Hello everyone. We will be getting started in just a few moments. [Music] Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome in. Welcome in. A perfect. Okay, we are ready. So we will be discussing today um all about what it requires or what is required to actually be a patient um of a holistic provider. I think, you know, yesterday we focused on what it takes to be a provider and all the different aspects of being a provider and, you know, your identity as a provider and all of the things um things to think about. So today we're going to be talking about more of the patient care side and what it takes to be a patient because as a provider it's important for you to be able to identify who is qualified as a patient and who's not qualified.
And what do I mean by qualified? Meaning someone who's actually ready to do the work and get well right otherwise it's not a therapeutic relationship back and forth. Instead it's you know it could be it can turn into all kinds of different things. But today we're going to focus on the role of the patient and making sure that our patients are ready uh mentally, emotionally, and practically for holistic health. So let's go ahead and get started. The learning outcomes today is we're going to learn more about the patient responsibilities. We're going to learn about overcoming obstacles as a patient. We're going to learn about balanced partnerships. Hey Oceans, we're going to learn about um empowered qualities of patients and we'll learn um about readiness as well as confidency, confidence in self- advocacy. So making sure that our patients understand how to advocate for their themselves especially within the health care system.
So that's what we're working on. I'm not going to put the slides up on Tik Tok, but they are on YouTube and also to you will be able to have access to them in your course shell. So, if you're new to my channel, welcome. Thank you so much. Solo, my name is Dr. Erica Steele. I'm a board-certified naturopathic doctor. I hold seven degrees in my field. I always like to say that I went to school so you don't have to. and I pretty much have done all of the hard work and I am organizing it and structuring it and synthesizing it for you so that it's really palatable.
So today we're going to really talk about our patients and what is required for um our patients to be ready to receive healing. So the first thing remember way back we talked about the stages of change. And so in the stages of change we have precontemplative, contemplative, preparation, action, and then maintenance. There's also relapse too, but we're just going to focus on those aspects.
So precontemplation is pretty much people that are in denial. Um they're resistant. I don't need change, right? So they're not really going to necessarily seek you out. they may um seek you out uh but they're not necessarily going to be motivated. These are the types of patients that typically their their family members bring them in or their family members try to do their appointments for them etc. Um and there's a real disconnect. Your patient is the patient and so we don't we can't um you know do healthcare by proxy. Um it's very difficult and we need proper informed consent. So making sure that we have um proper informed consent with our patients and our patients are ready to get well. Then we have my hair's doing crazy stuff. Then we have contemplation which is maybe something is wrong. So the idea that there's something going on. They don't necessarily know what it is but they just kind of have this sense that they're not feeling well either mentally, emotionally, spiritually, etc. But when you guys come in, if you can please tap the screen, share the live, that would be really helpful.
I'm not always looking for numbers on these cuz I record them live and then we repurpose them. So, um, preparation is the next phase. So, in preparation, this is a patient that says, I'm willing to try, right? I'm willing to take the leap. I don't really know what to do, how to do it, but I know that I need to do something and I need to get well. So these are these patients that are willing to try. They're researching providers. They're asking questions. They may even book a discovery call with you. That sort of thing. And then we have our patients that are in action mode. These are the patients that come to you and they are ready to go.
They are actively looking to follow a protocol. They're excited to follow a protocol. They want to move forward with their care and they're really motivated to get well. A lot of times I see that with patients that have um chronic disease unfortunately um once they've gotten to a certain point they really are um quite fearful um unfortunately and remember we can't heal from a space of fear. However um fear does elicit action unfortunately. So these patients are ready they're motivated. These are your ideal patients. So keep that in mind. And then there's maintenancing which maintenancing is more long-term integration but an aspect of maintenancing is actually um relapse right and relapse is all a part of the process.
So when relapsing patients doing really well with their protocol and then something happens out of nowhere etc etc etc and then they they fail right and remember failure is just a breakdown in performance. So they are not achieving the things that they were doing before in when they were in that action mode. Relapse is all a part of the process of getting well and healing. And so it's important for us to um support people through their relapse. No shame, no judgment. um and just really help them to understand why they had the breakdown, what they need to do in order to shift themselves so that they can uh you know be able to have a breakthrough and then ultimately um continue on with their care. So the provider really must recognize what stage of change the patient is in because if they don't, they may take on a patient that isn't ready to get well. And honestly, I've had patients where one patient literally takes the energy of like 10 or 20. And that's because they're so resistant, and they're very fearful, doubtful.
They're questioning everything. And I'm not saying questioning from a perspective of like curiosity and maybe wanting some more information, but more so questioning from a sense of doubt and really resistance. their ego is activated for whatever reason, whether it's an emotional trigger, a mental trigger, what have you, but they are really um they're just not really following through, taking the advice. Um and sometimes can be fairly combative. It's important to understand that a patient's responsibility in their healing in a holistic medical um space is really to be more active rather than passive. And so we have a lot of cultural conditioning within conventional medicine that teaches patients they pretty much surrender their power away and they're waiting for answers. So they're waiting for the doctor to figure it out or do the thing or even looking for someone to save them or rescue them, i.e.
An insurance company, a supplement, a medication, a provider, whatever. Um and so holistic care really demands active participation. patients actually have to do the work in order to get the results. And so it's important to recognize if a patient wants to really be passive or they want to be active and take full responsibility for their health. We as health holistic healthcare providers are really just teachers and guides.
That's all we are. And so when a patient um doesn't necessarily want to show up for their care, there's a lot of times there's an underlying reason for that. either they've had a lot of emotional abandonment or disappointment in their life, just to name a couple examples, and they're looking for you to almost take on that kind of parent role. But we cannot, right, we talked about transference yesterday. We cannot take on that role for the patient and do the work for them. Unfortunately, the patient really has to show up, you know, full full.
You know, it doesn't necessarily mean they have to follow through every single, you know, request, but they do have to, you know, be working through what you the protocols that you're suggesting at least 80% of the time. So 80% is kind of that number. If a patient is doing 80% of what you asked for them, oftentimes from there, they will gain the results even if they're not doing 100%. So, it's important to see that and recognize that when you're working with a patient, it's about a partnership, right? So, it's not about codependency or dependency. I know patients come in and they have all different attachment styles.
And so, sometimes, again, a patient is looking for you to fix them, to rescue them, to make it better. And that's just not how holistic medicine works. We are partners and collaborators. you know, they're they're I'm going to be, you know, giving my opinion and evaluating the data and educating them and giving them all of the things while the patient, you know, were holding space for that patient to have those aha moments.
And what do I mean by those aha moments? So, oftentimes when I was would be working with patients, you know, I would suspect things. I'd say things like, oh, do you have a mold? Have you had a mold exposure? Or, you know, have you come in contact with a virus that you're not aware of? or you know any any sort of thing with that historical information and that patient may not know like right that second that you ask them but we ask them to go in what's called the inquiry of it and what's the inquiry so we go into almost the subconscious mind where we just allow them to kind of consider it and and make a decision in terms of okay where in my history may this have applied etc and you will be amazed at how many kind of light bulb moments that happens with patients after you just kind of give them that permission to just explore and think and and and really um you know outside of a space of judgment really consider what possibilities may be in we're trying to develop and understand what the root causes are and when we're treating root cause healing hey Freda hey Sheena um so when we're working with root cause healing causes are multiple there's not like one single cause so that's actually when we look at one single cause that's very reductionist which is what alipathic and conventional medicine does.
Often times it says we're going to reduce this down to this one thing. And what I've learned in holistic medicine is it's never one thing. It's always a combination of things that leads into a bigger picture. So giving that patient kind of permission to guess, to explore, to think, um, and really ultimately giving them their power back within the health care system.
Um, let's see. So what it takes for a patient to be ready. So first things first is openness. A patient has to be open, right, to being able to take the coaching, take the accountability, take the education. So if they're not open and they're not willing to change their habits or beliefs or even their roo routines even when it's uncomfortable, unfortunately, thank you for the follow. Unfortunately, they're again not going to get the results that you're asking um of them. The second thing is patience. So, a lot of times patients will come in and they're really anxious. They want to get well immediately and it's really up to us to again manage their expectations. You know, this didn't happen overnight. It's going to take time. I oftentimes I'll reference um Herring's law of cure. Herring was a homeopath in the 1800s and he documented how to cure the body. And one of the things that he said was for every one year your body has been off balance, it takes a month in order to rebalance it and heal.
So sometimes I'll ask that question in a discovery call. How many years or how long do you think this has been off balance? And so they may say, oh, a year, two years, 5 years, 10, whatever. And then you let them know, oh, Heron's law of cure, one month for every year. So keep that in mind. The other thing that patients really need to in order to be ready um is accountability. So again, right, that's why we do all the tracking, right? We don't guess, we test. And so patient has to be willing to be vulnerable enough to be held accountable. So it does require some trust um in the patient provider relationship. So just keep that in mind as you're working with your patients. Um, the last two things that a patient, and we'll go over more, but in order for a patient to be ready, they have to be self-aware.
They have to be aware of how their body feels, their symptoms, their signs, etc. And we can teach that in some respect, but a patient really can't be disassociative because you're looking for that feedback in terms of how they feel, what's working, what's not working, etc. And so making sure that the patient is at least somewhat self-aware and conscious. Then communication, making sure that a patient is open to honest communication. Um, again, we're kind of peeling back the layers and looking at all different aspects um of their lives. And so, really being honest. Now, honesty comes typically over time, patients can come in and and they may not think about something or it may not seem important to them, whatever the case may be.
And so recognizing that through your communication, you're going to build trust and build that rapport in that relationship until eventually they lower perhaps lower their fears uh whatnot and then choose to um engage in care. Hello Candace. Hello thoughtprovoke. Hello mask. Good to see you guys. Welcome in. Um so the next thing I'm going to talk about is breaking free from the sick role. So the conventional medical model has trained people in this sick care model, very reactive, very quick fix oriented. So patients are looking for, you know, some magic pill, some magic herb to make it all go away with no effort.
And so naturally we we can't, you know, validate that, you know, because that's not really how it works in life, right? You you have to work and create effort and heal and that sort of thing. And so we want to make sure that we um let we educate the patient about not being dependent upon the system. Remember a health care system's job is not to fix us, change us, heal us, make us anything different. It's to provide a clinical space and a clinical structure for them to be able to go through the process of healing. Hello cosmic, thanks for coming in. Um there's a lot of cultural conditioning, whether that be passive um or or not. um where patients are rewarded for pretty much doing nothing, right? And what do I mean by that? So, patient comes in to the prover's office and you know they are looking for care and the and the doctor is like well all you have to do is just take this pill for your blood pressure and it and it'll be fine, right? But in fact, all they're doing is masking the symptom and not holding their patient accountable to, you know, being able to be an active participant in their healthcare.
What does that look like in in a case of a hypertension case? That looks like making sure they're drinking adequate amounts of water, which is half their body weight in ounces. Making sure that they're reducing their sodium, tracking their food, etc. So, when I tell a patient, all you have to do is take this pill, whether it's natural or not natural, I'm really missing probably again 80% of the care because the supplements and herbs and all those things, they don't do the heavy lifting for the patient. The patient does the heavy lifting with shifting their mindset, shifting their emotional body, and then getting into action, habits, patterns, and behaviors that ultimately build their lifestyle. And what we're trying to do is teach them how to create a holistic lifestyle that really serves them on all levels. Holistic health is really about empowerment.
And so instead of patients coming and saying, "Fix me, fix me, fix me," it's rather how can I teach you, right? So, I'm giving the power back to you. I don't want your power. I'm giving it back to you. What is it that you need to learn in order to help your body heal? And sometimes they'll be like, I have no idea. And that's totally fine. What we want to do is guide them through an education process. That's why structures are really important. All right. So, of course, patients are going to come in in all different aspects of healing and health, etc. And so patients tend to come in with a lot of fear, doubt, and sometimes resistance. I mean, of course, you'll get patients that are totally open and they've been in the holistic, you know, lifestyle for a while, and those are actually a real joy to treat.
