The Catalyst Way™: Creative Strategies for Women in Medicine to Flourish

Steps to Catalyze a Membership Program for Your Patients

“I didn't realize that functional medicine is a partnership. It's 50/50. As the physician, I'm responsible for that 10,000 foot altitude view of providing that map, the landscape, the trajectory, and the patients responsible for making difficult changes whether it's habits or food. I didn't realize that not having a vetting process was going to hurt me more than make it accessible to my community,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. When Dr. Lara first opened her functional medicine practice back in 2017, she made many mistakes along the way. As she learned more and tried different approaches, Dr. Lara eventually decided to implement a membership program which helps her business function more effectively for both herself and her patients.
 
When Dr. Lara first opened her private practice in rural Wisconsin, she made several mistakes that caused her business to suffer and made her begin to start feeling the same type of overwhelm that she had left traditional medicine to get away from. She did not have any type of vetting program, so often the people making appointments ended up not being a good fit for the practice. After about a year and a half of slowly implementing new methods such as a low cost signature course on functional medicine, free 15 minute pre-visit strategy sessions, and courses on Teachable, Dr. Lara decided to offer a tier based membership program. The three tiers of membership allow for patients to pay for what they actually need and to graduate down to a lower tier as their health improves.
 
There are three main types of memberships that you can implement for your practice. These types are the tier based membership used by Dr. Lara, a key and lock membership which is a low monthly charge that gets patients in the door but may require extra charges for anything not included, and the final type is a basic educational membership that is just a simple monthly charge for access to your courses. If you are interested in designing a membership program for your patients, it can be a really great way to enhance value and to make sure your patients are actually in alignment with your clinic’s goals. 
 
Quotes
• “I didn't realize that functional medicine is a partnership. It's 50/50. As the physician, I'm responsible for that 10,000 foot altitude view of providing that map, the landscape, the trajectory, and the patients responsible for making difficult changes whether it's habits or food. I didn't realize that not having a vetting process was going to hurt me more than make it accessible to my community.” (4:40-5:06 | Dr. Lara)
• “Just because you have staff doesn't mean that you're efficient or that you will be streamlined. I had a health coach, I had a massage therapist in house renting a room in my office. I thought there'd be no way that this couldn't succeed. And I couldn't have been more wrong.” (6:17-6:30 | Dr. Lara)
• “Both patient and doctor can be spending really excellent effort on change and transformation, but nothing is guaranteed in the body. You could be taking all the right supplements, eating the right organic foods, but you could have triggers, trauma, body somatic responses to things that aren't even in the plan.” (16:56-17:15 | Dr. Lara)
• “You can become burned out in functional medicine just as easily as you can in standard medicine. So these three tiered membership documents are wonderful to give a visual representation to patients of what's included and what isn't and what to expect.” (32:52-33:06 | Dr. Lara)
 
Links
Connect with Lara: 
Premium Subscription Box: https://drlarasalyer.com/shop/
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Front Office Makeover With the Aha! Method

“You as a practitioner modeling this awareness of energy, emotions, and how to change your state will go a long way to changing your culture,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. Burnout happens in every industry and in order to learn how to get through it, it is vital to learn how to activate your own embodied energy. With the aha method, you can get into more of a creative flow state while also making an environment that feels psychologically safe. Without that feeling of safety, creativity cannot flourish. 
 
Aha stands for anchor, highlight, activate. Anchor refers to your core values. Every decision you make for your business needs to be anchored in those key values. This is what helps create that culture of safety and trust. Once your values are anchored, you can move onto the highlight phase. It is pivotal to highlight milestones and feedback opportunities so that you as management and your team can always be on the same page. It can be difficult for some people to give feedback, especially when that feedback may be something they know you won’t want to hear. Providing a means for anonymous feedback can help make this process a little smoother. The final step is to activate your own embodied energy. Get more in tune with your body so that you can control your own energy. This will ensure you are able to enter flow state whenever you need to.
 
