The Catalyst Way™: Creative Strategies for Women in Medicine to Flourish

Ever feel like there aren't enough hours in the day? Jenna Piche, once a marketing executive and now a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, has dialed in the art of mastering her time and mindset. This week, Dr. Lara Salyer learns Jenna's game-changing strategies for a balanced and productive life and medical practice.   One of the key insights Jenna shares is the concept of the “positive...

Dr. Christina Bjorndal, a naturopathic doctor and authority in the treatment of mental illness joins The Catalyst to speak about her own experience with depression, bulimia and suicidality, which, at one point, left her in a coma. Yet, in a stunning message of hope she reveals that it was this latter incident that set her on a trajectory of healing, a process she says is both individual and ongoin...

Dual board-certified physician in family and integrative medicine, Dr. Jill Valerius has a valuable story to share on this continuation of our mini-series of successful practices. Her journey reflects a narrative familiar to many: beginning in a conventional medical setting, trying to cater to thousands, only to grapple with mounting frustration as her practice began to drift from her core purpose...

20 years into practicing family medicine, Dr. Myrto Ashe completely reimagined the way she delivers healthcare. In this episode of our mini-series focusing on successful functional medicine clinics, you'll hear an inspiring and relatable story of one doctor’s journey to functional medicine.    After witnessing the failure of conventional medicine to improve symptoms for a family member, Dr. Ashe b...

Movement is medicine, and play is the secret ingredient that makes it enjoyable and sustainable.  This is the message of Darryl Edwards, a movement coach and founder of the Primal Play Method.   In this episode, Darryl shares his personal journey of overcoming burnout and transforming his health through exercise. He discovered that traditional exercise programs didn't resonate with him and his cli...

When embarking on a new venture, it’s easy to compare ourselves negatively to our peers on social media, to try to be too much to our patients and forget what brings us joy. The more you define success on your own terms, based on your own values, the less you’re likely to feel imposter syndrome or burnout. Today, Dr. Lara will delve into the three categories that tend to cause medical entrepreneur...

“We need to understand that feedback is part of our growth” Dr. Lara says on this solo episode of The Catalyst. Feedback–including and perhaps especially negative feedback–is vital not only to providing the best value to your community, but in allowing to shape your company and its services. It’s a metric which helps to ensure you’re fulfilling your set mission and goals and even lets you know wha...

"Listen, Lara, you are preaching to the converted there because that is one element that helped me with my recovery," shares Helen Perks, a registered nutritional therapist, during her captivating conversation with Lara Salyer on the Catalyst Podcast. The duo delves into their experiences at the International Precision Medicine (IPM) Congress in London, which brought together diverse thought leade...

In this episode, we explore five essential tips to maximize attendance in group visits, addressing the challenges faced by many healthcare professionals. The significance of group visits becomes evident when we recognize the limitations of scaling one-on-one patient care. Dr. Lara Salyer, your host, shares valuable insights on how to make these visits more effective and impactful.   First, set rea...

“The true medicine that we give our patients as a functional medicine practitioner is the medicine of trust, the medicine of empowerment, that they know their bodies are going to be okay,” shares host and functional medicine practitioner Dr. Lara Salyer. The world of functional medicine is vast and it can be a challenge to not get lost in the weeds during patient visits. Today, Dr. Lara explains h...

“Today in a fast paced, disjointed world working remotely, one of the things we've lost is our ability to really connect with each other,” shares Mike Seyfer, CEO of both Haley’s Salt, the digital performance marketing firm for health and wellness brands, and the Institute for Healthcare Excellence. Mike is helping to transform profit-driven sick-care into human-centered health care. Nowadays with...

“Each practitioner I have worked with that is like, ‘I’m just going to do it’ has found that it's super beneficial to their patients, but also for them,” explains Jessica Bruno, MS, CNS. Adding a nutritionist or health coach to your practice may sound out of reach financially, but it does not have to be. Jessica is a certified nutrition specialist with a masters in functional medicine and human nu...