But you also have a lot of people who have been failed by the conventional medical model. And what do I mean by failed? They've been gaslit. They have been um harmed. They've been injured. Um they've been dismissed, etc. And so patients coming in are have that in their rearview mirror thinking about what has happened to them in the conventional medical system and and that is informing their relationship with you as a holistic provider. So we do tend to address and treat a lot of people that have itrogenics which is medical trauma also to institutional trauma because the system that was touted to help uh has harmed. Um and then also betrayal trauma because they put their trust in a system or a provider and then ultimately they were failed for whatever reason. So they a lot of times they'll come in kind of with this renewed vigor and almost scrutinizing everything that you do simply because they're afraid, right? So we want to really um especially in those early stages, we want to validate how they feel.
We want to encourage um them to continue to express and continue to communicate and then perhaps even recommend emotional coping mechanisms and make them aware of it or medical trauma. when we name it and claim it, it it it really has no longer any power over us and we can really begin the process of healing after we step out of denial. So patients um often quit for all kinds of different things. You know, we'll put a structure in place. We'll do all this upfront work. Um and then patients sometimes will fear their symptoms are getting worse before they get better. Um there's detox reactions as well that patients go through and sometimes because they've been trained by the conventional model that says that a symptom is a bad thing. They don't realize that part of the healing process sometimes will be that their symptoms get worse before they get better because the body is almost reverse engineering or healing.
Um also they have a lot of overwhelm. So, uh, we want to try to make things as easy and as simple as possible. And so, making it sustainable and following a system and a practice that I've taught you, you know, through all of our courses that we've been going in in to holistic medicine one and two, but also too that you'll learn more of if you move on to the holistic health coaching program. Um, sometimes patients don't have family or community support. So, um, you tend to sometimes be their only support. Um, and so making sure that one of the first things that you do is teach them about community and teach them about the importance of community, perhaps work with them on again betrayals that they've had in relationships, trauma that they've had in relationships, where they've been failed, mis, you know, hurt, that sort of thing.
And so, working them through that process to build that healthy relationship. We talked a little bit about um transference yesterday and I was told you a lot of times, you know, I'll work with patients and they have some pretty heavy mother issues and so their mother, you know, thing will come out. Um and so me not taking it personally, but holding space for them and again walking them through a process of healing and discovery within themselves. Patients may exhibit fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses when confronted with their health challenges. So, you know, especially when they are being presented with accountabilities and recognizing that perhaps some of the habits or patterns that they've been doing has not been helping them.
So, we want to also keep that in mind. Um, as we are going through the process, the ego will start to kind of get activated. And so we want to not engage necessarily with the ego but try to assist them in self soothing um recognizing their triggers to ultimately be able to transform whatever has been holding them back and whatever is being stuck. Anything can be anything. So what I mean by that is any sort of you know symptom can have any sort of cause. And I know that sounds a little crazy, but again, there are a multitude of reasons why someone is not well, not taking care of themselves, or not following through with their care plan. So, keep that in mind. Um, some practical tools that can be used uh with your patient, especially if they're dealing with a lot of fear, doubt, uncertainty, and resistance um is journaling uh for um just understanding their relationship with their body, their relationship with their health, their relationship with um healthcare in general um and really getting all of those expressions out.
The other thing is the nervous system. We've talked a lot about that and regulating the nervous system to get them out of that fight orflight state into more of that rest and digest so that they can be more um open and susceptible to what it is that we're trying to teach them. Uh the last thing is we want to reframe setbacks. So what do I mean by that? We don't want to shame, blame, criticize, or judge a patient for having a setback. We recognize setbacks are all a part of the journey. And so instead, we want to greet them with open arms. We want to encourage them to open up and express especially what's going on and what's holding them back from being able to um get well. We also are teaching patients how to become their own healthc care advocate even within the conventional medical model.
So we want to make sure that we have active engagement. So it's not just about me coming up with protocols and dictating to you what it is that you're supposed to do. I have a requirement in my practice where patients when they run labs, I don't just release the lab report to them because I have an obligation and ethical responsibility to actually go over it with them and help them understand the components of it and and what action items that they can take. So that teaches them active engagement. Also too, when they need supplements or herbs or things like that, having them uh understand and educating them why you're recommending what you're recommending, what you're recommending, and for how long.
But also have them connect rather than just saying, "Oh, I'm taking a whole bunch of supplements. What supplements are you still taking? What are the names? What are they for?" And really getting them to kind of think through what they're doing and getting them more again from that passive healthc care state into more of that active engaged state. A lot of times people will just kind of shut down from overwhelm, put their head in the stand and not really deal with the the the facts of the matter, the truth about what's going on.
So, we want to keep them motivated and keep them inspired, but more importantly, keep them engaged. Health literacy is key in being your own health advocate. That's why I love public health so much because we're teaching people what they need to do in order to get well. So, we're teaching people about their bodies, how their bodies work, how their bodies may not be working as optimally as it should. Um, and so what we want to do is work with them on really understanding how their body works and then naturally what they can do in order to heal and transform their system. The other thing too as we're teaching our patients, they begin to build confidence. They begin to especially as they get the wins, you know, that's why we kind of start low and slow. We start with mindset. We start with water, we start with food. That way those tiny wins can build momentum and they get really excited about the progress that they're making.
Um it's also helpful to um when we're confidence building, it does develop trust because patients are beginning to feel good and feel, you know, like they're making progress and moving forward. The ideal patient partner um relationship, the provider's role is to bring essential expertise such as clinical expertise, treatment plans, progress tracking, interpretations of data, etc. And really, we are the education resource. We provide the clinical insight, the education, the coaching, and ultimately the accountability so that patients are actually able to gain the results that they're looking to gain. The patients role is to be open with communication. whether they're comfortable with things, not comfortable with things, whether things work, don't work. They also um are responsible for adhering to the protocols naturally. If you don't do anything, you don't follow through. How are you going to get the result? And if they don't follow through there, again, there may be a secondary gain.
It's more than likely emotional because again, our thoughts create our emotions, our emotions create our actions, habits, behaviors, and ultimately our lifestyle. So, we want to encourage our patients to really be introspective. That's why journaling can be so helpful for them to uncover what's actually going on with them. Hello, Coco. Hello, Peter. Um, self-observation is key. So in our practice with our app, we have them track um you know their symptoms as they're coming up and it gives them an outlet to be able to express but it also helps them to connect more into what their body is doing, what's going on with their system and how their body is either working or not working, changing and shifting as time is going on.
PE patients can sometimes get hyperfixated with their symptoms. So this is a good way for um thank you so much is a really good way for um them to channel right whatever it is that they're going through whatever disease that they're experiencing so that they're able to get out um that pain and suffering. Remember pathology which is the study of um a pathogen or a disease pathos which is the root word of pathology um means suffering in Latin. So all we're doing when we're working with PE P patients with a disease process is helping them unpack their suffering that's been internalized and that's found in psychonurominology which is the emotional um mental uh and immune system manifestations of disease. This is how the body responds to you know our thoughts our feelings etc. And so there's this intercon interconnectedness that happens between the mind, the body and ultimately um the spirit.
So healing happens most uh effectively when both the provider is carrying their load and their responsibility and then the patient is fully invested in carrying their load and their responsibility and then together the patient and the provider can collaborate and work together as a team in order to facilitate healing. It's not just the provider's role to do all the things and it's definitely not the patient's role to do all the things. It's that collaborative effort between the provider and between the patient working together in order to transform um their lives. Let me check this really quick. All right, cool. Um readiness. So readiness versus reality. So we have to assess again if a patient is a good fit.
We don't want to get into, you know, care or even take take any money. I I I honestly if the patient's not ready, I won't that's why I do a complimentary 15-minute discovery call, which will go over that structure because I want to assess if they are ready. I don't even want them to start the process, invest in time, money, energy if I already assess that mentally, emotionally they're not ready. So sometimes with the integrations with stages of change, if a patient's in denial, they may not be fully ready to acknowledge their health status, meaning that they may not be ready to face what it is that they're doing and they may not be ready to be accountable to another individual. They're still kind of sifting and sorting. So if a patient's in denial or they're shut down, like I was using that classic example of like when when people really care about their family and friends and they kind of um use them by proxy. Hey, Tiffany. um you know they they kind of go to find providers for proxy for them.
That again doesn't work because there's a disconnect. The patients not actually being um fully engaged in the care. The other thing is is that patients um must be prepared and ready to um explore solutions and gather information. Again, our role is to teach and educate. So we want somebody who's open to learning, right, and thirsty for knowledge. You know, teachers are great patients because they absolutely love learning.
Thank you so much, Valentina. They love learning and they love to be able to explore and go into depths of things. Um, also too, they have to be actively participating. So, what does that mean? For my practice, the bottom line for active participation is showing up for their appointments. So, they can do nothing else, right? Um, so nothing else, meaning um, you know, not tracking, not not drinking the water, not doing all of the things. Um, but instead they can be, um, really focused on um, um, coming to their appointments. And if they focus on coming to their appointments, at least we have access and we can still kind of work through whatever thoughts, whatever feelings that they're working through.
Um, let's see. Barl sent a um, a question. Is there any way to alleviate an acoustic nuroma? Okay, so let's break this down a little bit. So when we're looking at holistic medicine and we're looking at the body, when we look at any kind of cyst, tumors, those sorts of things, it's really a lot of toxicity within the body that's accumulated, but also breakdowns of nutrients, right? So there's obviously some nutrient deficiencies within the body that's impacting the system. And then there's accumulated toxins. So there could be viral infections, there could be mold exposures, there could be all kinds of things. So I believe as a naturopath that the body is an amazing self-healing organism and it can and will heal itself if given the right environment, our job is to create an environment that's conducive for healing. So whereas in conventional medicine they label things acoustic nuroma and they say okay these are the standard treatments for acoustic nuroma.
Within holistic medicine, we have to look at why the body manifested that. So why did the body manifest that? That's a whole collection of of reasons and a whole collection of causitives, right? So that again, nutrient deficiencies, accumulated toxins, organ function, etc. There's also genetic implications. There can be congenital um implications as well. So we want to keep all of that in mind. So I know I I wasn't able to give you like a you know three steps or four steps but I just want you to understand that yes there is way there are ways to help heal the body even if it doesn't reverse the diagnosis right because some diagnosis unfortunately have to be managed but it does allow your body to again not get um not further uh go into a greater disease process but also supporting and stabilizing the system um as it needs. So any kind of cyst, tumors, masses, any of those sorts of things in the body, is the body trying to encapsulate toxicity within the body in order to protect itself. All right. Um let's see. So u the other thing with the stages of change is making sure that they are ready and prepared for um Yes.
Exactly. Right. Right. And and because that's honestly a lot of times what the recommendations are, right? it is you know we want to you know unal alive it we want to shrink it we want to do all the things but if unfortunately if we don't understand why that developed in to begin with what'll happen is let's say you go through the surgery radiation chemo etc it could grow back right and I'm not saying that you know hey CD level I'm not saying that that may not be a part of your treatment plan because I don't know your case specifics but there's so much that can be done that's missing in conventional medicine that they just don't look at you know I've been with so many different patients where you know they you know are going in for their conventional treatment and there's no mention of nutrition no mention of mental health emotional health food nothing right and all of those things again are so important just for the great function of the body and how the body heals so I actually am international so I have a virtual practice um I treat all over the world um I used to have a brick brick and mortar family practice in Virginia Beach for about 15 years and I closed it in 2023, took a year off, studied more of the health care system um and do a lot of teaching and education online.
So, thank you so much for coming in. Yes, exactly. Everything's virtual with me. So, uh especially because I we take a lot of data on our patients and we do remote patient monitoring. And one of the things that I studied in my MBA and in my public health degree, my M PH was about um healthcare access, right? And so, you know, there's not enough of me, right? Um yeah, if you click the link in the bio and scroll down, there should be a button for to book a discovery call and then we can talk all about your specific case. Um and so there's not enough holistic providers such as myself. And so me kind of getting out of Virginia and going more virtual and going more international just allows me to serve more people and serve people in ways that um you know again like patients don't have to drive to their appointments.
They don't have to you know go through all the rigor and from the provider side I've been able to really streamline a lot of the administrative processes. One of the things that actually um builds the um uh the cost of healthcare is your admin cost. And so it's it's paying for all the paperwork. And so me leveraging technology, I've been able to streamline a lot of that. So you don't you're not paying for all the junk, you're paying for access, right? You're paying to have me in your pocket. I have an app that patients use um for monitoring. So at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you have a question, you have a concern, something's popped up, whatever, you can reach out to me. So it's pretty much like having a holistic doctor in your pocket, which is really cool. So that's the model and the system that I I adopted after I left a a brickandmortar practice, which was just grueling and rigorous. Um, and so yes, definitely.
