I found Dr. Lissa Rankin through a Ted Talk: ‘Is There Scientific Proof That We Can Heal Ourselves?’. She shared how she spent two years looking through medical records at the hospital to find something like 30% of patients heal from placebo effect alone. She then wrote a book by the same title – ‘Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That We Can Heal Ourselves’.

Her book contained a few parallel stories with Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book and in fact, I believe they had called each other to apologise for using the same materials. Lissa had used her learnings to start the Whole Health Medicine Institute which was to host a 5-day retreat in San Diego to kick it all off.

I attended the retreat just 10 days after my first Dr. Joe Dispenza workshop in Seattle, back in 2016. I was hyped on the idea that yes, we absolutely can heal ourselves

The retreat was attended by 60 women from all over the world and from all professions – doctors, surgeons, coaches, naturopaths, dieticians, physiotherapists. There were two Australians in the group.

Lissa spent the 5 days guiding us through her new method for healing – a framework we can use as professionals to support men and women in healing from the root – emotionally, physically, spiritually. It considered all aspects of health including diet, lifestyle, exercise, relationships, joy, work, family. It helped me to see how all of these pieces contribute to health, and it made sense considering my perfect eating and exercise had still landed me unwell with chronic fatigue.

Following the retreat we had weekly calls with other experience including medical anthropologist-turned-Shaman Alberto Villoldo, physician Deepak Chopra, evolutionary biologist Bruce Lipton to name my favourites. Each shared their own findings over call where we could ask questions at the end.

The most interesting takeaways from the group of women came from their stories they shared about how they found their way to holistic medicine. Stories of bullying, harassment, nervous breakdowns, depression from the realisation that all that medical training had simply had them working has ‘drug-dealers’ – their patients continued to get sicker and they felt powerless to support them.

This experience showed me how complex the body is, and how in order to heal we need to look at all aspects of health. It showed me how the highly masculine system is harming patients and those who are trained to support them.

Most of all it showed me how the system needs to change. In order to support someone you need at least an hour to talk through symptoms, and you need repeated sessions in order to really support someone to health. No-ones path to ill health is a simple one, and each person requires a unique approach.

Medical treatment is amazing in emergencies, but for chronic illness, we really need to look deeper. We can heal ourselves, if we wish.

Jen X