Military Service Members and Veterans
First and foremost, thank you for all that you do and sacrifice.
I understand military life firsthand. My dad was enlisted in the Army when I was born at Madigan Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. My grandfather served in WWII, earning two Purple Hearts. My older sister was a logistics officer and younger sister an Army neurologist.
This is me, on the left here, at Officer Basic in Ft. Sam, Houston in 2009. I took a direct commission into the Army at age 29 and served three years as a physician assistant (PA). I deployed for nine months as the battalion PA to Tikrit, Iraq.
My health took a turn for the worse upon my deployment after a weird reaction to the Anthrax shot and a novel gastrointestinal virus that I contracted right before I redeployed. Military service is unlike any other, and we end up sacrificing a lot, sometimes our own well-being, to honor our commitment.
I am now a military spouse to an active duty officer who teaches the future of our military at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and I am dedicated to supporting those serving and who have served through mindfulness, functional medicine, and guided imagery.
Fit Intuit's Holistic Approach
I would love to share more of my approach with you!
Mindfulness
As a mindfulness meditation teacher, I teach you how to be present in a kind and compassionate way. The only moment we ever have is right now, and we can lose a lot of our life to fear of the future and past experiences. Learning to live more presently cultivates better focus, more calm, and living up to our potential in the only time we ever have: the present.
It can, however, be incredibly difficult to stay present to our lives when we're suffering with things like PTSD or challenges related to our military service, so mindfulness is a foundational tool but not everything we need.
Functional Medicine
Functional Medicine is referred to as "root cause" medicine within a systems biology approach. By root cause, I am referring to digging more deeply beyond symptoms to the underlying causes of those symptoms. For example, depression and anxiety are diagnoses in Western medicine, but in functional medicine, they are symptoms of a deeper problem. We don't stop at a label or diagnosis. We see that diagnosis as the tip of the iceberg and delve more deeply into the many interconnected systems of the body to heal the underlying pathology.
Systems biology alludes to the many different systems of the body, such as systems of transportation, energy metabolism, structural integrity, digestion and assimilation, communication, and defense and repair. Instead of siloing off different structures and addressing the heart or the gut in isolation, functional medicine looks at how each system functions and influences all other systems in the body. And beyond the body, it seeks to understand the influences from our environment, social structures, cultures, and genetics.
There is a lot of hope in this approach. Just as dysfunction in one system spiraled into illness and disease, supporting and nurturing one system in the body can inevitably support all the other systems, which can ultimately lead us back to health.
Guided Imagery
I love guided imagery! I have utilized this practice both as an athlete and as someone suffering with illness. Guided imagery holds limitless potential. It allows us to use our minds in creative ways to create the desired changes in our physiology and outcomes.
I create customized guided imagery, which entails listening to your unique need and personalizing the guided meditation to your exact goals. For example, if you're struggling with PTSD, I will create a healing guided practice which includes all of the systems of the body that require healing and guide you through bringing this healing energy into the body to restore health. If you're seeking a specific performance outcome, I will create a meditation where you envision yourself accomplishing this feat with a focus on how you accomplish this and the feeling states you need in order to reach your goals.
Holistic and Personalized Care
Together, we figure out the path that is right for you. There are infinite possibilities for healing and peak performance. You don't have to do this alone, and I am here as your guide, mentor, and biggest fan as you live your best life and reach your fullest potential.
Connect Through Storytelling with
Beyond the Battlefield
I wrote Beyond the Battlefield as a way of sharing heroic military stories and highlighting the need for introspective practices such as mindfulness and meditation to support healing and resilience in our service members and veterans.
Learn more below!
BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD:
STORIES OF TENACITY AND MINDFUL GUIDANCE ALONG THE WARRIOR’S PATH
Beyond the Battlefield is a compilation of 15 true stories based upon candid interviews with service members from all branches of the military. These stories bring to light the challenges of both combat and non-combat experiences while serving. In addition to these stories, I introduce mindfulness and meditation as potential tools to help navigate the many difficulties that are addressed throughout the interviews with the hope of making these tools more accessible and acceptable within the mainstream military culture. This book is complete with heartfelt and sincere storytelling coupled with more objective and scientific data backing the usefulness of meditation and mindfulness within the context of military life.
MEET SOME OF THE INTERVIEWEES FROM “BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD”…
My hope is that by sharing these stories:
1. Other service members can feel connected and not so alone in their own experiences and challenges
2. Those unaffiliated with the military can have a deeper and clearer understanding of those who are serving in the armed forces
3. I help more people realize the need for additional tools and coping strategies to help service members with the high-stress experiences of military life, and two of those critical tools, as I propose in the book, are meditation and mindfulness
