Evoke Vitality Founder Shannon Trim Finds the Artistic Side of Medicine

Photo credit: Brooke Parker Photography

By Meg Hale Brunton

The walls of the Evoke Vitality practice are covered with a breezy, beautiful mural design, painted by founder and solo practitioner Shannon Trim, PA-C, MPAS. Though she always felt a pull toward medicine, Trim feels that is not necessarily a pull in the opposite direction of art. In fact, she finds that there is a great deal of artistic expression in the work she does. 

Trim’s mother was a self-taught artist and imparted some of her skills onto her daughter. Despite this, Trim always planned to go into either dentistry or psychology. “I definitely wanted to be in medicine in some way,” she recalls. “When I found aesthetic medicine, I thought, ‘It’s like sculpting a face.’ Like art, it’s all about balance and composition.” Trim earned her bachelor’s degree in math/science education and went on to school to become a Physician Assistant. In 2014, she graduated from Wingate University in Charlotte, North Carolina where she focused in integrative medicine and dermatology.

Trim was surprised to find that she was the only PA student at her school who chose integrative medicine as her elective, and worried that it could be a detriment to her career before it had even begun. “I was a little daunted at coming right out of school to do something so in-the-face of Western medicine,” she says. Trim opted to become a surgical physician assistant, specializing in colorectal surgery and acute care. “It was a really great experience, but I always knew that I wanted to get back into integrative medicine, specifically working with women approaching menopause.”

In 2017, Trim began to really delve into the world of regenerative medicine. She worked in medical spas, learning everything about peptides, supplementation, serums, pharmaceuticals, and other functional medical treatments to help people look better, feel better, live longer, and be more vibrant. “I was given a lot of wonderful tools and direction from the people I studied with and worked with, but there was a little more I wanted to achieve with patient care,” she explains, adding that she also enjoys more autonomy on her own. “I wanted to make sure that patients’ true expectations were being met. When a patient came in, I wanted to really listen to them and hear where they were coming from. Helping people figure out what their true drive is and what they really want, and then meeting that expectation is my goal.”

In March of 2023, Trim founded Evoke Vitality, a medical spa in downtown Asheville specializing in metabolic health, wellness, and aesthetic medicine. “I want to evoke the vitality inside each individual,” she says of where the name of her business came from. Through Evoke, Trim says she hopes to challenge many of the accepted negative expectations that come with menopause, including gaining weight, having low energy, and no longer enjoying sex. “Most of my patients come here because they’re tired of not being heard. They're tired of someone throwing a pill at a problem. I always say that most Western medicine is reactionary, and I like to be proactive with health.”

Besides making people look and feel younger, Trim says that her treatments can actually help prevent surgery. Once a Greensboro Roller Girl, she learned the healing power of regenerative medicine firsthand when she tore her ACL and meniscus during a roller derby bout, and treated it with regenerative PRP injections in her knees. “A lot of times, we can avoid things like surgery if we rebuild the tissue with stem cells and your own growth factors,” Trim says. “A lot of people don’t realize your body can heal itself if given the right raw materials.” 

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) fights inflammation, and stimulates healing, repair, and regrowth throughout the body without causing tissue atrophy like cortisone injections can. At Evoke, Trim uses PRP procedures for sexual health, hair regrowth, joint repair, and aesthetics. “I usually don’t have a patient that remains in one realm, because I look at each person as a whole,” Trim says, explaining that her patients will often come in for one treatment, such as a filler, and make an appointment to start on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, or begin treatment for joint pain. “It’s kind of like a one-stop shop, essentially. I strive to get people feeling like they’re eighteen again.”

Trim is board certified in aesthetic medicine by the American Academy of Procedural Medicine, as well as certified in Biote bioidentical hormone replacement, and peptide therapy. She has done extensive study on functional medicine and IV therapy with A4M. She has also been trained on PRP procedures, and has trained other physicians in advanced filler techniques. Recently, Trim has been partnering with Sensorium Neuro Wellness to help treat PTSD, depression, anxiety and even autism without using medication. She hopes to continue working with them to develop more holistic approaches to overall health. 

Getting to know many of her patients, Trim finds it especially rewarding when they bring their friends and family to her for help. “When they bring someone they love to me, that means that I’ve made a difference in their life and they want to share it with people they care about,” she says. Besides being a medical practitioner, a wife, and a mother of five, Trim says she remains very much an artist. “It’s so intermingled. Art is medicine. The way your mind thinks and can come up with creative solutions- it really helps to be both, I think.”

For more information on Evoke Vitality, or to book your treatment today, visit their website: https://evokevitality.com/

If you want to learn more about metabolic health, wellness, and aesthetic medicine check out her podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Q9Id7e6ECMPUdx5pfnNX5?si=Nb-VY56lTFKgiTNnTusGtw