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About Our Guest- Dr. Erica Steele – Holistic Healthcare
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A child of two Marines now practicing in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Dr. Erica Steeleis the founder of Holistic Family Practice, where she specializes in natural health, healing, disease prevention and holistic healthcare. As a highly educated, multi degreed, and extensively trained board-certified naturopathic doctor, a doctor of natural medicine, a certified functional medicine practitioner and a certified homeoprophylaxis practitioner.
Dr. Steele uses multi-faceted and synergistic approaches to physical, environmental mental, emotional, spiritual health. Her work often supplements or co-manages that of her patients’ general physicians, surgeons, nutritionists, therapists and other health-care providers. Since 2001, she has helped transform the lives of over 30 thousand people.
Having been immersed in her own family’s world of science, health and holistic healing since early childhood, Dr. Steele prides herself on practicing safe, effective methodology within the realms of proven science.
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Full Podcast Transcription
Dr. Erica Steele 00:00
I love working with the body because it really talks to you. Right? The challenge is, is most people don\’t know what it\’s telling it, right? So that\’s where I go in and I\’m teaching people. Oh, it\’s doing this it\’s doing that. It\’s not an exact science, right? Like there\’s an art form to this type of work which is just so beautiful because you get to learn so much about the body. I just love it fascinating.
Diva Nagula 00:24
Hello, everyone and welcome to another episode of From Doctor to Patient. Today, I have the pleasure of having Dr. Erica Steele with us. She is a child of two Marines, now practicing in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She\’s the founder of Holistic Family Practice where she specializes in natural health, healing, disease prevention, and holistic health care. As a highly educated multi- degree and extensively trained board-certified naturopathic doctor, a doctor of natural medicine, a certified functional medicine practitioner and a certified homeo-prophylaxis practitioner. Dr. Steele uses multifaceted and synergistic approaches to physical, environmental, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, her work often supplements or co- manages that have her patients, General physicians, surgeons, nutritionists, therapists, and other health care providers. Since 2001, she has helped transform the lives of over 30,000 people having been immersed in her own family\’s world of science, health and holistic healing. Since early childhood, Dr. Steele prides herself on practicing safe, effective methodology within the realms of proven science. Dr. Steele it\’s such a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.
Dr. Erica Steele 01:54
Thank you. Definitely, I\’m really excited to be on the show chatting with you.
Diva Nagula 01:59
You know, it\’s great, I, the number that really came out to me when we were talking about your bio was 30,000 people that you\’ve helped to heal, that is an incredible number so kudos to you, and congrats on that!
Dr. Erica Steele 02:11
Thank you. Yeah, I know, it\’s, it\’s amazing. My goal is, of course, millions of people to be able to touch millions of people\’s lives, and really to help them to understand their internal power to heal. I think so many of us often give our power away over to other people, family, friends, our physician even and so really my mission here is to educate people motivate and inspire them to live a healthy life.
Diva Nagula 02:39
And so it\’s interesting, because there is a lot of practitioners out there that are very unilateral in the way they practice and what I mean by that, but there are people who practice traditional medicine, and only really focused on the guidelines of traditional medicine, and they don\’t encompass other modalities. And there are other naturopaths, that also are on the other side of the spectrum, where they\’re only looking at ways of naturopathic to heal. But what you do is a little bit different, you really integrate all these various philosophies of healing, and really, truly apply healing to an individual.
