As I was out on a walk this morning, something I heard on Cal Newport's podcast resonated with me. I'm sharing a small takeaway point regarding over-optimizing and how I think that applies both to our clinical work and to everything that goes on behind the scenes to keep a clinical practice running. 

The optimization paradox: over-optimizing a single area can throw the whole system out of balance

In client work, you don't need to move every health pillar from a 2 to a 10. Moving several from a 2 to a 5 or 7 often produces better outcomes.

In your practice, "good enough" marketing across multiple channels beats getting one area in tip-top shape. 

This framework is especially useful for solo practitioners without formal business or marketing training as it takes some pressure off and offers multiple ways to improve

Cal Newport's Deep Questions podcast: Optimization Paradox episode with Brad Stulberg

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Find all episodes and show notes at intheclinic.com

Camille Freeman, DCN, RH, is the founder of Bloom and Grow, offering continuing education and community resources for herbalists and nutritionists in clinical practice. She has been in practice since 2003 with a focus on fertility, pregnancy, and menstrual health.

If you were trained to recommend RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) for strains and sprains, it may be time to update your knowledge a bit. In this episode, I share what came up in a recent Monday Mentoring session: the shift from RICE to PEACE & LOVE, why icing and total rest can slow tissue healing, and steps to promote recovery from soft tissue injury. 

In this episode, we cover:

Why the medical community moved away from RICE for soft tissue injuries

The PEACE acronym explained: Protection, Elevation, Avoid Anti-inflammatories, Compression, Education

The LOVE acronym explained: Load, Optimism, Vascularization, Exercise

Why suppressing inflammation with ice or NSAIDs may extend healing time

When gentle movement and load are better than total rest

My clinical additions: topical herbs and nutrient density for tissue repair

Where to find the BMJ graphic to share with clients

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction: soft tissue injuries in Monday Mentoring

01:00 - The RICE paradigm and why it's becoming outdated

02:05 - Introducing PEACE & LOVE as the updated framework

02:40 - P for Protection: why total rest slows healing

03:33 - E for Elevation: managing swelling without stopping inflammation

04:00 - A for Avoid Anti-inflammatories: ice and NSAIDs reconsidered

04:38 - C for Compression: gentle support and lymphatic flow

05:02 - E for Education: trusting the body's healing capacity

05:50 - Moving into LOVE: the sub-acute and recovery phase

06:06 - L for Load: reintroducing movement without pain

06:48 - O for Optimism: mindset and conditioned recovery

07:23 - V for Vascularization: blood flow, cardio, and circulatory stimulants

08:05 - E for Exercise: returning to strength and mobility

08:30 - Herbal topicals and nutrition support for tissue healing

09:10 - Link to the BMJ graphic and client handout resources

PEACE & LOVE blog post and graphic (BMJ)

Have a clinical or business question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? I'd love to answer it. Click on the "Submit a Question to Camille" button at intheclinic.com.

Want more clinical tips and practice-building resources? Join my practitioner email list, sent out every Thursday with a short note and three specific recommendations to make running your practice a little easier. Sign up at intheclinic.com or camillefreeman.com.

Gummy multivitamins are everywhere now, from adult formulas to prenatal and senior blends - but are they actually a good substitute for capsules or tablets? In this episode, I discuss clinical considerations, including quality control findings, sugar content, and formulation limits that affect dosing and nutrient stability.

In this episode, we cover:

When gummy multivitamins might be the best (or only) tolerable option for a client

Sugar and non-nutritive sweetener content to review before recommending

Why iron and higher-dose B vitamins may be missing from gummy formulations

Why gummy multis tend to have lower overall nutrient doses than capsules or tablets (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)

Consumer Lab quality findings: degradation issues, overages, and what they mean clinically

Upcoming Multivitamin Deep Dive class details

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction: answering questions about gummy multivitamins

01:00 - When gummies are a reasonable alternative (dysphagia, pregnancy aversions, palatability)

01:50 - Sugar, non-nutritive sweeteners, and blood sugar considerations

02:55 - Missing ingredients: why iron and higher-dose B vitamins rarely make the cut

04:10 - Lower nutrient density: how the gummy base limits room for active ingredients

05:00 - Consumer Lab findings on quality control, degradation, and nutrient overages

06:45 - Clinical bottom line: who gummies work for and when to supplement separately

07:50 - Other ingredients to review: dyes, excipients, and lower-quality fillers

08:30 - Multivitamin Deep Dive class invitation: July 13th, 5:00 - 6:30 PM Eastern

Links Mentioned:

Consumer Lab summary of gummy multivitamin quality testing

Multivitamin Deep Dive class (July 13th, 2026 from 5-6:30 pm; 1.5 NPCE available through Dec 2028)

All-Access 2026 Supplement Deep Dive Pass

Submit a Question

Have a clinical or business question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? I'd love to answer it. Click on the "Submit a Question to Camille" button at intheclinic.com.

