The Empowered Surgeon Group

Closing the gap between your human and surgeon selves

This isn’t what I signed up for:

  • "This isn’t sustainable. This isn’t me. I don’t want to do this anymore."

  • You don’t recognize yourself. You used to dream of your life as a practicing surgeon—you imagined connecting with patients, fixing surgical problems, being lauded by your community and peers, maybe teaching residents, definitely receiving handsome compensation to support a cushy lifestyle (finally). You knew you were going to work hard, but, you thought, it will all be worth it. So why doesn’t it feel worth it?

  • What you actually find yourself up against is a mountain of bureaucratic tasks, an endless inbox of patient messages, pushback from insurance companies who won’t let you treat your patients based on your expertise and experience, and constant anxiety about making a mistake and being sued. It’s almost as if your brain doesn’t register good patient outcomes because it’s doing everything possible to prevent you from being blindsided by a complication, bad google review, or lawsuit.

  • You’ve tried to fix it, but nothing sticks. Your therapist doesn’t get it. Your spouse doesn’t get it. Your parents don’t get it. Your best friend doesn’t get it. But I get it. I’ve been there, and I know how to help you solve this.

Here’s the truth:

You’re not alone. You are an exceptional human being—an overachiever, a perfectionist, a hard worker, and someone who has relied on external validation your entire life. But now that you’ve scaled surgical training mountain, you’re starting to realize the prize at the top is not that great.

You’re doing your best to survive a system that cares about maximizing profits for shareholders, not making it easy for you to provide your patients with excellent care. You’ve been told to put your nose to the grindstone and work within the system, but you’re realizing it just causes you suffering. It’s time for you to think creatively, diversify your identity, stop identifying as a victim, learn to tolerate uncertainty and risk, and reconnect with your “WHY”. These are just a few of the many skills you will learn in this program.

Here’s what’s really happening–

  • The System: Let’s be real. Corporatization of medicine has exacted moral injury on all of us. Either we work within the system, work to change the system, creatively destroy it and rebuild it, or leave it all together. Whatever you choose to do with your life, you deserve to be okay doing it.

  • The Self: You’ve internalized unrealistic expectations, creating a relationship with yourself and your work that’s toxic and unsustainable. You have to build yourself back up, learn how to have your own back, normalize showing up as the highest version of yourself, and stop looking outside of yourself to determine your worth. When you do this, you’ll be able to surf the waves of circumstances without letting them knock you off your surf board. Even when insurance companies deny your patient’s treatment plan, even when equipment isn’t working in the OR, even when your office manager overbooks you, even when patients have complications, even when you are on call and dreading every minute of it, you will learn how to handle anything and everything this profession throws at you.

Together, we’ll shift from being the Impossible Ideal Surgeon to becoming the Empowered Surgeon:

  • No more feeling shame because you chose to go on a walk instead of adding that patient with a non-urgent problem on your clinic schedule. No more pretending you want to martyr yourself for the profession. No more feeling like you’re the only surgeon who feels anxiety, fear, self-doubt, or inadequacy.

  • Instead, you’ll reclaim your humanity and build relationships—with your profession, your patients, and yourself—that are grounded in truth, safety, and ease. You’ll learn how to feel safe at work. You’ll embody the belief, Nothing can hurt me without my permission. Because nothing can hurt you—not patients, not the system, not your coworkers or colleagues, not your boss, not lawyers—no one can hurt you without your expressed permission.

This isn’t about walking away from medicine or giving up your dreams. It’s about creating a sustainable, fulfilling version of the surgeon you want to be while reconnecting with the reason you fell in love with this work in the first place.

The Program + Plan

We’ll work together in two key ways:

Reveal the Truth

  • Understand the industry’s role in creating these impossible expectations without identifying as a victim of a system.

  • Recognize how your own thoughts and patterns have contributed to this cycle of suffering.

  • Get clear on the difference between what’s yours to carry and what’s too heavy to keep holding.

Reclaim Your Power

  • Practice key skills like:

    • Rediscovering who YOU really are, what you want and how to take aligned action to create your life

    • Shedding Cultural Narratives that do not serve you or your goals

    • Emotional Processing for mistakes, trauma, and imposterism

    • Intentionally Harnessing Emotions that move you forward like curiosity, creativity, non-urgency, and service

    • Diversification of your Identity to create freedom for you to evolve with your career

    • Strengthening your Surgeon Self-Concept to stop you from looking outside of yourself to prove you’re good enough

    • Showing up in Perpetual Creative Response to any life circumstance, be it an emergency on call, a snafu in the OR, patients showing up late, or bad traffic on your way to work

You’ll integrate these practices step-by-step, developing resilience and tools to not just survive but thrive in your profession.

