October 26, 2024 • 30 mins
Choosing the right healthcare practitioner doesn’t have to be daunting. By preparing thoughtful questions that reveal a practitioner’s commitment to holistic care, you can find professionals who align with your personal healing goals. I encourage you to evaluate their responses, attentiveness, and willingness to support your journey toward wellness.
This episode is a call to action for listeners to embrace their authority in healthcare, empowering themselves with knowledge and remaining in control of their health decisions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sharise Parviz (00:00):
Well, this isn't exactly what I wanted to chat
about, but I think it's animportant topic and I'm going to
start with some backstory soyou understand.
I think I'll make it a littleclearer why I say maybe you just
might want to interview yourdoctor, okay.
But first just to let you knowwe're not walking today.
(00:21):
We're actually sitting at theVictory Center volunteering to
selling yard signs and what am Isaying?
Canvassing material andelection material and all that
good stuff.
So that is where we are today,which is why it kind of probably
the sound is much betterwithout a lot of outside noise.
(00:43):
But anyway.
So backstory time, okay,backstory time, okay, backstory.
So yesterday I was in apractitioner's meeting and this
is a meeting for professionalsin the health and wellness field
, in the natural and holistichealing health and wellness
field.
So chiropractors, naturopaths,homeopaths, acupuncturists,
(01:08):
anyone that functional medicine,you get the idea, anybody who
is in the natural healing space,okay.
So every week I attend thismeeting and these meetings are
really about reallybrainstorming and sharing ideas
and we share what's working inour practice and what's not.
(01:29):
We may discuss the latestresearch that's come out and we
may discuss, you know, differentapproaches to treatments or
even how to approach treating apatient, how to approach
(01:50):
treating a patient, and there is, there's the kicker right there
.
Okay, so in all things, the onething that all of these
practitioners, what we have incommon is that we really want to
see our patients heal.
We want them well, we want tosee them well, we want to figure
out what the root cause is andhelp them on the path of healing
(02:11):
and wholeness.
That is across the board.
Where we differ is in how weapproach treatment, and so in
these meetings that I'm in,there's a lot of discussion on
what is the right quote unquoteright approach to treatment for
(02:34):
a patient, and I've kind ofnarrowed it down to two camps.
Okay, so just go with me here.
So think of two camps, I'm justnarrowing it down.
Here we have Camp 1, and inCamp 1, excuse me, the
practitioners in Camp 1,.
Well, let's do it with anexample.
Okay, a patient comes in andlet's say they have an upset
(02:57):
stomach, they have constipationand, overall, just foggy-headed
and not feeling well, and theygo in and see a practitioner
from Camp 1.
So that practitioner wouldapproach their treatment by
starting or I don't say starting, but asking these questions,
(03:17):
asking questions about thepatient's emotional life, asking
questions about the patient'spsychological life, their
thinking, their beliefs, askingabout the relationships and
their social life, asking aboutpotential trauma or maybe
adverse you know, childhoodadverse events, things that
(03:40):
might have happened to them aschildren.
So what they're really doing isinvestigating the internal
world of their patient, becausethe philosophy I'll just call it
a philosophy the belief is thatall disease, illness, external,
physical are justmanifestations of what's
(04:02):
happening internally,emotionally, psychologically, in
the person.
So if there are unresolvedemotions in the patient, that's
going to show up as disease.
Okay, so that's camp one.
Camp two, on the other hand, isstill looking for the root cause
, because they all want to findthe root cause.
But in camp two their approachis different.
(04:24):
So they will ask questions onyour environment what are you
eating?
What are you drinking?
What type of water are youdrinking?
What type of supplementationare you doing?
Are you getting out and you'reexercising?
How much?
What kind?
Are you getting out and gettingsun?
They may do some labs and seeif there's any deficiencies,
(04:46):
nutritional deficiencies.
So they're looking at it fromthe viewpoint of there's
something in the externalenvironment of the patient that
is causing illness.
Could be mold in the housecould be EMF Wi-Fi.
So they're looking more at theexternal environment of the
patient, whereas in camp onethey're looking at the internal
(05:10):
environment.
So in camp one we work torestore the emotions, and when
we restore the emotions the bodywill restore as well.
Camp two we clean up theexternal environment, get rid of
the toxins in the personalproducts or the laundry
detergent or the cleaningsupplies, or in the clothing or
the paint or whatever.
(05:31):
Clean up the externalenvironment, clean up the
nutrition, get to the exercising, getting sun time, sunbathing,
all these things, and by doingthat the body can do its work
and repair and restore itself tohealth.
So camp one, camp two Nowsometimes these camps are very
divided and they're very, verystrong in their stance.
(05:54):
Sometimes it's a littledifficult to get them to see
that well, really, is it aneither or or is it a both?
And in my thinking it's both.
It's an and not an either or.
So.
And why I say that is from myown experience, both my personal
(06:16):
experience and my experiencewith my clients.
Now you're going to hear me sayclients and patients, and I'm
using them interchangeably.
It's just differentpractitioners use different
verbiage.
That's all.
So in my own life.
If you have been listening tothis podcast, you might remember
(06:37):
me telling you that I was verysick about 20 some years ago,
both with physical issues andwith mental issues.
And mentally I suffered fromOCD behavior, intrusive thinking
, depression, anxiety,physically, ibs I had to have my
gallbladder removed a plethoraof problems both mentally and
physically and in the mentalhealth world.
(07:01):
I went to therapists.
I tried antidepressants at thattime Nothing helped.
Nothing helped.
And my husband and I had doneresearch and this was kind of
really the dive deep intohealing, into natural healing,
and we did research and welooked at diet.
So out of that research I won'tgo into depth on that, but out
(07:22):
of that research I had changedmy diet.
And when I changed my diet Icould say that my world changed
and I'm not exaggerating here.
It was just like 180 degreesright Change.
And I realized, the more Idelved into what was going on.
Why was this happening?
(07:42):
Why was I feeling better Now?
It wasn't healing my trauma,that was still there.
