In a generation where career titles often serve as identity badges, Dr. Bo Headlam defies classification. Walk into one of his orthopedic appointments, and you might see a board-certified surgeon in scrubs reviewing a patient’s MRI. Later that day, he might be slicing shallots in a culinary school kitchen, writing spiritual curriculum, or revisiting trumpet notes from a jazz performance years ago.
To Dr. Headlam, healing is not limited to the body. It is an all-encompassing journey of body, mind, and spirit.
“I’ve always followed curiosity,” Headlam said, seated in a quiet corner when we sat down for a recent interview about his life and career. “Medicine, music, food, climbing, energy work, they are all connected. They all point to the same thing: how to live fully.”
Headlam leads Progressed Medical Professional Corporation, an orthopedic practice in New York City with a focus on minimally invasive procedures and long-term joint health. But his medical practice is just one expression of a much deeper vision.
His real work, he says, is helping people reconnect to themselves.
“Healing isn’t about fixing,” Dr. Headlam shared. “It’s about restoring wholeness. And wholeness means understanding how everything is connected, the body, the emotions, your beliefs, your energy, your purpose.”
The Music Behind the Medicine
Long before Dr. Bo Headlam wore a white coat, he stood in spotlights as a professional trumpet player. Music was his first teacher in discipline, timing, and listening.
“Music taught me how to lead without forcing anything,” he said. “A good solo isn’t just about the notes, it’s about listening, pausing, sensing what needs to come next. That’s how I lead now, whether it’s in the OR or a conversation.”
He often finds himself drawing parallels between improvising on stage and making patient care decisions. Both require presence, adaptability, and intuition.
“People ask how I make complex decisions quickly,” he said. “It’s because I’ve trained my intuition like a muscle. It’s not guessing. It’s pattern recognition on a deeper level.”
That intuition is rooted in his spiritual practices. Headlam, who goes by Mikah in metaphysical spaces, uses techniques such as Akashic Records work and shamanic journeying to gain clarity.
“Some people make a pros and cons list. I meditate, I journal, I ask questions and wait for answers in stillness,” he said. “It’s no different than checking multiple data sources. I just include spiritual data too.”
Leading With Presence, Not Just Protocol
Leadership, Dr. Headlam said, isn’t about status. It’s about how you make people feel.
“Whether I’m teaching music, mentoring a student or speaking with a patient, my role is to see people,” he said. “Not just their roles or symptoms, but the person. Their potential.”
He recalled a moment from years ago when a fellow surgeon at a hospital confided in him about her burnout. They talked a few times in between cases, mostly about alignment, joy, and calling.
“Months later, she told me she’d taken a job in another state and finally felt alive again. She said our conversations helped her make that move,” he said. “I hadn’t realized how much it impacted her. Sometimes leadership is just holding a mirror up for people.”
Headlam applies the same compassion to difficult moments.
“Compassion isn’t a technique,” he said. “It’s a way of living. When someone’s frustrated or confused, I remind myself they’re doing the best they can with the tools they have. That makes it easier to stay open and kind.”
Tapping Into the Signals of Life
At first glance, Headlam’s life appears packed with disparate threads: orthopedic surgery, culinary school, mountaineering, and metaphysical education. But he insists none of it is random.
“I listen for what wants to emerge,” he said. “Culinary school wasn’t planned. I kept noticing articles, hearing conversations, and seeing signs. Eventually, I enrolled. Now I’m thinking about how to merge food with healing on a deeper level.”
He believes most people miss those signals because they’re too busy trying to stick to the script.
“We’re taught to follow plans, not nudges. But growth doesn’t happen on a schedule,” he said. “It shows up in detours, whispers, and unexpected invitations. I follow those.”
Headlam is currently training for a mountaineering challenge known as the Seven Summits. To him, the mountains symbolize resilience and presence.
“You don’t climb a mountain with your ego,” he said. “You climb with humility. Every step is a choice to keep going.”
Creating Environments for Excellence
Despite his many roles, Dr. Headlam is clear about his priorities.
“I focus my time where I bring the most creative value,” he said. “That usually means vision, design, energy. The rest I delegate.”
He said his team, a blend of healers, project managers, and creatives, helps bring his ideas to life across domains.
“You can be excellent at something and still let it go,” he said. “I used to do my own marketing. I was good at it. But my energy is better used creating something only I can create.”
When it comes to inspiring others, he returns to the idea of modeling.
“I don’t tell people how to live. I live it,” he said. “If you’re excited about your life, it’s contagious. People feel it and start asking different questions about their own lives.”
That energy, he said, is what often shifts the room more than anything else.
“I’ve had people tell me they changed their diet, started meditating, or left toxic jobs just because they saw me doing it and thought, why not me too? That’s the real influence.”
Building a School for the Soul
Now, Headlam is turning his focus toward a new frontier: education. His next major project is a metaphysical school that integrates spiritual growth, energy work, emotional intelligence, and holistic health. He believes there’s a hunger for deeper learning that traditional education does not satisfy.
“People are hungry to know themselves,” he said. “They want to understand energy, intuition, purpose, and how to heal what logic can’t explain. This school will be a place for that.”
He plans to design the curriculum around lived experience rather than fixed theory.
“This isn’t about creating gurus,” he said. “It’s about empowering people to trust their own wisdom.”
A Life That Refuses to Fit a Box
Dr. Headlam knows his life confuses some people. That used to bother him. Now, it motivates him.
“When people ask what I do, I just say I’m here to evolve,” he said. “That can look like a lot of things.”
From the clinic to the kitchen, from the trail to the classroom, Dr. Bo Headlam is building a life that challenges conventions and, in doing so, helps others reimagine what healing and leadership can truly mean.
“It’s all connected,” he said. “If you’re willing to live from that truth, your life becomes the medicine.”
