The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast

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In this episode of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh speaks with Dr. Jimmy Henry about becoming a father during medical training, prioritizing presence amid the demands of medicine, and some of the often-overlooked experiences and challenges physician dads may face.

Dr. Jimmy Henry, MD, is a nationally recognized mental wellness leader, executive coach, speaker, and founder of KingdomMD. He also leads initiatives focused on improving health outcomes, reducing stigma, and strengthening community well-being among Black men and their families. With a background in medicine, healthcare leadership, and trauma-informed coaching, Dr. Henry specializes in burnout recovery, resilience, leadership development, and holistic wellness. His work brings together evidence-based health strategies with practical approaches to sustainable performance, purpose, and personal growth.

Dr. Henry became a first-time father just a few months into his Pain Medicine Fellowship at Temple. At the time, he was one of only two fellows carrying a service typically covered by four. Alongside the demands of fellowship, a long commute, and caring for a newborn who did not always sleep through the night, he made an effort to be present with his daughter as much as possible. He reflects on attending appointments during pregnancy, participating in the everyday routines of early parenthood, and why being a father has always been central to how he understands himself.

The conversation expands to some of the experiences of physician fathers that may receive less attention within medical culture. Dr. Henry reflects on not taking all of the paternity leave available to him because he did not want to leave his co-fellow carrying the workload. He also discusses the importance of creating space for fathers during pregnancy loss and grief, and of asking how men are doing during major transitions in parenthood rather than assuming they will simply manage on their own.

Dr. Henry reflects on how fatherhood, burnout, and moral injury reshaped the way he thinks about identity and success. He emphasizes that being a physician is part of who we are, but not the entirety of who we are, and encourages men to seek support before they urgently need it and to be intentional about the kind of fathers they want to be.

For Dr. Henry, success as a father comes back to presence, relationships, and the memories and values his children will carry forward. His reflections invite physicians, coaches, and healthcare professionals to consider how we define success, what we value most, and how we want to show up for the people who matter to us. Presence is part of the legacy we leave behind.

Timestamps

0:00 — Introduction
3:00 — Dr. Henry’s Experience Becoming a First-Time Father During Pain Medicine Fellowship
9:00 — Paternity Leave & the Often-Overlooked Challenges of Fatherhood in Medicine
16:00 — Building Support, Defining Success & Prioritizing Presence as a Physician Dad

Learn more about Dr. Jimmy Henry and his work at KingdomMD and connect with him on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast to access this featured episode and the full library of subscriber-only content, including physician coaching sessions, coaching debrief episodes with Dr. Jessica Singh, and coach mentoring sessions.

The podcast is dedicated to making physician coaching more accessible while offering meaningful support to physicians and those who coach them.

Your subscription directly supports our mission and helps sustain our work.

Subscriber-only episodes are available exclusively on our website, Buzzsprout, and Apple. Free episodes are available on major podcast platforms.

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The podcast is provided by the Center for Health and Wellness Coaches.

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In this episode of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh speaks with Dr. Michelle Thompson, a triple board-certified physician in Lifestyle Medicine, Integrative Medicine, and Osteopathic Family Medicine. As founder and medical director of UPMC Lifestyle Medicine, Dr. Thompson is leading efforts to place self-care at the center of patient care and employee health. She oversees the lifestyle medicine residency curriculum for family and internal medicine training programs, has served as Chair of Medicine, and currently serves as Vice Chief of Staff for UPMC Horizon and Jameson. As a Champion for UPMC Physician Thrive, she is also an advocate for physician wellness and addressing burnout. Dr. Thompson is additionally certified in Blue Zones®, Mind-Body Medicine, and Psychedelic Medicine and integrates culinary medicine and mind-body practices into her clinical care.

In this episode, Dr. Thompson shares the life experiences that shaped her path in medicine. She became a mother at 17 and completed undergraduate education, medical school, and residency while raising her son. She reflects on how these experiences influenced her decision to become a physician and her desire to create a different experience of healthcare for others. She also discusses the challenges of navigating motherhood alongside medical training, the people who supported her along the way, and what she learned from her son about presence, listening, and taking care of herself.