But what it was helping me dois regulate my moods.
See, I had no regulation overmy moods, over my thinking.
I couldn't control my thoughts.
I couldn't control my moods.
I was completely just.
It was just uncontrollable.
(08:03):
I could not manage.
I didn't have any regulation ormodulation at all over my
emotions or my moods or mythoughts.
Because of that I couldn't dothe work that maybe the
therapist wanted me to do.
I couldn't do the work to healmy trauma Because what was
happening is my brain wasmalnourished.
(08:24):
And when your brain ismalnourished and your brain
can't function, you can't reallythink straight.
So when I changed my diet justthat simple act of changing my
diet and removing certain foodsand including foods that are
nourishing to the brain I wasable to start regulating my
(08:47):
moods, stabilizing my emotionsand able to do the work to heal
internally.
So I saw that with myself theimportance of nutrition and
mental health.
So my clients also.
So when I first started mypractice, I started not in any
way in the health and wellnessspace.
(09:08):
I started in the life coachingspace.
I had gone through all mytraining.
But really my goal in goingthrough my training was to help
my husband and to be a resourcefor my family.
It wasn't to use it in practice.
But, as you say, and when I hadclients, I had quite a few
clients that would come to meand they came to me because they
(09:30):
could relate to me, relate tome, excuse me, relate to me
about my story, because theyalso suffered from anxiety or
depression, you know, or OCD, orintrusive thoughts, ocd
behaviors.
They suffered from theseconditions as well intrusive
thoughts, ocd behaviors theysuffered from these conditions
(09:50):
as well.
And when I would work with themas a life coach, I would give
directives or things they coulddo in the following week and
that were to help them, and thenwe'd meet the next week and
discuss it, right.
Well, they weren't really ableto follow through with what we'd
agreed upon that they would dothat week.
And I remember thinking tomyself excuse me, my mouth is
(10:10):
dry, my throat is dry that thisis a nutritional issue.
I don't mean all of it, but Ithink we should look at the
nutrition and again, going backand remembering what I had gone
through, and I thought, okay,let's do this.
So I asked my clients to goahead if they could, if they
would do like a three-day fooddiary Nothing fancy just
(10:31):
whenever they ate something,just jot it down on a piece of
paper and then bring it in thefollowing week.
They looked at me a littlestrangely, but they did it.
And then the following weekthey came in with their food
journal and I looked at it andwhat I noticed was really one of
two things.
I noticed that either they atea very highly processed diet,
(10:51):
lots of packaged foods, fastfood restaurants going out to
eat at restaurants you know fastfood joints and restaurants,
you get the idea and lots andlots of packaged food, lots of
microwaved foods.
Either that or they were veganand that might upset some folks,
but that's the truth.
So either way I looked at it,these clients were malnourished.
(11:12):
They weren't giving their brainor their body their nourishment
needed to be healthy.
And when I talked to them aboutthat, I said you know, let's
just try and experiment, becausethat's what we were doing.
I said let's experiment andlet's make some adjustments.
And I made some very, verysmall adjustments to their diets
(11:33):
.
You know, I looked at what wasappropriate for them
individually and made very smalladjustments.
Well, they would make thoseadjustments and come the
following week they would comein and they would be like super
excited because they felt betterin some way.
Either they could sleep theywere able to sleep through the
night, or they felt less anxiety, or they actually woke up
(11:54):
feeling good and not sodepressed.
And even if they were verysmall improvements, when you're
in that deep, deep, deepemotional dark space, any small
improvement feels huge and I wasso happy for them and I knew
that we were on the right track.
I knew that, while I know wehad to deal with some emotional
(12:14):
issues, I knew that we alsolet's follow the track of this
nutritional and get the bodynourished.
So we worked through somenutritional protocols and I
implemented some things.
They followed through and theywere getting feeling better and
better and better and as theywere feeling better, they were
(12:34):
able to do more work in workinginto the inner world of their
pain and their suffering andthey healed so much faster.
They recovered faster.
They recovered.
They were able to work throughthe emotional pain, any past
trauma, whatever we were dealingwith, to get them mentally well
and functioning and physicallythey were healthier too.
(12:56):
So again, I understand howimportant that nutrition is to
mental health.
And just to go back for a secondwhen I say that both camp one
and camp two are correct, theyreally are.
You know, in camp one just justto kind of, just to just to do
a little, you know, littlediscussion about that in camp
(13:17):
one, uh, that the emotionsaffect our bodies.
They absolutely do, and you mayhave um read a book or heard of
a book called the body keepsthe score.
If you have, I really recommendreading that.
It really is about that ouremotions, how they affect us
physically, and they absolutelydo.
If we have unresolved emotions,like grief, anger or regret or
(13:40):
shame or unforgiveness, it candefinitely give us ill effects
in our health.
In fact, there are organs inour body that are associated
with different emotions and ifthose emotions are unresolved,
then those organs can becomediseased, can become ill.
So that is what I mean thatcamp one definitely there is.
(14:01):
You know, both camps areequally correct in their
approach.
What I'm saying is it's not aneither, or it's not looking
through the narrow lens oflooking only into the inner
world, or the narrow lens oflooking into the outer world.
It is integrating both worldsin treating patients.
So, that being said, I'm justgoing to go back to my own
(14:25):
experiences On the flip side.
When I started introducing thehealth and wellness, the
holistic healing, the naturopath, the herbalism into my practice
with my clients, then I wouldget other clients that came in
for physical health issues.
And when I would work with themand I would see.
You know, there's an emotionalproblem here too.
(14:46):
This isn't just a physicalissue, this is an emotional one
too.
We would start, maybe, with thephysical and get the diet on
board.
And I'm thinking particularlyabout a client of mine that's
most recent who had to go to theemergency room because they
were thinking he had a heartattack and the doctors were
trying to get all this invasiveprocedures done to see what was
(15:08):
really going on.
And he and his wife he was thepatient and the wife they were
both very concerned about theseprocedures.