Dr. Erica Steele 03:15
Yeah, agreed, you know, early on. So my background, my mother was in medicine, my father was in education, I grew up running around labs, I grew up, you know, going to organic chemistry classes with my mom. But I also knew, I\’m a practicing Native American, I grew up Native American, my mother got sick really early on when I was about eight years old. And so where traditional medicine to which she so believed in, really wasn\’t doing the job. That\’s when she turned to more holistic approaches. So from an early age, I really understood that there was a science that you could prove or disprove, but then there was also this faith based healing that you couldn\’t necessarily really prove or disprove, but you knew that it worked. And so kind of my part of my life\’s work is really combining the two. It\’s like, we know, some of these other various modalities and complexities exist. But then it\’s a matter of as in western medicine, proving and disproving that these things exist. And sometimes, you know, it\’s difficult for them to catch up to one another, right? You know, we can like, I\’ll give you an example. Right? So we use the foot detox machine in our practice, right? And so people are like, Oh, my gosh, there was that 20/20 episode, you know, like, but in Eastern philosophy, it\’s really based off of bioenergetics. Right. bioenergetics predates Western medicine by over 10,000 years. So clearing out the meridian system has its own proven methodology, but with the Western mind, the westerns thinking only from a biochemical perspective, they don\’t really understand the bioenergetic and the bio frequency because that\’s more woowoo right? And so, you know, I love to incorporate really all of it, and I\’m a seeker of knowledge and truth. So it\’s like, you know, I\’ll lift up any rock that\’s laying around to figure something out, because I\’m more committed to helping people heal, not necessarily to what dogmatic principle, you know, we\’re trained in.
Diva Nagula 05:14
And that\’s so key. And I think that is what really makes a true healer. Because you\’re incorporating all these different types of modalities, even whether it\’s under one discipline, you\’re using various modalities to help heal. But the multi-disciplinary faceted approach, to me is how you can really, truly heal an individual. And we have to remember that the traditional medicine that we are all familiar with, really, it\’s been around, maybe just under, you know, 80 years, right. And you have philosophies that are indigenous, you have philosophies that are in the traditional Chinese medicine, in Ayurvedic medicine in India. I mean, those have been around for 1000s of years, right, before the advent of pharmaceuticals, and before the advent of all the things that we\’re seeing. So we have to look at it from this longevity spectrum of what\’s been utilized before and current. Now get me wrong, traditional medicine to me has its merits, you know, there\’s nothing else I can sit there and fix a person who has been in a motor vehicle accident as beautifully as traditional medicine. I don\’t want to discount that. But on the flip in for preventative care, we don\’t have anything that\’s, that\’s very useful for preventative care. And that\’s where you know, a person like yourself or your your experience, you\’ve developed this holistic healthcare. So let\’s get into that a little bit and talk about what that entails and how how your approach is when you actually see a patient.
Dr. Erica Steele 06:38
Yeah, so interesting to note, you know, allopathy, right, root word heroic measure, right. So that\’s what allopathy really is good for is that heroic measure to save the person at all cost, right. But, you know, we\’re so disconnected with our health, that by the time we have a physical symptom, it\’s already been manifesting for quite some time. So the advantage of having worked with so many people over the years is, and as a scientist, right, I look at patterns, right? So people often come to my practice initially for a physical ailment, right. So they\’ve either gone the traditional route, and they\’ve exhausted all options, and they haven\’t figured out causative, or they\’ve had terrible side effects, unfortunately, or something intuitive just says this doesn\’t work or, or whatever the case may be. So they come into the practice with a physical ailment. So of course, we look at laboratory biochemistry, nutrition, that kind of thing. But then it expands from there, where we start to look at environment, right relationships, like I\’ve treated patients that, you know, were married to alcoholics for 25-30 years and didn\’t recognize that that had any impact on their physical health and well being right. Or people that you know, have no boundaries whatsoever. And they\’re always saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And they\’re exhausted and burnt out, and their adrenal glands, and epinephrine and norepinephrine and all that whole, you know, chemistry is going, you know, off the off the rocker. So you can\’t heal that until you get those things stable, right. And as you start to look at the complexities of somebody\’s environment, internal environment, even the toxic loads, things like that genetics, methyl genetic factors, it really opens up those mental components, right? So you\’re looking at the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, you\’re looking at limiting beliefs, core beliefs, things from you know, childhood