And I've worked with a lot of people with autoimmunity, oncology, all of that. In fact, it was a core part of my practice initially until I I decided to to not go into that full-time and go into more priv uh family practice. So, that way I could see everybody, the little kiddos, too. I love treating kids. They're so fun. So, some of the um common misconceptions about holistic medicine and being a patient in holistic medicine is that healthcare is quick and cheap, right? Everybody wants healthcare to be like a quick fix and they all want it to be free, right? And while I'm a big proponent of universal health care and I think that healthc care is a human right, I also recognize that me as a provider, you know, there's this commercial that, you know, this um uh car salesman talks about like I give it away but my wife won't let me.
It's kind of that same thing. I would give you know care away, right? But my husband won't let me. So, so there is obviously cost you know involved in any type of healthcare. But here's what I can tell you about the cost because people get really hung up with the cost and really the investment of healthcare. When um I be first became a doctor um that was when the ACA was coming out. So, you know, healthc care just kind of got thrown upside down. Um and I looked at all of the cost um of traditional conventional health care. And also just, you know, as a for instance, look at your explanation of benefits. the next time you go to the doctor that they required to send you an EOB and just open it up and read it. Read what they are charging your insurance company. Those numbers will literally make you pass out, right? And unfortunately with the roll backs in public health right now, the roll backs with the big beautiful bill, millions of people are going to lose access to their health care.
And that is critical because if patients lose access, if something goes wrong, right, they're going to now be in millions of dollars worth of debt in the other side or at least hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't know, millions, but um on the other flip, right? Um so patients, you know, still need to get care in order to stay alive, etc. There's access issues for sure with if even receiving care, but now with the consumer protections also being eroded now that weight of that debt is also weighing on you. So here you are trying to get well and trying to go through all the things while also now piled with a whole bunch of debt.
So what I did when I originally started my practice was I looked at what um I I looked at what the average costs were, right? So I looked at, you know, patients that had great insurance like Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield is like the king king insurance. So if you have that, congratulations. Um, so that's like the the the the you know fancy that's like the BMW of of insuranceances. Whereas let's say like Medicare or Medicaid um is is not as much because it's state funded, right? So, and in fact in Medicare and Medicaid oftent times patients are limited to what they can actually um gain access to. Um and there's a lot of scamming that goes on with that. Uh I remember, you know, I was a poor college student, a single mom, and I um I had to go to the dentist, right? And so now I I wasn't raised, you know, poor.
I just left my house and was a poor college student, right? and not depending on my parents. And so I went to the dentist, right? And I had Medicare at the time or Medicaid rather and with my daughter. And I went to the dentist and the dentist actually recommended like I don't know like it was like like 10 cav 10. He said I had 10 cavities. I'd never had a cavity before in my life by the way. He said I had 10 cavities and I needed all these fillings, right? And so he want they wanted to put in metal fillings.
And of course, you know, I was going through school. I knew the dangers of amalgams. I was like, "No, I can't do amalgams, but how much are the, you know, composits?" And so the composits were like thousands of dollars. So I was like, again, poor college student, I guess I'll just, you know, have to figure it out. Later on, when I was able to, you know, gain access to quality health insurance, um, I went to the dentist and no cavities, right? So, I was astonished because I was expecting my mouth to be a mess because I hadn't been able to afford to take care of the initial things, right? And that really made me really aware.
I know it's so crazy, right? That made me aware like, wait a second, how is it like, okay, I know natural medicine is good, right? But they're saying I had like 10 cavities. How did I heal those without doing anything? Right. Um, exactly. And so I said, no. Right. And so that's another thing too. Another kind of anecdotal story I'll tell you is um I took my daughter to the dentist and they made a recommendation for I don't know some like film or whatever that they put on their teeth like they they you know brush it on there and um I looked at it and you know kind of did a little research and I was like I'm really concerned this is kind of new you know what are the risks what are the benefits whatever you know and and the provider got so upset and he was like why are you even questioning this your insurance will cover it, right? And I was like, wait a second, this doesn't have anything to do with my insurance coverage.
This has everything to do with making sure I'm responsible for this little girl, right? And so I I'm going to make sure that I'm not going to put something in her mouth that could then turn into something later on. So be very mindful when you are navigating the health care system about your insurance, right? understand your insurance coverages, your premiums, etc. Even people with private insurance now, their health care um premium rates are about to go up. We're already seeing that domino effect, right, with the big beautiful bill. So, here's one of my recommendations. I am not an insurance broker by any stretch of the imagination, but I've studied the health care system extensively. So, here's kind of what I recommend most patients do. If you use a provider for like if you never go to the conventional doctor, right? Like you you only go for, you know, emergencies or your pap or whatever those kinds of things.
My recommendation is to go into more of a catastrophic plan where you may have a little bit of a higher deductible, but then that additional monies that you would have been spending on very inflated insurance that you're never using, you take that money and you offset it into an HSA or an FSA account. An HSA is a health savings or or a flex spinning account that is pre-tax. So you do get a little bit of a tax benefit from it, but also too that's your money that you are able to now use for providers such as myself who choose not to take insurance. So um you can use it pretty much for anything. You can use it for supplements, you can use it for medications, you can use it for any type of health care things that you need, right? Um, and so that's a strategy that I've often recommended to patients so that they can really, you know, get the most bang for their buck because health insurance is extremely expensive after the government got involved in health care, which I was like, ah, you know, um, health insurance rates have gone up and now again because they're trying to pay for all these tax tax breaks for billionaires, um, now everyone's health insurance is going to be impacted as well.
So just keep that in mind. Um that's something that you can do. Also too, a lot of employers will match um HSA accounts. Open enrollment for most people is around October and that's when we're going to really see um the turn and burn on insuranceances. So again, really be aware, really be present, you know, all hands on deck, understand your coverages, and then of course make some, you know, decisions um that'll help. Because of all of the things I just mentioned, I really priced myself very economically, meaning that I didn't want patients to be thinking about being stressed about how they're going to pay me versus if they're going to get well. Right. And of course, I'm not like the cheapest person in town.
For sure. I don't give it away, but I I want to make sure. Exactly. Exactly, Tiffany. That's exactly. So you get a high deductible plan where you're going to be paying playing paying less because really it's a catastrophic plan. So you're paying for if you get into an accident or something major, right? And there's different, you know, tiers of that. And you take that extra money that you would have been spending on your uh health insurance and you offset it into an HSA account because that's pre-tax.
Um so you get that tax break benefit, but also too it gives you freedom, right? Because that's the thing with insurance is they they make you beholden, right? And so what what I mean is that they dictate who you see, what you see, why you see it, and even with the providers, they dictate how we can treat what we can do. And that's ultimately why I left the insurance model and became an out-of network provider is because of so much of the limitations and so much of the restrictions. It just is it's not sustainable. Most of your time as a provider is spent arguing with the insurance companies. And again, I don't care what letters you have behind your name. You can have all of them. You can be an MD, a DO, an MP, like name all of them. And we all struggle with the same thing.
I always like to call it kind of a pimp and hoe relationship. And I'm not the pimp in that relationship. So, I definitely ain't out here hoing. So, with that being said, I really tried to price uh everything economically. Everything about my practice was very conscious and very um uh thought out. Not just from the the the patient perspective, but also the provider perspective as well. Because if the provider isn't taken care of, right, if we can't feed ourselves because we're giving everything away, right? Then we're not going to be able to show up for our patients, right? And vice versa, if our patients, you know, aren't able to invest in their health care or for whatever reason they're resistant or hesitant, etc., they're not going to show up and so it's not going to be a good match.
Um, the other thing I'll mention, so um, a little bit again about pricing. So, I priced myself pretty economically. I'm very upfront with my pricing schedule. I charge $200 for an initial consultation and then a hundred $100 to $150 to review basic labs. Um, and then from there, if patients want to uh be a long-term patient and want to have access and all that, it's $136 a month. And we we meet for their appointments every two months. Now, naturally, I have I have patients I see once every three weeks that are paying more in the $300 $400 range. Um, but most average patients don't need that much healthcare access, meaning that they don't have a chronic condition where I'm having to see them so often. However, when I do see patients every 3 weeks, it accelerates their care as well. So, a lot of times those patients I'm seeing every 3 weeks, they have multiple specialists.
I'm doing a lot of work, not just in front of the patient, but behind the scenes as well. Um, with every patient, I give them a full report um of their nutritional assessment questionnaire, which we've gone over in this class, and then also to a full report on their labs. I go over both of those. So the deliverables after they get through the consultation and the review is two beautiful PDF documents that are full color front and back all these pages but really gives them that in-depth understanding and that practical understanding of where they are with their health state and what they need to do in order to improve it with a lot of different um accountability markers in place.
Um so that is the part of of um pricing. So, you have to decide what you're going to price yourself out at. I really, again, I I wanted to bring back that old school family doctor. At the time that I got out, it was the ACA. Um, so I was really immersed in the health care system and learned about the healthcare. In fact, I that was one of the reasons why I went for my M. PH was to learn about the health care system to be able to um understand, yeah, it's totally reasonable. I mean, my per visit rate if a patient's not in a plan is between 3.95 and 7.95. So, because of all the the the years of training and experience, right? But again, most patients I don't want a patient stressed out about spending $300 per per appointment, right? Or 700 because that's not that's just the service. That's not any supplements or labs that they may need. And so again, when you're pricing yourself as a provider, really think about the big picture.
You know, what you're trying to achieve. Now, if you just want to work on the with the top 10% population, charge what you want, right? But the average American, which is who I wanted to treat, the average people because I really believe that people would choose a holistic doctor if they could afford it. And prior to the work that I did, people really couldn't afford it. like it was it and there is a stigma that it's really expensive and it is an investment but I always like to tell people there's no flash sales on diabetes there's no buy one get one free chemo treatments and so prevention is worth a pound of cure but also to investing in your health not your disease but investing in your health can prevent chronic conditions that are very costly chronic illness drives our health care cost that is what makes health care so expensive is patients that are struggling with chronic disease, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, kidney disease, things that are preventable and things that can be um uh remediated with modifiable lifestyle factors, meaning teaching patients what they need to do in order to get well.
So, another common misconception that um people have is that supplements fix everything, right? PE patients think again like the conventional model. Oh, I'm I'm I don't want to go to a uh conventional doctor and get pharmaceuticals. So instead, I'm going to go to a holistic doctor and I'm going to get supplements, right? And so they think, oh, I'm just going to replace one for the other. No, that's not how it works. In fact, I typically don't give supplements until my third office visit.
Why? Because I want to work on the mindset of the patient. I also have to go through all that data and educate them on all of that. But also, the first appointment with me is all about nutrition. Food is medicine. Let's get back to the basics. How's your water? How's your food? How's your movement? How's your stress? Thank you so much, Mrs. Jones. All of those things, right? Let's get back to those things that are really basic that cost you nothing, right? Other than time or energy or whatever. Um, and then we get that diet about 80% healthy and balanced. And then I build supplements off of the patient's diet.
Why do I do that? So the patient doesn't become dependent upon supplements, right? Because we have a real dependency problem. People just want to take take take. And again, a natural thing is is just as can be just as harmful as a not natural thing. But also too, I want people to feel the difference between what it feels like when they're eating healthy versus uh when they're not eating healthy, right? And I want to them to really recognize the distinction. Peptides. Um, so Tiffany uh asked on Tik Tok, "What are your thoughts on peptides?" I have minimal thoughts on peptides, however um they um are used quite often, especially in our field. I don't have um additional training in peptides. I did more like IV therapies, things like that, but peptides are often used for hormonal and hormonal treatments. Um and so that's pretty much what I would say about uh peptides. Um they can also be helpful for rebuilding the immune system as well. So there is a whole world of peptides. Um and for me I wasn't drawn to it.
Um I again I did more IV therapies and more kind of natural things. I I'm I kind of error on the side of caution of creating too much dependency towards the pharmaceutical industry. So um their latest and greatest their new you know treatments which peptides are still fairly new. Um, and so, um, I I'm a little bit hesitant about jumping on bandwagons, but I do know that, um, a lot of people have had success, especially in the area of hormones. So, hopefully that that helps.