They didn't want it and theyhad contacted me because I know
the wife and contacted me to askme my opinion.
Well, that's not my place togive my opinion.
Well, that's not my place togive my opinion.
But what I could do is I couldwalk them through the thinking
(15:30):
process with all the informationthat we knew from the doctors
what would work out best forthem, what is the right decision
that they felt comfortable with.
So they made the decision afterwe went through the process and
they decided that they didn'twant to do these invasive
procedures and they left thehospital when they left the
process and they decided thatthey didn't want to do these
invasive procedures and theyleft the hospital.
When they left the hospital,they came to me to help and I
(15:52):
started them on.
I started him excuse me, notthem started him, although it is
same like a them.
Especially when you're married,you know you're working
together to get your spouse well.
So I started him on a protocolthe GAPS nutritional protocol
and other protocols on aprotocol the GAPS nutritional
protocol and other protocolsdetoxification and herbs and so
forth and so on to help supporthis physical health.
(16:12):
Well, he lost like 30 pounds,like in, I don't know.
I think it was like two weeks.
I mean that is how muchinflammation and excess water
and toxins he was holding in hisbody.
But he was flushing all thatout and he also was starting to
lose weight.
We could tell it was fat andnot muscle.
So that was great.
(16:32):
He had more energy, he was ableto breathe better.
He overall felt so much better.
So we kept going down thatavenue and he kept working the
nutritional and lifestyle andsupplementation protocols that I
had introduced into him.
We kept proceeding with that.
Yet I knew that there wassomething going on emotionally
(16:58):
from discussions that we had,and I didn't delve deep because
I just knew that that wasn't theplace that we were starting.
That wasn't quite the rightplace for him right now.
The place that we were starting, that wasn't quite the right
place for him right now, and so,basically, what I'm saying,
though, is that in both cases,whether my client came in for
mental health issues or physicalhealth issues, I had to
(17:19):
implement both practices,treating them both, in order for
the healness to occur in myclients.
So that's why I'm saying it'snot an either, or it's an, and
this either or thinking isreally what holistic health
practitioners, what we blame orpoint our finger at in the
(17:42):
allopathic medicine world asbeing called reductionist
thinking.
Meaning, when you go to aregular doctor, a regular MD,
how many doctors does a personhave?
They have one doctor for everycondition, right, because every
doctor specializes in aparticular field of medicine,
and they look at the patientthrough that lens, right, that
(18:03):
very narrow lens of theirexpertise.
Well, that's what's calledreductionist thinking.
We're not looking at the wholeperson, we're just looking at
pieces and parts and treatingthose pieces and parts as
opposed to the whole personsystemically.
Well, that's what we callreductionist thinking.
And, in the same vein.
(18:24):
If we're looking at a patientthrough only that everything is
emotional or that it's onlyphysical, that's also
reductionist thinking.
And so what we want to do isintegrate.
Integrate as practitioners,both what's happening in the
inner world, what's happening inthe external world, and taking
the whole being, this wholebeing, this physical being, this
(18:46):
spiritual being, this creativebeing, this thinking being, the
whole being of our patient,taking that whole being into
consideration.
Okay, so that's the back story,a lot of back story, I know, but
it's really important that ifyou're not aware, aware what
practitioners may be thinkingNow in the allopathic world,
(19:08):
you're not, you know yourregular medical doctor who
prescribes drugs and you go inand labs and does all the things
right, you know they reallyaren't looking at the root cause
, and not that they don'tnecessarily want you to be well,
but the establishment, themedical establishment
establishment as it is today, isreally all about, you know,
(19:33):
getting you to solve yoursymptoms and not the root
problem and having you takemedications.
Ok, so that all being said, sowhy do I say you just might want
to interview your doctor, asill as I had been, as ill as my
(19:55):
husband had been, as ill, as thepeople that I know and have
worked with have been as ill asmy own clients have been.
I know it's really important tobe seen as a whole person and
to know that no stone has beenunturned right, that all the
(20:17):
parts of me as a patient will belooked at and will be
considered, and that workingwith a practitioner is a
collaboration, not a one-up,one-down.
It is a working together.
And, yes, the practitioner mayhave the knowledge and is there
to guide and is able there toinform and to educate, and also
(20:39):
is there to respect yourdecisions as well.
So the reason why I say youmight just want to interview
your doctor is because I wantyou to have control over your
own care, and I know thatdifficult is when we don't.
When we go into sometimes we gointo a practitioner's office
(21:03):
and the practitioner has theirwhite coat on and you know
they're.
They're, they're the hero, theylook like the hero, they have
their white coat on, they theyrode on their white horse with
their white coat, and you knowwe are the victim, white coat,
and you know we are the victim,the damsel in distress.
You know if you would andthey're here to you know, take
(21:26):
care of us.
Well, unfortunately, when wegive them that kind of power,
then our decisions, our autonomykind of goes out the window,
and I can.
That happened, for instance,with my sister.
She had cancer two years agoand the doctors were really,
really pushing radiation andchemotherapy and she was really,
you know, of course she's notin a state of mind to figure
(21:47):
this out right, she's veryscared, very worried.
Of course she is.
And I helped her.
I said, you know, let's look atit together.
And we looked at the researchtogether because I wanted her to
see it for herself, not justtake my word for it.
So we looked at it together and, based on the information right
that we worked on, looked atand information that was given
to her, she decided that shewould do the radiation but she
(22:10):
wouldn't do the chemotherapy.
And that was what she wascomfortable with.
And you know I supported herbecause I want her to do what
she's comfortable with and so.
But the doctors were dead setagainst her not doing
chemotherapy and they pushed and, pushed and pushed and she
pushed back and they keptpushing and they kept pushing to
the point where they, you know,threatened to not take care of
(22:31):
her anymore, threatened to not,you know, not to help her, that
she would have to find anotherdoctor.
Well, eventually I, you knowtold my sister it's okay, you
know, we can find someone else,because if a doctor can't
respect your what you want, thenis that really a doctor that
you want?
It's okay, we'll find someoneelse.
