Health, Leadership & Resilience

Meet Cathy O’Brien: breast cancer survivor, wellness leader, and the voice behind Inside the Wellspace

Hi there,

A few weeks ago, Cathy O’Brien and I co-hosted a Breathwork session with Céline Antoine at Topping Rose House, and it gave me the chance to get to know her a little better.

She’s not only the Chairwoman of NATUROPATHICA, but also a breast cancer survivor who has poured that journey into action. Under her leadership, NATUROPATHICA created their Oncology Care program, offering specialized spa and skincare treatments for people going through cancer treatments. Their estheticians and massage therapists are certified in oncology care, using botanical formulas to soothe skin stressed by chemo and radiation, and their therapists go into hospitals to bring the healing power of touch right to patients. As a breast cancer survivor myself, I deeply appreciate this powerful and necessary work.

Cathy also hosts a podcast I love—Inside the Wellspace: Women, Wellbeing, Wisdom with Cathy O’Brien—where she has honest conversations about health, resilience, and what it really means to take care of ourselves as women.

Her story really stuck with me: she’s navigated multiple industries, survived hard challenges, and still shows up with humor, warmth, and wisdom. I’m really happy to share more of Cathy’s perspective with you this week. Scroll down for my Q&A with her, which includes following her gut in her career, women’s health, her favorite items from NATUROPATHICA, and so much more. AND if you are in NYC tonight, she is hosting “PMS to POST MENOPAUSE - MASTERING YOUR HORMONES YOUR WAY” today 9/18 at the Nexus Club New York with Dr. Chiti Parikh and Dr. Chris Creatura. The event is free of charge and you get to speak to the doctors at the end of the session - I’ll be there and hope to see you!

1. Your career spans several industries and roles. Looking back, what are the defining moments that led you to where you are today? And how did they shape the leader you are now?

There have been a number of key moments and transitions over my career – there are a few that stand out. I was in the music industry for over a decade, and it was an aggressive, man’s world with no female role models in senior leadership positions. I was a young woman with a big job – running the International Division of Arista Records. Not only were there no women more senior than I at Arista, my place of work was outside the US where women were mostly in support roles. I slogged away for years and was recruited by Estée Lauder to be a senior part of the Tommy Hilfiger team – which morphed into La Mer then Jo Malone. I realized then that while the music world was what I knew and in a totally dysfunctional way felt ‘safe’, it wasn’t. I made a bold choice to change industries and learn something new – believing that the culture and environment of the company and the industry I was moving toward was the healthy, long term move for me. And I was right.

Then when I was at Estée Lauder running the Jo Malone Brand globally, I had my second child – and had two kids 18 months apart. I also realized at that time that it was I who would be the primary caregiver and home-runner for my children, and realized that I couldn’t do a good job with that while in a high-profile corporate job. So, I founded and built the agency AAM Brand Management Group to have some flexibility and not live in a 9-5 box. It ended up being hugely successful with clients like LVMH, Hermes, Avon, Marimekko, Sam Edelman, among many others.