Jonathan Leary

Jonathan Leary (born February 7, 1990) is the founder and CEO of Remedy Place, “the world’s first social wellness club." Leary is an American chiropractor, with a Doctorate in Chiropractic and Alternative Medicine. For his work at Remedy Place and as a concierge wellness doctor, Leary has appeared in Forbes, Vogue, Business Insider, Fast Company, WSJ, Time Magazine, NBC, and the Financial Times.

Early life and education

Born in 1990, Jonathan Leary grew up in a small town in Rhode Island as part of a blue-collar family. Leary recounts that he always saw himself as a big dreamer and hustler with an entrepreneurial spirit. He started a summer landscaping business in sixth grade and obtained his working permit at the age of 15. Leary initially thought he wanted to work in healthcare, but after volunteering in hospitals throughout high school and college, he realized he needed to start a practice that provided alternative treatments to traditional medications and surgery.

In 2011, Leary received a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from the University of Rhode Island with a concentration in Exercise Science. In 2012, Leary moved across the country to Los Angeles to pursue a Doctorate in Chiropractic and Alternative Medicine from the Southern California University of Health Sciences.

Career

Leary balanced a number of jobs during his graduate studies, including working as a tutor and personal trainer. Throughout his twenties, Leary recalls working one hundred hours or more a week. He first created the concept for his company Remedy Place during his graduate studies. He spent his weekends developing a 158-page business plan. After graduating in 2015, Leary struggled to obtain a business loan due to financial obstacles. Leary recounts that with limited capital and eight years of student loan debt, it was almost impossible to obtain a loan or secure funding.

Leary postponed founding Remedy Place and instead started his private practice BodyFix, where he worked as a concierge wellness doctor. Leary used his private practice as an opportunity to discover which treatment modalities achieved the best health outcomes. The clinical evidence Leary gained as a result of extensive testing with more than 1200 clients helped him refine his business plan for Remedy Place.

As Leary’s private practice grew, he began treating Olympic athletes, celebrities, and corporate executives. Leary notes that as his patients became his mentors, the relationships he developed through his private practice helped him bring Remedy Place’s concept to fruition. By the time Leary decided to create Remedy Place in 2019, he had already focused on the concept for nearly ten years.

Leary has also hosted corporate outings for Fortune 500 companies like Nike, facilitated retreats at the Cannes Film Festival, partnered with Tao Group for an event at Coachella, and served as a wellness speaker for Delta Airlines.

Remedy Place

Remedy Place was co-founded by Jonathan Leary and Rhyce Lein as the “world’s first social wellness club." The flagship Remedy Place location opened on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood in 2019. Remedy Place’s second location opened in 2022. The new 7,200 sq ft social wellness club is in New York’s Flatiron District.

Leary drew his inspiration for the concept of a social wellness club from five years of clinical experience helping clients in his own private practice. Leary describes how he observed the difficulty his clients faced in creating a healthy lifestyle while also maintaining an active social life. This challenge stemmed from the reality that most social activities revolve around drinking, partying, or other toxins.

In response to his vision for Remedy Place, Leary told Vogue that “it needed not just to be self-care, but social self-care,” describing how “the most important part of self-care is human connection." He explains how isolation and loneliness have a negative impact on human health, and he has coined the term “social self-care” as the foundation of Remedy Place’s treatments. Leary designed all of Remedy Place’s treatments so that they can be done with other people in a social atmosphere.

Remedy Place offers a wide range of Eastern medicine-based holistic treatments. These include ice baths, cryotherapy, infrared sauna sessions, IV vitamin drips, lymphatic compression, hyperbaric chamber oxygen therapy, chiropractic adjustments, cupping therapy, acupuncture, ear seeds, and functional medicine consultations. Leary based many of the treatments offered in Remedy Place on the seven elements of holistic health or balance: mind, oxygen, movement, nutrition, cold, heat, and compression. An article in the Financial Times has pointed out that the science behind some of these treatments is confusing, and that only the BallancerPro lymphatic massage suit has been approved by the FDA. Leary has been outspoken that “with Remedy Place the plan is to legitimize alternative and preventive medicine, show the science and the evidence, and give it a platform to offer it to the world."

Inside Remedy Place, there is also a meditation room, lounge, and nutritional bar. The meditation room can be used for a variety of group classes including group meditations and sound baths. The temptation and toxic-free nutritional bar serves herbal elixirs, adaptogen cocktails, and nootropic seltzers all free of alcohol. Remedy Place also hosts euphorics nights where a mixologist creates healthier, non-alcoholic beverages that still provide an energy buzz.

Ice baths

Ice baths have become one of Remedy Place’s most popular treatments, and their ice bath classes have received more than 100 million views online in addition to appearing in publications like Forbes. Remedy Place claims to offer the “world’s first commercialized ice bath class,” which combines ten minutes of holotropic breathwork with a six-minute 39-degree ice bath. The protocol has become popular among celebrities who frequent Remedy Place. Some of Remedy Place’s most notable clients include the Kardashians, Kacey Musgraves, Rita Ora, and Shaun White. Leary tries to do an ice bath every other day himself.

Club design

When refining his vision of Remedy Place, Leary paid close attention to the club’s design. He believes that the environment can have an important impact on a person’s health. Remedy Place’s design leverages ergonomic furniture, warm lighting, and a monochromatic color scheme. Leary’s goal was to use design elements to contrast with the white, sterile environments of traditional healthcare practices. He believes doing so prevents patients from experiencing white coat syndrome. Remedy Place also uses materials like Venetian plaster to block radio frequencies and electromagnetic interferences. A sound system emits a combination of 7.83 Hz and 40 Hz sound frequencies to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and help guests relax with a process known as entrainment.

Fundraising and future directions

Leary recently completed a $5 million bridge round of fundraising for Remedy Place in May 2022. Notable investors in this capital raise include musical group Rüfus Du Sol, DJ and record producer Anton Zaslavski (Zedd), and NFL player Marcedes Lewis. Remedy Place had a valuation of more than $60 million in 2022.

Leary hopes that Remedy Place will help people achieve autonomy over their health and shift toward a proactive model of healthcare. In addition to providing research funding for alternative and holistic therapies, Leary wants to continue growing Remedy Place with the goal of having a location in every major city. An article in the Financial Times quotes Leary stating that “Self-care is going to be the new fitness industry; you’re going to see self-care, recovery, preventative care places on every corner." Leary had the word “remedy” tattooed on the back of his wrist. Remedy Place plans to expand by developing several new locations each year.