Well, they ended upbackpedaling and not pushing on
(22:52):
the chemotherapy.
They just said, you know, youknow, maybe we can discuss this
after radiation.
And my sister was like that'sfine.
So she went through theradiation and all that and right
now she's doing very well.
But the point is, is that whyshould she have to be pushed
back on?
Why can't she make a decisionas the patient?
She did the research, this iswhat she's comfortable with.
(23:14):
Should that not be respected bythe doctors?
And my thinking is yes, itshould.
So why would you might want tointerview your doctor?
Because you want to know thatyour doctor is looking at every
aspect of your well-being, ofyour health.
So this is what I would do if Iwere you, because I would want
(23:37):
my own autonomy as a patient.
I do want my own autonomy as apatient.
I did with my husband, you know.
I want to have the informationand be able to make my decisions
, and I want a doctor that'sgoing to see me as a whole
person.
So what I would do is I wouldcome up with four or five
questions, asking them, you know, asking them whatever you think
(23:58):
is important in your situation,but asking, you know, how would
they approach if you're having,if your problem is, you know,
something that you're, something, a pain or an emotion that
you're holding, put it in yourown words.
I'm just giving you ideas.
You know, how would you, ifit's something that's in your
relationships, would theyaddress that kind of thing?
Would they, you know, how wouldyou, if it's something that's
in your relationships, wouldthey address that kind of thing?
(24:18):
Would they, you know, would youaddress my diet?
Would you address, you know,how do you treat?
Or just ask, very simply, howdo you approach treatment with a
patient?
And if they just kind of go inone direction you know only the
physical side or the emotionalside and they don't kind of talk
about both then ask them aboutthe other side.
Well, would you also consider,you know, that I might have
(24:44):
trauma in my life.
Would you also consider that?
So come up with four or fivequestions that you feel
comfortable asking that wouldhelp you to know that they would
see you as a whole person, afull person that would be looked
at as an emotional side and thephysical side.
That kind of that would look atyou wholly, as a person.
And that is what you would wantto do, because in order to have
(25:07):
complete and full healing, allaspects of you have to be looked
at your relationships, yoursocial environment, everything
about your life, everythingabout your life, everything
about your thinking, everythingabout the way you live, your
lifestyle.
All of that is important.
There's not one aspect that isnot important and an influence
(25:28):
on your health.
So, again, come up with four orfive questions, whatever you
feel you want to know that theywould see you as a whole person,
thinking about your inner worldand thinking about your outer
world, and ask them how theywould approach it.
And put it in your own wordsthe other thing is listen to
them.
Not just listen to them for theanswers of these questions, but
(25:52):
listen to them when they'reanswering you.
Are they looking at you?
Are they hearing you?
Are they giving you eye contact?
Are they present with you?
Listen to the words they use.
Are they using words like wewant to get to the root cause or
are they just, you know, wantto work the symptoms?
(26:14):
The other thing is, are theydenying your symptoms altogether
?
Because many practitioners willsay, well, we need to work on
your emotional life?
And if a client comes insuffering from a physical
symptom, many practitioners Iknow you know this has happened,
I've seen this happen won't doanything to help comfort their
(26:35):
client because they feel that'sinterfering with the body's
process, healing process.
And so they figure we'll workoff the emotions and the
emotions will restore the body.
We won't interfere by treatingthe body at all and I'm not sure
that's always the right way togo.
For some people.
They can, you know, pushthrough the symptoms and get
(26:56):
through the root problem andthen the symptoms way to go.
For some people.
They can, you know, pushthrough the symptoms and get
through the root problem andthen the symptoms will go away.
For others that's too difficult.
The pain, the symptoms are toodifficult to handle.
They can't do the inner work toget well.
So it may not be an option forsome people to push through it
and some natural healingremedies that would work on the
(27:20):
symptoms while working on theroot cause.
There's nothing wrong In myopinion as in my practice.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I don't want my clients tosuffer.
I'm not going to have themsuffer if I can help it.
So if someone comes in with asymptom that I can give, say, an
herbal remedy or a naturalremedy not something that's
going to interfere with theirbody, but support their body
(27:42):
while we're also doing thedeeper healing, why wouldn't I
want to do that?
So that's something again youmight want to ask your
practitioner and again I wouldsay you could interview your
practitioner, whether it's inthe holistic health field or
it's in the allopathic field.
Why not?
Why not?
Remember, you are anindependent human being.
(28:05):
You know they're not the bossof you.
They are working for you.
Just like our politicians workfor us, so do our doctors, so do
our practitioners.
They work for us.
So why wouldn't we want tointerview them If we were hiring
practitioners?
They work for us, so whywouldn't we want to interview
them?
If we were hiring anybody elseto work for us, we'd interview
them.
Well, don't give anypractitioner a higher status
(28:28):
than what they deserve.
Yes, they may have done theeducation.
Yes, they may know the practice, and yet they're not.
As I've always said, I'm goingto say again and again and again
, they're not the expert of you.
You are hiring them, sointerview them, make sure that
they're people you want to workwith, make sure that their
approach is something you'recomfortable with and make sure
they see you as a whole personand if you're in pain and if
(28:51):
you're suffering, make sure theydon't ignore that.
These would be the things thatI would do.
So again, come up four to fivequestions.
Okay, think of them, take sometime of how you want to be seen.
You want your emotional lifeseen.
You want your physical lifeseen, how you want to be seen in
your healing journey and howthat treatment would look, what
(29:14):
it would look like.
What would that treatment looklike?
And listen and observe and feelcomfortable with them and if
you don't feel comfortable withthem, find someone else.
So I hope I've made it clear aswhy you might want to interview
your doctor.
Remember you have all the power.
The patient has all the powerhere, because you are the one
(29:39):
hiring.
They're working for you.
Keep that in mind.
Remember your power always andforever.
All right, that's it.
I'm out of here.
I've got to go pass out someliterature, have a great rest of
the day, start thinking of yoursentences.