past experiences, emotions, especially in our Western culture, we are taught to suppress our emotions, you know, I\’m a child of two Marines who don\’t feel anything, just shut it down. Right. And so, you know, we I talked about undigested emotions, right? People are not even conscious that they haven\’t, because they\’re too busy as Americans sucking it up, and you know, powering through, right, so then that really opens up more of the spiritual intuition, that connection with source creator, whatever you want to call it, right? And then it really opens up even to the ancestral components, what\’s passed down generationally, and how that\’s been recorded in our DNA, right? So it\’s not this simple, clean, like, oh, you come in with this symptom and then this is the magic pill, or this is the magic diet, or this is the magic, anything. And even in my profession, there\’s a lot of thinking that, Oh, I\’m just going to run a lab, and I\’m going to give a supplement. And that\’s going to fix it. And that\’s how we\’re trained even in functional medicine. That\’s how we\’re trained. And then, as I started working with people, I was like, oh, wait a second, like, I\’m putting these people on amazing protocols, amazing diets. They\’re not they\’re not showing up, they\’re not doing it or if they are, they\’re lying about it. Why are they lying about it? You know, like, I just started to really look at all the different dynamics. And as I looking at those different dynamics and being curious, that\’s really kind of how this whole aspect of healing really began, I always tell people, I didn\’t start way out here on the left and right I started out where most people start off as pragmatic and how we\’re trained. And then just through experience, and really being committed to actually helping people heal, not just, you know, making money or being the status quo and whatnot, I\’m sure you can understand that.
Diva Nagula 10:30
And as having some Native American background and descent, are you able to utilize some of the indigenous modes of healing the ancient wisdom and various modalities to help heal people?
Dr. Erica Steele 10:45
Of course, I really think that that is what makes me very unique. And it\’s not just, you know, from my native background, but also even my African, I\’ve been able to bring it back. Even to Africa and some of the healers, indigenous healers there, right. And so, and growing up as a practicing Native American, and doing all the sweat lodges and visionquest, and dances and all that kind of stuff, like really having that power. You know, my mother was a shaman, native healer as well, you know, so I grew up, really, with this understanding and this energy, right, like, I read energy all the time, right? People often come into my office, and they go, Oh, my gosh, are you watching me? How do you know these things? Right? And it\’s because that energy has that connection, right? You can feel it when it\’s off, and you can feel it when it\’s on to. And I think there\’s a lot of subtlety. And I think in the traditional models, because it\’s so fast paced, and because it\’s so linear, like you said, and really very masculine, you lose some of the subtleties. I think, you know, from an allopathic perspective, I think, you know, the television show House, right, he really got the subtleties. And I appreciate that, even though you know, a lot of it\’s not necessarily accurate, and unless it\’s a television show, but still, that really illustrates right, there\’s a lot of subtlety, and I don\’t think people intend to lie in their practice, right? Like, they come to a doctor, and they legitimately feel oh, well, this, and they don\’t understand that everything relates to everything. And I was very grateful with some of my preceptors, I had some preceptors in psychology, right? You know, and they were very good at telling me like, you don\’t know anything, you don\’t know anything about anything, you have to start every case with a clean slate, right? Because perception, right? What I think is totally healthy, maybe totally unhealthy for you. And so there\’s so much depth to it, and so much richness. So to answer your question, of course, I think, you know, I carry that power that energy with me, and with that, I help people to gain that power within themselves, which is a very unique and beautiful positions.
Diva Nagula 13:02
It\’s really fascinating, because I\’m kind of on the reverse path, I wouldn\’t say reverse, but similar in the sense that I like to encompass my ways of healing people through a variety of modalities that extend and go through various different disciplines. And so like I was initially on the traditional path, so I was raised by a physician who was strictly in the western sense of medicine. And I went to osteopathic school. And then over the last few years, after I\’ve been seeking answers to my own healing, I\’ve been many more towards the indigenous cultures, learning more about indigenous medicines, learning about, you know, acupuncture, just various other modalities. And I find that so much more fascinating. And to me, to tell you the truth, more gratifying the energy work and energy medicine. You know, it\’s all about listening to your intuition. That\’s what really is key in helping healing and then inviting, you know, the spirits to help heal through you, and I think that\’s just that\’s, that\’s the true healer. Yeah, it\’s just fascinating to me that you know, that we\’re actually talking about this.
