberate.
Our foundation is our core values, and they’re the honest answer to what sets us apart.
**Quality without Compromise.** We deliver safe, effective, consistent care through meticulous attention to detail, proven techniques, and an unwavering dedication to excellence — so every client receives results they can trust.
**Own It.** We communicate honestly, collaborate with respect, and take accountability for our actions. An ownership mindset builds trust, strengthens our team, and creates exceptional repeat experiences for every client.
**Belonging.** We foster an inclusive, emotionally safe, judgment-free environment where every individual feels welcomed, respected, supported and valued. Everyone deserves compassionate care and a genuine sense of belonging.
**Always Growing.** We’re committed to lifelong learning, embracing innovation, and staying at the forefront of best practices — because growing our knowledge and skills elevates both the care we provide and the experience we create.
What am I most proud of? That those values are operational rather than decorative. It would have been easier to open a med spa that chased trends. I’m proud that I built one where safety, honest communication and belonging are the standard, and where a client of any skin type can expect the same quality of care. I’m proud of the people who work alongside me and hold that standard. And I’m proud that I made this leap at all — leaving a career with structure and stability to build something that reflects what I actually believe about health.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Energetic & Adventurous & Active— that’s the first thing anyone would have said. I couldn’t learn enough and I couldn’t explore enough. I always wanted to know what else was out there, and I dreamed of traveling & exploring.
I also wanted to include everyone in everything and to serve. I actively participated in my Methodist youth group, mission trips to the Eastern Shore and worked with Habitat for Humanity.
I adored, and still do, my younger siblings. Being the older one mattered to me. I loved playing sports and I was competitive.
The one thing that might surprise people: I thrived on one-on-one relationships, not large groups. Give me a real conversation with one person over a crowded room every time. That hasn’t changed. It’s probably why the consultation matters so much in how I practice — I have always done my best work with one person in front of me, listening.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.omlaserandwellness@gmail.com
- Instagram: omlaser_and_wellness
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omlaserandwellness/