You know, and even if you don'tneed it now, you might want to
start thinking about thisbecause at some point you might
Maybe not, but at some point youmight need to seek out a
(30:00):
practitioner, and if thathappens, you have your questions
in hand.
All right, be well In health,god bless.
Goodbye.
Well, this isn't exactly what I wanted to chat
about, but I think it's animportant topic and I'm going to
start with some backstory soyou understand.
I think I'll make it a littleclearer why I say maybe you just
might want to interview yourdoctor, okay.
But first just to let you knowwe're not walking today.
(00:21):
We're actually sitting at theVictory Center volunteering to
selling yard signs and what am Isaying?
Canvassing material andelection material and all that
good stuff.
So that is where we are today,which is why it kind of probably
the sound is much betterwithout a lot of outside noise.
(00:43):
But anyway.
So backstory time, okay,backstory time, okay, backstory.
So yesterday I was in apractitioner's meeting and this
is a meeting for professionalsin the health and wellness field
, in the natural and holistichealing health and wellness
field.
So chiropractors, naturopaths,homeopaths, acupuncturists,
(01:08):
anyone that functional medicine,you get the idea, anybody who
is in the natural healing space,okay.
So every week I attend thismeeting and these meetings are
really about reallybrainstorming and sharing ideas
and we share what's working inour practice and what's not.
(01:29):
We may discuss the latestresearch that's come out and we
may discuss, you know, differentapproaches to treatments or
even how to approach treating apatient, how to approach
(01:50):
treating a patient, and there is, there's the kicker right there
.
Okay, so in all things, the onething that all of these
practitioners, what we have incommon is that we really want to
see our patients heal.
We want them well, we want tosee them well, we want to figure
out what the root cause is andhelp them on the path of healing
(02:11):
and wholeness.
That is across the board.
Where we differ is in how weapproach treatment, and so in
these meetings that I'm in,there's a lot of discussion on
what is the right quote unquoteright approach to treatment for
(02:34):
a patient, and I've kind ofnarrowed it down to two camps.
Okay, so just go with me here.
So think of two camps, I'm justnarrowing it down.
Here we have Camp 1, and inCamp 1, excuse me, the
practitioners in Camp 1,.
Well, let's do it with anexample.
Okay, a patient comes in andlet's say they have an upset
(02:57):
stomach, they have constipationand, overall, just foggy-headed
and not feeling well, and theygo in and see a practitioner
from Camp 1.
So that practitioner wouldapproach their treatment by
starting or I don't say starting, but asking these questions,
(03:17):
asking questions about thepatient's emotional life, asking
questions about the patient'spsychological life, their
thinking, their beliefs, askingabout the relationships and
their social life, asking aboutpotential trauma or maybe
adverse you know, childhoodadverse events, things that
(03:40):
might have happened to them aschildren.
So what they're really doing isinvestigating the internal
world of their patient, becausethe philosophy I'll just call it
a philosophy the belief is thatall disease, illness, external,
physical are justmanifestations of what's
(04:02):
happening internally,emotionally, psychologically, in
the person.
So if there are unresolvedemotions in the patient, that's
going to show up as disease.
Okay, so that's camp one.
Camp two, on the other hand, isstill looking for the root cause
, because they all want to findthe root cause.
But in camp two their approachis different.
(04:24):
So they will ask questions onyour environment what are you
eating?
What are you drinking?
What type of water are youdrinking?
What type of supplementationare you doing?
Are you getting out and you'reexercising?
How much?
What kind?
Are you getting out and gettingsun?
They may do some labs and seeif there's any deficiencies,
(04:46):
nutritional deficiencies.
So they're looking at it fromthe viewpoint of there's
something in the externalenvironment of the patient that
is causing illness.
Could be mold in the housecould be EMF Wi-Fi.
So they're looking more at theexternal environment of the
patient, whereas in camp onethey're looking at the internal
(05:10):
environment.
So in camp one we work torestore the emotions, and when
we restore the emotions the bodywill restore as well.
Camp two we clean up theexternal environment, get rid of
the toxins in the personalproducts or the laundry
detergent or the cleaningsupplies, or in the clothing or
the paint or whatever.
(05:31):
Clean up the externalenvironment, clean up the
nutrition, get to the exercising, getting sun time, sunbathing,
all these things, and by doingthat the body can do its work
and repair and restore itself tohealth.
So camp one, camp two Nowsometimes these camps are very
divided and they're very, verystrong in their stance.
(05:54):
Sometimes it's a littledifficult to get them to see
that well, really, is it aneither or or is it a both?
And in my thinking it's both.
It's an and not an either or.
So.
And why I say that is from myown experience, both my personal
(06:16):
experience and my experiencewith my clients.
Now you're going to hear me sayclients and patients, and I'm
using them interchangeably.
It's just differentpractitioners use different
verbiage.
That's all.
So in my own life.
If you have been listening tothis podcast, you might remember
(06:37):
me telling you that I was verysick about 20 some years ago,
both with physical issues andwith mental issues.
And mentally I suffered fromOCD behavior, intrusive thinking
, depression, anxiety,physically, ibs I had to have my
gallbladder removed a plethoraof problems both mentally and
physically and in the mentalhealth world.
(07:01):
I went to therapists.
I tried antidepressants at thattime Nothing helped.
Nothing helped.
And my husband and I had doneresearch and this was kind of
really the dive deep intohealing, into natural healing,
and we did research and welooked at diet.
So out of that research I won'tgo into depth on that, but out
(07:22):
of that research I had changedmy diet.
And when I changed my diet Icould say that my world changed
and I'm not exaggerating here.
It was just like 180 degreesright Change.
And I realized, the more Idelved into what was going on.
Why was this happening?
(07:42):
Why was I feeling better Now?
It wasn't healing my trauma,that was still there.
But what it was helping me dois regulate my moods.
See, I had no regulation overmy moods, over my thinking.
I couldn't control my thoughts.
I couldn't control my moods.
I was completely just.
It was just uncontrollable.
(08:03):
I could not manage.
