SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – For Dr. Karel Routhier, MD., and Jessica Eddy, LMFT, they both share one common purpose fueled by passion – helping others. It wouldn’t be until after Routhier created her holistic psychiatry practice, Where Soul Meets Body, that her and Eddy’s paths would cross.
Dr. Karel Routhier, MD., is the founder and owner of Where Soul Meets BodyProvided/Karel Routhier
Routhier was born in Quebec, Canada. After going through medical school in the United States, she stayed for her residency and eventually practiced medicine in Monterey, California. Harboring a deep love for the ocean, her and her husband lived on Maui before devastating wildfires tore across the island in 2023. It was then that her growing family decided to move back to the mainland.
Their familiarity with Lake Tahoe stemmed from visiting often to hike, camp and ski while living in Monterey, and they pondered whether the basin could be their next home.
“We fell in love, and we stayed,” said Routhier. “Which was, to me, very unusual and unexpected because I usually cannot be away from the ocean.”
It wasn’t long before she noticed the need for more mental health services in town and decided to take action. Despite continuing to work remotely, Routhier missed working in-person and considered a position at Barton.
Routhier said she was never one to play by the conventional rules often seen in her field, and she knew that when the mind suffers, so too does the body.
As fate would have it, her calling was not as a psychiatrist at Barton, but instead, it came in the form of her own practice where her unique and compassionate integrative approach to psychiatry could bridge wider gaps for mental health resources in South Lake Tahoe.
After overcoming the obstacle of securing a place for her business, her next challenge was turning it from an old Verizon Wireless office location to a beautifully renovated and serene psychiatric practice space. Having put her own retirement money into the renovation, Routhier was determined to get the space remodeled, and up and running so she could focus on treating patients.
“I had a very, very specific vision,” said Routhier as she recalled the renovation process taking less than three months, which included replacing everything, from the office’s entryway and windows, to brand new flooring and a fresh paint job throughout.
Dr. Routhier’s love for the ocean is reflected in Where Soul Meets Body’s waiting room Victoria Mastrocola/Tahoe Daily Tribune
She marked each task off her list – business license, check. New website, check. Due to the majority of her clients following her via Telehealth, she also had a good cushion and case load to get Where Soul Meets Body off the ground.
Routhier’s original plan was to operate her practice alone, but through what she described as “serendipity”, she met Tahoe local, Jessica Eddy, through Eddy’s sister who works at The Cocktail Corner.
Eddy’s focus for the last nine years has been on trauma therapy as she worked for several school districts. She was on the verge of leaving the field altogether before her sister suggested she meet Routhier.
“It just aligned,” said Eddy. “We met, we got along really well, we had very similar beliefs in what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it.”
Bringing safe and secure trauma work to not only children, but to families and individuals of all ages is what drives Eddy forward.
Jessica Eddy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with over nine years of experienceVictoria Mastrocola/Tahoe Daily Tribune
Together, Routhier and Eddy combine clinical excellence with a deeply personal approach to mental health services, aiming to break barriers in psychiatry and therapy by honoring not just a person’s mind, but the connection between mind and body. Their biggest goal – destigmatizing mental health.
“Everybody needs support, everybody struggles at one point or another in their life,” Routhier said. “Everybody is going to experience pain. Suffering is optional, but to realize that, you need some guidance – whether it’s community, a good friend, a therapist, or a doctor because sometimes medication is needed.”
Where Soul Meets Body offers a variety of treatment modalities and services from breath work, meditation, mindfulness, and cold exposure therapy to group and individual psychotherapies such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
“We teach people how to sit with their emotions and to explore what’s happening internally, and when you do that, you start controlling the nervous system instead of feeling at its mercy,” Routhier said.
Providing accessible mental health services remains a top priority for Where Soul Meets Body as they accept nine different insurances including Anthem Blue Cross, Carelon, Quest, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna Choice, Cigna, United Healthcare, and Optum. For those without insurance, a self-pay sliding scale is available.
Looking ahead, Where Soul Meets Body is striving to continue building a space centered around community, where people feel safe, seen and heard.
“What I’ve seen in my experience in schools is there’s very little social connection, but they want it so badly. Specifically kids, but also families. I see it in parents, that they’re struggling and they need their community to just say ‘Yes, this is hard, but we’re in this together,’” said Eddy.
Where Soul Meets Body is currently accepting new patients. To request a consultation, visit https://www.wheresoulmeetsbodytahoe.com/ or call (530) 287-6391.
Where Soul Meets Body is located at 589 Tahoe Keys Blvd Unit E8 in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
Victoria Mastrocola/Tahoe Daily Tribune
Victoria Mastrocola/Tahoe Daily Tribune
Victoria Mastrocola/Tahoe Daily Tribune
