Media & Speaking

Meet Bertina Hooks — Stories & Insights

In a candid interview with CanvasRebel, Dr. Bertina M. Hooks shares her deeply inspiring story of resilience, rebuilding her life after a below-the-knee amputation in 2022, founding Pinnacle Business Academy, and launching her upcoming memoir, From Fire to Freedom.

Dr. Hooks reflects on career reinvention for physicians, overcoming adversity, and unlocking purpose when life changes unexpectedly.

Dr. Bertina M. Hooks Receives Women of Entrepreneurship Award

What is From Fire to Freedom about?

From Fire to Freedom is a memoir about transformation, survival, healing, and the courage to rebuild after life changes in ways you never anticipated.

The book follows my journey through some of the most difficult seasons of my life, including professional burnout, personal loss, disability, motherhood, entrepreneurship, and the process of redefining who I was after the life I had known changed dramatically.

At its core, this book is not simply about what happened to me. It is about what became possible when I stopped allowing pain, disappointment, and adversity to define the rest of my story.

It is a story about moving from survival into purpose, from fear into freedom, and from simply enduring life to intentionally creating one.

What inspired you to write the memoir?

I wrote this book because I knew my experiences were not mine alone.

Many people, particularly physicians and high-achieving women, become very skilled at functioning while they are exhausted, overwhelmed, grieving, or emotionally disconnected from their own lives. We learn how to keep showing up, meeting expectations, and caring for others, even when something inside of us is breaking.

My journey forced me to confront what happens when achievement is no longer enough to sustain you. I had to learn how to grieve the life I thought I would have, accept a new reality, and begin rebuilding from a place of honesty rather than obligation.

I wanted to write the book I needed during those seasons—a book that did not offer shallow encouragement, but instead acknowledged the complexity of loss, identity, faith, ambition, motherhood, disability, and reinvention.

Why did you choose the title From Fire to Freedom?

The fire represents the seasons that tested, disrupted, and transformed me.

There were times when it felt as though everything familiar was being stripped away—my sense of control, my physical identity, parts of my career, and many of the assumptions I had made about what my life would look like.

But fire can also refine. It can reveal what is real, what must be released, and what is strong enough to remain.

Freedom represents what came afterward: the freedom to redefine success, to build differently, to choose purpose, and to stop living solely according to other people’s expectations.

The fire was painful, but it did not destroy me. It became part of the process that led me toward a more authentic life.

What are some of the central themes addressed in the book?

The memoir explores several interconnected themes:

• Resilience after life-altering adversity
• Professional burnout and emotional exhaustion
• Disability, identity, and self-acceptance
• Motherhood and generational impact
• Faith, healing, and spiritual renewal
• Grief and the loss of the life you expected
• Entrepreneurship and rebuilding with intention
• Career reinvention and redefining professional success
• The difference between surviving and truly living
• Reclaiming purpose after disruption

Although the story is deeply personal, the themes are universal. Most people will eventually experience a moment when the life they planned no longer matches the life in front of them. The question then becomes: What will you build from here?

How did your career as a physician shape the memoir?

Medicine shaped how I saw myself for many years.

Becoming a physician required discipline, sacrifice, endurance, and a willingness to delay many personal needs in pursuit of a larger goal. Those qualities helped me succeed, but they also made it easier to normalize exhaustion and continue pushing when I needed to pause.

Physicians are often trained to keep going. We care for others while minimizing our own fatigue, grief, uncertainty, and dissatisfaction. We may reach a point where the career we worked so hard to build no longer feels aligned with the life we want to live.

The memoir explores that tension. It asks what happens when professional identity becomes too narrow to contain the person you are becoming.

Medicine remains an important part of my life and mission, but it is no longer the only way I define myself.

How did your experience with disability affect your understanding of resilience?

Becoming a woman with a disability changed how I experienced my body, my independence, my identity, and the way others perceived me.

It forced me to confront vulnerability in a way that professional achievement never had. I had to learn that resilience is not pretending something is easy. It is not denying grief, minimizing pain, or forcing yourself to be positive.

Resilience is the ability to acknowledge what has been lost while still believing that your future can hold meaning, joy, purpose, and possibility.

I also came to understand that disability does not diminish a person’s worth, intelligence, ambition, femininity, leadership, or ability to contribute. That realization became an important part of both my personal healing and my advocacy.

What do you hope readers take away from your story?

I want readers to understand that one devastating chapter does not have to become the conclusion of their lives.