I didn't have any regulation ormodulation at all over my
emotions or my moods or mythoughts.
Because of that I couldn't dothe work that maybe the
therapist wanted me to do.
I couldn't do the work to healmy trauma Because what was
happening is my brain wasmalnourished.
(08:24):
And when your brain ismalnourished and your brain
can't function, you can't reallythink straight.
So when I changed my diet justthat simple act of changing my
diet and removing certain foodsand including foods that are
nourishing to the brain I wasable to start regulating my
(08:47):
moods, stabilizing my emotionsand able to do the work to heal
internally.
So I saw that with myself theimportance of nutrition and
mental health.
So my clients also.
So when I first started mypractice, I started not in any
way in the health and wellnessspace.
(09:08):
I started in the life coachingspace.
I had gone through all mytraining.
But really my goal in goingthrough my training was to help
my husband and to be a resourcefor my family.
It wasn't to use it in practice.
But, as you say, and when I hadclients, I had quite a few
clients that would come to meand they came to me because they
(09:30):
could relate to me, relate tome, excuse me, relate to me
about my story, because theyalso suffered from anxiety or
depression, you know, or OCD, orintrusive thoughts, ocd
behaviors.
They suffered from theseconditions as well intrusive
thoughts, ocd behaviors theysuffered from these conditions
(09:50):
as well.
And when I would work with themas a life coach, I would give
directives or things they coulddo in the following week and
that were to help them, and thenwe'd meet the next week and
discuss it, right.
Well, they weren't really ableto follow through with what we'd
agreed upon that they would dothat week.
And I remember thinking tomyself excuse me, my mouth is
(10:10):
dry, my throat is dry that thisis a nutritional issue.
I don't mean all of it, but Ithink we should look at the
nutrition and again, going backand remembering what I had gone
through, and I thought, okay,let's do this.
So I asked my clients to goahead if they could, if they
would do like a three-day fooddiary Nothing fancy just
(10:31):
whenever they ate something,just jot it down on a piece of
paper and then bring it in thefollowing week.
They looked at me a littlestrangely, but they did it.
And then the following weekthey came in with their food
journal and I looked at it andwhat I noticed was really one of
two things.
I noticed that either they atea very highly processed diet,
(10:51):
lots of packaged foods, fastfood restaurants going out to
eat at restaurants you know fastfood joints and restaurants,
you get the idea and lots andlots of packaged food, lots of
microwaved foods.
Either that or they were veganand that might upset some folks,
but that's the truth.
So either way I looked at it,these clients were malnourished.
(11:12):
They weren't giving their brainor their body their nourishment
needed to be healthy.
And when I talked to them aboutthat, I said you know, let's
just try and experiment, becausethat's what we were doing.
I said let's experiment andlet's make some adjustments.
And I made some very, verysmall adjustments to their diets
(11:33):
.
You know, I looked at what wasappropriate for them
individually and made very smalladjustments.
Well, they would make thoseadjustments and come the
following week they would comein and they would be like super
excited because they felt betterin some way.
Either they could sleep theywere able to sleep through the
night, or they felt less anxiety, or they actually woke up
(11:54):
feeling good and not sodepressed.
And even if they were verysmall improvements, when you're
in that deep, deep, deepemotional dark space, any small
improvement feels huge and I wasso happy for them and I knew
that we were on the right track.
I knew that, while I know wehad to deal with some emotional
(12:14):
issues, I knew that we alsolet's follow the track of this
nutritional and get the bodynourished.
So we worked through somenutritional protocols and I
implemented some things.
They followed through and theywere getting feeling better and
better and better and as theywere feeling better, they were
(12:34):
able to do more work in workinginto the inner world of their
pain and their suffering andthey healed so much faster.
They recovered faster.
They recovered.
They were able to work throughthe emotional pain, any past
trauma, whatever we were dealingwith, to get them mentally well
and functioning and physicallythey were healthier too.
(12:56):
So again, I understand howimportant that nutrition is to
mental health.
And just to go back for a secondwhen I say that both camp one
and camp two are correct, theyreally are.
You know, in camp one just justto kind of, just to just to do
a little, you know, littlediscussion about that in camp
(13:17):
one, uh, that the emotionsaffect our bodies.
They absolutely do, and you mayhave um read a book or heard of
a book called the body keepsthe score.
If you have, I really recommendreading that.
It really is about that ouremotions, how they affect us
physically, and they absolutelydo.
If we have unresolved emotions,like grief, anger or regret or
(13:40):
shame or unforgiveness, it candefinitely give us ill effects
in our health.
In fact, there are organs inour body that are associated
with different emotions and ifthose emotions are unresolved,
then those organs can becomediseased, can become ill.
So that is what I mean thatcamp one definitely there is.
(14:01):
You know, both camps areequally correct in their
approach.
What I'm saying is it's not aneither, or it's not looking
through the narrow lens oflooking only into the inner
world, or the narrow lens oflooking into the outer world.
It is integrating both worldsin treating patients.
So, that being said, I'm justgoing to go back to my own
(14:25):
experiences On the flip side.
When I started introducing thehealth and wellness, the
holistic healing, the naturopath, the herbalism into my practice
with my clients, then I wouldget other clients that came in
for physical health issues.
And when I would work with themand I would see.
You know, there's an emotionalproblem here too.
(14:46):
This isn't just a physicalissue, this is an emotional one
too.
We would start, maybe, with thephysical and get the diet on
board.
And I'm thinking particularlyabout a client of mine that's
most recent who had to go to theemergency room because they
were thinking he had a heartattack and the doctors were
trying to get all this invasiveprocedures done to see what was
(15:08):
really going on.
And he and his wife he was thepatient and the wife they were
both very concerned about theseprocedures.
They didn't want it and theyhad contacted me because I know
the wife and contacted me to askme my opinion.
Well, that's not my place togive my opinion.
Well, that's not my place togive my opinion.
But what I could do is I couldwalk them through the thinking
(15:30):
process with all the informationthat we knew from the doctors
what would work out best forthem, what is the right decision
that they felt comfortable with.