Burnout happens in every industry. Be prepared with the aha method, so you can create a cadence of flow and keep pushing through while staying true to your core values. Apply the method to any situation in your business where you are feeling there is a need for improvement. You’ll be surprised how much better you and your team will feel when you’re exchanging frequent feedback, establishing a feeling of safety, and utilizing your embodied energy.
Quotes
• “The reason we start with anchoring values is key because every decision made after this, every communication pattern, every email, every newsletter can mention and reflect these core values. It becomes that drumbeat of your culture, it becomes that all inclusive psychological safety that you start with.” (9:26-9:49 | Dr. Lara)
• “After we anchored the core values we moved to highlight. In this case, we want to highlight milestones and feedback opportunities to help staff grow.” (10:23-10:33 | Dr. Lara)
• “It's best to highlight milestones and feedback opportunities, so we all can get on the same page.” (10:51-10:56 | Dr. Lara)
• “Some people feel very comfortable giving you feedback right away, right to your face. And that's great. But you also want to provide an anonymous suggestion box. We have blind spots, just like everybody and sometimes it can feel difficult if there's a power dynamic to mention something that might be a little upsetting.” (14:29-14:48 | Dr. Lara)
• “Burnout happens to everybody in every industry. The world is going to always have burnout. And in order for us to help excavate this and pedal through it, we need to learn how to activate our own embodied energy.” (15:07-15:21 | Dr. Lara) 
• “If you're feeling low energy, you can activate more energy with different inspiration and expiration breath work. You can also jump up and down, shake or dance. If you're feeling too activated, you can downshift with vagal toning exercises like swaying or humming.” (17:05-17:23 | Dr. Lara)
• “You as a practitioner modeling this awareness of energy, emotions, and how to change your state will go a long way to changing your culture.” (17:33-17:45 | Dr. Lara)
 
Links
Connect with Lara: 
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
Symposium: https://drlarasalyer.com/symposium
 
 
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Preventative Wealthcare: How to Start Advocating for Yours TODAY

“We really want to get you back aligned with your values. We're bombarded so much with this consumerism and we get ourselves wrapped up in it so we want you to take your money story back,” explains April Stroink. April is a certified Profit-First professional, a financial advisor and money coach, and creator of The Money Fix, a suite of programs to increase financial literacy for millennials, families and entrepreneurs. When she and her daughter began to struggle with health issues that traditional healthcare was unable to figure out, April began to learn more about preventative health care and integrative wellness. After spending years working in the financial world, she noticed a correlation between Western culture’s lack of focus on preventative health care and a similar lack of understanding of preventative ‘wealth’ care.  
 
Many health care physicians who open private practices do so without having the proper financial management tools in their toolkit. In order to regain control over your money story and make sure your spending is actually in alignment with your values and goals, it is important to have a money system in place. April recommends that entrepreneurs divvy their money into separate buckets, ie. bank accounts based on what it will be used for. As a profit-first professional, she advocates paying yourself first. So your first bank account should be for profit, followed by one for owner’s pay, then another for taxes, and finally one for operational expenses. This way you can keep all your money organized in a way that will be less confusing for your brain, and it will be easier for you to see where your money is going. 
 
Regaining your money power can feel really overwhelming, especially when most people are never given the tools to manage their finances. By re-aligning your money story with your values, you will ultimately prevent burnout and negative health outcomes. You can reach your financial goals and re-align your money story with your values by taking the time to re-organize your spending.  
 