Dr. Thompson traces her journey through integrative medicine, lifestyle medicine, and mind-body medicine, and how each became part of both her personal practice and her work in healthcare. She discusses the six pillars of lifestyle medicine, her training in mind-body medicine, and how the COVID-19 pandemic deepened her use of grounding and breathwork in clinical care. She also shares how, during this same period, she was helping bring lifestyle medicine, self-care, and mind-body practices into medical education, physician well-being initiatives, meetings, and programs across UPMC.

Dr. Thompson reflects on finding people she could lean on, creating spaces where physicians can be human with one another, letting go of perfection, and becoming more comfortable with difficult conversations. She discusses trauma-informed care, deep listening, and the importance of rewriting narratives within medical education and healthcare.

Dr. Singh and Dr. Thompson also discuss supporting physicians through parenthood and other major life experiences. Dr. Thompson emphasizes taking the time that is needed, honoring emotions, and asking for what one needs. She shares why she believes physicians must take care of themselves in order to care for their families, patients, students, and communities, and describes how she incorporates movement, sleep, stress management, and other lifestyle medicine practices into her own life.

Dr. Thompson reminds listeners to listen to themselves, trust their inner wisdom, and recognize that a path does not need to already exist in order to move forward. Reflecting on her own experience building programs within a large healthcare system, she encourages each of us to build the path when one does not yet exist and to pause and reconnect when needed, so that we do not lose ourselves along the way in medicine.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

1. American College of Lifestyle Medicine. https://lifestylemedicine.org/ 
2. Bessel van der Kolk M.D. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin Books, 2015.
3. Gordon, James. Transforming Trauma: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma. Hachette UK, 2019.
4. Jackson, Donna. Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal. Atria Books, 2016.
5. Winfrey, Oprah, and Bruce D. Perry. What happened to you?: Conversations on trauma, resilience, and healing. Flatiron Books, 2021.

Timestamps

0:00 — Grounding, Centering & Introduction

07:00 — The Life Experiences That Shape Us: Dr. Thompson’s Journey as a Teenage Mother and Physician

17:00 — Integrative, Lifestyle & Mind-Body Medicine: From Personal Practice to Changing Healthcare Systems

23:00 — Finding Support, Embracing Vulnerability & Rewriting Narratives in Medicine

35:00 — Honoring What You Need & Paving Your Own Path in Medicine

Connect With Dr. Michelle Thompson

Website: https://www.wholeheartedmedicine.org/

Connect with Dr. Thompson on LinkedIn

Instagram: @mtyogidoc

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wholeheartedmedicine6833

Subscribe to The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast to access exclusive subscriber-only episodes, including physician coaching sessions, coaching debriefs, and coach mentoring sessions that offer valuable insights for the professional development of coaches.

Your support helps sustain this work. Subscribe and leave a thoughtful review at holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com.

Support the show

Subscribe to the podcast: www.holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com 

The podcast is provided by the Center for Health and Wellness Coaches.

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In this episode of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh speaks with Shanda McManus, MD, about how caregiving, profound grief and loss, and storytelling shaped her life, her work in medicine, and her understanding of what physicians need to remain connected to their humanity.

Shanda McManus, MD, is a family medicine physician, speaker, author, and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, where she teaches narrative medicine and humanism. Her writing explores grief, race, Black women’s health, healing, and what medicine costs the people who practice it. Her debut memoir, Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, began as an act of reconnection with her brother Monir, who was murdered while she was a first-year medical student.

In this episode, Dr. McManus reflects on caring for her mother during childhood as she lived with ovarian cancer and witnessing the difference compassionate medical care could make, even when a cure was not possible. She shares how the death of her mother from cancer, the tragic death of her grandmother in a car accident, and the murder of her brother Monir during her first year of medical school shaped the physician, educator, and writer she became.

She describes returning to medical school shortly after her brother’s death and carrying what she calls a “heavy backpack of grief” through her training and medical practice. Believing there was no space to pause, grieve, or show vulnerability, she pushed her grief aside for decades. Dr. McManus discusses how unprocessed loss affected her sense of connection and wholeness and how turning toward her grief allowed her to bring more of herself into every aspect of her life.

Dr. Singh and Dr. McManus explore the ways medical education and healthcare culture can leave little room for physicians and physicians-in-training to process grief. Dr. McManus shares how medical education could better support learners through personal loss, the death of patients, and the emotional demands of caring for others. 