So they made the decision afterwe went through the process and
they decided that they didn'twant to do these invasive
procedures and they left thehospital when they left the
process and they decided thatthey didn't want to do these
invasive procedures and theyleft the hospital.
When they left the hospital,they came to me to help and I
(15:52):
started them on.
I started him excuse me, notthem started him, although it is
same like a them.
Especially when you're married,you know you're working
together to get your spouse well.
So I started him on a protocolthe GAPS nutritional protocol
and other protocols on aprotocol the GAPS nutritional
protocol and other protocolsdetoxification and herbs and so
forth and so on to help supporthis physical health.
(16:12):
Well, he lost like 30 pounds,like in, I don't know.
I think it was like two weeks.
I mean that is how muchinflammation and excess water
and toxins he was holding in hisbody.
But he was flushing all thatout and he also was starting to
lose weight.
We could tell it was fat andnot muscle.
So that was great.
(16:32):
He had more energy, he was ableto breathe better.
He overall felt so much better.
So we kept going down thatavenue and he kept working the
nutritional and lifestyle andsupplementation protocols that I
had introduced into him.
We kept proceeding with that.
Yet I knew that there wassomething going on emotionally
(16:58):
from discussions that we had,and I didn't delve deep because
I just knew that that wasn't theplace that we were starting.
That wasn't quite the rightplace for him right now.
The place that we were starting, that wasn't quite the right
place for him right now, and so,basically, what I'm saying,
though, is that in both cases,whether my client came in for
mental health issues or physicalhealth issues, I had to
(17:19):
implement both practices,treating them both, in order for
the healness to occur in myclients.
So that's why I'm saying it'snot an either, or it's an, and
this either or thinking isreally what holistic health
practitioners, what we blame orpoint our finger at in the
(17:42):
allopathic medicine world asbeing called reductionist
thinking.
Meaning, when you go to aregular doctor, a regular MD,
how many doctors does a personhave?
They have one doctor for everycondition, right, because every
doctor specializes in aparticular field of medicine,
and they look at the patientthrough that lens, right, that
(18:03):
very narrow lens of theirexpertise.
Well, that's what's calledreductionist thinking.
We're not looking at the wholeperson, we're just looking at
pieces and parts and treatingthose pieces and parts as
opposed to the whole personsystemically.
Well, that's what we callreductionist thinking.
And, in the same vein.
(18:24):
If we're looking at a patientthrough only that everything is
emotional or that it's onlyphysical, that's also
reductionist thinking.
And so what we want to do isintegrate.
Integrate as practitioners,both what's happening in the
inner world, what's happening inthe external world, and taking
the whole being, this wholebeing, this physical being, this
(18:46):
spiritual being, this creativebeing, this thinking being, the
whole being of our patient,taking that whole being into
consideration.
Okay, so that's the back story,a lot of back story, I know, but
it's really important that ifyou're not aware, aware what
practitioners may be thinkingNow in the allopathic world,
(19:08):
you're not, you know yourregular medical doctor who
prescribes drugs and you go inand labs and does all the things
right, you know they reallyaren't looking at the root cause
, and not that they don'tnecessarily want you to be well,
but the establishment, themedical establishment
establishment as it is today, isreally all about, you know,
(19:33):
getting you to solve yoursymptoms and not the root
problem and having you takemedications.
Ok, so that all being said, sowhy do I say you just might want
to interview your doctor, asill as I had been, as ill as my
(19:55):
husband had been, as ill, as thepeople that I know and have
worked with have been as ill asmy own clients have been.
I know it's really important tobe seen as a whole person and
to know that no stone has beenunturned right, that all the
(20:17):
parts of me as a patient will belooked at and will be
considered, and that workingwith a practitioner is a
collaboration, not a one-up,one-down.
It is a working together.
And, yes, the practitioner mayhave the knowledge and is there
to guide and is able there toinform and to educate, and also
(20:39):
is there to respect yourdecisions as well.
So the reason why I say youmight just want to interview
your doctor is because I wantyou to have control over your
own care, and I know thatdifficult is when we don't.
When we go into sometimes we gointo a practitioner's office
(21:03):
and the practitioner has theirwhite coat on and you know
they're.
They're, they're the hero, theylook like the hero, they have
their white coat on, they theyrode on their white horse with
their white coat, and you knowwe are the victim, white coat,
and you know we are the victim,the damsel in distress.
You know if you would andthey're here to you know, take
(21:26):
care of us.
Well, unfortunately, when wegive them that kind of power,
then our decisions, our autonomykind of goes out the window,
and I can.
That happened, for instance,with my sister.
She had cancer two years agoand the doctors were really,
really pushing radiation andchemotherapy and she was really,
you know, of course she's notin a state of mind to figure
(21:47):
this out right, she's veryscared, very worried.
Of course she is.
And I helped her.
I said, you know, let's look atit together.
And we looked at the researchtogether because I wanted her to
see it for herself, not justtake my word for it.
So we looked at it together and, based on the information right
that we worked on, looked atand information that was given
to her, she decided that shewould do the radiation but she
(22:10):
wouldn't do the chemotherapy.
And that was what she wascomfortable with.
And you know I supported herbecause I want her to do what
she's comfortable with and so.
But the doctors were dead setagainst her not doing
chemotherapy and they pushed and, pushed and pushed and she
pushed back and they keptpushing and they kept pushing to
the point where they, you know,threatened to not take care of
(22:31):
her anymore, threatened to not,you know, not to help her, that
she would have to find anotherdoctor.
Well, eventually I, you knowtold my sister it's okay, you
know, we can find someone else,because if a doctor can't
respect your what you want, thenis that really a doctor that
you want?
It's okay, we'll find someoneelse.
Well, they ended upbackpedaling and not pushing on
(22:52):
the chemotherapy.
They just said, you know, youknow, maybe we can discuss this
after radiation.
And my sister was like that'sfine.
So she went through theradiation and all that and right
now she's doing very well.