Dr. Erica Steele 14:08
Yeah. And it\’s amazing because I tell patients, when they come in, like you already have all the answers, you already know what you need to heal yourself. I\’m just a guide and a teacher. I\’m just here to unlock the door. But once they unlock, like, I\’ve had patients that have been with me for years, and it\’s amazing to see their transformation, right? They go from being shutdown, angry, confused, frustrated, sick, to being totally light and free and happy and living the life of their dreams. And that\’s really what we want to create is more abundance, prosperity in life in general, right?
Diva Nagula 14:42 I agree.
Dr. Erica Steele 14:42
And so, and living the life that we really deserve to have, and I think it\’s understanding all that and getting to the depth of it, for sure. And that transcends this linear, diagnose and manage approach, right? It doesn\’t even equate because there\’s so many dynamics attached to it, and I think disease, right? pathos root word Latin suffering, right? Any kind of suffering is really there\’s a polarity to it, right? There\’s a lesson that we need to learn from it at the same time, right? We can\’t push it away, right? So we have to embrace it in order to understand it, dissect it and get the blessing and the healing out of it. I think we focus mainly on, like the five stages of grief. And I really believe there\’s six right? So of course, you know, the denial, the anger, the bargaining, the depression, the acceptance, but then there\’s the wisdom that comes after it, right. So once you\’ve transcended even the acceptance of it, there\’s so much richness to it, that you\’re able to gain and access, which is just, I think, phenomenal, for sure.
Diva Nagula 15:21
And then specifically, like, what kind of people come to your door? And what kind of cases do you typically see and treats? Or is it anything specific? Or is it just run of the mill?
Dr. Erica Steele 16:07
So I\’m in family practice. So one of my preceptors was a PhD in nutrition and I was I was pretty sad to go into autoimmunity oncology, really, the super hard cases, because I needed to prove myself to myself for a long time. And then then my preceptor got breast cancer and actually died. And so that shifted, shifted my construct, I said, you know, I don\’t want to be in this heaviness so much, right, there\’s a heaviness to it. The other thing to note about cancer, right, it develops, people with cancer, they tend to suppress their emotions, their communications, so you\’re spending a lot of time pulling that all out, right, which is very heavy. So I went into family practice because I wanted that the energy of you know, young ones and vibrant love but I still have those super heavy cases too, but it\’s a good span, right? So prevention, true prevention and getting to teach the kiddos you know about what it means to be healthy they love this teaching them empowerment, okay? So you know, we have coloring worksheets, I teach them nutrition, I teach them about, exercise and water and even talk about their emotions and teach them boundaries, you know, all the stuff that you and I should have learned growing up that didn\’t. So it\’s really fun to be able to teach them so they can prevent so much sickness, and then naturally, digestive disorders, hormonal, neurological, a lot of mental health issues, and a lot of autoimmunity. You know, the gamut for sure, I wanted an eclectic practice, I wanted to be able to, exercise my brain and utilize it to its full potential because you know, when you get very centered in one specific area, and you keep seeing it over and over and over again, it\’s challenging, so I really wanted expansion for sure.
Diva Nagula 18:14
Yeah, I think it\’d be really cool if we do some case studies and talk about, some examples of some somebody rather difficult cases or some cases that are easy, and I kind of gathered that a lot of these folks that come to see you. It\’s kind of at the end, right, and it\’s not the beginning. So they\’ve exhausted all conventional options. Maybe some other alternative means that they\’ve actually sought out but didn\’t really get anywhere. So then they end up with you. So yeah, I\’d love to hear some some case studies.