Join the Practitioner Notes Newsletter

Want more clinical tips and practice-building resources? Join my practitioner email list, sent out every Thursday with a short note and three specific recommendations to make running your practice a little easier. Sign up at intheclinic.com or camillefreeman.com.

Lots of us get brilliant ideas for new courses and programs in the summer. Here, I share why I strongly recommend that you don't build the course or program before you know if people will sign up for it. Instead of spending dozens or even hundreds of hours creating a course, consider running a pilot version and making sure at least a few people are willing to pay for the program before you start creating it.

See also episode 39 from way back in 2022: Why You Shouldn't Create an Online Course 

In this episode, we cover:

Why the surge of summer creative energy can lead to a very expensive mistake.

Why "that sounds interesting!" is not the same as confirmed interest.

How to put your idea out there before investing time and money in creating something new.

What to do if nobody signs up or if a handful of people do.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:11 - Summer and the creative energy surge

1:04 - Building something nobody buys

2:18 - What "interest" actually means (hint: $$)

2:59 - Co-creation vs. building in a silo

4:11 - Start with a Google doc and a price

5:32 - If nobody signs up, at least you know 

6:31 - If five people sign up: build it simply, together

7:15 - Make it fancier in round two

Whether you use AI tools yourself or want nothing to do with them, if you share educational materials, run a community, or work with clients, you may want to have a written AI policy. In this episode, I share the one I created for Bloom and Grow, which is still very much a working draft. 

In this episode, we cover:

Why practitioners who don't use AI still need a policy 

The four parts of the Bloom and Grow AI policy: note-takers in live sessions, scraping and uploading community content, disclosing AI use when sharing case studies, and keeping forum interactions human.

The existence of invisible AI note-takers (the kind that don't show up as Zoom participants) 

What I can and can't control, and why I chose to include these things in my policy anyway.

The difference between a community/course AI policy and a personal AI policy

One way that I'm experimenting with AI in my own practice: SOAP note drafting from session transcripts, using a HIPAA-compliant tool with client disclosure.

Off the Grid Podcast with Amelia Hruby - especially the episodes about how to write a thoughtful AI policy (and the others in the AI series!) 

0:00 - Introduction

0:11 - Why you should keep listening even if you hate AI discourse

0:56 - Credit to Off the Grid podcast for shaping my thinking

1:29 - Two policies I'm working on: community vs. personal

3:33 - Reading the Bloom and Grow AI policy

3:45 - No AI note-takers in live sessions 

6:17 - No scraping or uploading B&G content to LLMs

8:32 - Disclose AI use when sharing case studies for feedback

8:46 - Keep forum and chat interactions human

9:48 - What's coming: my personal AI policy for the website

10:07 - What I'm actually experimenting with right now (SOAP notes)

10:55 - Why your AI stance is worth making visible

After years of training to be a clinical herbalist or nutritionist, you might find yourself on the other side wondering if this is something you want to or can realistically do right now. Many people don't realize what goes into running a solo practice when they sign up for a training program. Once you learn more about what's involved, you may make a different choice than you originally expected, and that's okay. 

In this episode, we cover:

Why so many trained herbalists and nutritionists hit a wall after graduation

Why choosing not to run a full-time clinical practice doesn't make you a failure or mean your training was wasted.

The factors that allow some practitioners to build a solo practice and why they're not equally available to everyone.

Other ways to stay connected to this work: volunteering, community education, occasional referral-based visits, or simply setting it aside for now.