The conversation also examines creativity as a pathway for processing what physicians witness and carry. Dr. McManus shares how writing led her to narrative medicine and helped her bring together two central parts of her life: medicine and storytelling. She reflects on the stories patients share, the stories physicians carry, and the stories they help shape alongside their patients.

Her debut memoir, Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, began as a series of letters to her brother Monir. Through writing, Dr. McManus found a way to revisit their relationship, reconnect with him, and integrate grief that had remained unexamined for many years. 

Throughout the conversation, Dr. McManus encourages physicians to take space for the emotions and pain they carry, seek connection, and acknowledge their own humanity. Her message reminds us that making room for grief does not diminish our ability to care for others; rather, it supports greater wholeness, compassion, and presence in our work and in life.

Timestamps

0 - Introduction 

2:17 - How Caregiving & Loss Shaped Dr. McManus as a Physician

5:09 - Carrying Unprocessed Grief Through Medical Training and Practice

12:08 - Bridging Gaps: Creating Space to Process Grief in Medical Education

20:13 - Narrative Medicine, Storytelling, and the Healing Power of Writing

30:05 - Takeaways

Connect With Dr. Shanda McManus

Instagram: @shandamdwrites

Website: shandamcmanus.com

Weatherproof on Substack

Book: Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, SPLIT/LIP Press, 2016.

Subscribe to The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast to access exclusive subscriber-only episodes, including physician coaching sessions, coaching debriefs, and coach mentoring sessions that offer valuable insights for the professional development of coaches.

Your support helps sustain this work. Subscribe and leave a thoughtful review at holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com.

Support the show

Subscribe to the podcast: www.holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com 

The podcast is provided by the Center for Health and Wellness Coaches.

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In this episode of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh sits down with Dr. Sarah Wittry for a candid conversation about physician motherhood, infertility, foster care, adoption, spontaneous pregnancy, IVF, and the ways life outside medicine reshapes the physician within.

Dr. Sarah Wittry is a hospice and palliative care physician, wife, and mom of four. Having navigated challenges like infertility, adoption, anxiety, and burnout as a physician mom, Sarah is deeply committed to empowering other professional moms to reclaim their time, energy, and joy. Through her platform, Vibrant Humans, she helps women redefine what it means to be a good mom and professional, guiding them to set healthy boundaries and prioritize their core values.

In this episode, Dr. Wittry shares her experience becoming a foster parent during residency, later adopting her son, navigating spontaneous pregnancy after adoption, and eventually pursuing IVF. Through these experiences, she reflects on how motherhood helped clarify her values, shift her priorities, and reshape the way she wanted to live and work as a physician.

Together, Dr. Singh and Dr. Wittry explore the integration of physician identity and motherhood, the emotional load many physician moms carry silently, and the ways medicine can condition physicians to put their own needs last. Dr. Wittry reflects on infertility, grief, uncertainty, support, foster care, adoption, pregnancy, IVF, and the ongoing process of making decisions that align with family, values, and well-being.

For physician moms, physicians-in-training, women considering motherhood in medicine, and coaches who support physicians, this episode offers a thoughtful conversation about identity, self-compassion, boundaries, support, and creating a life and career with more alignment.

Timestamps

0:00 - Introduction

1:48 - Dr. Sarah Wittry’s Journey as a Physician Mom

8:10 — Foster Care, Adoption, and Finding Fulfillment Beyond Medicine

17:13 - Redefining Physician Identity: How Life Outside Medicine Shapes the Physician Within

22:14 - An Unexpected Surprise: Spontaneous Pregnancy After Adoption and the Journey to IVF 

26:14 - How Motherhood Reshaped Dr. Wittry’s Path in Medicine

35:30 - Steps Toward Self-Compassion, Support, and Takeaways

Subscribe to The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast to access this featured episode and the full library of subscriber-only content, including physician coaching sessions, coaching debrief episodes with Dr. Jessica Singh, and coach mentoring sessions.

The podcast is dedicated to making physician coaching more accessible while offering meaningful support to physicians and those who coach them.

Your subscription supports this work.