Dr. Erica Steele 19:40
I\’d love to as well. Yeah, I\’m definitely the cleanup crew in medicine. Like they come to me and they\’re very angry. They\’re very frustrated, they\’re disappointed they\’re let down most often they tell me I don\’t trust doctors coming in right? You know a simple case. Let\’s talk about a simple case. So I have case, she was in her 20s and came in and she had hypertension, diabetes hyperlipidemia, the full gamut, right? All the metabolic disorders, but she was a personal trainer, which was fascinating, right? So you go, okay, what\’s going on? Well, as we kind of go through the whole process, right, come to find out her family were farmers, right? And so part of kind of how they addressed it was, as many of us did, you know, you can\’t get up from the table until you\’ve eaten all your vegetables, right? So she decided in our mind, well, when I become an adult, I\’m going to eat whatever I want, right? So fast food and high fat, high sugar, and pretty much just anything, right? And so what happens, right, when you continue to eat like that, and you abuse your body, and you\’ve got certain genetic predispositions to diabetes and metabolic disorders, bam, you\’re gonna manifest it right. And so had we not gone that deep, right, we once we click that in and helped her to decide that this was a choice, right? She was getting to choose, she wasn\’t disempowered, she was able to choose how she ate, right? Eventually, she was able to start converting the way that she ate because we had to really rework her palate, right. So we had to wash her palate, we had to get her to the point where she would actually eat vegetables. So as a mental thing, it was an emotional thing. It was a personal power thing, right? It was a behavior thing. It was a lifestyle thing. But then, you know, at the end, after about a year and a half, you know, no medication she\’s done. she\’s healthy. Living a great life. Right. And so, you know, that\’s an easy case. Right?
Diva Nagula 21:39
What kind of things without specific case like what what did you end up seeing in having to treat?
Dr. Erica Steele 21:46
So from a genetic predisposition perspective, right, we look at liver function, right, we look at SOD, the body\’s ability to take on toxicity, we have to stabilize that when you\’re eating foods that are highly toxic, right, you have to stabilize those. So nutrient and antioxidant distribution and making sure that the body\’s getting those, right, we want to make sure we give a baseline nutrition because naturally, she\’s not getting it from her standard diet, right. So we have to have a baseline nutrition. And then we build from there. We do education on diet, nutrition and work, but also we\’re working with the conscious mind the subconscious mind. So I\’m going to use NLP neuro linguistic programming, I\’m going to use some clinical hypnotherapy involved with that, I\’m going to use a lot of reframing and things like that, to help her to understand and just shift that perspective of this is not something that you want, per se, but this is something that you\’re doing because you love yourself, right. And at the root of all of it itself. Love anyway. Forgiveness, you know, those kinds of conversations, right, we\’re having physical conversations, so we can get the diet balance, we start to add rather than take away because the human psyche can handle adding things, rather than taking things away. And then we start going in from top down, and we repair the digestive system. So we repair the hydrochloric acid, get her protein up, put her on a metabolic health scale, see where her macros need to be see where metabolic rate is, you know, start her tracking her food, right. So we have apps and things that patients track their food that are two way I get to see what they\’re doing and get to send them meal plans and things like that, teach them about preparation, planning, etc. And really watch their behavior. As we\’re going in, of course, clean the liver out get the liver rebalanced, we tend to build then detox, then rebuild. So that\’s kind of how I address it. And I do it one organ at a time, which is a little different than your standard practitioner functional medicine practitioner, they\’ll tend to kind of run a whole bunch of tests upfront, put a patient on 25 something plus supplements, and the body just can\’t handle that. So I break it up and do it in sections, right. And so I\’m educating but I\’m also doing it, you know, healing the digestive system from the top down what the person\’s eating, how they\’re digesting, assimilating metabolizing and then absorbing it naturally. and eliminating.
Diva Nagula 24:13
And how is this person doing now?
Dr. Erica Steele 24:15
She\’s doing great. Yeah, she\’s living the dream. Yeah, my practice is set up where I teach patients what they need to know. So eventually, they leave me. Because I tell them, I go look, you know, one day, I\’m going to be retired, I\’m going to be on a beach somewhere, and I\’m not going to have cell phone reception and you\’re still going to be in your body. So, you know, why don\’t I just teach you how to do this, you know, because I know my body very, very well. Right. And so, you know, I know how I need to eat. I know, detoxification. I listen, right? Most people don\’t listen to their body. They\’re just connected. And so it\’s my job really, to help people connect back into their bodies, and then they intuitively know what to do to maintain it, because everybody\’s body\’s different.