Quotes
• “The same limiting beliefs that I see in money are these axioms that prior generations believed to be true, so we believe them to be true as well.” (12:28-12:38 | April)
• “We really need to be growing all of the time. And we need to be growing into understanding money and how money flows through our business. Otherwise, we will not have the growth that we are looking for. We will end up in this place of burnout, in debt, and stressed about moeny. So in order to do that, we need to be questioning traditional finance and really making our own path.” (14:29-14:57 | April)
• “We need to drop the blaming and shaming of ourselves because we were never taught. We were never given the tools. The tools and the training that we got were fraught from institutions that do not profit from us being financially astute.” (20:04-20:18 | April) 
• “We really want to get you back aligned with your values. We're bombarded so much with this consumerism and we get ourselves so wrapped up in it and keeping up with the Joneses, and so we want you to take your money story back.” (32:29-32:42 | April)
 
Links
Connect with April Stroink:
Website: aprilstroink.ca
Instagram: www.instagram.com/aprilstroin
 
Connect with Lara: 
Premium Subscription Box: https://drlarasalyer.com/shop/
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

How Functional Medicine Treatment Changed My Pharmacy Career

“It just made me realize the importance of health coaching. Not telling people what to do, but helping them realize their wants and their needs, and helping dive into their personal strengths, and getting them to pave their own way. Because they really are the experts on their life and on their body,” explains Heather Cracauer. Heather began her career in healthcare as a doctor of pharmacy and has 14 years of experience as a pharmacist. When she caught covid in the Fall of 2020, she began experiencing chronic health issues like fatigue, headaches, and overall feeling like garbage. Her traditional doctors could not find the issue with standard lab testing and one suggested she see a functional medicine practitioner. That practitioner ran a bunch of tests and the results were shocking. Heather's body was dealing with mold exposure, SIBO, and dysbiosis. She immediately wanted to learn more about functional medicine. Now Heather is a certified functional medicine practitioner who runs a virtual practice from her home offering health and functional nutrition coaching. 
 
Heather went into medicine wanting to help people achieve better health. As a pharmacist, she did not get to spend enough time with each patient to really help them with their health goals as much as she would have liked. When she realized that functional medicine could help get to the root cause of chronic illnesses, she found her calling in health coaching. As a pharmacist, Heather was giving patients medications for their ailments rather than helping them to determine the root cause. But now, she is able to eliminate medicine from her patient’s charts and replace it with nutrition and lifestyle changes. 
 
The difference that functional medicine can make in patients’ lives is truly mind blowing. Heath coaching and nutrition should be treated like an integral part of the healthcare system, yet traditional Western medicine is years behind in this regard. By getting to the actual root cause of the illnesses in the body, chronic conditions can be eliminated and there can be a reduction in the amount of medication a patient needs to take. 
 
Quotes
• “I got the functional medicine tests back and it was shocking. I had mold exposure, I had dysbiosis 10 out of 10 on that scale with SIBO. I had inflammatory markers that were just sky high. Just so many things were wrong. So it's kind of the catalyst that was the light bulb, where I realized there's more to medicine. We can actually get to the root cause.” (4:36-5:33 | Heather) 
• “It just made me realize the importance of health coaching. Not telling people what to do, but helping them realize what they want, their wants and their needs, and helping dive into their personal strengths, and getting them to pave their own way. Because they really are the experts on their life and on their body.” (12:28-12:54 | Heather)
• “What has always driven me is just helping people achieve health, good health, better health, whatever that means to them.” (16:56-17:05 | Heather)
• “I feel like health coaching and nutritionists need to become part of the integral system.” (25:35-25:42 | Heather) 
 
Links
Connect with Heather Cracauer:
Website: https://www.cracauerfunctionalpharmacy.com/
Connect with Lara: 
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

You Are Not Broken: How to Re-Align Your Life and Career

“The culture needs to shift. How we're showing up and caring for others has to shift,” explains Dr. Kathy Stepien, MD, FAAP. Dr. Kathy is the founding Director of the Institute for Physician Wellness, a pediatrician, a certified physician coach, and host of the She Thrives MD Podcast. Through her physician wellness retreats, wellness training and certification program and other teachings, she has helped thousands of women physicians since 2016 to rethink their priorities and realign their lives and careers to match. 
 
