The short answer: we run a small, unhurried practice on Jamestown Road in Williamsburg, VA, where the person who assesses you is the person who treats you. Every first visit starts with a consultation rather than a treatment. Here is what a day actually looks like, and why we build it this way.
People who visit for the first time often say the same thing in the same surprised voice: this is not what I pictured.
Morning setup
Doors open quietly. Coffee is on. The lights are warm rather than fluorescent. Treatment rooms are turned over, towels folded, devices checked. Our team has a quick standup: who is coming in, what for, and anything notable from a past visit we should hold in mind.
That last part matters more than it sounds. It is the difference between walking back through the door and feeling remembered, versus filling out the same form again and starting from zero.
Who is actually here
We are a small, intentional team, and we think you should know who is in the building.
Colonial Aesthetics & Wellness is owned and run by two board-certified Family Nurse Practitioners, Brittany Ptachick, MSN, FNP-C and Catherine White, MSN, FNP-C. Alongside them are aesthetic nurses Elena Eller, BSN, RN and Amanda Floyd, BSN, RN, master esthetician Britni Leach, LME, and office manager Carly Paxton.
Those credentials are verifiable, and we would rather you checked than took our word for it. Every Virginia health professional license can be looked up free at the Virginia Department of Health Professions, and nurse practitioner certification through AANPCB, the body that issues the FNP-C credential.
Putting a named clinician on our work, including on these posts, is a deliberate choice. If you want the fuller version of what to ask any practice, our guide to choosing a med spa lays it out.
Why we lead with the consult
Every first visit starts with a real conversation. What is bothering you. What you have tried. What you have quietly wished for. What you are not interested in.
Sometimes that conversation ends with a treatment that day. Sometimes it ends with "let's do nothing right now, here is what to think about, come back when you are ready." Both are good days for us.
There is a formal version of this principle. The American Medical Association's ethics guidance on informed consent asks clinicians to discuss the nature and purpose of a recommended intervention and the burdens, risks and expected benefits of all the options, including choosing not to treat (AMA Code of Medical Ethics). That last clause is the one we try hardest to honour.
What a typical visit feels like
We do not double-book rooms, and we do not move you from a consult into a treatment to keep a schedule happy. If a HydraFacial is supposed to be 60 minutes of calm, that is what you get.
That pacing is also why our injectable work tends to look quiet. There is time to assess, time to talk it through, and time to use less. Our post on tox and filler gets at why that matters.
Where aesthetics meets functional medicine
One side of the practice is skin and aesthetics. The other is functional medicine. They are not separate buildings or separate conversations. The same person will sometimes book a facial in the morning and come back weeks later for a consult about energy, sleep or weight.
That overlap is the whole point. Skin reflects what is happening underneath. A hormone conversation often improves a skincare conversation, and the reverse is true too. It also means that when an aesthetic concern turns out to be a symptom, we can investigate it in the same practice.
We measure a good day by how unhurried it felt, not how many people we ran through.
What we hold the line on
Two things, and they are related.
We tell you when something is not the right fit. If what you are describing needs surgery, we will say so and refer you rather than sell a series that gets you partway. Our post on med spa versus plastic surgeon is our attempt to draw that line publicly.
And we explain what each treatment is actually designed to do, so you know what you are choosing and why. That is the whole reason these posts exist.
Come see for yourself
If you have been holding off because the last place felt wrong, the only way to know if we are different is to sit in the room. Book a consultation. Coffee is on, there is no script, and it is a real conversation about your skin, your goals, and what would actually help.