Here’s where we’re going–

  • Immediate Relief: Stop beating yourself up and start seeing yourself and the world around you clearly.

  • Daily Transformation: Less suffering, more peace, and a better relationship with yourself and your work.

  • Sustainable Success: Build a career where you can practice medicine with humanity, authenticity, and ease—on your own terms.

This also means–

  • More energy, time, and efficiency in your daily life

  • Reconnection with your purpose and passion for surgery

  • A reputation that’s grounded in truth and transparency, not the facade of a big ego in a white coat

Most importantly, you’ll find the way to love your job again—and that will increase the happiness in your daily life, too.

Don’t spend another day wondering why you hate your job

JOIN The Empowered Surgeon Group

Surgeons, this 6-month container starts April 30th, 2025. We’ll meet weekly on Wednesdays at 4 pm EST. You and your peers will be witnessed in a safe, brave space held by me—a professional, ICF (International Coaching Federation)-certified coach and surgeon who has spent the last year and hundreds of hours coaching surgeons just like you. I have seen surgeons transform their lives first-hand, and I know my process WORKS.

The mere act of being witnessed in your truth once weekly for 6 months is in and of itself incredibly transformational and worth your entire investment.

But you get so much more!

You’ll also get lifetime access to all the Empowered Surgeon Framework Modules, self-directed videos that will take you step by step through all of the most essential concepts. You’ll understand why you are so unhappy where you are currently and exactly what you need to think, feel and do to be okay. We’ll dive deep into The Unlayering Method to Process Surgical Complications, Creating Safety for YOU, Shedding Cultural Narratives, Surgeon Self-Concept, Diversifying Your Identity, and more.

You’ll have access to a digital copy of The Empowered Surgeon Workbook to walk you through these concepts. Implementation is the hardest part. It’s like learning a new language, and the more exposure, repetition, and modalities you employ to incorporate this new way of seeing the world, the sooner it becomes second nature.

If you’re an introvert, I’ve got you! You’ll get transformation just by watching your peers getting coached by me. You can internalize these concepts on your own time with the modules and workbooks, and if you miss a coaching call, you can watch the replays.

For you extroverts, I’ve got you too! You’ll get lifetime access to the Empowered Surgeons Facebook Group, a community of peer support where you can cheer each other on and share your experiences vulnerably in a safe, brave, non-judgemental space curated just for surgeons.

What Clients are Saying

  • "Mel is exceptional at what she does. Her ability to connect is her superpower. Very grateful for her work."

    Dr. D

  • "Mel Thacker is just amazing. She has helped me so much! I can’t even say how much my life has changed in the past year with her life coaching. From helping me manage my severe anxiety to helping me feel better about myself it’s been a miracle. "

    Lisa B

  • "Mel is amazing. Really helped me get back into my game and have real tools to fall back on. Worth every penny!"

    B D

  • "It’s hard to put into words what a special person and amazing coach Mel is. As surgeons we are surrounded by so much noise in our heads and elsewhere. She can help you get to the root of it and help you see what it is you’re missing and what you really want/need out of your career and life in general. I cannot recommend her more highly!"

    Colleen P

  • "Dr. Thacker is an amazing person, surgeon and coach. Life as a surgeon is a windy gravel road, and she will help you navigate it. I highly recommend coaching with Dr. Thacker. Don't hesitate to reach out to her."

    James S

  • "Mel has such profound insights about the surgical training system and the way we as humans adapted to get through training- and how many of those maladaptive patterns ultimately hold back attending surgeons in practice."

    Mia M

JOIN THE EMPOWERED SURGEON GROUP TODAY

The Group Calls begin on April 30, and you can start this work right now. Here’s what you’ll get today:

  • Immediate Access to the Empowered Surgeon Page with a welcome video from me

  • Immediate Access to the Empowered Surgeon Workbook in PDF form

    • This workbook is a gem that will help you get started on this work from reframing how you see yourself to understanding negative emotions to improving relationships with your patients

    • Go through the workbook at your own pace

  • Immediate Access to Empowered Surgeon Facebook Group