About

“Love the life you live, live the life you love.” — Bob Marley

Loving Life Today is a one-of-a-kind medical fusion center that uses a holistic approach in our treatment plans. We believe that the best way to find happiness in life is to improve your overall well-being. So rather than take a singular approach to treatment, we take a holistic approach and focus on all of the major pillars of a happy life: mind body, emotional body, and spiritual body. Our goal is to reorient the spirit to better heal the body.

We provide mental and emotional support and stability through individual counseling, couples counseling, or family therapy. We assist in improving all aspects of life by focusing on improving self-esteem and self-worth through body relaxation work and body image care while helping the mind adjust to new ways of thinking and living. We provide coping skills that calm the soul and increase patience and understanding which leads to improved and more fulfilling interpersonal relationships.

Most importantly, we do all of this simultaneously throughout the course of treatment, as one component of care influences and strengthens the next.

Our clients do not come to Loving Life Today to find a quick fix or temporary “band-aid” for their problems. Instead, they come to us to start a long-term emotional, mental, and physical lifestyle shift. We are dedicated to using this holistic approach to improving the quality of our clients’ lives, and we expect our clients to make a commitment to the treatment and take it as seriously as we do.

The mind is a powerful thing, and our perspectives, beliefs, and thoughts create and manifest in the world around us. When make a commitment and decide to take full control of those thoughts, amazing things can happen. Our holistic treatment approach puts those wheels in motion.

We welcome all people looking to “live the life you love and love the life you live” to come see us at Loving Life Today so we can help them achieve their highest state of peace and happiness.

About Us

…integrated, holistic practice group that has a unique and effective approach to helping people improve their mental and physical well-being…. on the leading edge of what the future of health care will look like.

Loving Life Today began as a private practice with a sole practitioner, operator, and owner. Dr. Yvonka De Ridder started the practice in hopes to fulfill her longtime dream of providing a space that facilitates healing from all angles of life.

Over time, Dr. De Ridder was able to bring that vision to the next level after teaming with various great leaders in the community ranging from medical professionals to entrepreneurial coaches and mentors.

In 2016, Melanie Rosario, a licensed marriage and family therapist, with over 15 years of experience working in mental health and holistic approaches, joined Loving Life as clinical provider. In 2019, Ms. Rosario became a partner, creating a therapeutic power team between Dr. De Ridder and Ms. Rosario.

Together and with the amazing team they built, they helped bring Loving Life Today to it’s full potential by further developing a facility that features holistic treatment services for the mind, body, soul, and relationship dynamics.

A Letter From Our Founder

Why I Started Loving Life Today

After my studies and experience in the field of counseling, psychology, and human sexuality, I began to recognize that something very important was missing within the current modalities of treatment and care for individuals, families, and couples.

I saw that even with therapeutic help, many people still struggled with taking control of the core factors necessary to encourage true positive change in their troubled lives.

It also became apparent to me that it was difficult to blame anyone for not being able to find the time, energy, or money to proactively do anything about it. With the average work day jumping from eight to ten hours a day, the cost of living rising, and levels of income remaining stagnant — it was easy to see why times were so stressed and difficult.

The demands on parents and couples have grown so strenuous that taking time to spend with loved ones, family, or children has become an obligation and chore. And finding the time to focus on self-care and exercise is at the bottom of the priority list for many, including myself at one point.

After realize this, I started wondering… Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Do we exhaust ourselves making time for work, significant others, children, and families and then happiness comes? Or do we first focus on our own mental, emotional, and physical health in order to possess the energy or positivity to give to those we love?

We all know the safety speech prior to a flight — where we are instructed to place the air mask on ourselves before assisting others. This helps to show that while it is our first instinct to care for those we love first, neglecting ourselves isn’t the answer. We are no good to anyone if we aren’t happy or healthy, and we are supposed to put those masks on first so we don’t fall before we can help those around us.

I realized this the hard way.

During my own burnout and emotional breakdown, I realized I was spending every ounce of energy and time I had on others to the degree of complete self-neglect. I was unhappy with my body, my health was diminishing as a result of high levels of stress, and I was constantly exhausted and low on energy. When I did have time to spend with family or loved ones, I was short-tempered, moody, irritable, and distant. I became disengaged, and my relationships suffered tremendously.

It wasn’t until I dedicated extensive effort to my self-care that I finally found solace in my chaotic life and became more of a whole person to those I loved.

A Spark of Inspiration

Through this journey and realization, the true philosophy and purpose of Loving Life Today was created. I realized that as a community, we need to focus on holistic care. We need to take care of our entire being, not just the broken pieces.

We also need the accessibility, financial flexibility, support, and accountability to do so, because we need our relationships and family lives to improve. We need our business productivity to increase. We need our energy levels to rise, and most importantly, we NEED to be happy.

Bob Marley used to say, “Live the life you love and love the life you live.” After a casual reading, that statement may sound inspiring. However, if you take the time to really read the statement and let it soak in, it will resonate on a very deep level.

That statement lead me to an important question — a question I now have for anyone else who has experience burnout, stress, and unhappiness… “Why not?”

Why not live the life you absolutely love? Why not absolutely love the life you live?

I’m sure there are several reasons you could use to argue against that message. But I’m sure there are just as many reasons that you could agree with that message.

My mom use to say “Yvonka, mind over matter.” (In fact, she still says that). And perhaps that is what shifted my fixation on the mental component of human life and encouraged my psychology direction. However, no matter how tired I get of her saying that during my tantrum moments when life throws me a curve ball, at the end of the day, it’s truer than anything I know.

The mind is such a powerful thing and our perspectives, beliefs, and thoughts create and manifest in the world around us. That’s why I created Loving Life Today .

I’ve seen people get sucked into life’s struggles, stresses, and bad situations. I’ve seen people believe there is no way out of the bleakness. I’ve been there myself.

But I know there is a way out. I found a way out. And it is through holistic approach to well-being that includes working on mind, body, soul, love, and sex. I founded Loving Life Today on those principles so more people could live the life they love and love the life they live.

~  Dr. Yvonka De Ridder
Contact Dr. Yvonka De Ridder