Local doctor finds new calling with Eudaimonia

MOSES LAKE — Dr. Hollie Matthews has begun a new journey in the medical field by opening Eudaimonia Medical Spa at 124 E. Third Ave. No. 212. Her goal is to provide services that guide her patients toward optimal health and personal fulfillment. 

“I’m learning a lot about business, which I had never been interested in,” said Matthews. “I always say I’m a scientist first, now a businesswoman, which was not an expectation, but I just would like to be able to stay open and still help some people.” 

Matthews has been working in Family Medicine for about 20 years now and was known for her time working for Columbia Basin Family Medicine for four years here in the Columbia Basin. She said she had been working there full time until her concussion in October 2022. 

“I’d call it a series of unfortunate events, but I’m one of those people who sort of spent my whole life believing that everything happens for a reason,” she said.  

She said she had fallen 11 feet after the ladder gave out from under her and as she fell, she heard a voice tell her to go limp, which likely saved her life that day. When she finally landed, she said everything on her head had flown off except for her hair bun, which stayed perfectly in place and provided about an inch of padding for her skull when it finally contacted the ground. 

“I don’t know if you’re religious or not, but I will tell you God is real because I heard the voice of God with that, ‘Go limp,'” said Matthews. “I did as instructed. I was limp when I hit the ground, and I missed all the landscaping boulders; I missed all the cement curbing around my flower beds. I missed all of that, and I hit the one spot I could fall without breaking my neck, my back, anything.” 

Her fall was not without injury as her brain was shaken back and forth in her head, causing her to lose consciousness. She later discovered that she had a severe concussion, she said. As time passed, she began to realize the extent of her concussion was causing her to have a hard time doing her job in Family Medicine. 

“After about a month, I went back to work and it was every other day for four hours,” she said. “It was all I could do to do the four hours, and I was exhausted, and I would have a migraine every day that I would be on the screen.” 

Due to her struggles with returning to work, she decided to resign from Columbia Basin Family Medicine and soon after shifted her practice to a more procedural focus and opened Eudaimonia Medical Spa.  

She said she came up with the name Eudaimonia as it is the Greek term from Aristotle, which roughly translates to the feeling one gets from living a fulfilling life. 

“It’s an internal feeling of being your best self, your best person,” said Dr. Matthews. “Having a flourishing, happy, healthy, prosperous life.” 

At Eudaimonia, she still provides direct primary care with family medicine and is working to get the equipment to further the care she can provide. With this she works with people with depression, anxiety, diabetes and helps people with their own migraines. 

The other service she provides is of the medical spa variety such as Botox, dermal fillers, radio frequency microneedling and other procedures that are intended for beauty. She said her interest in this field started because of the use of Botox in treating her own migraines. 

“I didn’t even think I would ever even be interested in anything like that,” said Matthews. “What I discovered is it’s really fun to make people pretty.” 

She said this allowed her to continue her work in the medical field while also giving her more flexibility over her time. 

“So, if I have a bad day, I can just text my clients and be like, ‘Hey, I can’t make it today,’ and most of them know what happened to me and my backstory so they’re all very nice,” Matthews said. “But that’s the one thing, if I need to go home and rest, I go home and rest.” 

She said her experiences have been extremely humbling for her as it is the first time in her life she hasn’t been able to power through a struggle. The migraines have made it impossible for her to look at a computer screen for an extended period of time, which has made some aspects of her new job difficult. 

“Everybody wants you to go look at their website or just go contact us through the internet and they don’t understand that I literally can’t do it,” she said. 

Despite the struggles she still faces today, Matthews said the whole experience has changed her perspective on life and that she truly believes a higher power saved her life that day. 

“I just feel really lucky to be alive and able to still at least somewhat provide care for people and try to make their lives better,” she said. 

Eudaimonia Medical Spa
124 E. Third Ave. No. 212
Ephrata, WA 98823
509-793-5046
eudaimoniamedicalspa.com 

    Eudaimonia Medical Spa offers both medical spa treatments for beauty as well as direct primary care with family medicine. Dr. Hollie Matthews said she designed her office to not feel like a traditional doctor’s office and gave it more of an at home feel to make her patients feel as comfortable as possible.
  

    Eudaimonia Medical Spa is located inside the Desert Plaza building on the corner of Third and Alder at the end of the hallway. Dr. Hollie Matthews said while it is a bit of a walk, she appreciates the privacy that the space provides for her patients and herself.