Valerie Goulding is one of those people who operates on multiple registers at once — a conversation about spa operations is also a conversation about aesthetics, philosophy, and getting things right according to timeless principles. She has a consulting mind: pattern-recognition, precision, a low tolerance for vagueness. But she’s not cold about it — there’s genuine warmth underneath, and a real commitment to the people and work she takes on.
She was born in Central America, raised between American and European cultures, and did much of her growing up in a small Midwest college town largely attended by international and minority students. Her father is a decorated military officer. During her formative years, her European mother owned and operated a specialty food and wellness store named Middle Earth. At eleven, her family began studying T’ai Chi and martial arts together under a University Arts professor. This helped shape how she understands movement and art. A chapter of her life spent living in Santa Fe, New Mexico deepened that foundation. While working in the publishing world there, she continued her martial arts training, discovered yoga, and pursued a dedicated Zen meditation practice.
After studying Ayurveda, she went on to found, develop, and operate an Ayurvedic spa for thirteen years. She is a lifelong student and practitioner of Ayurveda and Jyotish. Not casually as lifestyle accessories, but as a living framework she actively applies and continually refines. Since encountering the Vedic sciences, her work and life have been inspired by the wellspring of that knowledge.
Her consulting practice is selective by design. She takes a small number of long term clients and brings a quality team of freelance professionals to the table when the project requires it. She also works in the carbon offset verification world for a multinational corporation. She moves between worlds fluently, and brings all of them to bear.
She lives with family in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California. There’s something about mountains and elevation that fits her. There, she’s a little removed from the noise, but very much engaged with the world on her own terms.
Millicent & Roebuck Hill is a name drawn from family heritage. She is proud to come from a multi-generational tradition of business enterprise builders.