Victress Women’s Wellness Center sets goals for 2022 

By Kelly White 

Empowering women in the new year is Victress, a wellness center for women, in Palos Heights.

The center opened in October at 7120 W. 127th St. and welcomed in the new year with a goal-setting seminar open to women in the local community called, Achieve 2022: This year set goals, not resolutions.

“This can be a frustrating time of year with resolutions; we put a lot of pressure on resolutions each year and then when things fall through, or we slip up, we can feel disappointed in ourselves,” Caitlin McElroy, Co-Founder of Victress, of Orland Hills, said “This feeling is the exact antithesis of Victress’s mission. We want our Victress women to feel empowered and to set their goals and meet and exceed them.”

The event, held in conjunction with Kellen Consulting Group featured Kelli Kellen, a certified Leadership, Executive, and Business Coach and Consultant.

Founded in 2020 by McElroy and Gina Chigaros, of Evergreen Park, Victress is a mental health and wellness center for women and girls. Created with a shared vision for confidence, strength and community, Victress’ mental health services are specifically tailored to the needs of a 21st century female, including: students, professionals, mothers, wives, and grandmothers, owners said.

The name Victress was chosen because it means a female victor or a woman who is victorious. A part of being victorious is achieving your goals, McEloy said, and the content of the workshop held virtually on Saturday, January 15, taught women how to do this in a realistic way; a way that the mind actually responds to.

“Plus, these are lifelong skills that you can return to long after the workshop is over,” McElroy said.

The event, held in conjunction with Kellen Consulting Group, LLC, originally scheduled to take place at the Palos Heights Recreation Center was moved to an online event due to the Omicron surge.

Kelli Kellen of Kellen Consulting Group is a certified Leadership, Executive, and Business Coach and Consultant focused on helping businesses, teams, and individuals improve their performance through process evaluation, time management, and productivity training.

With more than 25 years of leadership and management experience in non-profits, startups, and publicly traded companies, Kellen has extensive knowledge of how to develop high-performing teams which produce results. With a focus on a positive, collaborative approach to team culture, Kellen coaches individuals to achieve their personal and professional goals.

“Together, we chose the topic of goal-setting because setting and achieving goals can be such an important component to mental health; they reflect our values and who we are as individuals and they can also help resolve some of the problems that we encounter in our lives,” McElroy said. “When you accomplish your goals, you feel great and it can add to your positive sense of self.”

During the free seminar, the 20 women who attended discussed why resolutions don’t work and what they can do about it.

“Weight loss is a common one, more exercise, cutting back on alcohol or other habits, quitting smoking, etc.,” McElroy said. “There are so many different goals that people have for their New Year’s, but the beauty of the workshop is that it’s not about the goal specifically. You can apply this knowledge to any goal and find success.”

McElroy talked with women about how to craft, execute and successfully fulfill goals based on the science of goal-setting.

Some goal-setting ideas discussed included: appreciating the difference between resolutions and goals, determining what areas of a person’s life would benefit from new goal setting, developing smarter goals, creating associated action plans for each of your goals, learning to be accountable for action plans, identifying how to integrate action plans to stay on track, recognizing the options for support available, and enjoying community with like-minded attendees.

“I learned how to create realistic goal plans and how to stay on track to achieve them,” Lysa Fulbright, Achieve 2022, participant, said.

Victress’s office hours are available by appointment with sessions are booked Monday through Saturday, generally between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Telehealth services are also available. For more information call 708-428-2527 or visit info@victresswellness.com.