I may do a little deep dive on peptides now that you asked that. And I don't know, I don't I don't have a whole big spiel to say about it. All right. Um, the other thing that is a common misconception with patients is that the provider is the one doing the healing, right? So, the provider is not the healer. And I know that sounds crazy.
I know everybody's like, "Oh, you're the healer. You're a healer." No, no, no. I'm not a healer, right? I'm I am a fallible human being like everyone else. Um, and so what I what I am is just a teacher, right? That's all I am is a teacher. Um, and I'm here to teach patients what they need to do. Ultimately, the healer is you as the patient and God uh almighty creator, whomever you believe in, right? someone outside some entity outside of you. Um and so that's why even in terminal cases I always tell patients look you're going to heal no matter what right whether you heal on this side of life right or whether you heal on the other side of life bottom line you're going to heal and that's between you and God right my job here is to just guide you through the process and be an open channel be an open conduit I often will uh pray before I work with patients I'll often meditate before I work with patients so that I am an open channel and any of my junk is moved to the side so that I can really be open and available for my patients for whatever they need whenever they need it.
So, those are just some of the common misconceptions uh that patients have coming into a holistic practice that we really want to make sure upfront they recognize that it's not a quick fix. It's not always going to be fast and cheap. Uh we can try to reduce cost as much as possible, but at the end of the day, um it's not the, you know, the provider. It's not the onus of the provider to, you know, figure out all the ways to make it dirt rock bottom cheap, right? Sometimes you have to pay for quality.
Sometimes certain supplements that I've worked with for years, those combinations are just so bangon that I I can't find a cheaper option, right? Because that particular uh compound is so specific and able to really help people heal. So, just keep that in mind. Naturally, patients will often say, "Hey, you know, can we watch this? Can we watch that?" And I'll keep that in mind. But again, when you when you um put that on the provider, it makes it really difficult for them to move around and do their job.
So, just keep that in mind. Um, okay. So, now we move into discovery call. So, again, like I was telling you, one of the ways that I qualify readiness is through a discovery call. So, it's a complimentary 15 20 minute phone call. Um, usually it lasts longer than that quite honestly, but um, and initially it will last you quite a bit of time, you know, because you're learning the whole process. But you're really assessing for three aspects of readiness. Mindset, emotional, and practical. So mindset, meaning that they're open to change, those stages of change that we're talking about. They're not wanting a quick fix. They're willing to learn. They're willing to track. They're willing to be an active participant. You want to get to where their head is up. And then emotionally, are they ready to be vulnerable, be held accountable, confront their fears, their frustration? Are they willing to kind of drudge through some of the uncomfortability that's going to happen for a while until they get to their final destination of healing? And then practically speaking, do they have the time and do they have the resources? Right? Sometimes I have a patient who, you know, comes to me and maybe they just simply cannot afford care.
And that's why I built our community. So, if you haven't joined our free community, please feel free. It's a great place. I create all kinds of free um PDF resources and send those out. Um I also have a lot of paid resources, too. So, I have um really lowcost plans. I pretty much have something for everybody and and the purpose of that is to keep them connected and keep them engaged. So, even if they don't have, let's say, the funds to invest in a holistic provider, they're getting a lot of information and they're getting a lot of um ways that they can be able to help. I'm actually about to release um a PDF document about kind of a holistic lifestyle um jumpart. Um so, I'll be sending it out. So, if you're on our um email or text list or you're in our community, you'll receive a copy of it.
And again, it's a jump start to those foundational health pieces, what you need to do, etc. So, even just watching my videos, following my content, etc. You're going to gain so much information that you can practically take in take in. So, however, with working with me, there's a little bit of a red rope around me. Um, you know, I spent years again in family practice and literally bleeding heart helping everyone. And so me taking a step back and going into more of a virtual model really allows me to have healthier boundaries and allows me to to be able to gauge how much care I can provide and for how much. So I do create a lot of resources that are lowcost uh that you'll be seeing over the next few weeks. So mindfulness, mind mindset readiness, emotional readiness, and practical readiness are things that you're looking for when you are doing your discovery call and you're working with your patients to assess if they are good candidates for care. So some of the discovery call questions that I may ask is what motivated you to seek holistic care now? Um have you tried other approaches before? What happened? What worked? What didn't work? Sometimes I will get provider patients, excuse me, that have been to tons of other holistic providers, haven't gotten the answers, and maybe they've been overs supplemented or overested because just as conventional medicine can be predatory, also the natural world can be very predatory, too.
Especially in the world of the health influencers and everybody wants to hang their shingle out now all of a sudden to be a holistic provider even though 5 years ago they were smoking cigarettes and and banging back you know um shots in the afternoon you know so a lot of people are coming new into this whereas somebody like me who's had a lot of um experience with it um I've seen a lot so I want to know from a patient you know what have you done what's worked what's not worked and and Why why are you seeking my care out specifically? Because I have a very unique way and approach uh to be able to practice. So, was there something that drew me in? Naturally, I see a lot of black and afroindigenous people because I have I um practice a lot of cultural intelligence in my practice and I bring all of that into um the realm and and I will tell you nobody does that.
Nobody looks at patients as their unique ethnic self. they don't look at all the aspects of themselves and be able to work with them on that ancestral level. Another question I ask is on a scale of 1 to 10, how committed are you willing to make changes? Now, I actually send a little pre um form uh to my patients uh ahead of time. It's just a readiness quiz and I send it to them ahead of time so when I open it, I'm able to kind of see where their head is at and I'm able to ask those particular questions. Um, obviously, you know, the higher the number the better because they're more motivated. Um, but sometimes too, patients don't even really know if they're motivated. They just kind of throw a number out there. And that's okay, too. You're going to ask more um questions in the discovery to understand really how how that number um came up for them.
Um, another question to ask is what challenges might get in the way of their progress? Whether that is time, whether that's money, whether that's um partners, you know, partners sometimes can sabotage people from getting well. Work schedules. I've worked with uh I work with a fair amount of highlevel professionals as well who, you know, they come to me to help me help. They come to me for me to help them stay in balance because they have a lot of demand on them. they have a lot of expectation and they need to be able to stay mentally, emotionally and physically well and optimal so that they um can be able to do the work that they're they're wanting to do in their mission.
So I oftentimes call myself almost like a human optimization specialist because it's not just about helping people that are totally sick and unwell. It's also working with patients that are wanting to get to that next level and that next level that next level. I mean for me and myself um I have done so many things to be able to advance myself and transform myself um so that I can you know be a better doctor, be a better mother, be a better wife, be a better you name it, right? Another question to ask is what would success look like 6 months from now, a year from now? And that question is really good because it helps to gauge your expectations with the patient.
If a patient's like, I want to be healed from this chronic disease I've had 20 years in six months, right? Not to say that we want to crush their dreams and and and their goals, but we also want to reframe that into realistic, right? Because it's it's dependent upon multiple factors and and some of those factors, many of those factors are outside of my control. So whether you follow through or not, whether you um are resistant or not, whether um your body responds or not, you know, whether there's something buried deeper, I mean, the body will is almost like an onion. There's layers and layers and layers and layers. And as we peel back those layers of that onion, those core aspects begin to show through.
And so sometimes those core aspects we may not be able to know or understand initially until we do the work on the periphery. So keep that in mind as well. Going back to those common misconceptions patients will have because they'll come up. Remember we talked about um holistic doesn't mean quick um and natural, right? So usually natural is a little bit more slower. It's it again, you know, we're naturally doing things. I always like to say the grass doesn't strain to grow.
Um the sun doesn't jump up in the morning. It's all a very gradual process. And as a naturopath, we look at nature. Hey sess, we look at nature to kind of be our guide, right? And so when we watch the unfoldment of nature and we watch how the body um begins to heal and we watch all of the different aspects of the system, we observe that and that helps us guide our healing process. So of course we want to really communicate that holistic care is often slower, deeper, and much more comprehensive. I mean we I I don't skip over anything, right? uh we look at every every aspect of your life.
Um which it can be very confronting for people again as we begin to peel back these layers. Oftent times I've worked with patients that maybe come in initially for one health care condition and then as we're going through the process we're realizing oh you know they're in an unhealthy relationship or they're in an unhealthy job or you know they they've got you know their kids are running a muck and they don't have healthy boundaries with them or whatever. There's a lot of different things or they're codependent. There's a lot of different things that come up that are buried underneath the surface that we unpack with patients because a lot of times they're just in survival.
Another misconception is that we're cheap or free. I think we talked about that pretty extensively. Um, prevention does save money long term, but quality care does provide investment in education. Um I'm definitely in the the 250k um student loan camp. Um and so you know the you know um they definitely they ain't forgiven anything these days. So you know again I'd give it away but my husband will let me. So you know we have we want to invest in our providers and make sure that they're supported. Um the other thing too is holistic uh providers don't use science. So that is a common misconception that we are not say hey that we are not scientific that we don't use science we're using a whole bunch of woo woo we're I don't know what people think we do but this is actually part of colonization um where our indigenous our afroindigenous practices were you know we were we were told we were heretics we were told that you know our practices were barbaric etc and all of that is still being done today but it's dressed up differently right and so it's like Oh, well, you know, you couldn't possibly heal yourself naturally, right? You need to have a provider.
And I'm here to tell you, as a provider, you actually don't need a provider to heal yourself. You can heal yourself by yourself. At the same time, obviously, with God, but at the same time, a provider gives you a lot of shortcuts and gives you a lot of knowledge that you wouldn't necessarily find scouring the internet. So, um there's a lot of nuance to practice. But in kind, the patient himself is the person that's powerful enough to be able to heal themsel obviously with the assistance of God. Um, so we use all evidenceinformed care combined with traditional wisdom.
So if you've been on the journey with me, if you've taken my classes before, you know, you know I combine the holistic practices with science. So we have all of the tracking and the data much more in depth than your conventional provider. And oftent times when patients come to me, their doctors have said, "Oh, their labs look normal, right? Everything's fine." Meanwhile, the patient feels like crap and they're not well and all the things.
But what the doctor is really saying is, "You don't have a disease yet. You're not sick enough yet. Come back later. Come back when you're I'm not going to tell you what to do because I don't know what to do because they haven't been trained to what to do." And so they're just going to wait until that's called active surveillance. They're going to actively surveil it until it becomes a disease and then they're going to jump on it. Right? I like to say let's let's prevent things before we're reacting and treating things. You know, also too, it's little things like baby aspirin. They say, "Oh, baby aspirin is uh prevention." It's not prevention, it's treatment.
Okay? So, recognize that. I know I I said that on on air one time on television and you would have thought that, you know, I unalive somebody right right on air. Um, but then later on actually a study confirmed what I was saying. So, go figure, right? Um, another common misconception is one supplement will fix it all. We've talked about that. There's no one supplement. There's no one thing. Even though I do live on an island, rest assured. If there was one thing that would do it, I would probably be in Fiji, Bise.
Well, actually, not Bise. I mean, I've been to Bise. It was nice, but not my not my Bali maybe. You know, some place with super clear water. And we have clear water here in St. Lucia, but different vibe. We'd probably be, you know, jet setting all over the world and, you know, going around in our million, you know, multi-million dollar yacht. We'd be the we'd be the Bezos of holistic healthcare, right? So, that's not realistic, right? Good health is built consistently, deliberately over an extended period of time. So, hate to break it to you.
There's not going to be some magic herb I'm going to dig up, you know, on the side of the mountain here, uh, and and give it to you, you know, for your healing. So, just keep that in mind again when you are engaging in holistic medicine. Um, another, um, misconception is if I feel worse at first, something's wrong, right? Again, we're trained in the conventional model that symptoms mean that the body is reacting. And a lot of times patients will have symptoms from medication because there is a part synthetic within the medications. Right? So it combines synthetics with naturally occurring substances and that actually what is what pharmaceuticals are made out of. So like for instance aspirin, baby aspirin is made out of white willow. So they take the white willow and then they combine it with petroleum and then sell it back to you, right? So why take the aspirin if you could take the white willow? But I digress. Anywh who um we want to make sure that patients understand that their bodies may go through a healing process and so to look out for that because I've been doing this for so long I can pretty much gauge how a person is going to kind of go with that but also the other piece is I build their bodies up so much that's why we focus on build building the body um you know helping the body to be able to stimulate your metabolism um and so giving the patients lots of energy before we detoxify so that again was was designed out of um not wanting patients to crash but actually wanting to build patients up to feel better.