Diva Nagula 25:03
Do you have a lot of cases where you\’re seeing folks with autoimmune conditions, you know, other issues like people suffering from Lyme, epstein barr, you know, as well as just regular autoimmunity conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. And what I\’ve been seeing a lot of is everyone is being diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. And these are conditions that are better diagnosed based on just symptomatology, and no real blood work that confirms the diagnosis of situations like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, but because they are presenting with some sort of inflammatory condition, they\’re being labeled as having these diagnosis.
Dr. Erica Steele 25:46 Yeah
Diva Nagula 25:46
I know from a functional perspective, what it entails in order to work that person up and understanding how to change and transform their their lifestyle to really get improvement. So I wanted to ask you, from a naturopathic holistic practitioner, like what do you do when you have these people that come to your door?
Dr. Erica Steele 26:06
So you can see the body developing auto immunity, of course, in a CBC with differential right, you can see the white blood cell count super, super low, you can see MCH, MCHC, all of those are super, super low anemia, B complex, folic acid, that\’s also an indication of a methylation issue too. You can also run an AMA, right, that will also show as well as an HSCRP to see pro inflammatory process, right. So you can see the body develop, and that\’s not functional labs, those are just basic blood labs, right? If you wanted to go deeper, there are some, you know, you can look at the Secretory IGA as well, you can see all of those different variations thereof that are within the digestive track. Looking at organic acids profile as well. Looking at the glutathione, if the glutathione is being you know, taken up, you\’ve got to understand why. I really think it\’s all sourced around the liver, honestly. And so like I still have a case actually a little kid. skin, I mean, just I mean beyond eczema, like if I was an allopath, I would have, I would have diagnosed it as eczema, right. And I\’m seeing a lot more of these cases too. So some with steroids and some without sole focus on the child to begin with, because I have an adult case as well. And so, um, you know, so the skin so bad, I mean, cracked and like, you know, no kinds of hydration you can get right? And so you know, having to work through the diet, you know, allergic to everything, right? And so that\’s, that\’s a clue right there when the body\’s reacting to everything, right? So okay, we work on the diet, we get the colors out, we get the dyes out, we get all the pro inflammatory foods out your night shades, things like that, I do a little bit of pulse test a little bit different than like your standard functional Doc, I don\’t run food allergy reaction testing up front, because it\’s going to ping to everything, right, like, you know, the gut ecology is going to react to everything. So don\’t do any of that. But what I do is I work on the function, right? Plus to do good, really good testing like that. It\’s very expensive, not covered under insurance. So I\’d rather go for the low lying fruit first, right? So I look at that basic CMP 14 C, kidney liver function, CBC with differential maybe I\’ll run an AMA maybe I\’ll want an HSCRP, don\’t have to, but I look at the lipid panel to to see the lipid oxidation, right? Because that\’s really key. Because if the liver is taking the fats and throwing it into the bloodstream, and then creating the anemia, because pulling the B-complexes out, right, you know, you can see the process is it\’s kind of, it\’s old hat at this. Yeah, you see it over and over again, right. So we get the diet stabilized, right, then we work on upper GI, we just start there, then in this particular case, a lot of times people eat too many fats, which is going to slow the liver down, too. So I have to get the gallbladder down. Sometimes I like in this case, I had to flush the gallbladder twice, right. And I use Andrew Morris, technique or whatever, you know, tried and trued. Right. So we\’ll do that. I\’ll put some homeopathics in place to keep that going. Keep the fats really, really low in the diet, not too low, but low enough, right. flush out the heavy metals of the liver, work through the digestive system, clean up the small intestine absorption as much as I can re inoculate the system, get some good probiotics in there, etc. And then I\’ll test then I\’ll look at like an LRA test or I\’ll look at an Eliza test… something like that. But I also like for chemicals and metals, because it\’s not so much the food is the chemical/metal and also to if they have mold, forget it. Like you got to get that stuff out of the system. Otherwise, you just won\’t heal, So in this particular case, we were able to condense it down. Right. So DMT/cadmium or what is it? I believe that is it\’s an herbicide pesticide, I kind of get it confused with other things. But DMT/cadmium as well, those were the things that were internal, that were driven deeper into the cell. So people don\’t realize the body is going to be self protective, it\’s going to keep driving things deeper and deeper and deeper into the tissues. And so you\’ve got to peel back those layers, the body has to have enough energy to express those things in lab test, right. So in my other case, my