Dr. Jessica Trice’s Guide to Self-Care in Nashville: Mix the CE With Some Well-Deserved Pampering
By Vet Candy | August 2026 | Wellness + Conference | Featuring Dr. Jessica Trice, DVM — Owner, Vetique Chicago
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WVC Nashville is four days of world-class continuing education, hands-on labs, and an exhibit hall packed with 300+ companies. It is also, if you plan it right, four days in one of the best wellness cities in the South.
Most conference-goers walk straight past it. They stack session on session, skip lunch, push through the exhibit hall on fumes, and land home Sunday night more depleted than when they left. We're here to tell you there's a better way and Dr. Jessica Trice, DVM, co-owner of Vetique Chicago and one of the most stylish, high-functioning boss moms in veterinary medicine, has already figured it out.
“As a practice owner and a mom, I protect my energy the way I protect my schedule — fiercely. If I don't build rest into a conference trip, I come home completely wrecked and useless to everyone. That's not self-indulgence. That's strategy.”
Here is how to do WVC Nashville without running yourself into the ground — CE and all of it.
Start Here: The Mindset Shift
Self-care at a conference is not a reward you earn after you've squeezed everything else in. It's part of the plan. A massage on day two means you actually absorb the session on day three. A morning walk through Germantown means your brain shows up sharp for the afternoon's CE block. Sleep is not optional.
WVC Nashville offers 400+ hours of CE across four days. You cannot attend all of it. Nobody can. Choose your sessions with intention, protect your mornings and evenings with the same energy you'd protect a surgery slot, and build the rest in deliberately.
“I choose my CE sessions the same way I choose a skincare routine — with intention and no guilt about what I'm leaving out. You can't do it all. Pick what actually serves you and let the rest go.”
Day One: Arrive and Actually Arrive
If you can get to Nashville on Friday, August 14 — before the official Saturday start — do it. Use Friday evening to decompress from travel, eat something that isn't airport food, and actually settle into the city before the conference energy takes over.
PBR Stampede Days is the Friday night pre-conference event with WVC discount code WVC30 for 30% off tickets — a genuinely fun kickoff. But if you've had a long travel day and your body is asking for rest, room service and eight hours of sleep is the better call. Permission granted.
Friday Evening: Rhapsody Spa at The Westin Nashville
Rhapsody Spa inside the Westin Nashville is a 6,000-square-foot retreat with massages, CBD and lymphatic treatments, steam rooms, and cedar sauna access. Book a 60-minute massage before the conference officially starts and you'll enter Saturday feeling like yourself again.
“Rhapsody Spa is my dream Friday night. Think about this, get off a flight, drop your bags, and book a lymphatic massage. Then you can walk into the Nash Bash the next morning glowing. That's the move.”
Day Two: Morning CE, Afternoon Reset
Saturday is the Nash Bash Block Party — the official WVC Nashville kickoff — and you'll want your energy for it. Get your CE in during the morning and early afternoon sessions, then give yourself an hour or two to reset before the evening begins.
Spa Pick: Woodhouse Spa Nashville
Woodhouse Spa on Division Street, adjacent to Music Row, has been voted Best Spa in Nashville by Nashville Scene multiple times. Their Calming Retreat combines full-body exfoliation, therapeutic massage, and aromatherapy. The quiet room offers warm teas, mimosas, or champagne between services. Book a 90-minute slot mid-afternoon.
“I spend hours scrolling through photos and reading reviews from the Woodhouse Spa. They got me with their “quiet room” you can use between services. Think about time spent there, a mimosa in hand, wrapped in a robe, completely unreachable. I highly recommend it.”
Day Three: The Full Immersion Day
Sunday is DVM + Cattle Producer Track day and CVMO Leadership Panel day — two of the most compelling sessions on the Nashville program. Be there for both. And then, after an afternoon of high-quality content, make Sunday night yours.
Spa Pick: Spa by JW at the JW Marriott Nashville
Spa by JW is an urban oasis inside the JW Marriott with five treatment rooms, a relaxation lounge, complimentary champagne, and the Diamond Luminous Facial, designed to reduce fine lines, even skin tone, and leave your face genuinely glowing. One room is designated for couples. Complimentary valet for spa guests.
“The Diamond Luminous Facial at Spa by JW is the kind of treatment that makes you look in the mirror afterward and think 'oh, there you are.' After three days of a conference, that moment is everything.”
Day Four: Hands-On Labs and a Hands-On Recovery
Monday is hands-on lab day for me, that’s physically the most demanding day of the conference. You're standing, doing, learning with your body as much as your brain. The Tails & Tunes Concert (Blanco Brown, Uncle Kracker, Gretchen Wilson) is Monday night. Build in a real midday break, 20 minutes outside, something real amazing to eat, before the afternoon labs begin.
Extended Stay Pick: The Joseph Nashville Spa
If you're staying extra days, The Joseph Nashville Spa, 21 stories above downtown, offers Biologique Recherche facials (the gold standard of clinical skincare), a full massage menu, and views of the city that feel like a reward in themselves. Book it for Wednesday morning when you have nowhere to be.
“I always build a Wednesday morning into my conference trips. No obligations, no schedule, nowhere to be until my flight. The Joseph is exactly where I want to spend that morning. It's the luxury reset that makes the whole trip worth it.”
More Wellness Worth Knowing About
Spa Haus Nashville
A boutique spa with 800+ five-star reviews and the 2024 Best Spa in Nashville award. Locally owned, genuinely personalized treatments, a sauna pod, salt room, and an energy bed. The anti-chain-spa experience, where they actually know your name and customize every service.
Float Therapy
Sensory deprivation float tanks filled with body-temperature Epsom salt water have become one of the most effective nervous system reset tools for high-performers. Nashville has several float studios near the Gulch and Midtown. A 60-minute float mid-conference will do more for your cognitive function than any amount of coffee.
Salt Rooms
Halotherapy, time spent in a Himalayan salt room, is available at several Nashville wellness studios. Twenty minutes is meditative, anti-inflammatory, and calming in a way that's hard to replicate elsewhere. Worth building into a slow morning.
The Non-Spa Self-Care That Actually Works
Morning walks in Germantown. Nashville's most beautiful neighborhood for an early walk before the heat sets in. Tree-lined streets, historic architecture, no one rushing anywhere.
Cheekwood Estate and Gardens. Nashville's botanical garden on a stunning 1930s mansion estate. A slow, beautiful morning that the rest of the year doesn't give you. Bring sunscreen.
Eat well, deliberately. Rolf & Daughters in Germantown. Etch downtown. Pastis in the Gulch. One real dinner per night is self-care in the most practical sense.
Nashville Zoo — $5 off admission with code CONV26 from WVC. Walking through a good zoo, slowly, watching the animals you spend your career caring for? That's restoration in a form that's specific to this profession.
The One Rule Worth Keeping
Every day at WVC Nashville, protect at least one hour that belongs entirely to you. Not CE. Not networking. Not the exhibit hall. One hour.
Sometimes that's a massage. Sometimes it's a slow breakfast without your phone. Sometimes it's twenty minutes outside with a glass of iced tea and the specific luxury of not being needed anywhere.
“One hour a day. That's my rule and I've been keeping it for three years. My staff knows it. My family knows it. WVC Nashville is not the exception, it's exactly where the rule applies most.”
You take care of animals for a living. The least you can do is take care of the person doing it.
We'll see you in Nashville.
WVC Nashville 2026 runs August 15–18 at the Music City Center. Sign up for the best rates here: WVC Nashville 2026