Melissa was 4 years old when she felt the call on her life into medicine. One of her youngest medical memories is toddling along after her father, a rural family physician, as he completed his house calls. She recalls the feeling of her little feet swinging as she sat beside an elderly patient's bedside while her father consulted with the woman. She remembers holding the dying woman's soft, wrinkly hand, knowing deep in her heart that this simple gesture of love was important - even if she didn't have the knowledge to do anything yet. 

Melissa grew in many medical experiences before graduating from high school and attending university. At the age of six her parents moved Melissa and her two older sisters from their busy urban lifestyle, into a very rural country setting in central British Columbia. There they homesteaded, farmed, and opened the community's first rural family practice office. Initially the medical office was located in the family’s one hundred year old log cabin. Melissa recalls multiple incidents and accidents that were brought before her father that she and her sisters and mother were called to assist in. These ranged from rodeo accidents and farming disasters, to drunken brawls, near drownings, and hypothermia. In these incidents, every hand present made a difference, medically certified or not. Melissa once had the opportunity to glove and gown with her father as she assisted him in the delivery room. She also occasionally assisted her father in suturing and other minor medical procedures.

At the age of twelve she was introduced to unconventional healing modalities as her father began searching outside of mainstream medicine for health solutions that modern medicine wasn't providing answers for. She remembers the start of this event vividly, having to take her father's cold and clammy pulse, as he lay pale and sweaty on the floor in severe shock from sudden pancreatitis following a cutaneous farming exposure to liquid pesticide. Thanks to the life saving help of medical intervention in the ICU, her father survived but now suffered chronic bouts of pancreatitis, which he eventually found relief for through various Complementary and Alternative Modalities. Spurred on by his personal improvement in health, her father began to explore theses unconventional, unscientific holistic approaches to healing more and more. Melissa, still following along behind him, remembers meeting and being taught energy medicine by some of the giants of Holistic Medicine, such as Patch Adams, as she attended holistic medical conferences with her parents. 

Spiritual exploration was an important part of Melissa’s growth and development as a youth, not only for personal reasons, but also in her quest for understanding healing. Melissa’s parents, born and raised in war torn Holland, left the church when they left their country. They continued however to search for God’s presence and found much solace in the natural environment of Canada. Raising their children in rural Canada, they were drawn to explore First Nations teachings and other land/nature based traditions for spiritual direction. Melissa did attend Church once as a child, with friends, and was moved to such tears of joy and peace that it confused her parents. This experience planted a lifelong quest inside her to re-experience this love she had felt. Over the next 40 years, Melissa experimented with multiple other spiritual and religious disciplines and traditions, both locally and internationally.

This holistic exploration of body, soul, and spirit, continued to grow and expand for Melissa throughout medical school, residency and into her profession. After graduating she began traveling and working across rural and remote Canada as a Family Doctor. She completed a third year specialization in the new and emerging field of Integrative Medicine, through the University of British Columbia. She then began consulting as a Integrative Medicine specialist. Her depth and skill set for Complementary and Alternative Modalities expanded and blossomed into multiple forms of certification over the years. This included: acupuncture, yoga, meditation, wilderness therapy, First Nations ceremonial practices, energy medicine, qi gong, reiki, emotional freedom technique, hypnosis, therapeutic touch, medical intuition, and ayahuasca. Melissa also trained as a  counsellor early in her medical profession.

Melissa met and married her husband Gavin after completing her Family Medicine specialization in Integrative Medicine. His passion and pursuit for finding truth and living a life of light, love and service matched hers and shortly after meeting they were married. They traveled together and pursued spiritual practices locally and internationally. After living and working in Northern Canada they moved to Vancouver Island where they built their home and began raising their young family.

On May 5, 2015 Melissa came home from a long day at the clinic expecting to hear her children's little feet running around the house, giggling as they played with their father. Instead she was greeted by silence followed shortly after by heavy footsteps announcing the police man at the door coming to tell her that her family had been in a car crash. She remembers following Constable Lord to the hospital where they were met by Dr. Shepperd in the trauma bay. Melissa learned that her husband died tragically that night at the scene of the accident, only a few kilometers from their house. Mercifully their two children survived with almost no injury.

Since that bleak night of Gavin’s death, Melissa has come face to face with the truth of ‘Physician, heal yourself’. Although it was a dark and challenging journey, Melissa finally discovered the source of the light that she had been searching for her whole life. This truth has brought her and her children great joy and whole person healing. She now uses her past professional and personal journey to equip and liberate other physicians, and thereby patients, in need of healing and wholeness. A healing that includes all of the spirit, soul, and body.

Here are the reasons you can depend on Dr. Melissa McConville to help you integrate 'REST' boldly and deeply into your life and medical practice:

• REPUTABLE – Melissa McConville is a respected leader in her field and community for over 20 years.
  
• EXPERIENCED – Her proudest accomplishments are the clinical outcomes, professional transformations and mindset shifts that happen in the hearts, minds and clinics of the physicians that Dr. McConville has worked with.  
• INTEGRITY – Building a reputation of integrity takes years. Dr. McConville doesn't believe in cutting corners. The foundation of her reputation is her commitment to discern how she can best help you.
• CUSTOMIZABLE – All of her curriculum can be customized to specifically address your individual, group or organizational needs.
• 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE – Dr. McConville wants you to be completely satisfied with her services. She will do whatever it takes to make you happy.