adult case that I have, she came in, and I\’m still working her through, she\’s been working with me for a little less than a year. But she\’d been through dermatology, so they put steroids after steroids after steroids after… which drives a deeper and deeper and deeper. So now to the point that like the pain, when she came in, she could barely walk, she couldn\’t work. And we have to slowly peel that back. So again, it\’s like building detoxing, rebuilding because the body the integrity, right, we have to make sure that there\’s enough strength in the body to detox. Because if you\’re constantly trying to detox, right, So we have to we stabilize them, we do talk, so her body was oozing, which is a natural form of detox, we finally got that, her bowels weren\’t moving. We had to get that going. Because if I\’m trying to dump things from the liver, right, and her bowels aren\’t moving, what do you think\’s gonna happen? It\’s gonna turn into a toxic mess. So there\’s a lot of nuance to the case, right, like so the little boy with the issue. his bowels were never an issue, a little bit, but not as much as hers, hers had completely stopped, right. And nobody thought to ask about any of that. Right. And so we got those moving, we got the liver. Now her her skin is not weeping anymore. It\’s not as painful. But now it\’s interesting. It\’s like crusting over. So it\’s starting to try to heal itself, right? So I love working with the body because it really talks to you, right? The challenge is, is most people don\’t know what it\’s telling it. Right? So that\’s where I go in, and I\’m teaching people oh, it\’s doing this, it\’s doing that it\’s not an exact science, right? Like there\’s an art form to this type of work, which is just so beautiful. Because you get to learn so much about the body. I just love it. It\’s fascinating.
Diva Nagula 32:28
Yeah. And then at what point do you start suspecting that some of the ailments that they\’re suffering from is not necessarily theirs. It\’s been inherited from generations and generations and generations, because it\’s imprinted their our DNA.
Dr. Erica Steele 32:43
There\’s an energy to that, for sure, you can feel it. Right. So and also having done a lot of my own ancestral work with constellation therapy and things like that, looking at the dynamics between, like, for instance, you know, I can only speak about my bloodline, right. But like the African part, right, disassociation, so there\’s a lot of mental health issues, right, in order to kind of handle the concept of slavery, right? And so a lot of dissociation issues that happened with that. So you can see it, right mental health, substance abuse, things like that. So that will show up in behavior, right? Because I just want to check out I don\’t want to actually see what\’s going on, right? Then there\’s also some other subtleties, too. Like, I have one case, in particular, like, she\’s a real social justice warrior, and that\’s from the DNA, right, you can see it come out. And so working with her to kind of soften that, especially in her work environment, because you need diplomacy, right. S working with her on that, for sure. But then even you know, I have European bloodline as well. And the European bloodline is fascinating, because they tend to like go into denial, like they just don\’t want to see any of it. Right. So working through some of that, right. And these are generalizations some things I\’ve discovered on my own. But again, there\’s an energy to it, right? So I\’m just a vessel. That\’s all I am. I\’m a vessel, I\’m a tool, I\’m a teacher, I go into session, and whatever flows is what I interpret, I\’ve gotten really good at hearing, I\’ve gotten really good at feeling. I\’m just like a guitar string, right? I just vibrate. And so I play the music for the patient and the patient listens. And sometimes I\’ll tell you, that sometimes the patient\’s not ready to hear what I have to say. And so I\’ll give you an example. I did a consult a few weeks back and, and I just simply explained, you know, I asked her oh, have you been to a holistic doctor before? No, but I\’m coming from my digestive and my hormones. Okay, great. You know, well, let me just talk to you about, you know, the process of holistic health care, right? So I go over my pyramid, right. I go over the, you know, physical, environmental, mental, emotional, and then I get to the spiritual, right. And she\’s like, Oh, no, no, no, I\’ve already got that covered, right. And then I get to the ancestral and that\’s she stands up and she\’s like, this isn\’t for me. I\’m out of here. I gotta go bye. So you go okay, so I triggered something right. And I tried to have a conversation with her just so she doesn\’t storm out, whatever, you know. But you know, it\’s interesting, right? So whatever entities right or whatever thing was there that was kind of holding her back, right and being reactive, right? adrenal gland, thyroid, come on HPA axis, right. So if you can\’t even sit – and then digestive issues, personal power, self love, self worth, self acceptance, you can\’t even sit and listen to a conversation, you lose your power that quick, and you\’re going to run away, fight or flight, right? Fear, epinephrine, norepinephrine, you may not ever get well, in that case, you know. So my mother, very wise woman always said, you know, the truth will first piss you off, and then it\’ll set you free. So, you know, hopefully, hopefully.
