Awaken Now, a one-stop acupuncture and wellness practice, will launch three new 12-week programs in September led by founder Marina Dabcevic, aimed at addressing different health issues across the body.
Each group is capped at 15 participants so members can build relationships and a sense of community, Dabcevic said. She was intentional about the 12-week timeline.
"It takes about 66 days to create a habit, and each week I'm trying to teach you a new habit to implement so you're not overloaded all at once," she said.
The final four weeks focus on reinforcing those habits. The programs are held online but are not asynchronous — participants meet for weekly Zoom calls, have one-on-one consultations with Dabcevic and join a group chat for daily support.
The Whole Body Reset targets systemic inflammation through diet, nervous system regulation, stress management, sleep, environment and body awareness. The program treats symptoms "not as something to manage or to fix" but as "a signal from your body that's telling you something's going on," Dabcevic said.
The Resilient Brain is designed for people with cognitive decline, Parkinson's disease, early-onset Alzheimer's disease, long COVID or other conditions that affect memory and brain function. The program aims to slow disease progression through movement, nutrition, functional medicine and community support.
"People with specifically cognitive decline really do isolate themselves, so my goal is to bring them together and go, 'Hey, you're not the only one,'" Dabcevic said.
The Metabolic Reset Blueprint was created for people struggling with weight, Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions. Rather than a short-term diet, the program takes a holistic approach to weight loss and metabolic health, teaching participants about the body's functions — from building muscle and reducing inflammation to stabilizing blood sugar and improving insulin sensitivity.
Awaken Now opened 11 years ago, offering acupuncture, cupping, massage, herbal medicine and red light therapy. The practice also has a hyperbaric chamber, an infrared sauna and a cold plunge, and offers one-on-one consulting and retreats around the world.
Dabcevic's path into functional medicine began with a homeopathy bachelor's degree in Australia. She later moved to the United States, where she earned a master's degree in traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture and a doctorate in acupuncture and Oriental medicine, specializing in oncology and chronic pain management.
The idea for the new programs grew out of Dabcevic's reflections on her retreats and one-on-one consulting work. She found that individual sessions offered a personalized approach but lacked the structure of group work, while retreats made a strong impact through their communal nature. The 12-week programs were designed to combine both.
For Dabcevic, functional medicine represents the intersection of Eastern and Western medicine. Her goal with the new programs is to help participants build lasting habits while fostering the kind of community she believes is central to healing.
"I hope that they get that village, which would then bring them confidence, joy and laughter, and even that changes the chemistry in the body," she said.
Awaken Now is located at 1410 Second St., Suite 302, Santa Monica, and is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon Friday. More information is available at awakennowhealth.com, with details on The Whole Body Reset, The Resilient Brain and The Metabolic Reset Blueprint.
Lila Victor, Special to the Daily Press