People are constantly developing and changing, so the life you created for yourself at 18 or 20 might not be in alignment with the life you want for yourself now in your 30s or 40s and beyond. If you find that your priorities have shifted, it could be time to consider re-alignment. The culture in medicine unfortunately is not the kindest to physicians and encourages maladaptive behaviors. While changes have begun to be made, there is a long way to go for the culture to be healthy for both patients and everyone working in healthcare. By taking a step back and getting back into your own body, you can reassess how you are feeling and why you are feeling that way, and then make a plan for how to make improvements. When you are stressed out and just going through the motions, it is hard to think clearly and intuitively about what you want for your life. 
 
By taking the time to step back and reconnect with your body and mind, you will be able to access a higher level of thinking which will help you to make better decisions about your priorities and the life you want. We are constantly growing and changing, so periodically it can be very beneficial to take time for re-aligning your life with your current goals and values. 
 
Quotes
• “It can be really hard to believe that it's possible to love your life inside of medicine.” (20:29-20:35 | Dr. Kathy) 
• “Some of these problems can't be figured out just logically and rationally. We need to do some healing and we need to do some feeling forward, not just thinking our way forward.” (22:29-22:38 | Dr. Kathy)
• “Whatever cognitive shifts we have, whatever new knowledge and skills we develop, the brain, the limbic systems dialed down a bit and we actually can have higher order thinking and see things more intuitively and clearly about oh yeah, this is what I love to do, and this is actually what I don't want to be doing anymore. It opens the world up to new ideas and new potential.” (24:40-25:02 | Dr. Kathy)
• “The culture of medicine really shapes our behavior and reinforces some maladaptive patterns.” (29:21-29:27 | Dr. Kathy)
• “The culture needs to shift. How we're showing up and caring for others has to shift. Which is wonderful, because it allows us to be human beings, rather than just kind of robots who are running around hurriedly trying to click the boxes and close the chart and move out of the equation.” (30:28-30:48 | Dr. Kathy)
 
Links
Connect with Kathy Stepien:
Website: www.instituteforphysicianwellness.com
Instagram: @kathystepienmd 
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/physicianwellness/
 
Connect with Lara: 
Use promo code PODCAST to get 10% off a seat in the 5 day virtual Catalyst Symposium (anti-burnout bootcamp). https://drlarasalyer.com/symposium
 
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Hitting the Reset Button on Healthcare

“We all learn in different ways. And I feel like people are more likely to remember things when they're having fun and when they're engaged with the material,” shares Keshia Bradford, MPA. Keshia is a doctoral candidate in leadership at Creighton University. She joined Doctors for America in May of 2022 after spending 9 years as the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Health Center Association of Nebraska. She is seeking to make changes in healthcare through her research and innovative learning techniques that give healthcare professionals permission and space to play and be creative.
 
With Doctors for America, Keshia is excited to use her larger platform to promote real change. On the monthly action event calls, she builds in activities and fun themes that help inspire an environment of play. These activities give people an opportunity to take what they have just learned on the call and immediately apply it. She began these creative training sessions at her prior job where she would incorporate learning and playful themes like Mission Impossible with matching music, activities, and snacks. By infusing energy, creativity, and fun into the environment, healthcare professionals have an opportunity to shake off their serious personas, learn by doing, reduce overall stress, and enter a flow state. 
 
It’s no secret that healthcare in America needs serious changes. It is very fragmented and there are so many areas for improvement that require everyone in healthcare to work together to make the necessary changes. There’s no reason that working toward this common goal can’t also be fun along the way. Learn more about how to incorporate fun into healthcare training spaces and how opening up to being a little silly can actually increase learning, reduce stress, and improve overall engagement. 
 