Diva Nagula 35:55
I mean, I want you to kind of start closing our show, but with that in mind, I wanted to see if you could give our listeners some tips, just some generalization some some tips to follow. And to adhere to for a optimal better avenue to healthy lifestyle.
Dr. Erica Steele 36:12
Yes, I would say the first thing is to get present, really get present to what your body is telling you. There\’s a communication back and forth that\’s happening. And if you dismiss it, and you let go of it, and you\’re not paying attention to it, it can get away from you. So being present and being open to hearing what it has to say, right? So I\’m always open like I go \”hmm\” and I check in to I\’m like, how are my proteins? How my carbohydrates? What organ do I need to feed now with this meal, right? I have this inner dialogue that\’s always happening. And I think we miss over that, because we\’re always looking for the best diet or the best supplements or whatever, right? But if you don\’t have presence, you\’re not going to be able to get anywhere, right? I do think discipline has a role for sure, consistently, deliberately over an extended period of time, right? Even if I don\’t want to, I didn\’t really want to meditate this morning. But I did anyway, right? Like, sometimes we have to push ourselves a little bit, especially past our comfort zone. So there\’s just a lot of dynamics with it. And I think that, you know, if your listeners can start there, I think they would be really, really amazed at what their bodies and their souls and their spirits have to tell them about their own healing process. Right. And you know, those people that struggle with cancer and things of that regard, I will truly believe that that is one of the most spiritual columns, the deep spiritual callings. My partner, love him to pieces, he passed away of bladder cancer, and he always said always said, and it made me a better doctor, truly, I mean, because I actually got to be on the other side, right, just like you, on the other side of the table, and really been able to experience all of it. And it\’s just like a domino effect. I believe it\’s a true blessing. If you want to get to the wisdom, right, and we talked about that, they you know, those five or six stages of grief. And so I think anything can be perceived as a weakness, but it also can be perceived as a strength. So I think perception has a lot to do with it. And looking at it not of, you know, why is this happening to me, but rather, why is this happening for me? Because then divine action begins to open up and we begin to see what our next steps are. So hopefully, that\’s helpful.
Diva Nagula 38:35
Thank you. And if our listeners want to find you, what\’s the best way of finding you on the internet or where can they look for you?
Dr. Erica Steele 38:47
holisticfamilypracticeva.com Our office is in Virginia Beach, I treat people all over the world. Our office number 757-685-4325 I do a free complimentary 15 minutes, where I talk to people because I just love people, right. I love people\’s healing process. And then Facebook and Instagram. You know, you can google Dr. Erica Steele. I\’m all over the place.
Diva Nagula 39:14
Awesome. Well, Dr. Steele, thank you so much for taking the time out to be with us. And, you know, enjoy Aruba while you\’re there for a few more hours, I think.
Dr. Erica Steele 39:23
Yeah. It\’s a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you so much.
Diva Nagula 39:28 Take care.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]