Today we’re excited to be connecting with Gianna Biscontini again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.
Gianna, we are so thrilled to be connecting again and can’t wait to hear about all the amazing things you have been up to. Before we jump into all of that, some of our readers might have missed our prior interview, so can you take a moment to reintroduce yourself?
When I last spoke with VoyageLA, I was fully immersed in the corporate world as the founder of W3RKWELL, where I worked to reshape workplace culture through the lens of wellbeing, using behavioral science to sustainably influence those changes.
Those years were incredibly fulfilling, but they also taught me something profound: much of the harm and unhealthy behavior in the corporate world is rooted in individual wounds—wounds often created by societal pressures and inequities, specifically for women and people of color. That realization led me to pivot from system-level interventions to focusing on supporting and healing the individuals within those systems – work, relationships, and society. I wanted to create something different, something that would challenge the status quo of mental health in the U.S.
As a board-certified behavior analyst, clinical behavior scientist, and psychedelic-assisted therapist who works at the intersection of science, spirituality, and social impact, I was able to draw upon my wider experiences to create EXPANDED Women’s Health and Wellness.
At EXPANDED, we provide unique, multi-modality mental health services to women, those identified female at birth (AFAB), trans and non-binary individuals, and allies of female-focused spaces through the lens of the female experience. This is important, because most of the U.S. views healthcare through a male lens, specifically white males. It’s a holistic, deeply personal approach, and it’s grounded in the belief that healing individual wounds has the power to empower and transform not just the person, but also the systems and relationships around them.
The path to this work wasn’t linear. After exiting W3RKWELL and publishing my book, F*ckless: A Guide to Wild, Unencumbered Freedom, I felt a deep need to step back from the corporate world and recalibrate. I spent 16 months living as a nomad, traveling the world and exploring what it means to truly disconnect and live outside conventional structures.
During that time, I designed a 100-day sabbatical for myself—a structured period of reflection and healing. It was during those 100 days that I began to piece together the framework that would eventually become The EXPANDED Method. This approach blends behavioral science, somatic practices, neuroscience, evolutionary biology and expanded states of consciousness to address the full spectrum of what it means to heal.
One thing that’s always been central to my work is a commitment to social impact. Whether I’m working with individuals or systems, I’m guided by questions like, “How can this ripple outward? How does this serve the individual within the context of their community as well as the larger picture?” Healing isn’t just personal—it’s relational, communal, and systemic.
Today, I’m based in Washington, D.C., building EXPANDED Women’s Health and Wellness alongside a fantastic and talented psychiatric nurse practitioner, who brings expertise in integrative psychiatry, ketamine-assisted therapy and functional nutritional psychiatry. Together, we’re working to address gender inequity in mental health and wellness while giving women the tools to heal and thrive.
My work now is deeply aligned with who I am and what I value. It’s no longer about fixing broken systems; it’s about helping women and our allies reclaim their health and wellbeing so they can navigate those systems on their own terms—or even rebuild them entirely.
Awesome, so we reached out because we wanted to hear all about what you have been up to since we last connected.
My most notable and influential move since I dissolved W3RKWELL was leaving conventional life behind in order to intensely recalibrate, heal and expand after years of pain, loss and feeling constricted in the corporate world. For 16 months, I lived as a nomad, traveling the country with my rescue dogs, immersing myself in solitude, nature, minimal media and releasing old conditioning to allow for fresh perspectives.
I needed to step away from the systems and structures I’d spent years analyzing at W3RKWELL to truly understand their impact on people—and on myself. My travels spanned the beaches of New York to hiking through the vast, healing landscapes of California, to the quiet deserts of New Mexico – narrowly escaping tornadoes and hailstorms, meeting others in the nomadic community and reforming my identity without the pressures of Western society. Along the way, I discovered that the constant drive for productivity and perfection I’d worked so hard to disrupt in corporations often stem from our own deep, unaddressed individual wounds and limiting beliefs that aren’t actually ours.