But the point is, is that whyshould she have to be pushed
back on?
Why can't she make a decisionas the patient?
She did the research, this iswhat she's comfortable with.
(23:14):
Should that not be respected bythe doctors?
And my thinking is yes, itshould.
So why would you might want tointerview your doctor?
Because you want to know thatyour doctor is looking at every
aspect of your well-being, ofyour health.
So this is what I would do if Iwere you, because I would want
(23:37):
my own autonomy as a patient.
I do want my own autonomy as apatient.
I did with my husband, you know.
I want to have the informationand be able to make my decisions
, and I want a doctor that'sgoing to see me as a whole
person.
So what I would do is I wouldcome up with four or five
questions, asking them, you know, asking them whatever you think
(23:58):
is important in your situation,but asking, you know, how would
they approach if you're having,if your problem is, you know,
something that you're, something, a pain or an emotion that
you're holding, put it in yourown words.
I'm just giving you ideas.
You know, how would you, ifit's something that's in your
relationships, would theyaddress that kind of thing?
Would they, you know, how wouldyou, if it's something that's
in your relationships, wouldthey address that kind of thing?
(24:18):
Would they, you know, would youaddress my diet?
Would you address, you know,how do you treat?
Or just ask, very simply, howdo you approach treatment with a
patient?
And if they just kind of go inone direction you know only the
physical side or the emotionalside and they don't kind of talk
about both then ask them aboutthe other side.
Well, would you also consider,you know, that I might have
(24:44):
trauma in my life.
Would you also consider that?
So come up with four or fivequestions that you feel
comfortable asking that wouldhelp you to know that they would
see you as a whole person, afull person that would be looked
at as an emotional side and thephysical side.
That kind of that would look atyou wholly, as a person.
And that is what you would wantto do, because in order to have
(25:07):
complete and full healing, allaspects of you have to be looked
at your relationships, yoursocial environment, everything
about your life, everythingabout your life, everything
about your thinking, everythingabout the way you live, your
lifestyle.
All of that is important.
There's not one aspect that isnot important and an influence
(25:28):
on your health.
So, again, come up with four orfive questions, whatever you
feel you want to know that theywould see you as a whole person,
thinking about your inner worldand thinking about your outer
world, and ask them how theywould approach it.
And put it in your own wordsthe other thing is listen to
them.
Not just listen to them for theanswers of these questions, but
(25:52):
listen to them when they'reanswering you.
Are they looking at you?
Are they hearing you?
Are they giving you eye contact?
Are they present with you?
Listen to the words they use.
Are they using words like wewant to get to the root cause or
are they just, you know, wantto work the symptoms?
(26:14):
The other thing is, are theydenying your symptoms altogether
?
Because many practitioners willsay, well, we need to work on
your emotional life?
And if a client comes insuffering from a physical
symptom, many practitioners Iknow you know this has happened,
I've seen this happen won't doanything to help comfort their
(26:35):
client because they feel that'sinterfering with the body's
process, healing process.
And so they figure we'll workoff the emotions and the
emotions will restore the body.
We won't interfere by treatingthe body at all and I'm not sure
that's always the right way togo.
For some people.
They can, you know, pushthrough the symptoms and get
(26:56):
through the root problem andthen the symptoms way to go.
For some people.
They can, you know, pushthrough the symptoms and get
through the root problem andthen the symptoms will go away.
For others that's too difficult.
The pain, the symptoms are toodifficult to handle.
They can't do the inner work toget well.
So it may not be an option forsome people to push through it
and some natural healingremedies that would work on the
(27:20):
symptoms while working on theroot cause.
There's nothing wrong In myopinion as in my practice.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I don't want my clients tosuffer.
I'm not going to have themsuffer if I can help it.
So if someone comes in with asymptom that I can give, say, an
herbal remedy or a naturalremedy not something that's
going to interfere with theirbody, but support their body
(27:42):
while we're also doing thedeeper healing, why wouldn't I
want to do that?
So that's something again youmight want to ask your
practitioner and again I wouldsay you could interview your
practitioner, whether it's inthe holistic health field or
it's in the allopathic field.
Why not?
Why not?
Remember, you are anindependent human being.
(28:05):
You know they're not the bossof you.
They are working for you.
Just like our politicians workfor us, so do our doctors, so do
our practitioners.
They work for us.
So why wouldn't we want tointerview them If we were hiring
practitioners?
They work for us, so whywouldn't we want to interview
them?
If we were hiring anybody elseto work for us, we'd interview
them.
Well, don't give anypractitioner a higher status
(28:28):
than what they deserve.
Yes, they may have done theeducation.
Yes, they may know the practice, and yet they're not.
As I've always said, I'm goingto say again and again and again
, they're not the expert of you.
You are hiring them, sointerview them, make sure that
they're people you want to workwith, make sure that their
approach is something you'recomfortable with and make sure
they see you as a whole personand if you're in pain and if
(28:51):
you're suffering, make sure theydon't ignore that.
These would be the things thatI would do.
So again, come up four to fivequestions.
Okay, think of them, take sometime of how you want to be seen.
You want your emotional lifeseen.
You want your physical lifeseen, how you want to be seen in
your healing journey and howthat treatment would look, what
(29:14):
it would look like.
What would that treatment looklike?
And listen and observe and feelcomfortable with them and if
you don't feel comfortable withthem, find someone else.
So I hope I've made it clear aswhy you might want to interview
your doctor.
Remember you have all the power.
The patient has all the powerhere, because you are the one
(29:39):
hiring.
They're working for you.
Keep that in mind.
Remember your power always andforever.
All right, that's it.
I'm out of here.
I've got to go pass out someliterature, have a great rest of
the day, start thinking of yoursentences.
You know, and even if you don'tneed it now, you might want to
start thinking about thisbecause at some point you might
Maybe not, but at some point youmight need to seek out a
(30:00):
practitioner, and if thathappens, you have your questions
in hand.
All right, be well In health,god bless.
Goodbye.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!