Hi, I’m Mel.
My mission? To help surgeons get to know and love themselves unconditionally and fearlessly follow their inner whisper– for themselves, for their patients and for their profession.
When surgeons suffer less,we serve better.
HERE’S WHAT I BELIEVE
And when we serve better, we stop sacrificing ourselves in the name of excellence.
When we consistently act in service to our own wholeness, surgery becomes a place of depth, meaning, and connection—and a kind of success that actually sustains a life.
You are human before surgeon.
In my TEDx Talk, I explore why this matters through the way fear quietly hijacks judgment. Using the framework of white swans, black swans, and red swans, I unpack how defensive, fear-based thinking narrows our vision, distances us from our patients, and pulls us out of alignment with what we already know to be true.
And I offer a different way forward—one that protects good judgment without abandoning our humanity.
I’m Dr. Mel Thacker, a surgeon who built a highly successful career and still found that fear, pressure, and self-protection were insidiously diminishing the career I’d devoted my life to building.
In my work studying and supporting the emotional health of surgeons, I name this pattern and offer a different way forward—one that helps surgeons see more clearly, decide more consciously, and practice without abandoning themselves in the process.
It’s no surprise so many of us are exhausted.
Before we’re even fully awake, our brains are already working—running through cases, responsibilities, what-ifs, and the pressure to get it right. We move through days shaped by protocols, expectations, opinions, and fear of consequences. There’s very little space to slow down and ask what any of this is actually costing us.
Surgery trains us to perform in a very specific way.
It doesn’t train us to account for the side effects that come along with it– boundary violations, difficult patients, ethical gray areas, dysfunctional relational dynamics, and more.
Most of us learned early on how to minimize what we feel, joke our way through it, compartmentalize it, or push it aside entirely. Pain from life, training, and the job itself. Sometimes from long before surgery ever entered the picture. These strategies make sense. They help us survive. And over time, they take something from us.
Empowered Surgeons isn’t about fixing you or changing who you are.
It’s an invitation to learn a practice that can literally save lives.
To pause instead of react.
To listen to the stories your brain is telling you, and decide which ones you actually want to believe.
To rediscover clarity in moments where fear has been running the show.
To disagree with integrity and courage, knowing that your voice matters.
The practice here is simple. Most surgeons are surprised by how simple it is.
That doesn’t make it insignificant. It makes it powerful.
I’m not here to give you answers.
I’m here to help you hear your own again.
This work is about rehumanizing surgeons, patients, and the relationship between them—one clear mind at a time. It’s about practicing medicine with integrity, presence, and self-trust, without abandoning yourself in the process.
You don’t need to be ready.
You don’t need to be struggling.
You don’t need to believe anything yet.
Just start by noticing.
You’re allowed to think here.
Empowered Surgeons
Empowered Surgeons is a program, method, practice, and a growing movement.
It exists to address a problem that is hidden in plain sight:
a profession built on service, rigor, and excellence that quietly trains people to override themselves in order to survive.
My community is surgeons, so I start there.
I answered this call first in myself—after building a highly successful career and realizing that fear, pressure, and self-protection were slowly diminishing the work I loved and the person I was becoming. What I discovered wasn’t a new answer to follow, but a different way of relating to my own mind.
Empowered Surgeons is grounded in self-inquiry: a radically simple, highly effective practice that helps surgeons pause, notice what’s driving their decisions, and reclaim their own clarity and authority. It’s not about fixing yourself. It’s about learning to see clearly again.
I know the real reasons surgeons don’t get help.
The culture. The conditioning. The unspoken rules. The belief that you should be beyond this by now.
And I also know we can’t ignore how our profession has shifted in ways that are costing us emotionally, relationally, and ethically.
Empowered Surgeons is how I respond to that reality.
One surgeon at a time.
One empowered mind at a time.
About the empowered surgeons program + space
In Empowered Surgeons, we set down perfectionism, comparison and competition and pick up self-trust, authenticity, and connection.
Here, we remember that life is bigger than the OR, and that being human is what actually supports you in doing this work well. What you’ll find is an earnest teacher wholeheartedly invested in your human side as much as your surgeon self—someone who understands the highs, lows, extremes, and particular challenges you face in surgery.
Empowered Surgeons is a place to practice presence, boundaries, humanity, and leadership in the hardest rooms: the OR, clinic, C suite, and at home. I can’t fix the broken system for you, but I will help you find a way to live and lead inside it—without losing yourself. In fact, you’ll find even more meaning in your work, the moments away from work, and everywhere in between.
This isn’t just about your career. It’s about the culture of surgery, what kind of colleagues we are, and how we treat each other, ourselves, support staff, and trainees. It’s about preparing you not just to survive surgery, but to have a life beyond it — because one day, whether by choice or retirement, you will.
I can’t know why you’re here until you tell me.
Maybe you’re exhausted. Maybe you recently had a surgical complication that shook you. Maybe you thought your life would feel different.
Whatever it is, I hope you’ll tell me.
xo, Mel
PROGRAMS + OFFERSLet’s explore what might be right for you, right now.
empowered surgeons, the online program + group
Empowered Surgeons is support designed specifically for surgeons who want sustainable success in the OR, clinic and beyond. It’s both a steady practice space and a reliable lifeline when things feel urgent.
It’s not a curriculum you check off, it’s something you can come back to over and over, whether for ongoing growth or in a crisis moment.
private coaching with me
1:1 is best if you want a dedicated space on your calendar with a high-level partner. It’s also for those moments when the thought of bringing your most vulnerable truths into a group feels paralyzing.
In this space, you get to practice the skills of being seen vulnerably, without pressure, without performance. This isn’t about dumping or trauma-bonding. It’s about learning how to show up as a competent, steady partner in relationship. Skills that will carry you into group spaces and beyond.
explore + expand: our twice a year retreats just for surgeons
We were never meant to do this alone.
Our retreats are our ritual against isolation. Time carved out to step away from the grind and back into connection, creativity, play, and honest conversation.
Here, you get to be more than “the surgeon.” You get to be human, witnessed by other humans who know what the work costs and what it gives.
It’s where you remember yourself, and remember that you belong.
INTERESTED IN OUR AUGUST NORWAY RETREAT? SCHEDULE A CALL WITH ME HERE.