Support the show

Subscribe to the podcast: www.holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com 

The podcast is provided by the Center for Health and Wellness Coaches.

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In this episode of the Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh sits down with Dr. Nishi Bhopal to discuss sleep health for physicians, physician moms, and those navigating the realities of medical training and practice.

Nishi Bhopal, MD is board-certified in Psychiatry, Sleep Medicine, and Integrative Holistic Medicine. She is the founder and medical director of Pacific Integrative Psychiatry, an online practice where patients receive a whole-person approach to anxiety and insomnia, including sleep coaching and integrative psychiatry.

In addition to her private practice, Dr. Bhopal is the founder of IntraBalance, an educational platform that includes a YouTube channel and online courses on integrative sleep medicine for healthcare practitioners. Her passion is making sleep easy to understand and accessible to all.

Together, Dr. Singh and Dr. Bhopal explore what physicians are not often taught about sleep, including the impact of shift work, chronic sleep deprivation, circadian disruption, pregnancy, postpartum sleep health, and the importance of looking beyond quick fixes toward a deeper sleep workup. Dr. Bhopal also shares practical strategies for physicians working irregular schedules, insights for physician moms, and guidance for coaches and clinicians supporting sleep health through a holistic lens.

This conversation is a thoughtful reminder that sleep is not a luxury. Sleep is foundational to healing, well-being, and sustainable care.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction 

1:34 - Dr. Nishi Bhopal’s Journey into Sleep Medicine

4:26 - What Physicians Aren’t Taught About Sleep 

6:23 - Sleep Deprivation, Shift Work, and Physician Wellbeing 

14:05 - Beyond Sleep Aids: Why the Sleep Workup Matters

20:42 - Pregnancy and Postpartum Sleep Health for Physician Moms

31:38 - Sleep Health Resources 

34:40 - How Coaches Can Support Sleep Health

38:56 - Takeaways

Subscribe to The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast to access this featured episode and the full library of subscriber-only content, including physician coaching sessions, coaching debrief episodes with Dr. Jessica Singh, and coach mentoring sessions.

The podcast is dedicated to making physician coaching more accessible while offering meaningful support to physicians and those who coach them.

Your subscription supports this work.

Connect with Dr. Nishi Bhopal:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishibhopal/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/intrabalance

Private Practice: https://pacificintegrativepsych.com/

Support the show

Subscribe to the podcast: www.holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com 

The podcast is provided by the Center for Health and Wellness Coaches.

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In this episode of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh is joined by Dr. Amna Shabbir, MD, NBC-HWC, CPC, for a deeply moving conversation about pregnancy, postpartum depression, and her experience navigating motherhood within the demands of medicine. Dr. Shabbir is a TEDx Speaker, Top Podcast Host, and dual board-certified physician with advanced training in integrative well-being, performance, and leadership development. She speaks, coaches, and consults on perfectionism, sustainable success, and the well-being of high achievers.

Through the lens of motherhood, Dr. Shabbir reflects on the personal and professional experiences that have shaped her path from medicine to entrepreneurship. She speaks to the influence of cultural identity, high expectations, perfectionism, burnout, and adversity, and how those experiences informed not only the work she does now, but also the way she understands herself as a physician, mother, and leader.

She speaks candidly about postpartum depression, including the complexity of recognizing it, the weight of holding multiple identities, and the quiet ways physicians can struggle without naming what is happening.

With remarkable honesty, she explores the fear, shame, isolation, and inner pressure that can accompany suffering, especially in environments where strength and composure are often expected. She also shares what helped her move toward healing, including support, medication, self-awareness, and a growing relationship with self-compassion.

The conversation also explores the emotional and practical realities of returning to work after childbirth, the shifting priorities that come with motherhood, and the challenge of trying to honor both professional identity and personal well-being. Dr. Shabbir offers thoughtful reflections on judgment, compassion, asking for help, and redefining success in a season of life that can feel both meaningful and overwhelming. Her reflections offer reassurance not only to physician mothers, but also to anyone supporting them.