It doesn't eliminate any of those um detox reactions but it greatly reduces it when you do it well and you do it with proper um clinical um practice. Um the last kind of misconception and there's many but these are common ones is I can delegate everything to the provider. So I'm paying you right? So because I'm paying you, that means you're going to fix it for me, right? And and so people think almost like a consumer model.
It doesn't work like that, right? You're paying for knowledge. You're paying for experience. You're paying for wisdom, but you're not paying me to come and tell you to drink water, hand the water to you, go to the kitchen, bring it to you. You're not paying me to prepare your meals for you. You're not paying me to go on workouts with you. Although again people have paid me for a lot of things but um you know that's not really our role. You as a patient have to take responsibility and it doesn't matter how little it is. You can literally do one thing. You know you can drink one cup of water today when you drank none yesterday. So it's not the the pro solely the provider. It's that collaboration between the provider and the patient. Um, and the patient has just as much um power as um the provider.
All right, so Ocean Summer said, "I recently switched my B12 script to methylated and noticed a huge difference for the better." Yay. Okay, so um one other tweak. Um so B complexes molecularly are not stable when they isolate them. So meaning when they isolate out a B12, right? um or any bee for that matter, they it's not stable alone. So, they have to put a lot of filler in in that B B12, excuse me, in order to keep it um together. So, I often will recommend um Oh, thank you. Um I am feeling so well. Um I often recommend that if patients want to take a B uh vitamin that they take all the bees. So, they take a B complex, right? I love Biotics Research um B complex. Super affordable, great price, 100 milligrams, etc. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Yeah. They use a lot of different ingredients and things like that. In homeopathy, people really freak because they have all these crazy things on there. But yeah, so I would I would switch it to a methylated bee, not just that methylated B12. But exactly, you notice the difference. So genetically, right, your body is processing it better, right? And so again, that's a liver issue, genetic issue.
We are not getting into genetic uh education today but I will eventually because I love genetics and I love teaching about it and it's very complicated and not a lot of people understand it. All right. So those are the um common misconceptions. Again going back to what it takes for a patient to be ready, willingness, commitment, but also curiosity, right? I again I keep I tell patients to be curious about what's going on with their system. remember when you were little and you know you played makebelieve and what would happen if this and what happened with that? It's the same thing, right? I'm going to be curious about what's going to come up for me in this experience. I'm going to be curious about, you know, what I need to do in order to heal or how I'm going to heal or what I'm avoiding, etc. And if we approach it right, we we reframe that fear and that doubt and that uncertainty and resistance into maybe excitement, curiosity, you know, uh maybe a little bit of joy even, you know, then it becomes more of a fun experience.
It becomes more of an exploration rather than all this pressure of having to perform and having to do because oftentimes when people are coming in, they have a lifetime of unhealthy habits for various reasons. lack of education, lack of access, lack of understanding, all sorts of things. And so, we want to be gentle, meet them where they're at, and really get them excited and motivated about returning back to themselves. And ultimately, really learning how to love themselves and heal themselves naturally. I mean, healing yourself holistically is the is the most um I think uh self-love practice um self-care that you can do for yourself because it really is very gentle, very loving, you know, very much like a feminine energy. All right. Another thing that a patient needs is resilience, right? So, it's going to take a little bit of grit, I think, to do anything. You know, to be an entrepreneur takes grit, to be, you know, a mother takes grit. to be a wife takes grit, you know, and even though I love my daughter, I love my husband, I love, you know, my business, it still requires something.
Sometimes I don't feel like doing it. I don't feel like eating healthy. I don't feel like drinking water, but I do it anyway because I know if I don't, right, I'm not going to like the result. So, if I don't drink enough water in this hot 90 degree um you know, Caribbean heat, um I am going to pass out.
Uh I'm going to be bloated. I'm going to all these things. And so I have to weigh that out on my mind, right? Is is the is the pain of kind of pushing myself to drink this water worth, right? Uh the the um you know satisfaction or whatever that I'm going to gain or or or even worth the punishment that I give myself. So I do that oftentimes with food as well. So I go hm okay um am I going to eat this right? So is it worth eating this? Right? How do I want to feel bloat? You know let's say if I eat gluten, right? Do I want to feel bloated today? because I know as soon as I eat gluten, I'm going to have a gluten baby, right? And so my belly is going to be all full.
And sometimes I'm like, yeah, you know, maybe a little bit, right? But other times I'm like, no, it ain't worth it today. So we weigh these things out. Again, mindset is a huge part of living a holistic lifestyle, which is why I spend so much time focusing on mindset, emotional health, and and your actions and habits, behaviors, all those things. All right. Self- advocacy is also something really important for a patient. I love it when patients challenge me. I love it because and challenge the thinking and the thought process because that shows me that they're engaged, right? If they're just like, "Whatever you say, doc, they're they're they're too they're giving their power to me. And while I appreciate that, that they trust me and all that, I don't want their power, right? I want them to get dirty. I want them to get in there.
I want them to question things. Why is this? What's going on?" you know, because I want them to understand these things are very complicated with your health for sure. But if you take it just a little bit at a time. Oh, thank you, real one. I appreciate it. If you take it a little bit at a time, teach it. Again, as a doctor, we're teachers. Um, and we really need to learn and understand how our own bodies work and how to be able to heal the body. Hey, Megan. Naga. Um, because if we don't, we're not going to be able to articulate that to the patient.
And like I said, if you cannot explain what you do or how you do it to a 5-year-old, do you really know it? Right? And one of the things that I love about teaching is just being able to, you know, simplify and understand the information just that much greater. So, we want patients that advocate, they speak up, they ask questions, they're engaged, they track their progress, you know, they they want to be an active participant and a collaborative um in their care. All right. So, now we're going to get into the discovery call. We'll finish out our um class for today with the structure of that. So, first things first, best practices of a discovery call. The purpose of a discovery call with patients. Hey, so good to see you. Um the best practices are to set the tone for the call. So, your job as a provider is to be open, is to be accessible, is to listen, right? We have two ears, one mouth, right? when patients are coming in, especially from all the different traumas and dramas from the health care system, you know, they're going to have a lot that they just need to be heard.
Um, and your job is to hold space as a provider for those patients to be able to listen to what they've been through, what their struggles are, what their setbacks are, what their intentions are, all of those. And so having that space, so you being emotionally intelligent, you being, you know, put together and taking care of yourself so you can hold space for that patient. So in essence they can kind of dump you know we ah thank you for the heart me they they really need to dump because some of the things too they're again in the health care system being gaslit not being told what they need to do given the runaround going to 25 specialists getting no answers told their labs look normal even though they feel like crap and so sometimes the first thing is just to listen right like what's going on how's it been going and even if it doesn't lead to anything I can't tell you how many people I have spent spent so much time with, right? And even there are people out there who literally think that I'm their doctor, but I I have not seen them as a patient formally.
They've been to a class or, you know, seen my stuff over the years. I've been, you know, on on this social media game since Facebook started. So, people know me, people know my name. And so, a lot of times they're connected just simply because I listened um and I gave them something of value. So even if it doesn't even if it's not putting money in my pocket, right, that's not the point. It's the po. The point is to be able to give that patient just a little bit of what they need so that they can feel motivated and they can feel inspired to take the next step in their health and their healthcare.
Health can be so overwhelming for people. They don't know where to start. They don't know what to do. And so having a little bit of comfort and being able to, you know, know what their next steps are, you know, really that that that is so valuable. I've had patients reach out to me, again, not technically patients, reach out to me after years, and go, "Oh my god, thank you so much. I I watched this, I listen to this, and you really help me or you help my mom or or whatever, right?" You also, when you're doing a discovery call with patients, hey, solid, you want to clarify the expectations early. Remember, this is not a quick fix. This is not a beall endall. I'm not going to go dig up some root in the backyard and give it to them to make it all go away, right? This takes some work, it takes some effort, it takes some focus, it takes some energy, it takes some collaboration, it it takes some effort, you know, to be able to get healthy.
And so, you know, making sure that they understand that, you know, you're not a snake oil salesman, right? You're not there. There are a lot of them out there, right, who will say everything, you know, oh, you can, you know, heal your, you know, HSV too by taking all, you know, by doing a fruit cleanse, which we talked about, or, you know, heal your, you know, fill in the blank or whatever by taking X, Y, and Z product, right? Or all you got to do is detox, right? The health of the body is not that simple.
And we're leaving this conventional standard general model where you know everybody gets everything you know everybody gets a pill to more personalized medicine. It's a slow process let me tell you but we are moving into more of a personalized healthcare space because of technology. We have so much now when it comes to technology back in the day when I was going through school we had to do everything manually. All of our lab reports all of our all of our everything. And those that have taken my class have heard all of my my PTSD from that. But I appreciate that because as a provider, I learned it. I really learned it having to write it. Now we have software and all the stuff that do the shortcuts. And a part of me is like, oh god, these new providers are just not going to know what to do when when ish goes goes wrong because things things are going to things can go wrong in healthcare.
And so they can go left right real quick. And so my concern is that these new providers kind of coming into the field aren't going to know because they're so heavily dependent upon technology now. Same thing um my second husband was in surgery and you know the the new surgeons were learning more laparoscopic procedures and so and and while that was great technology with da Vinci and all of that they weren't learning you know those those basic like how to open up a patient naturally. So again, we were always concerned like, oh my god, you know, if they're only trained in laparoscopic and they have to open a patient and they haven't been trained on it.
Oh no. And also too, sadly with the overturning of Roie Wade, those medical providers that are in those heartbeat bill states are also missing now a lot of that women's health care that they need. And so unless they leave the state or or go through CU training, etc., they're going to have some real deficiencies. So again, we want to just clarify expectations upfront about what health care looks like. People have all sorts of misconceptions about health care simply because the way that the system is developed, it's it's a sick care system. Remember, we talked about the readiness assessment. I'm not going to review them again, but making sure that the patient has a healthy mindset, a healthy emotional mindset, and practical readiness. Now, that doesn't mean that patients are, you know, perfect, right? Patients will come in and they I'll have patients where their initial appointment they'll just cry. They they will, you know, because it's very emotional, right? Health is so personal and so, you know, being, oh, you're so welcome. And so, you know, again, holding that space.
So, they may, you know, need to exa let go and dump and all that kind of stuff. So, making sure that they're at least mentally on board, emotionally engaged, and then practically they're ready to do the work that you're asking them. Um, and so we want to always uncover the why behind the symptoms. So we're really in that that discovery call. We're almost like um uh you know um like House if you ever seen that show. We're kind of guessing. We've got the dry erase board up. You know, we're listening to what they have and we're giving them feedback. We're like, "Oh, this sounds like this. It sounds like this. This may be this. This may be that." But we're we're not telling them definitively. We're just giving them our brainstorm ideas right off the top of our head. we're getting to that root cause of why and going deeper um with those symptoms so that we really understand what the motivations are, what the values are, what the what the fears are and also too why is this important to address, right? Why why why is this important? Some people will say oh so I can run around with my grandkids so I can you know get up painfree in the day so I can you know have more energy so I can reduce my medication load etc.
So, we also want to understand what that patient's why is and what's driving them. All in the same time, while you're giving them ideas and you're kind of throwing out some ideas, there's a balance between education and listening. And we'll kind of get in to that a little bit more. So, you want to connect their healing goals to something bigger. Oftentimes, patients will, you know, be again their family or their career or their freedom or their purpose or what have you. Um again we want to identify the misconceptions upfront. So we want to ask them what do you understand holistic medicine to mean? What is what is holistic medicine to you? And people will have all sorts of ideas about what holistic medicine is.
Some people will say oh it's just herbs. It's meditation. It's body, mind, and spirit. They'll throw ideas out some of which may be accurate. most of which probably is not accurate just simply because the way the media um and the way people who are not trained convey holistic medicine. Some people will like especially RFK right now the way he's depicting holistic medicine it's like ah you know and so people come in with all sorts of ideas they think oh we're antiax we're this we're that right and that's not the case at all right we are pro-informed consent we are pro- personalized with the patient right I have patients that inoculate I have patients that don't inoculate right all across the board it's not my job to judge it's my job to assess right that patient using subjective, which is what the patient tells me through questionnaires, and objective, some sort of lab, something outside of me, something outside of you to assess if this treatment is medically sound for you, if if you are going to be harmed or not.
