Join Integrative Wellness Practitioner Suzy Woollam and Integrative Medicine Coordinator for Mary Washington Hospitals Integrative Medicine Program as they discuss the benefits of Incorporating multiple modalities into your wellness program.  And a great recommendation on a local Bourbon.

Transcript

Dee:  Welcome to the podcast, Bourbon & Branches & no BS in the beautiful downtown historic Fredericksburg, Virginia. And the captain of this ship is here, Suzy

Suzy:  Good afternoon. So one of the things that I see a lot of on my day to day travels such as they are is everyone’s talking about integrative medicine. It is the new catchphrase in the world. And I wonder if people really know what integrative medicine is  ta da …so today we’re going to talk a little bit about Integrative Medicine and talk to one of my very favorite people. We have a guest

Dee:  A guest yay!

Suzy:  We have a guest, and she, to me, is probably the most well versed to talk to you about integrative medicine, especially in the Fredericksburg community, and hopefully in your community if you’re not local.  So,  Integrative Medicine…. So what does that mean?   It’s a term that everybody hears, you see it everywhere. And I don’t think most people really understand what it means. They’re looking for an Integrative Medicine Doctor, but they don’t know why.  The key to Integrative Medicine is that it is patient- centered medicine, the entire purpose of working in Integrative Medicine and integrative therapy is to incorporate the entire person everything about their life their lifestyle; body, mind, soul, emotion so that we can find the most effective treatment to help them get to whatever end of the road they’re trying to get to.  The emphasis is always on that one-to-one relationship with your therapist.   It’s very important to maintain that relationship, and to have that sort of “therapeutic intimacy” so that, that person can get to know you and help you in the most effective way.  And it also means to incorporate a number of different modalities that may be thought of as … alternative or complimentary…. by some people into what may be thought of as traditional medical practice.  So you may be having chemotherapy, and you may be having massage you may be having psychotherapy and you may be having Reiki. So it’s a combination of two things to bring everything together.

Dee:  So when people want to come ask you personal questions, they can come right here into downtown Fredericksburg walk in the door, and your smiling face is there to greet them every single time.

Suzy:  Absolutely. That’s my job and to point them in the right direction and the person that points me in the right direction, and my very, very favorite local resource for everything. Integrative medicine is Ms. Virginia Schaffer.  Gin is the Integrative Medicine Coordinator for Mary Washington Hospitals cancer center Integrative Medicine program. Welcome Gin, we’re so happy to have you here today.

Gin:   Thank you so much. It is an honor.

Suzy:  So tell me a little bit about you, and how you became involved with the Integrative Medicine program at Mary Washington hospital.

Gin:    You know, it’s an interesting story, and I was trying to figure out when I was coming over here for this podcast if where would I begin …where would that story begin and it really does begin with, with meeting you Suzy.   So I moved back to the Fredericksburg area in 2014,

Suzy:  Thank goodness

Laughter

Gin:   having been here in the nineties, and I’m moved back having been diagnosed with breast cancer.  And I was lost.   And I really didn’t know how to take all this information that was provided to me when my multitude of Doctors, you know, Medical Oncologist,  Radiation Oncologists, Breast Surgeon.   So I had all this information upon being diagnosed ...