Why your clinical education still counts, still grows you, and still matters regardless of what you decide to do with it.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:09 - The situation nobody warns you about before you start training

1:07 - The gap between finishing school and running a practice

2:52 - It's okay if full-time solo practice isn't the path right now

4:47 - Other ways to use your clinical education

6:05 - Why the practitioners who "made it" aren't always the whole picture

7:49 - Seeing your options clearly

This is one of my most controversial clinical opinions: I don't work with functional lab tests, including DUTCH testing, GI Map, organic acids, and microbiome panels. In this episode, I walk through exactly why and some considerations for those who do work with these tests.

In this episode, we cover:

What I mean by "functional labs" and which tests fall under that umbrella.

Why I only recommend tests when the results will actually change what I do.

The validity problem, with fecal samples for microbiome testing as an example.

Why "accurate results" and "clinically actionable results" are two very different things.

The evidence problem: how recommendations attached to these labs are often theoretical rather than based on clinical data.

The conflict of interest issue.

A harder question for practitioners: if a lab is telling your client what to take, what exactly are they paying you for?

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:10 - My most controversial clinical opinion

0:35 - On not judging practitioners who use these labs

1:38 - Reason 1: I don't think I need them

2:03 - When I think testing matters (iron as an example)

4:07 - Reason 2: Validity concerns

5:01 - Reason 3: The "what do we do about it" data is mostly theoretical

6:05 - The supplement recommendation problem

9:38 - A question for practitioners who rely on labs to guide recommendations

10:45 - What I'd rather clients spend that money on

It's a beautiful day outside, your brain is blank, and you're supposed to write a newsletter (or record a podcast). So, do you give yourself a pass? In this episode, I make the case for showing up even when you have nothing to say. 

In this episode, we cover:

Why "I don't feel like it" is different from a real reason to skip your content commitment.

The distinction between a well-deserved day off and letting your marketing/promotion plans fall off the radar.

Why your "not my best" content sometimes lands better than the pieces you agonized over.

How to think about consistency as a skill.

When it is appropriate to revisit your content commitments. 

A simple prompt to get unstuck: write about something that happened to you this week and connect it to your community.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:14 - The summer content slump

1:01 - When taking a day off is fine - and when it isn't

1:57 - Why consistency is a practice, not a personality trait

3:33 - Showing up for your community even on the hard days

4:50 - When to actually re-evaluate your content strategy (hint: not today)

6:35 - The easiest prompt for getting unstuck

Have you ever started a "quick" DIY project for your private practice, only to find yourself pulling your hair out three days later?

In this episode, I’m sharing a slightly embarrassing (but hopefully helpful) cautionary tale about a recent tech rabbit hole I fell down. After noticing my website traffic had dipped, I decided to take my page speed optimization into my own hands. What followed was a crashed website, a warning from my web host, and hours (days?) of wasted time. I finally hired an expert to fix it in under two hours for $100.

If you are a solo practitioner trying to do it all yourself, I want to talk about how to recognize when it’s time to step away from the keyboard and pay an expert to do what they do best.

In this episode, we cover:

Why page speed actually matters for your website traffic and search rankings.

The trap of the DIY rabbit hole (and how to know when you’re officially stuck).

My experience finding an affordable, highly-rated WordPress expert on Upwork.

How to weigh the cost of hiring help against the value of your own time and sanity.

Links & Resources Mentioned:

Google PageSpeed Insights (to check your own site's speed)

Independent Analytics (the lightweight WordPress analytics tool I use)

Looking for the name of the speed optimization expert I hired? Send me a message and I'll gladly share his Upwork info!

Coming Up Soon: Keep an ear out for upcoming episodes where we'll be diving into my policies on using AI in clinical practice, as well as my opinions on functional labs.

Join the Practitioner Notes Newsletter: Every Thursday, I send out a newsletter with short essays, resources, and three specific recommendations—recipes, products, or tools—that made my life a little better that week. I’d love to have you join us! You can sign up at intheclinic.com or camillefreeman.com.

Are you still working at 9 pm when you meant to stop at 3? If you're a solo herbalist or nutritionist, the line between working and not working can get quite blurry, because this work is part of who you are. Your clinical brain doesn't clock out just because you're supposed to be doing something else.

In this episode, Camille shares how she's managing this challenge right now - 20+ years into practice - and why systems that used to work may need to be revised periodically. 

What's covered:

Key point: If your current plan for turning off isn't working, it's time to change things up. The fastest road to burnout is always being on, or never being fully off.

Resources mentioned:

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