The physician behind the practice
Before there was Intentional Self Aesthetics, there was a decision. In 2021, after years leading a department as Chair and Medical Director at a multispecialty medical group in Westchester County, I stepped back. The pandemic had changed things: for patients, for medicine, and for my family. My boys needed me closer to home. And I needed something that was mine.
I had spent my career in pathology and cytopathology, a field where precision is everything, where a diagnosis can change the entire direction of someone’s care. I was trained at Mount Sinai in New York City. I knew medicine deeply. What I wanted now was to build something, and to work directly with people, not just their specimens.
I started researching. Aesthetics kept coming up. I was curious, skeptical even, so I took a certification course, thinking this might be a side hustle while I figured out the next chapter. That course changed everything.
Why aesthetics, and why it matters more than people think
What I discovered in that first course wasn’t what I expected. I had assumed aesthetic medicine was largely cosmetic, something done to make people look better, full stop. What I found was something far more meaningful.
Aesthetics is medicine. It takes real clinical knowledge, anatomical precision, and the kind of judgment that only comes from medical training and experience. The face is a complex structure: nerves, vessels, muscles, fat compartments, bone. Understanding how they interact, how they age, and how treatments affect each layer requires a physician’s foundation. A lot of patients don’t realize how much is at stake when they sit down in someone’s chair, or how much the training behind that chair actually matters.
But what moved me most wasn’t the clinical complexity. It was what I saw happen to people. Acne scars that someone had carried with shame for decades. A woman who had stopped recognizing herself in the mirror after years of stress and aging. The psychological weight of feeling like your outside no longer reflects your inside. When you address something like that, when you help someone see themselves clearly again, it isn’t superficial. It’s profound. You can genuinely change someone’s life.
That realization is what made this my main hustle, not a side hustle.
Building Intentional Self Aesthetics
After that first course, I committed fully. I pursued advanced training with Empire Medical Training, deepened my knowledge of injectables, energy-based devices, and skin rejuvenation across every modality I now offer. I became Board Certified in Aesthetics. And I spent two years building the practice the right way: finding the right space in New Canaan, selecting technology I could stand behind clinically, and building a team I trusted.
The name came on a Saturday morning, in a conversation with my son. We talked through what this place should be, what it should stand for. It started as Intentional Beauty and evolved from there. Intentional Self Aesthetics. The word intentional matters to me, because that’s exactly how I practice. Nothing is done just because it’s trendy, or because a patient asked for it. Everything is considered. Everything has a reason.
What being physician-led actually means for you
There are a lot of places offering aesthetic treatments. Not all of them are the same, and I think patients deserve to understand the difference.
When I evaluate a patient, I’m not just thinking about the treatment in front of me. I’m thinking about their anatomy, their skin quality, their overall health history, how different treatments interact, and what realistic outcomes look like over time. I’m thinking about what not to do, which is often the most important clinical decision of all. That kind of thinking doesn’t come from a certificate course alone. It comes from years of medical training and clinical practice.
I also bring my pathology background to how I see skin, at a cellular and structural level, not just a surface level. That informs how I choose treatments, how I layer them, and how I set expectations honestly.
At Intentional Self Aesthetics, I am present. I oversee every patient’s care. I do not hand off consultations to staff without my involvement. That is a deliberate choice, because I believe you deserve a physician’s eye on your plan, not just at the start, but throughout your journey with us.
Rooted in New Canaan
I live here. My boys go to school here. I’m a member of the New Canaan Rotary, involved as a Board Member with Waveny LifeCare Network and the New Canaan YMCA, and an active member of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce. I write a regular health column for the New Canaan Sentinel. This community isn’t a market to me. It’s my home, and the people who walk through my door are my neighbors.
That shapes how I practice. I’m not trying to upsell anyone. I’m not chasing volume. I’m building long-term relationships with patients who trust me, and I take that trust seriously.
Ready to talk?
If you’re considering a treatment and want to understand whether it’s right for you, not just what it is, but whether it makes clinical sense for your specific situation, that’s exactly the kind of conversation I want to have with you.
Request a Consultation
Teresa Alasio, MD is board certified in Pathology, Cytopathology, and Aesthetics. She completed her training at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City and has practiced medicine for over two decades.