We can mitigate harm. We have so many testing. We have we have lab testing now that looks at all the preservatives in inoculation. So, you can see, hey, do I have sensitivity to these types of reactions, that sort of thing. Um, Ocean Summers asked a question. She says, "I'm finding that people have misconceptions about what holistic medicine actually is." Absolutely. And that's all done by design. Okay.
Remember, the pharmaceutical industry spends billions and with a B um amount of money every single year in order to discredit doctors like me. Don't believe me? Every single medical show you've seen, and I watch them all. I love I love healthcare. Like I love medicine. I love all I love everything, right? And so I've seen every Grey's Anatomy episode. I've seen every House episode. I've se I've seen them all. And so if you notice any type of holistic anything that's present or even in Friends, remember long time ago that show Friends was out and you know Phoebe or whatever, they always present us like we are some crazed, you know, loony pachuli smelling, you know, uh, Birkenstockwearing, you know, whatever.
Like they they they make us look crazy. So then then the general public assumes that we're all crazy. And again, when I when I first crash landed in Virginia working with patients, you know, the medical community because of those misconceptions was so afraid that I was going to tell patients to stop taking their medication or stop doing their treatment or whatever. And they found that as I was working with them, I actually helped improve compliance, right? But I improved not only improved compliance but also protected informed consent. Hey Medusa, so good to see you queen. But also protected informed consent. And what do I mean by that? I would take all their medical records. And I still do this now. I take all their medical records, all their labs, all their whatever. And I break it all down. I look for errors, right? That's the first thing I look for.
Look for errors, but I also look for what actually is going on. Language is very important. And in medical, thank you for the heart meme. And in medical, language is very specific. So you can tell if a doctor is unsure or if a doctor's like right on the money, right? So you see that ambiguity within because remember medicine's a practice, right? This is an art as much as it is a hard science.
I know everybody wants to say, "Oh, this is a hard science. This is finite, you know, treatments for everybody, right?" But it's not. There there's nuance to this. There's texture to this, right? uh and nobody knows all of the answers. So, making sure that patients understand what treatments have been done, what recommendations have been made, why they've been made. Some people, their doctors haven't even reviewed their labs.
I I um did a consult with a patient the other day. His glucose was in the 400s. 400s. Not one doctor said, "Hey, you may have to go on some insulin." Right? Um and in fact when I had a conversation with the patient the patient was not ready to hear what I had to say and had a lot of excuses etc. Um but the thing is is that that person h had been able to navigate the system and had been able to not be held accountable, right? So those providers failed this person, right? Those providers weren't honest and those providers unfortunately are eventually risking this person's life. I mean that person was knocking on on kidney diseases door, right? Their, you know, glucose was over 400. Their hemoglobin A1C was a 14. I'm like, is your is your pancreas functioning? And for those that don't don't know these numbers, healthy glucose is between 80 and 85. So 400, that pancreas, poor thing. Um, also too, insulin, we want no higher than a five. Okay, so a 14 there. Where's the insulin coming in? There's none.
So we want to really look at those medical records. If a patient's been to a provider, um, I will pull all of those medical records, their primary, their specialist, etc. There's so much that's missed in healthcare. You wouldn't even believe it. So, making sure that the patient understands all of their options, not just conventional. I excuse me, not just holistic. I do give them their conventional options if they if they so choose.
I lay it all out for them what what their options are. And the patient chooses. Imagine that. The patients choose it. Oh, I know. I it it was like astonishing to me like how this patient was still walking around functioning and and not feeling just awful. Like I just Yeah, it was I'm glad that I was able to at least have contact and I I at least planted a seed. They weren't ready right again. And and I'm not going to, you know, Operation Savo is closed. So that's also why I love to do the discovery call to just see a head check like where where they're at mentally, emotionally, spiritually, all the things. Hey FC. Oh, okay. Cool. So Medusa said, "I'm surprised they were able to walk around without being lightheaded." So those for for um YouTube.
And then Tiffany says, "That happened to me except it was my low iron deficiency anemia and doctors said I was fine." Exactly. Exactly. And so if your hemoglobin is in the teens, right? um you know or even lower than that or your ferotin is in in the low numbers you know eight seven whatever you know hello you're in a really serious problem and I I find that that's what conventional medicine does it ignores it doesn't look it doesn't see and people put so people give so much power to their medical doctor they give so much power to their conventional doctor not realizing that they're human they may have had a bad day they may have missed it they may have been stressed etc. And so having that second look, having that second perspective, again, holistic means everything. It means all of it, right? Uh it means looking at everything. They wouldn't And Tiffany says, "I wouldn't check my feritin because my other RBC was in normal range." That is so wrong. That is so wrong. My feritin was 18. Luckily, your feritin actually, I mean, it was low, but really um you only need iron infusions if it drops below 10.
So 10 is kind of that hot spot number, but those MCV, MCH, MC um HC, those numbers, right, you know, drop low um on a lot of people, especially black and afroindigious people because of those methylation issues, right, that we talked about with the liver. And so again, like especially as black people within the health care system, we're often dismissed. So we have to advocate for ourselves. We have to speak out. We have to educate people and make sure that people understand, you know, what's going on with our system and and demand care.
And if patient, if excuse me, providers don't listen to you, fire them. We work for the patient, by the way. You know, I know everybody wants to put doctors up here. We're not. We're down here. We're we're we're eye level. Okay? I'm just a a provider, a teacher, a whatever, whatever. You've been in your body your entire life.
Okay? You know your body better than anybody else, better than me. Again, you don't fit in my my medical books. You don't fit into my studies. My studies and my medical books are a guide and they're a teacher and they're supportive, but they're not going to do the work, right? What does the work is me listening, right? Two ears, one mouth, listening to the patient and trying to understand and asking why, going, hm, I'm gonna be curious. Why is that ferotin 18? Hm. Why is that um MCV in a 10? Why is that glucose at, you know, 400 and something? Why is that? You know, I'm asking these questions and I'm curious myself. I'm being curious because I don't know why, right? Um I told a doctor on a panel the other day um who was in her second year when I was going to school, you know, I had a mentor who said to me, Erica, when you get your bachelor's, you think you know everything.
When you get your masters, you realize you don't know as as much as you thought you did. when you get your doctorate degree, you don't know [ __ ] about [ __ ]. And then he said, "Aren't you on your second doctor degree, right?" And I'm telling you, so humbling for me as a, you know, medical student, right? Like so humbling for me to go, wait a second, I don't know everything. Because we get hyped up so much. We're learning all this stuff. We're, you know, we're going to be a doctor, all this mystique. But at the end of the day, we're still human beings, right? We can still miss things. we still may not understand things and I'll tell you from going through this experience when you go through all that education right I mean I've been in school I was in school literally my entire life and um you know in fact I'm shocked that I'm not in school now like I'm you know and I'm not twitching to go to school for anything else but I'm like wait a second you know and so we are just bombasted with all of this information with clinicals and this and that and this and that and then at the end we're kind of pushed in front of a patient and go hey don't unal alive them you help them, right? And so we have to synthesize and integrate that information.
That's why majority of what you're going to learn as a provider is actually working with people, right? Not in your books. Your books help give you a foundation, but really it's on the ground. It's on the court. It's working with people. It's it's listening to people. You know, I was a raw food vegan when I moved to Virginia. Um, and I my whole world turns upside down when I'm like, whoa, this is land of the deep fried, right? deep fried Twinkies and deep fried Oreos and all the things and you know people eat fast food is like a habit, right? And so we want to make sure that we humble ourselves.
Um and so we're open to hearing because otherwise we're going to miss it. If our egos are up, right? And you know that you know the doctors with the egos, which the only doctor that you want that has an ego is a surgeon. The surgeons get the one with the biggest ego because they're they're not really good with bedside manner. If you get a surgeon with a good bedside manner, you're lucky. But you want that's a technical skill. That's a skills lab issue, right? So they they're not with people most of the time. They're in a skills lab. Their patients are are um anesthetized, right? But in terms of like your primary care, your specialist or whatever, you want to make sure that you have a doctor who has good bedside manner, who's going to listen to you, who's going to take you seriously, who's not going to be combative with you, who's not going to be resistant when you as a as your own health advocate goes, "Hey, I'm concerned about my hormones.
I'm concerned about, you know, my nervous system. I'm concerned about my digestive system. You know, help me out kind of thing. All right. Tiffany says, "I agree. In the medical field, you can never stop learning." I think that's just in general. I'm going to take a drink of water. I honestly think that's like life, right? Like if you think you know everything, like you're dangerous. I love to constantly be a learner. I love to be new at something even though it's not always comfortable. And you know, you can be a novice.
I enjoy it because it challenges me. It helps me to grow. It helps me to expand. I learn something about myself and ultimately learn about other people and learn about healing and health, which is really my life. All right, we talked about the quick fix cheap one pill solution at nauseium. Um, and then when a patient, so patients are going to come in and and again, when you first have that conversation with them where you're like, "Hey, this isn't a quick fix. We're working on causitive. We're working on the root cause. It's going to take time. You're going to tell them all those things, right? And they're going to forget, okay? And they're going to forget probably a million times. Why are they going to forget? Because their emotions, right? Their fear, their doubt, their worry, their stress, all those things are coming up. So, your job is to continue to reaffirm. Yep, I hear you. I know that this is difficult. I know you want this, you know, gone tomorrow. however, and reframe it into what's reality, you know, and sometimes we can give time frames, not all the time though.
And so I know sometimes patients want, well, how what's my prognosis? How long is this going to last for? Sometimes we can provide that information. Sometimes we can't. So it depends on the data, depends on the efficacy of the data, depends on compliance, it depends on so many different factors. So, but definitely resetting those expectations again and again and again. All right. We want to balance our listening with education. So, we want to allow our patient to feel heard, make sure that their um their um story, their struggle. Um yeah, solo, I heard that um Trump has a new um phone.
I think it's like $45 a month, so you can get your MAGA mobile. Um so um so you you want to be able to listen to our patients, allow them to feel heard, their struggles, their story, etc. And then you also want to sprinkle in education about your approach, terrain theory, therapeutic order, lifestyle management, all the kinds of things. But you don't want to inundate them, right? You want most of your discovery call to be about them, listening, hearing, and then you want to sprinkle some education, some understanding.
And then again, simplify, simplify, simplify. Keep it simple, sweetie. So, you're going to, you know, step one, step two, step three, step four, you know, nutrition, supplements, detoxification, whatever the case may be. You want it to be simple, succinct, to the point, easy to follow. That's why I love creating PDFs for patients because then they've got checklist.
I know I'm a sucker for checklist. So they have checklists and all kinds of things even if they're not digitally um you know um uh technologically sound meaning that they want to use the app all the time. So we do we have an app where we can put tasks and reminders and alerts and all the things but we also give certain patients their kind of paper PDF so they can print it out they can feel it and we want to hit patients at all different learning styles a there's some patients that are auditory learners there's some that are visual learners there's some that are tactile learners there's some that are combination of of all or maybe some. So you really also want to understand how does this patient learn? How does this patient want to learn? Um, we ask a question in terms of how much practice support a patient needs and that can be very telling too. Um, sometimes patients are like, I need a lot of of, you know, patient support because they're insecure or they're afraid or they don't know.
They want their hand to be held. And so, we want to make sure we accommodate for that. And then some people are like, I'm a soldier. I can do this myself. And with those people, I'm always like, yeah, I know. I know you can do it, but you don't have to, right? Lean on me. I'm here to help you kind of organize your health care so you don't have to do it.
Like I know you got a busy life. You're to totally capable. Just why don't you hand your health care off to me. I'll organize it for you. You know, make it pretty, make it, you know, in a in a checklist format and give it back to you so that you don't have to figure out the specialists. Like even when we give referrals to um other providers, we handle all of it. We fax, we find the providers for them.
We run the providers through the patient. We we have them pick out what they what they what providers they want. We contact those providers. We speak to them about, you know, their practice and how their practice works. We clear their insurance with them. Um we fax over the medical records. We pretty much do everything but drive them to the appointment, right? We have the practice, you know, call and schedule because we want to take the pressure off of the patient.