My 100-day sabbatical in Northern California became the foundation for EXPANDED. Through my own experiences and years of research throughout my career in human behavior, I came to understand that many of the harmful behaviors in the corporate world and society —burnout, overworking, toxic competition, abuse—were often symptoms of unresolved personal trauma and systemic oppression.
EXPANDED focuses on providing women, and those assigned female at birth (AFAB) and their allies with tools to heal from these relational and societal wounds, blending cutting-edge scientific practices like ketamine-assisted therapy, integrative psychiatry and The EXPANDED Method, with grounding spiritual and somatic approaches to regulate the nervous system. Whether through theta wave (deeply relaxed) states, trauma-informed therapy that releases trauma from the body, or the use of psychedelic medicine to access expanded states of consciousness, we seek to provide world-class care, with safety as the primary focus, helping women to find solace and belonging in a healing community.
I realized that true change doesn’t happen in boardrooms or through policy alone. It starts with individuals reclaiming their health and agency. At the heart of EXPANDED is a commitment to addressing gender inequity in wellness and in the world, where we demand more, but provide less, to women. This venture is about redefining what it means to prioritize women’s health. My goal is to create a space where women feel seen, heard, and supported—not just in surviving the systems around them, but in thriving despite them.
Finally landing in Washington, D.C., I’ve embraced a slower, more intentional pace of life, one that allows me to balance my passions for city living and connecting with nature. Between exploring the latest research in psychedelic medicine and unwinding at her favorite local museums, I’m enjoying life away from the corporate world and finding joy in simple pleasures and meaningful work.
The path I’m on today feels wild, divine and aligned. I feel excitement, gratitude and humility as the “boots not the ground”, serving a profoundly sick society in the wake of our current political climate. It’s not about fixing people to fit into systems, but helping them break free from systems that were never designed for their well-being. When women heal, everything changes. Workplaces, relationships, families—they all rise. That’s the ripple effect I’m working toward every day.
Alright, so let’s do something a bit more fast-paced and lighthearted. We call this our lightning round and we’ll ask you a few quick questions.
- Favorite Movie: Gardenstate
- Favorite Book: M Street by Patti Smith
- Favorite TV Show: Schitt’s Creek
- Favorite Band or Artist: The Weepies
- Sweet or Savory: Yes!
- Mountains or Beach: Mountains
- Favorite Sport (to watch): Women’s soccer
- Favorite Sport (to play): Field hockey
- Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Field hockey, soccer and basketball. I also rode horses and danced ballet, tap and jazz.
- As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: A pediatrician AND a donut shop owner!
- French Fries or Onion Rings: Yes.
- Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: I had to Google both, so… neither!
- Favorite Cartoon growing up: Ducktails
- Favorite Childhood movie: Spaceballs (really)
- Favorite Breakfast Food: I do intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast) but if pressed, a croissant from my favorite cafe in Lisbon.
Life is often about tough choices – can you talk to us about your thought process, strategy or philosophy when it comes to making difficult choices or tradeoffs.
What has served me well is to know my center, and to go as slowly as I need to find peace and grounding before making hard decisions. My operating speed is 300 mph, but I won’t be rushed when making choices that have impact. Most of the time we are moving too quickly to make sound, healthy decisions, which means we then risk acting from our own wounds or scarcity and fear.
I know what guides me, and I do my best to keep my integrity around my guiding values – creativity, authenticity, trust, exploration and positive impact.
Owning a business or leading in any capacity means that you can’t always keep everyone happy (also true for life in general). My strategy is to get honest about my intention, energy and emotions, then to look as far down the road as possible, past fleeting emotion and tiny details that can cloud the point: What story do I want to look back and tell? What are the consequences of each possible decision? Who does it affect and how?
I also rely on an exercise called the Deathbed Mentality: when I’m (hopefully) very old and on my deathbed, looking back at this moment, what is the decision I wish I would have made? I believe there’s a lot of wisdom in that perspective.
Image Credits
Malek Naz Freidouni