Quotes
• “We can all move in the same direction together and have a little fun. There's no reason why we can't have a little fun.” (18:24-18:33 | Keshia) 
• “We all learn in different ways. And I feel like people are more likely to remember things when they're having fun and when they're engaged with the material. And so during the times that I would do training, I would also build in activities that were indicative of the work that they did, but then also played on a fun theme.” (24:31-24:58 | Keshia)
• “We have monthly calls where we have action event calls. And so these are opportunities for people to join, learn about a topic, and then be able to take what they learned and apply it right away.” (27:06-27:19 | Keshia)
 
Links
 
Connect with Keshia Bradford:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ultravise
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keshia-bradford-mpa-3aa9a020/
Doctors for America: https://doctorsforamerica.org/
 
Connect with Lara: 
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The Art Within

“Once I started dipping my toes into teaching more, that's when everything opened up and unlocked for me and was like, ‘I love teaching’. Teaching is something that I feel is for sure my purpose,” shares Jenna Rainey. Jenna is a watercolor artist, surface pattern designer, and illustrator. She has created best-selling watercolor how-to books alongside teaching online art courses and running her Youtube channel to help show others how to use art to reduce stress. Jenna grew up in a family that was very creative and always had art supplies around the house. She and her mother both were diagnosed with Hashimoto's and one of the fundamental pieces of advice across the board from their doctors was to minimize as much stress as possible. When Jenna and her husband moved to California in 2012, they happened upon an unmarked box of art supplies that the moving company did not claim. Jenna opened it up and began creating, and ultimately found her calling in teaching art.
 
The ability to be creative lies within everyone. Whether creativity comes in the form of writing, painting, music, cooking, or even problem solving, there are so many ways to tap into that side of your brain. When stress builds up, it takes a large toll on physical and mental health and can lead to full on burnout in addition to an unending list of medical problems like insomnia, digestive health issues, and weight gain. Taking time out of your day to do something creative can help reduce stress by putting your body into a flow state. And once you learn how to tap into that flow state, you can do it anytime your mind and body need a break from stress.
 
Trying to reduce stress sometimes feels like an impossible task. But by doing a repetitive, basic action like coloring or drawing, you can put your body into a natural flow state and give your mind a much needed breather from the stress of everyday life.
 
Quotes
• “The common denominator of the advice that I got from all the medical professionals that I went and saw was stress. You need to somehow minimize as much stress as you can.” (13:50-14:11 | Jenna)
• “Once I started dipping my toes into teaching more, that's when everything opened up and unlocked for me and was like, ‘I love teaching’. Teaching is something that I feel is for sure my purpose.” (16:33-16:45 | Jenna)
• “Health is a huge priority for me, and I feel like when I have that as my North Star, everything starts to just trickle into place.” (21:16-21:22 | Jenna)
• “My mission in life is to show people that if you can draw a circle, you can draw a flower. If you have the patience and the desire to want to learn how to draw, you will be able to learn how to draw. It’s just like going to the gym and developing muscles.” (24:44-25:01 | Jenna) 
• “Doing something that is maybe basic, and seems so simple, but doing it repetitively and doing it over and over again, within five minutes, you can drop into flow state.” (27:05-27:15 | Jenna)
 
Links
 
Connect with Jenna Rainey:
Website: www.jennarainey.com
Instagram: @jennarainey
Connect with Lara: 
Links: https://drlarasalyer.com/links
Flow-Infused Time Management: https://healthinnate.activehosted.com/f/49
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Integrative Medicine the EASY Way!

“The EASY Way, the focus is on weight loss. But honestly, it's about elevation of health, and weight management really is just one of the facets that is the fruit of the work,” explains Dr. Krista Coombs, IFM. 
Dr. Krista has spent 22 years in the healthcare industry with the last 10 years being in integrative medicine. Dr. Krista’s catalyst came to her when she was celebrating her 50th birthday on a beach feeling sad about not being able to kayak because it was winter. She had been seeing a lot of complex patients with autoimmune issues and feeling like there had to be an easier way to help them. She laid down in the sand and began doing EFT, and while she was tapping she came up with the foundations for her program, The EASY Way for Weight Loss with Dr. K. 
 