“Seriously? This is all we have to offer?” Tracy Harrison, principal instructor and founding CEO of the School of Applied Functional Medicine, found herself asking this question when her husband suddenly suffered a series of debilitating seizures and was a cocktail of drugs and very little information. This eye-opening incident spotlighted the current state of medicine which offers good disease ca...

“Women are so cerebral. We’re running things. We're doing things, we are getting there. And it disconnects us from our pelvic floor. And when we look at the pelvic floor, that is our safety. That is our power,” shares Debbie Rice, ND. Debbie is the Director of Clinical Education for Precision Analytical and also practices part time as a naturopathic doctor. Her focus is on hormone health, thyroid...

“By the year 2040, 75% of Ag output will be controlled by less than 5% of farms. What that also indicates is that there's a tremendous opportunity for smaller scale farms establishing more of a direct to consumer relationship,” explains Dan Wegmueller, a fourth generation dairy farmer in Wisconsin. Healthcare and agriculture may not seem like they have a lot in common, and you may be surprised how...

“Our current modern medical career is void of flow. In fact, we are basically stumbling and tripping over multiple disruptors which fragment our attention and drain our cognitive energy,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. It can be really difficult to access flow working within the current Western medical model. With constant flow disruptors throughout the day, it is helpful to know flow enhancers th...

“If you start to make that unconscious conscious, it becomes easier for you to captivate that awareness in your life and make decisions that do align with what matters to you,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. In today’s special FlashCast episode, Dr. Lara shares what it means to make the unconscious conscious through taking a look at the book The Science of Stuck by Britt Frank.    In The Science o...

“Membership is fantastic because it's clear, it’s outlined, it gives an expected transition, and you're also supporting ongoing health,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. Package structures tend to not work as well in functional medicine because the basis of functional medicine is digging deep to unravel complex medical conditions as well as to provide ongoing support. With a package, you are really...

“Flow state is quite honestly the opposite brainwave pattern as grief and burnout. It's the only time your brain produces all five neurochemicals of happiness,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. Modern day life for a physician is full of flow disruptors and does not provide many opportunities for creativity and play. Without the chance to play and be creative, it is very difficult if not impossible t...

“The idea is you have this trigger, you stop the negative cascade, and you substitute something positive so that gradually the brain learns that this is not the pathway you go,” explains Rachel Veltman, an expert on the top 3 Neuroplasticity programs available for brain retraining. After finding out she had a mold toxicity illness, Rachel decided to try each of the major neuroplasticity programs t...

“Wellness, because it's the Wild West, there are no black and white answers oftentimes when it comes to, ‘Can I do this? Or can't I do this?” explains Barbara J. Zabawa, JD, MPH. Barbara is the founder and president of Wellness Law, a legal services company dedicated to improving wellness law compliance for health and wellness professionals and companies. She is also the founder of Pursesuitz, a m...

As we continue to do the work to uncover old thought patterns and rewire our brains for success, it is helpful to give ourselves daily reminders to keep going. In today’s episode, host Dr. Lara Salyer shares 7 daily mantras that she uses in both her personal and professional lives to keep herself moving forward.    We become the thoughts we think. So it is important for all healthcare practitioner...

“The problem with burnout is the workplace, not the worker,” shares Dr. Paul DeChant, CEO of the Sutter Gould Medical Foundation. Today, Dr. Paul joins host Lara to discuss the 6 drivers of burnout, including the systemic issues in our healthcare system that really need to be addressed in order to reduce burnout on a whole.   Often physicians blame themselves for their burnout or think it is all j...

“The bare minimum is better than what conventional medicine has right now. Conventional medicine does not offer any functional medicine testing. So by picking two functional tests that really intrigue you and learning them well so that you can apply them strategically, you will help more patients than if you try to learn all the tests in a scattered fashion,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. Today,...

“If I could go back six years in primary care, I would have approached my administrators differently. I would have said, ‘Hey, I'm very excited about functional medicine, but it's not for everybody. So here's my ideas’,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. Today, Dr. Lara shares her ideas for how to incorporate functional medicine into primary care.   Functional medicine is not for everyone. It’s not t...