By Elle Wood

MILFORD — After opening its doors in December 2023, Phases Medical Spa celebrated with an open house and ribbon cutting Thursday.

The owners, Mark Hammel and Amber Sharp, met while working as hospice nurses and eventually married.

The couple’s main goal is assisting people via their passion for serving and medical aesthetics.

“Having the ability to change people’s lives for the better is so rewarding,” said Mr. Hammel. “You make them feel better, help with the pain and help people with goals.”

Ms. Sharp became involved in the medical field in college. She attended Delaware Technical Community College and Wilmington University to become a nurse practitioner. She is also currently a primary care provider at Atlantic Family Physicians in Georgetown.

Mr. Hammel started his nursing career later in life. He studied at San Diego State University and the University of Nebraska, and also served in the U.S. Air Force as a pathologist assistant. Following his retirement from the military, he enrolled at Beebe School of Nursing in Lewes to become a nurse.

The couple decided to open Phases to serve people in a holistic manner.

“I want to be able to help people with things that boost confidence, like correcting acne scarring, treating acne, hyperpigmentation and even things like asymmetry of their face,” said Ms. Sharp. “As a nurse and having that experience as a nurse, seeing people go from a disease state to being healed, the difference and how it helps a person and boosts their self-esteem has such an impact.”

The spa offers a variety of services, including dermaplaning, IV therapy, dermal fillers, ear piercings and wrinkle relaxers.

And, while medical aesthetics is new to the health care field, it sparked an interest in Ms. Sharp as she began her education.

“I’ve always been passionate about skin care,” she said. “It was about the time when I was getting in the medical field that medical aesthetics was just beginning. As a nurse, there (are) so many things that you can do, and medical aesthetics is what stood out.”

So, as a Milford native, she wanted to introduce such resources to her hometown. She and Mr. Hammel used its name to signify their passion to aid patients during any stage of life.

“We want to be able to help people in all phases of life,” said Ms. Sharp, “from kids all the way through the rest of their lives and provide services for everybody, like ear piercings, which is a right of passage for most kids.”

Mr. Hammel added, “Phases also applies to a lot of things. It’s the transformations people go through as they age.”

Phases Medical Spa is at 1012 N. Walnut St. in the Walnut Street Professional Center, next to Dairy Queen. Learn more at phasesmedicalspa.com.