Again, this was all thought of when I was creating my practice, bringing back that old school family provider where, you know, we are a help and an assistance and a support and not a hindrance. So many practices, they put so much pressure on their patients from admin to, you know, scheduling to everything. And so we really wanted to remove those those barriers just so that patients can focus on what they need to focus on, which is maintaining their lifestyle. So remember, the purpose of a discovery call is to screen for alignment. You're looking for if they have signs of lack of readiness, like they're resistant, they only want a pill, they want to blame everyone. Typically, if a patient's not a good fit, they'll be triggered in the first appointment with me. Um, triggered not necessarily in a good way. I had a patient the other day who I had a discovery call with. Um, hey Robin and um, hey Colleen. And so, um, this patient, um, you know, they had sent over their labs.
They had sent over their their numbers, um, and then they called, you know, and we we had a conversation. And so I said, "Oh, I see your your numbers here, your numbers here, your numbers there." And immediately she was defensive. Immediately she was like, "Well, no, I've been doing this and I've been doing that." I said, "Oh, oh, yeah. I'm sure you've been doing a lot, you know, with your health. I'm reassure, reaffirm all that. I just want you to be aware in case you're not that this number is high. this number's low, this, you know, these numbers, you know, are not necessarily good. We need to address that. And she got very upset and she's like, I'm not just a number and you say all this stuff. That patient not ready, right? Not ready to work with a holistic provider anyway because again, if you're not able to be honest with yourself and not be able to hold accountable, you know, how am I going to be able to help support you in your healing process? It's going to be really, really difficult.
So remember, not every patient is a fit and that's okay. Um there are tons of providers out there um you can refer them out um you know so they're not feeling abandoned but also too that go you know consent goes the entire time. So, anytime in in the point that you feel like no matter how much you're kind of waiting in the water with them that they're still just not accepting and super resistant and reactive and all this stuff, you are entitled as a provider to say, you know what, I think we need to kind of cut this. I'm going to package up all your medical records and I'm going to, you know, send them to you, but also I'm going to give you some referrals to another provider who may be a better fit, right? So keep that in mind as you are, you know, working through and understanding all the all the aspects of readiness, that sort of thing.
Hello Mackie, good to see you. Um, so you are looking for signs of good alignment. So the patient is open, they're willing to learn, they're motivated for change, and so these are patients that are really good candidates. Most of the time you'll hear them, and even if, let's say, they're super excited and they don't follow through initially, you know, keep in contact with them. I've had patients that I've met, you know, however I've met them. I've met them all sorts of ways and they've waited maybe two, three, four years and they've called me up and say, "Okay, now I'm ready." Right? And so that's important to keep that longevity and be able to send them information, education, etc.
I tend to stay in people's minds. So, so, and you know, I really built a career off of people knowing, hey, there's a holistic doctor. I know who she is, Dr. Steele. I can give her a call. I can send my family, etc. So being accessible and being kind of everywhere um so you have access right the other thing you want to do in discovery call is present pathways clearly and empowered decision-m so you want to present what working with you looks like the assessments to tracking the education app access community support all those things um and you want to show your structured options so in my practice we have self-guided so patients can do a self-guided plan where I do all their like um lab workup and all that stuff and then I kind give the plan to them and then they execute it or semi-guided like I was telling you I see a patient every two months or every six weeks.
Um or a full fully managed care plan where I'm seeing them every three weeks and working with specialists and all those things. So those are my structured options. Obviously you're you're going to create whatever structured options work for you. Um but that's kind of how my my practice works. So I give them that information. Um lastly you want to excuse me avoid jargon. keep the language simple and focused on your outcome. So, you know, if we do this, then we're looking to create this. If we do that, we're looking to create that. Now, when it comes to jargon, I'm the worst at that because my brain the way that my brain works, but I'm always trying to, you know, make it so that it's more simple, more palatable, more understanding, while at the same time, I respect people, right? And I really believe that people can get up here, right? And so sometimes I will teach from here, but I will do it in a way that is repetitive.
So eventually this education and this wisdom and this understanding begins to sink in. And so eventually they go, "Oh, I get it." Right? And so I love public health education because over time you know working with patients like I remember a patient who I worked with her for years um and occasionally she'll reach out to me and ask me how I'm doing but um her and her two kids and initially every time our kids would get sick she'd get so stressed and so oh my god what's going to happen towards the end right she knew exactly what to do she knew you know without even asking me she knew what to do she's like boom boom boom I did this I did that I did this that so even eventually when she did come to me, she's like, "Oh, yeah.
I've already done all these things, right? I just, you know, I got stuck. So, you know, what's my next step?" kind of thing. And so, that's what I love is about taking my information. That's why I love to say, "I went to school, so you don't have to. I pour all of that into you. You take that information, um, and then make it your own and integrate it into your own life." Um, lastly, you want to empower them with a decision. So, you want to close with this is your decision.
Healing is a commitment. Do you feel like you're ready to take the next step? Again, it's about ownership, not pressure. So, I'm like a no pressure. Like, because this is health and healthcare, it's a big decision, you know, finding a doctor. It's a whole another relationship. And so, I want to make sure people feel comfortable, they feel safe, they feel supported, all the things. And so, and also too, I'm really big on people owning their agency and owning their sovereignty. So, again, I this is me, this is you, this is the potential collaboration. whenever you're ready, here are the options. Right now, that sometimes can conflict with sales, right? But there's so much with automation and followup and all sorts of things that again, it it's not it's not pressurized. It's more of, you know, hey, just reaching out.
How are you doing? How are things going? Are you ready? And again, like all of those follow-ups really make a difference because patients go, wow, you really care. Like you you're really paying attention. And it's true, right? Again, putting care back into health care, which is one of my columns. All right. Um, even a know is valuable because at least the patient is making a powerful decision, right? And that's huge.
You always want to leave the call with clarity. So, every call is going to end with one of three outcomes. They're going to be enrolled or scheduled or wherever. Um, they may need more time. So, they may need to, you know, think about it. They may need to talk to somebody, etc. Hey, RB. Um, hey, the real Buu. Um, or they're just not aligned. Like, it's not going to work.
You're not feeling it. I'm not feeling it. Nobody's feeling it. So, it's not going to work, right? And so, those patients, we send them with love. Great. Need more time. We're going to follow up with them at a later time. Not harassing them. Just checking in with them. How are things doing? Because oftentimes people will not prioritize their health. They'll put their health on the bottom, right? Everybody else, it'll be, you know, the kids.
It'll be the husband. It'll be, you know, the the in-laws, it'll be the parents, it'll be everybody else and their needs are last. So, I always like to go, "Hey, I'm just checking in on you. How are you doing? How are things going?" Because you never know when they'll they'll be ready. And then obviously those patients that are in action mode, they're ready to go. Um, you know, they're going to, of course, schedule and follow up. So, an example flow of a discovery call, five minutes of welcome, grounding. You're building rapport, explaining the purpose, the structure of the call. Then about 10 minutes of the patient story where the patient shares about their symptoms, histories, frustrations, etc. Then about five minutes of your goals and motivations, why they want that change now.
Then the readiness, so questions around mindset, emotions, practical support. Then you're going to spend about a few minutes on common misconceptions, asking them what holistic healthcare is to them, what it is, what it's not, etc. And then you're going to prevent, excuse me, prevent, you're going to present pathways, you know, how your consultation works, how your reviews work, how your plans work, whatever, how your practice works. And then lastly is a decision um whether they are ready, they want to schedule, or if you guys say, "Hey, you know what? This is not a good fit." So that's kind of a standard practice. In your course shell, you will get um you'll receive um kind of this information discovery call. I'll also kind of make a little script for you as well. Um Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Totally. Um he's been bouncing in and out.
Um he's playing around with his phone, I think. So, um definitely, you know, um having those conversations and having that discussion to know what your next steps are in decision- making really key in that process. So, again, just to recap, we are um doing our patient readiness checklist. So, are they open to a lifestyle change, not seeking a quick fix? Are they willing to confront their fear, their doubt, their worry, their setbacks, all the things. Are they practical? Do they have time? Do they have resources, financial ability? It's really a time and money uh commitment for sure. Patients have to have the resources to invest. Not to mention and and resources can be little or a lot. Again, in my practice, I have something kind of for everyone. I really recommend you do that as well that you have something really for everybody just because not everyone has a bucket of money rolling around to invest.
Some people I've I've had patients, in fact I still have patients who, you know, they're single moms, like multiple kids, like you know, but they value their health so much that they save aside a little bit of money that they have and they they invest in uh having me as their doctor. And I just I mean, those people are like I'm like, "Oh my god, salt to the earth simply because I love the fact that they think that it's that important for themselves. they've prioritized themselves and they've prioritized their health to the point that they've they've made um a reason for that.
Okay. So, Robin asked a question. Do you encourage patients to get therapy etc if there are lay layers of trauma that need to be addressed? So, it depends on the patient um and it depends on what they've been going on. Now, with my education, right, and and my education is very different for most people. Um I have a lot of education in psychology in trauma in trauma healing um using clinical hypnotherapy, neural linguistic programming, family constellation etc. Now um and and the reason I use those techniques rather than traditional psychology and why I didn't become a traditional psychologist was because again in psychology everything's pathized, right? Um typically and so I didn't want to go into that realm.
It's more of teaching them to go inward, teaching them to be self-aware, teaching them um skills, right? And sometimes they may get that from a psychologist, but oftentimes they won't, unfortunately. Um now, there are certain instances with patients where I will recommend um they seek a therapist uh in addition to the work that um Right. Exactly. Yeah. Robin just said, "Yes, they try to force you on meds first thing." Exactly. And that that's the issue. And I also find that traditional psychology doesn't do a good job of traumainformed care. And a lot of times I have found that patients get ret-raumatized in the um healthcare system, right? They get ret-raumatized going to a psychologist.
I know myself when I was healing my trauma, I had complex trauma and was diagnosed with PTSD at 14. And so, um, I found that some providers would retraumatize me significantly. Um, and so my nervous system couldn't handle it. So, I really focus when we're dealing with trauma, not just so we don't ever get into like the I mean, we sometimes do when I was five, when I was six, whatever. I have people more in that forward movement of okay, what are your thoughts which are driving your emotions? What emotions are not validated, not processed, not um you know digested if you will um what tools can I give you for emotional coping um self soothing etc.
Um and also what mindset like you know do we need to work on and break down the subconscious mind the conscious mind the primitive mind but then when we're looking at the body how do we um work on those fight orflight responses and that's where we look in the polyvagel theory and we we really shift patients out of that fight orflight mode which they can't heal from into a rest and digest. I really don't think that a patient can heal and and just the bo the way the body works unless they are in a rest and digest. So, I really think all providers, regardless of their specialty, really need to have some level of trauma-informed care behind the behind them just so that they know how to speak to a patient, how to evaluate a patient, and how to um you know assess a patient. One of the things that I do refer um for all the time in the world of psychology um is um EEG Q EEEGs um and neuro feedback BOF feedback because it's helping um the brain structurally um rather than just giving a patient a pill.
Um so that definitely makes it more of a functional experience. I'm working with them with their tools of what they need to do etc. while also repairing some of those neural pathways that are in the brain that have been wired for certain reasons, right? So, you know, when we've been through trauma, you know, our brains get wired in certain um in certain patterns, right? And so, psychology doesn't necessar and and of itself doesn't necessarily repair those, but when when we do QEGs, we can actually see also like um for instance um um uh what do you call it? um like aut excuse me ADD ADHD diagnosis, right? Those often are misdiagnosed, right? Because there's very there's very little difference between hypervigilance, right? So I'm I'm hyper alert and um I'm I can't focus and I'm my brain's pinging all over the place. And most people think, oh, my brain's pinging all over the place. It must be ADD, ADHD, etc.
And not to say that the patient doesn't have that. is to say that we don't really know because we haven't done that QEG to actually assess because there's different parts of the brain that will light up in a true diagnosis of ADD ADHD. A lot of times it's quickly diagnosed and they just put a patient on, you know, a stimulant or whatever to be able to resolve it rather than looking at how the brain is actually functioning. So I did um two years in my in applied psychophysiology PhD. Um I ended up leaving that institution because actually it was very traumatizing for me to be there. Um when once you get into certain um rooms and certain echelons, you're the only person that looks like yourself and you know after waging all that war in my profession.