The EASY Way is a four phase process focusing one week on each letter. The acronym stands for eating (and all the physiological practices involved), activities (physical, mental, and spiritual), sleep, and the commitment to saying yes yesterday. Though Dr. Krista applies this program to weight management, it truly can be used for anything because it begins with the fundamentals and builds from there. By applying this process to herself, Dr. Krista was able to not only lose weight, but also regain control over her health in a way that helped her to be less burned out. As a sensitive and highly empathic person, Dr. Krista often struggled with taking on the emotions of others. But by simplifying things down to the fundamentals, she has been able to better protect herself and allow space for grounding. Physicians are primarily taught that self care is selfish and that they are there to be servants to their patients. But the truth is that to be a good physician, it is just as important to take care of your own health needs. 
 
Integrative medicine can sometimes get caught up in the weeds and seem overwhelming for new patients. With the EASY way, integrative medicine can be simple and approachable. The great thing about this method is that it’s not just applicable to weight loss. The EASY method can really be used for anything in life as a mindset shift to focus on the fundamentals and build along the way.
 
Quotes
• “The easier I make my life, the easier it is to manage my own health concerns. And so translating that over to other people, which is a big part of my calling, has been very fruitful because more people are learning that they are self empowered and can handle their own healing journey, and not need to be codependent on a practitioner for very long.” (5:49-6:10 | Dr. Krista)
• “We need to acknowledge that we need to be in a discomfort zone in order for growth to happen.” (13:06-13:10 | Dr. Krista)
• “Honestly, you could do anything the easy way because you just have to layer it. You start with the fundamentals, and then you layer with complexity as you are comfortable with learning more.” (14:02-14:15 | Dr. Krista) 
• “It's a four phase process and everybody says how easy it is once they learn the tools, and they just make this different mindset shift that food is for fuel and performance, for real. That's really, really what it is for the body.” (14:37-14:53 | Dr. Krista)
• “I think getting in the discomfort zone is the one pivotal choice that I've made on a regular daily basis that has helped me evolve at a faster rate in the last year.” (34:40-34:50 | Dr. Krista)
• “The easy way, the focus is on weight loss, but honestly it's about elevation of health, and weight management really is just one of the facets that is the fruit of the work.” (43:47-44:01 | Dr. Krista)
 
Links
 
Connect with Dr. Krista Coombs:
Website: https://www.drkristacoombs.com
AcuPlus Wellness Clinic: https://www.acupluswellness.com 
The EASY Way for Weight Loss with Dr. K: https://www.theeasyway.ca 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acupluswellnessclinic
Connect with Lara: 
Dr. Lara Salyer's Links: Premium Subscription Box: https://rightbrainrescue.com/p/medical-infographics-social-media-for-the-functional-practitioner
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Stress Less at Work: Neutralize Your Inner Judge and Saboteurs

“Part of that trauma is the fact that I am no longer playing my violin. I am no longer writing. I am no longer doing all these things that made me me before I was told that I had to be this. I had to put the glasses and the stethoscope on and I had no other identity,” explains Dr. Catherine Woodhouse, MD, BCC. Catherine is a triple board certified physician in internal medicine, pediatrics and obesity medicine. She’s also an author and co-inventor of a device that improves mobility for manual wheelchair users. Catherine began to experience burnout after realizing that she had lost parts of her identity when she put on the white coat. As she began to reintegrate those parts of herself back into her life, she realized that she was actually a better physician for it than she was when trying to be somebody else. 
 
We all have internal judges and saboteurs inside our minds that try to tell us we are not good enough. These voices develop in response to fear of failure and criticism and cause us to create personas that are a reaction to those judgements. In order to neutralize the judges, we need to get into what Catherine refers to as “sage mode”. This requires letting go of fear and showing acceptance and compassion for the judges and saboteurs. One method for this that Catherine recommends to her clients is the SOAP note technique. A SOAP note is something that is already very familiar to anyone working in healthcare, but her technique switches it up so that you are observing your own behavior verbally. Take a look in the mirror and observe yourself objectively and subjectively. What are you feeling when you look in the mirror? What do you see? Make an assessment and a plan based on these observations. Even a simple plan like taking a day off can be a fantastic first step toward regaining agency over your life. 
 