This episode is a powerful reflection on motherhood, medicine, healing, and what becomes possible when vulnerability is met with honesty, compassion, and support.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

2:14 - Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Her Journey From Medicine to Entrepreneurship Through the Lens of Motherhood

7:10 - Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Her Experience with Pregnancy, Postpartum Depression, and Healing

18:43 - Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Letting Go of Judgment and Choosing Compassion 

24:04 - Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Returning to Work After Childbirth and Navigating Motherhood and Medicine

34:19 - Dr. Shabbir’s Advice and Takeaways on Navigating Motherhood and Medicine

Subscribe to The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast to access this featured episode and the full library of subscriber-only content, including physician coaching sessions, coaching debrief episodes with Dr. Jessica Singh, and coach mentoring sessions.

The podcast is dedicated to making physician coaching more accessible while offering meaningful support to physicians and those who coach them.

Your subscription supports this work.

Subscriber-only episodes are available on our website, Buzzsprout, and Apple. Free episodes are available on major podcast platforms.

Support the show

Subscribe to the podcast: www.holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com 

The podcast is provided by the Center for Health and Wellness Coaches.

Send us Fan Mail

What if physician coaching were easier to access and more deeply integrated into medical education and healthcare organizations?

In this pilot episode of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh introduces the heart behind the show and explores a question that has stayed with her for years: how can physician coaching become more accessible in ways that support both physicians and coaches? She reflects on the culture of medicine, the weight of burnout, and the need for coaching spaces where physicians are partnered with as wise, resourceful, and whole.

Dr. Singh also shares her journey from experiencing burnout during residency to healing and transitioning into a new career focused on holistic health and well-being. Along the way, she reflects on what drew her to coaching and why physician coaching offers a unique form of support within medicine. She also explores the considerations that shape coaching in medical education and organizational settings, including ethics, program structure, measures of success, coach training, and mentorship—the conditions needed for coaching to be effective and successful.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Laying the Foundation for Physician Coaching

13:08 - Considerations for Physician Coaching in Medical Education and Organizations

17:41 - From Burnout to Coaching: Dr. Singh’s Healing Journey

21:29 - Purpose and Design of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast

Subscribe to The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast to access this featured episode and the full library of subscriber-only content, including all physician coaching sessions, exclusive coaching debrief episodes with Dr. Jessica Singh, and coach mentoring sessions in which Dr. Singh receives mentoring in her own coaching practice. 

The podcast is dedicated to making physician coaching more accessible while offering meaningful support to physicians and those who coach them. 

Your subscription directly supports our mission and helps sustain our work.

Subscriber-only episodes are available exclusively on our website, Buzzsprout, and Apple. Free episodes are available on major podcast platforms.

Support the show

Subscribe to the podcast: www.holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com 

The podcast is provided by the Center for Health and Wellness Coaches.

Send us Fan Mail

The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast is dedicated to making physician coaching more accessible while supporting physicians and those who coach them.

Each season features one physician being coached by host Jessica Singh, MD, NBC-HWC, ACC, through specific topics, challenges, and life situations. These coaching conversations give listeners insight into the complex, evolving, and deeply personal experiences of physicians. The podcast explores what supports us, what challenges us, and what helps us live and work in greater alignment.

Dr. Singh is a Yale-trained emergency medicine physician who became the first to complete a one-year physician wellness fellowship at Stanford University, before transitioning her career to pursue holistic health and wellness. Through her own healing journey from burnout, she gained experience in yoga, Ayurveda, mind-body medicine, and coaching, bringing that depth to discussions on physician coaching, professional fulfillment, integrative health practices, and advocacy for physician well-being.

This podcast is for physicians, physician coaches, and all who care about the well-being of those in medicine. Just as in medicine, where a single interaction can transform a life, this podcast is grounded in the belief that one conversation can have immense power to inspire, heal, and bring about change. 

Subscriber-only episodes include physician coaching sessions, exclusive debrief episodes for each coaching session with Dr. Singh, and coach mentoring sessions in which Dr. Singh receives support for her own coaching practice. Free episodes feature physician experts discussing themes and topics related to the coaching journey.  Subscriber-only episodes are available exclusively on our website, Buzzsprout, and Apple. Free episodes are available on major podcast platforms, including Spotify and Youtube.

Support the show

Subscribe to the podcast: www.holisticphysiciancoachingpodcast.com 

The podcast is provided by the Center for Health and Wellness Coaches.