I just didn't want to do it again in another profession. But um in in those two years, I learned a lot about how the nervous system and and the mind and and the emotions, how all of that works together. So I work a lot on getting that nervous system to you know be dereg be deescalated kind of thing and and helping people to return back to their bodies. So um okay Robin said some don't have the education and it's evident in the energy that they bring. They've combined ADD ADHD but mine is more dissociative and hyperactive apparently. Exactly. Exactly. And so we look at right you know why the brain is doing that why why the brain disassociates.
We know the brain disassociates because of trauma, right? It just can't deal. And so that's a coping mechanism, right? Um drugging that patient um actually feeds into that coping mechanism, right? Um and so not to say that we want patients to suffer by any stretch of the imagination. I will reach for any tool, okay? Any tool. When I was healing my PTSD, I went to um the primary care. I I was a doctor by that point and um I hadn't addressed my PTSD at all, but it was showing up because my my executive functioning wasn't firing. So, as a doctor, we've got all these people coming to us, you know, Dr. Seal, Dr. Seal, Dr. Seal, and then we've got all these patients, hey, I need this, I need this, I need this. And if and my prefrontal cortex, my executive functioning wasn't firing. So, I was getting overwhelmed and then getting real big emotional responses, anger, and all kinds of stuff, very explosive.
I would throw stuff and all kinds of stuff. And so, um, I h I finally, right, went to the doctor. I said, "Okay, I can't do this anymore." And actually, a friend of mine did a little intervention and I went to a doctor and the doctor was like, "Well, the only thing we have for you is an SSRI, right?" And I had already done the SSRI thing. SSRIs flatline you and longterm they're not a solution. They really only last, right, working effort about three months and then and then from there you have to change the protocol because the brain chemistry is so sensitive, right? And people don't realize that and so they just plug and play. I'm taking my Zoloft, I'm taking my Paxel or whatever and they don't re-evaluate it, right? Um or the re-evaluation methods are so minimal. How do you feel? Fine.
You know, so we I didn't want to be flatlined. So I kind of made a bargain with the with the doc. I said, "Look, I I have PTSD. I know I have PTSD. This has been something that I've had my whole life, right? Um, I don't want to be on drugs, right? And so, why don't we do this? Why don't you give me a an anti-anxiety, right, as a PRN? I'll take that and then I'm going to go figure out something." And that's how I got into applied psychopys. That's how I got into neuro feedback, BOF feedback, neuro stem. When I did Neurostem, it changed my life. absolutely changed my life um because it was able to access um different aspects of my occipital lobe and I was able to fast process through a lot of trauma without having to go relive it because you know in in the traditional um you know psychology when you're talking about those things you're reliving them right so I when I was talking about them I'm a hot mess because I'm reliving that my nervous system is reliving that so then I wouldn't be functional for one or two days after.
So that's why again traditional therapy didn't work for me. Now I love therapy. I have therapists now. But for trauma specifically, I really had to go in and do that QEG on my brain, learn a lot more about how my brain functions. And I spent a I'm tell you, I spent a lot of money um on getting my prefrontal cortex and my executive functioning. If I had like Oprah money, like we're talking like, you know, billions, I would give every black person that I could find neuro feedback, BOF feedback, neurostim. It really helps you to gain your brain back because when you're when you've been through trauma, your brain, for lack of a better word, gets scarred, right? Those neural pathways get disrupted. They get affected and then your brain's not functioning properly. So, if your brain and your thought process is not functioning properly and your emotions are all over the place, then your physical body is all over the place, it really just doesn't it doesn't work.
All right, so Robin said, "They try to push it even when you say you don't want it, and they've been trying to put me on it since I was 16. I definitely understand talking about it because my throat chakra shuts down uh recounting certain things." Absolutely. And so also I have found um addressing things not always on um the psychological but addressing it on the spiritual right. And so what do I mean by spiritual meaning more energy work like Reiki um sound healing sound frequency more of those subtle um therapies to help soothe the nervous system down.
Um, really it's about getting that nervous system reintegrated with your mind, with your emotions, right? Because when you've been through trauma, your brain is over here, your thoughts are over here, your emotions are over here, your body's over here. Nothing is is organized, right? Everything's kind of shattered in a in a lot of ways. And and I remember early on in my healing process, I had a lot of shards in my in my aura um that just were not working, right? the literally shards I could with my um GDV I could actually see my bofield camera I could see the shards right just because so many parts of myself had been you know impacted from all the years of trauma so yeah psychology um I I don't love the field right now um I of course I love psychology and love the study of the mind and the emotions and all that but I just don't think that they do a real good job of addressing trauma and forget about intergenerational trauma and transgenerational trauma which was impacted in my family which is why you know I had so much trauma was because the trauma was passed down um unfortunately and so you know I chose for myself that it stops with me um obviously I'm sure some some spilled over to my daughter I'm sure because that's just the way it goes but I really tried to be personally responsible and again going to that doctor and saying look I I can't you know I can't do an SSR I'm sorry like I just won't be a zombie, but let me take this, you know, anti-anxiety.
And I think I took it for probably about a year, year and a half, and then slowly was able to taper myself off. It, you know, there is nothing wrong with reaching for something to help you get stable. Nothing wrong with it at all. Right. Yes, exactly. Oceans, epigenetics is so real. Oh my god. Um, and so there is nothing wrong with you reaching for something even that's not natural to be able to help. I am for the patient, right? Not the product. So whatever tool it is, I don't care what it is, right? We want to make sure that patients get the care that they need. It's just we want to make sure that it's safe, they're informed, and they're objective. So that's kind of my feeling on it. Um I I do refer to many different providers. Um but I'm very specific about what I'm referring for and why. And I also vet all the providers as well because I just I won't put my name on anybody.
So hopefully that answers your question. If you have any more, please drop them in. Um, so back to our readiness checklist. We want um patients that have a commitment. They want to rate themselves at least a seven out of 10 as a readiness for change. Remember, we ask them that question, how are you ready? One to 10. We want them at least a seven. Sometimes I'll do like a five or six, just depending on where they're at. Sometimes they're apprehensive, they're unsure, they don't know what you're asking, that sort of thing. So definitely try to work on that.
Also, um, check for support. have they or are they willing to build a support system with their community. That's why we offer the community as well, you know, so that people know that they have access to like-minded people. Sometimes people are literally silos, right? they're the only person that believes in holistic practice or holistic medicine or whatever and you know they're in a sea of people who are pill pushers and so you know making sure that people have community and access to community that's why places like Tik Tok and things like that although it definitely has its own drama um it's a great place to you know meet people find community etc connect uh self- responsibility and realistic expectations remember the provider is just the guide, not the healer, right? The provider is a teacher.
They're here to guide you, but they're not here to fix it and change it and make it anything better. And then they want to make sure that you want to make sure people understand that healing is gradual. It takes time, consistency, deliberately over an extended period of time. It's not magic. It's not a quick fix. It's not I'm not going to wave a magic wand and make it all go away. Um, it does take time. So that concludes our class today. This is our last class and intro to holistic medicine 2 detoxification and elimination. Uh I um have two classes. I have a lot of different uh content but two classes are intro to holistic medicine one which is all about nutrients and nutrient deficiencies. It is a self-guided course. Um so I did record all of these classes live as you're seeing now. So, you can hit the link in the bio if you're interested in learning all about your nutrient deficiencies and accumulated toxins. Um, for one and two, I offer them as a bundle.
I'll send out one more last little um boost if you want to get Thank you. If you want to get the um buy one get one free, I'll still honor that for right now. Um and then eventually we'll kind of move on. But it's really a foundation for your healing. Whether you are, you know, interested in becoming a holistic uh health coach or a provider or um you're already a provider and you want to integrate holistic medicine in your practice and you want to do it in an evidence-based way, in a way that has a therapeutic order and a structure um that is so important to me to teach people from a very structured way um and way that mitigates harm.
I was so scared as a new doctor. I did not want to harm people. And so I think that has really gauged all the the buffers I've put around myself when I'm treating. So intro to holistic medicine one and two um is a collection. It's a 24-w week. So it's 12 weeks of intro to holistic medicine one and then 12 weeks of intro to holistic medicine 2. And they really work great as a team. I kind of there's some overlap between the two. So if you're interested in registering um there's still time.
Go ahead and hit the link in the bio. We have a great community uh that um we offer. So even if you're not don't want to join a course or anything like that, definitely join our holistic lifestyle community and link in our bio. You have access to lots of free resources. I put in there um you know, ebooks on healthy eating and ebooks on holistic lifestyle and all that kind of stuff. And again, as I um continue to bring out more content, um I'll probably drop it in the community first. I am going to take a break, a little little kind of break to kind of get the rest of my my world and get the get the courses kind of buttoned up and make sure you have your PDFs and all that kind of stuff.
But then once we kind of get back into the back to school back to health groove, I'll probably be going live um pretty regularly. More so general education, not necessarily a structured class, maybe some webinars and things like that. So definitely tap in to our community because you'll get um notifications and all that. you'll get it first before I announce it into the world. So, lots of free resources, discussions, um, as well as connections with other people. And naturally, when you join the free community, you will have access to download our free app, um, which is our holistic life app. It's for tracking and monitoring. You can also message me privately, um, and ask me a question, you know, here and there, that sort of thing.
And we I have tons of plans that I built out. So, anything related to your health from your mental health to your emotional health to your physical health, meal plans, detoxes, your water, your environment, you know, detox, any sort of things that you need to know about how to have a holistic lifestyle. Over the last 20 years, I have created resources for it simply because my patients and trying to extend my patients when I was in practice treating so many people. Um, you know, patients needed more education and I couldn't necessarily spend all that time. I mean, naturally, I'd spend 30 minutes with every patient, but it still wasn't enough, right? Patients, you know, they have questions. And so having an app provides an extension, but it also gives me a way to be able to to monitor patients, meaning their glucose or their blood pressure. I can even do virtual EKGs, ECGs. And that's so powerful when we're going to have so many health access issues because having your data, understanding what your data means.
I want to also say this, we can no longer depend unfortunately on the CDC and NIH. Um, this has been going on for a while. very corrupt organizations, lots of special interest. Um, and so when when we need to heal our bodies on like the ground level, we need to own our data. We need to understand what's going on with our bodies. Thank you so much, Solo. So, I I love to teach you that. So, looking at your metrics, you can also hook up your Apple Watch to it, so you can manually or you can um through integration, you can track um all of your steps and your water and your sleeping and all of those things. We also kind of sync with aura rings and Fitbits and all sorts of things, but you really it's it's to extend access. So, if you don't have a doctor or if you know you don't have a holistic doctor and you need access, it's a really good way to have that access without with all the barriers taken away.
So, you're not having to I mean, you can call my office, but but you know, you're not having to go through all of the hoops and and you you speak to me. You don't speak to a staff of 20. I used to have huge staffs. I don't have all that anymore. Um, it's just me and really simplifying it and making it streamlined because that's that's what is going to make it easier for the provider as well as the patient. So, as you're building your practice, think about simple simple simple. And of course, those people that are going to continue on, we'll probably start um the holistic health coaching cohort, the actual cohort in uh probably September, Octoberish. So, I'll look out for messages for that for those people that want to finish up these two prerequisite courses and then eventually move on for health coaching with me for the next year.
And so, um, as you can tell, this is pretty deep work. There's a lot going on with it. Um, but it's so rewarding. I mean, to be able to witness the miracle of life and be able to, you know, I've helped impact so many people and and I'm just getting started. I I feel like I've only been able to impact like so many so little people compared to the capacity that I have to impact. Again, there's not very many holistic doctors with the health access issues with health care with, you know, people not being able to, you know, access health care. Prevention is going to be so important and we need more providers hands- on deck. Hey Melanie, it's so good to see you. We need more providers on deck, you know, that are trained and understand how to heal the body and also too to navigate all of the health influencers and all the misinformation because there's so much crazy information out there that I've seen is just uh shocking to say the least. So anywho, well, thank you guys so much for joining me uh on this Sunday to talk all about um the patient experience.
Yesterday we spoke about the provider experience. I'm going to leave these up on the YouTube so you can uh listen to them at your leisure. You can roll them back. My videos tend to get watched through quite a bit um just because I give you so much information. So, thank you guys so much for showing support. There were so many people who dropped in and dropped out of the room. I'm so so grateful for you. So, if there are any last questions before I sign myself off, YouTube, I'm going to say bye now. [Music].