They may not be able to control everything that happens to them, but they can decide what they build from what remains.

I also want readers to give themselves permission to redefine success. The version of success that once motivated them may no longer fit who they are now. That does not mean they have failed. It may mean they are evolving.

Most of all, I want people to know that freedom is possible. It may not look like returning to the life they had before, but it can look like creating a life that is more honest, intentional, and aligned.

How does Pinnacle Business Academy connect to the message of the memoir?

Pinnacle Business Academy is an extension of my own journey of professional exploration and reinvention.

It was created to help physicians who feel burned out, stuck, uncertain, or disconnected from their careers evaluate what comes next. Many physicians know that something must change, but they do not know whether they need to reset within medicine, pivot into a different role, or build an entirely new professional path.

Through coaching, education, strategy, and structured career exploration, Pinnacle Business Academy helps physicians identify their strengths, clarify their goals, and make informed decisions about the future.

The work includes career reset, career pivot, and career pathways for physicians interested in areas such as utilization management, medical expert work, consulting, entrepreneurship, nonclinical careers, and other alternative professional opportunities.

The Academy reflects one of the central lessons of From Fire to Freedom: reinvention should not be viewed as failure. It can be a deliberate and courageous response to growth.

Who is Pinnacle Business Academy designed to serve?

Pinnacle Business Academy primarily serves physicians who are questioning whether their current career still fits their lives, values, energy, or long-term goals.

Some are experiencing burnout. Others are curious about nonclinical or alternative careers but do not know where to begin. Some want to build businesses, diversify their income, or use their medical expertise in new ways.

The goal is not to convince every physician to leave medicine. The goal is to help each person make a thoughtful, strategic decision rather than remaining trapped by fear, guilt, or uncertainty.

How does The Mindful Practice Podcast support your overall mission?

The Mindful Practice Podcast creates space for honest conversations about the realities physicians and healthcare professionals face.

The podcast addresses burnout, resilience, career transitions, leadership, disability, entrepreneurship, emotional well-being, professional identity, and the many ways people can build meaningful careers inside and outside traditional clinical practice.

It also introduces listeners to professionals who have taken different paths and can share practical insight about what those transitions require.

The podcast is another extension of the memoir’s message because storytelling can help people recognize possibilities they may not have considered for themselves. When listeners hear someone else speak honestly about burnout, fear, reinvention, failure, or growth, they often feel less alone. They begin to understand that change is not only possible—it can be approached strategically.

How do the memoir, Pinnacle Business Academy, and The Mindful Practice Podcast work together?

They are different expressions of one mission.

The memoir tells the personal story. Pinnacle Business Academy provides the strategy and support. The Mindful Practice Podcast expands the conversation and introduces listeners to new ideas, perspectives, and professional possibilities.

Together, they help physicians and healthcare professionals move from awareness to action.

A person may first recognize themselves in the memoir. They may then hear a podcast conversation that helps them imagine a different future. Finally, they may seek structured guidance through Pinnacle Business Academy to begin building that future.

The common thread is helping people move beyond burnout, limitation, and fear toward clarity, purpose, and intentional reinvention.

What does freedom mean to you today?

Freedom means having the courage to live in alignment with who I am now—not who I was expected to remain.

It means understanding that I can be a physician and also an author, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, advocate, and creator.

It means honoring my limitations without allowing them to define the boundaries of my future.

Freedom also means helping other people recognize that they are allowed to change, rebuild, and choose again.

What would you say to someone who feels trapped in a life or career that no longer fits?

I would tell them to begin by being honest.

You do not have to make an immediate, dramatic decision. But you do have to stop pretending that chronic exhaustion, unhappiness, or disconnection is simply the price of success.

Ask yourself:

• What is no longer working?
• What have I outgrown?
• What am I afraid will happen if I change?
• What would a more sustainable and meaningful life look like?

Then begin gathering information and exploring possibilities.

Reinvention does not have to be reckless. It can be strategic, gradual, and grounded in a clear understanding of your values, strengths, responsibilities, and goals.

You are not obligated to remain trapped simply because you worked hard to arrive where you are.

What is next for you?

My focus is on bringing From Fire to Freedom into the world and using its message to create meaningful conversations about resilience, disability, burnout, faith, purpose, and reinvention.

I am also continuing to expand Pinnacle Business Academy, grow The Mindful Practice Podcast, and speak to audiences who are navigating change in their lives and careers.

Everything I am building now is connected to the same belief: people should not have to wait until they are completely broken before giving themselves permission to create something different.