Real medicine, real relationships
Medical aesthetics, wellness, and longevity in Santa Cruz County, with the rigor of a doctor's office and a team that knows your name.
More than a med spa
For years, Beauty Lounge Med Spa has been a trusted home for medical aesthetics in Aptos and across Santa Cruz County. Our patients did not just come for treatments, they came back because they were cared for.
Today we are growing into something more. Injectables and skin care now sit alongside IV therapy, medical weight loss, biomarker testing, and longevity medicine, all under one roof. Same team, same warmth, a wider definition of feeling well.
How we practice
A few principles we hold to in every room, with every patient. They shape every plan we build.
Medical-grade, always
Every treatment is performed or medically supervised by licensed providers using clinically proven protocols. No shortcuts, no guesswork.
Built around you
No templates. We design each plan around your goals, your anatomy, and your budget, and we tell you honestly what will and will not move the needle.
Beauty and wellness, together
Looking good and feeling good are the same project. We treat the surface and the systems underneath, from skin to hormones to metabolism.
The people behind your care
Jody Work, RN
Founder · Aesthetics & Wellness Practitioner
Jody Work has been a registered nurse since 2012, and aesthetics has been her focus from the very start. Over more than a decade she has refined her craft across the full spectrum of modern treatments: laser, Botox and Dysport, dermal filler, skin tightening, microneedling, and peptide therapy. What sets her work apart is a meticulous eye for detail paired with a genuinely compassionate approach, the kind of care that turns first-time patients into lifelong ones.
A Santa Cruz local of more than four decades, Jody built her practice on trust. Her goal has never been simply to deliver a treatment, but to cultivate lasting relationships and results that feel natural, safe, and quietly transformative. She believes real beauty is inseparable from confidence and well-being, and that the best outcomes empower you to feel your best from the inside out.
That philosophy is exactly where her practice is headed now. Increasingly, Jody roots every plan in what is happening beneath the surface, beginning with bloodwork and treating from within through IV therapy, targeted vitamins, and peptides. Rather than selling services, she designs personalized, regenerative plans that address the systems underneath the skin, so results last and the whole person thrives.
Ever a student of her field, Jody is currently pursuing her master's degree to become a nurse practitioner while continually advancing her clinical protocols, her education, and the practice itself. It is all building toward an exciting new chapter, a more elevated and more complete vision of aesthetics and wellness that is already taking shape.
Katie Bergh, RN, MSN
Aesthetic & Wellness Practitioner
Katie Bergh brings more than twenty years of experience from a leading California healthcare system, a master's in nursing, and a genuine passion for wellness-centered care. At Beauty Lounge she specializes in IV vitamin therapy, peptides, microneedling, and laser treatments, pairing real clinical depth with a fresh, energizing approach.
Dedicated to education and always expanding her practice, Katie serves her community both within and beyond mainstream medicine. She believes true well-being is shaped by many factors, and that what nourished us a century ago is not what our bodies need today. That perspective guides how she cares for every client, looking past the surface to what helps you genuinely thrive.
Above all, Katie holds to the highest standards of safety and service, making sure every client feels fully supported from the very first visit. Her goal is simple: to help you reach your highest potential, inside and out.
Richard Gilbert, MD
Medical Director
Dr. Richard Gilbert provides the clinical oversight behind Beauty Lounge as Medical Director. He earned his medical degree from the University of Nebraska in 1975 and completed his psychiatry residency at the University of California, Davis in 1979. In his Aptos practice he is known for pursuing the best of modern medicine, with a deep grounding in Functional Medicine, a systems-biology approach that looks for the origin of dysfunction rather than treating disease alone, and Personalized Lifestyle Medicine, which recognizes how our genes, environment, and lifestyle interact to shape our health.
He places particular emphasis on genetic analysis, believing that understanding our genetic makeup offers real insight into our health and resilience. In 1994 he began working with Dr. Daniel Amen and his pioneering brain SPECT imaging, a meaningful shift in psychiatry that lets clinicians directly observe the organ they are treating, the brain, through SPECT, PET, and functional MRI.
Outside the clinic, Dr. Gilbert lives the active life he advocates for, from mountain biking and hiking in the redwoods to stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, and wakeboarding with friends and family.
Aesthetics and wellness
in your backyard
From natural aesthetic enhancements to a full longevity plan, you will find it minutes from home. Our Aptos clinic is the neighborhood home for medical aesthetics and wellness, just minutes from Capitola, Soquel, and Santa Cruz, with patients who drive in from Watsonville, Scotts Valley, and over the hill from San Jose.
Know your goals,not where to start?
Sit down with our team and we will build a personalized plan around your goals, your timeline, and your budget. No pressure, ever.