Becky Stevens

Becky Stevens is a nurse anesthetist, board-certified holistic nurse coach, certified aromatherapist and certified yoga teacher who teaches patients how to prepare for surgery with integrative health and wellness strategies. She holds the credentials MSN, CRNA, HWNC-BC and CA, and she works in the Texas Medical Center, where she has been a nurse anesthetist with a large anesthesia group since 2005. Her work bridges conventional medicine and holistic practices.

Her path began in nursing. She has been a registered nurse in the state of Texas since 1994 and became a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist in 2005. Her nursing experience covers home health, endoscopy, intensive care for adults and children, surgery, and labor and delivery. Her Insight Timer teacher page describes more than 30 years of experience in nursing and patient care, and says she has seen how stress, anxiety and fear can affect patients before and after surgery. She also volunteered and served as a team leader with Faith in Practice, a medical mission to Guatemala, from 2006 to 2013 and again from 2022 to 2024.

Alongside her anesthesia practice, Becky Stevens added training in holistic and integrative approaches. She became a 200-hour certified yoga teacher with the National Association of Certified Yoga Teachers in 2013. Other credentials followed: Advanced Practice Holistic Nurse-BC from 2018, Healing Touch Certification Level II in 2019, and Healing Circles Global Facilitator and Trainer in 2020. She completed a Certificate in Integrative Wellness Coaching at Saybrook University in 2020 and a Certificate in Integrative Nurse Coaching from the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy in 2021. She was a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach from 2021 to 2025, has been a Health and Wellness Nurse Coach, Board Certified, since 2022, and has been a Certified Aromatherapist since 2024.

What she offers is practical teaching for people facing an operation. Through her website, Prepare For Your Surgery, she shares books, online courses, resources and educational programs on mind-body practices for surgery preparation, breath work and overall wellness. Her guidance starts from the surgeon's advice and covers optimizing health to reduce the risk of complications, learning mind-body techniques to reduce fear and anxiety and manage pain, and using complementary practices to support healing and reduce side effects. She also writes the Welloverall Blog, with posts on topics such as how guided imagery supports surgery and recovery, and on the difference between health and wellness. She is engaged in research on the benefits of mind-body practices for reducing surgical anxiety and improving healing outcomes.

Her approach to wellness is integrative. She describes it as the full integration of four lifestyle domains: mental, physical, spiritual and social. In her writing she says that wellness is a verb, something a person does through everyday choices and not something that can be bought. She adds that people can practice wellness wherever they are on the spectrum from illness to high-level wellness.

Becky Stevens's work is for patients who want to be active participants in their own surgical care and recovery. She teaches them to understand the pros and cons of a procedure, to know their risks, and to make the most of the body's innate healing capacity. Her stated aim is tools that are simple, safe and effective, so that patients feel empowered and their needs, values and preferences are considered by their healthcare team.