H E A L T H
&
W E L L N E S S
Curating the Health Space
Venice-based online wellness platform makes it easy to find affordable holistic care PHOTOS COURTESY OF KENSHŌ HEALTH
Krista Berlincourt and Danny Steiner are the founders of Kenshō Health, a Venice-based online wellness platform that makes it easy to find high-quality, affordable holistic care from thousands of licensed providers trusted by top health systems. By Jenn McKee t seems painfully ironic that Kenshō Health – an online holistic healthcare marketplace based in Venice – officially launched in February 2020, mere weeks before the world shut down due to a worldwide pandemic. In another way, though, the timing seemed uncanny. “From a demand perspective, one of the silver linings is people started focusing on their health more, and looking for more alternatives and different ways to solve ongoing problems,” said Kenshō cofounder Danny Steiner. “And chronic and situational health issues became more apparent, I think, during the pandemic. So with
I
that, folks started turning toward platforms like ours, seeking out different types of care to solve their addictions, fatigue, stress, or anxiety.” Steiner met Kenshō cofounder Krista Berlincourt four years ago, in advance of a group trip. The two hit it off immediately, bonding over their shared zeal for holistic medicine. “I’ve been practicing meditation for many years, and right around the time I met Krista, I was searching for a name to identify this feeling of insider awakening – kind of a flash moment of inspiration,” Steiner said. “And of course Zen Buddhism had a perfect description of that, which is Kenshō.”
PAGE 16 THE ARGONAUT JANUARY 6, 2022
Berlincourt, meanwhile, had previously suffered severe adrenal fatigue in 2015, racking up $20,000 in medical bills while getting no relief or definitive answers. She traveled the world to explore alternative healing methods, curing herself while also becoming an advocate for what’s called “whole person health.” “As in, ‘OK, your biomarkers and bloodwork are great, you don’t have COVID-19, but you’re going through a mental downfall, your work is suffering, and your family is falling apart,’” Berlincourt said. “The pandemic was really an opportunity for us to support people, and because, for many people, this is their first time
finding new forms of care beyond a GP, we really had an opportunity to support them with care navigation.” Berlincourt and Steiner have kept Kenshō’s mission – to make the world healthier, one person at a time – at the forefront throughout the pandemic, offering free content and classes. “Honestly, all we cared about was helping more people, and luckily, that also served the business in the end,” Steiner said. Yet Steiner and Berlincourt also, during this time, decided to re-launch Kenshō with a new emphasis. “We have shifted our strategy in such a way where we’re
really focused on providing a membership for health coaching, and using that health coach as a conduit, or a partner who’s with you at all times for your health care, to provide you with referrals in our network of specialists, or to support you with easy, at-home lab testing,” Berlincourt said. You might wonder if this was Berlincourt and Steiner’s long game plan for Kenshō all along, but the company’s evolution has been far more organic than that. “The reason we got into this is to make people healthier, and to make it easier for people to find good health,” Berlincourt said. “But then suddenly you find yourself in an environment where the product’s only useful