People are typically their own worst judges, but that can be countered if you know what to watch out for. We all have inner judges that are negative in our minds, sabotaging our lives out of fear of failing or being criticized by others. In order to reduce stress, it is vital to neutralize those inner judges and saboteurs and reach a place of understanding and acceptance for your true self. Learn to get beyond that fear and become comfortable with being your true self, so that you can reclaim your identity and be a better physician for it. 
Quotes
• “I found out that I was a better doctor when I integrated all of those other parts of who I am.” (10:07-10:12 | Catherine)
• “In response to fear of poverty, fear of criticism, fear of failure, we develop these personas to answer the attacks of the judge that we're not good enough.” (15:17-15:32 | Catherine)
• “I have people look in the mirror, and I have people do a SOAP note on themselves. A verbal SOAP note. So you know, subjective. What are you feeling right now? Objective. If you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? You see the slumped shoulders? You see the bags under your eyes? What's your assessment and then what's your plan? The plan can just be one nugget like, you know what? I need to take tomorrow off.” (22:08-22:40 | Catherine)
• “We have to create different standards of sufficiency and worth. What do I need to do to do my job well, the way that I want to do it and the way that I know I need to do it for me?” (38:32-38:46 | Catherine)
 
Links
 
Connect with Catherine Woodhouse:
Website: https://evolvedphysician.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinewoodhousemd
Connect with Lara: 
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
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Hormone Guru Reveals All

“First, understand that an OBGYN gets zero training in menopause,” explains Tara Scott, MD. Tara uses her 25 years of experience and board certifications in gynecology, functional medicine, and integrative medicine to help patients dealing with hormone issues like weight gain, infertility, and breast cancer. Tara first began learning about hormones due to her own difficulties with infertility from endometriosis. She attended a conference in 2003 about what was then referred to as the “root cause approach” and ultimately managed to cure her endometriosis. A few years after the conference, Tara’s brother died unexpectedly of a heart attack at only 38 years old. The loss of her brother from completely preventable means combined with Tara’s personal health journey led her to shift her focus to preventative care and women’s health, particularly in regards to the role of hormones in menopause. 
 
The majority of gynecologists do not approve of hormone therapy or understand it well enough to feel comfortable enough prescribing it. Traditional medicine does not provide any real training on how to treat menopause symptoms, and it can be difficult to separate out the facts from fiction due to there being no standard of care for hormone therapy within the industry. Hormones like estrogen play a huge role in women’s health impacting everything from acne to breast cancer risk, but most practitioners are not testing hormone levels in their patients. There are many ways to assess hormone levels including blood tests, serum tests, saliva tests, and urine tests. Each of these different testing avenues has their own benefits and there is no one right way to test. 
 
Hormones play an important role in overall health, especially in regards to women’s health. When hormones are unbalanced there can be very serious health consequences from minor inconveniences like acne and weight gain to serious medical conditions like endometriosis and breast cancer. Learn more about your options for hormone testing so that you can take an extra level of prevention.
 
Quotes
• “If you're interested, it's because you have a personal vested interest, you have hormone issues yourself, or there's a personal family member that has hormone issues, and obviously, my gynecology background kind of led me down this path of hormones anyway in my own personal journey with my hormones and infertility. So I think there are a lot of avenues to learn and it's hard to weed through because there is actually no standard of care in the industry.” (7:00-7:28 | Tara)
• “First, understand that an OBGYN gets zero training in menopause. We are not taught what to prescribe, how to prescribe, or the risks and benefits. I would say if you polled 10 gynecologists, even 100 gynecologists, 98% would say they are scared of hormone therapy, they don't prescribe it, they don't recommend it.” (8:39-8:55 | Tara) 
• “If you're getting education about hormones, and they say only do this type of testing, there is not one right test.” (13:19-13:25 | Tara)
Links
Connect with Tara Scott:
Website: drtarascott.com 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drtarascott
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hormonegurumd/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hormoneguru
LinkedIn: TaraScott/Hormoneguru
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TaraScottMD
 
Connect with Lara: 
Free Calendar Planning System: https://drlarasalyer.com/links
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm