Integrative Health Veterans Create Community Through Video

by John Weeks, Publisher/Editor of The Integrator Blog News and Reports

If you Google “Integrative Wisdom” you will find a site that promises “stories and insights from the integrative community.”  The first evidence of wisdom is the presentation. One is quickly greeted with a diverse array of maturing faces. The website’s pearls are delivered by each in a series of short, tightly edited videos. The length of each typically tops out at no more than two minutes. They are arranged in categories targeting students, practitioners, and patients. The site, to which additional clips are added weekly, is sponsored by Integrative Therapeutics.

The reason for the project is described simply on the site and states that “change is possible, when we work together.”  In addition, “countless individuals have seen, and experienced, the transformative power of integrative medicine. Now they’re working towards putting integrative medicine at the core of our healthcare system.”

They added that “though we all have different perspectives on how we’ll get there, it’s clear we have a lot to offer one another, and that as a community, we can drive this mission forward and create real change in the world.”

The interprofessional group includes, for instance: former American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine president Wendy Warner, MD; American Association of Naturopathic Physicians past president Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO; licensed naprapath and Kellogg Foundation vice president Gail Christopher, DN; Bastyr University founding president and functional medicine leader Joe Pizzorno, ND; integrative pain expert and former American Holistic Medical Association president Hal Blatman, MD; homeopathic educator Amy Rothenberg, ND; Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM) board member Molly Roberts, MD. Most are integrative MDs and naturopathic doctors. Some presenters are featured in multiple short clips. A few, including Jamie Harvey and the present writer are individuals associated with the field in other ways. All are organized here by speaker. Many of the first videos were shot at the October 2015 AIHM conference, People, Planet, Purpose.

Comment: The composite number of years of practice and policy activity of the 51 individuals on the site (as of June 29, 2016) must count over 1000 years. Some, like educator and women’s health expert Tori Hudson, ND have been practicing over 30 years. Pizzorno has been licensed for over 40 now. Many were involved in co-founding the organizations and institutions that are the platform on which the field presently stands. Others are younger, like global integrative health leader Tabatha Parker, ND, and current AANP president Jacelyn Chasse, ND. One would hope that, by now, such a group would have wisdom to share.

Oh yes, and  if you have some wisdom of your own to share, there is a Submit Your Wisdom page for that. Take a look. Clearly it is taking an interprofessional village to raise and nourish this movement. “Many hands” -- as my sometimes wise mother Roberta Weeks was fond of putting it -- “make light work.” Credit Integrative Therapeutics for downplaying its generous sponsorship.