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Transcript
- 02:27 About Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum
- 07:35 All about health coaches
- 11:19 Working with a functional medicine health coach
- 13:15 Positive psychology
- 17:19 Character strengths and longevity
- 19:23 Mind-body medicine
- 22:00 Biofeedback
- 24:33 Panic attacks
- 27:48 Becoming a functional medicine coach
- 31:56 The most pressing health issue in the world today
- 33:49 Where to learn more
Wendy Myers: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Live to 110 Podcast. My name is Wendy Myers. You can learn more about me at myersdetox.com. You can check out my detox program at MineralPower.com.
Today, we have Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum on the podcast. She’s going to be talking about positive psychology and a lot of the techniques that people can use like biofeedback and mind-body medicine and a couple of other really interesting topics about how to reduce panic attacks.
She’s written a couple of books she’s going to talk about today on the show.
But before we get into it, we have to do the disclaimer. Please keep in mind this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your healthcare practitioner before engaging in anything that we suggest today on the show.
And if you haven’t heard already, I have a book out on Amazon called Limitless Energy: How to Detox Toxic Metals to End Exhaustion and Chronic Fatigue. I thought this topic was really, really important because, in working with thousands of clients, their number one complaint is fatigue or they have severe, chronic fatigue. And a lot of us medicate ourselves by drinking coffee and taking stimulants, taking Adderall and prescription and even illegal substances to increase our energy. And there’s another way to improve your energy levels.
I talk about, in the book, detoxification and bioenergetic medicine which I think are the two most compelling things that you need to do to address the underlying root cause of why you have low energy. Just covering up with coffee or trying to mask it with substances only works in the short-term, and then you continue to crash, and those things no longer work for you. And then, you find yourself in trouble.
So, I wanted to shed some light on the reasons we have low energy and provide a lot of solutions. You can check out that book on Amazon by searching for Limitless Energy.
Wendy Myers: Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum is the founder and CEO at the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, a program established in collaboration with the Institute for Functional Medicine started by Dr. Mark Hyman.
She is a functional medicine certified practitioner and licensed clinical psychologist with a master’s degree in learning disabilities.
Dr. Scheinbaum has specialized in blending mind-body medicine with positive psychology and cognitive behavior therapy for over 40 years. She established a clinic for diagnosing and treating attention deficit disorders, ran a clinic for treating panic and anxiety, and taught graduate courses in psychology of eating, mind-body medicine, and principles of well-being.
Dr. Scheinbaum is a board certified senior fellow in biofeedback, certified health coach and registered yoga instructor. She’s the author of Stop Panic Attacks in 10 Easy Steps and How to Give Clients the Skills to Stop Panic Attacks. And she conducted one of the first controlled studies of neurofeedback for the treatment of ADD.
Sandra, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: It is my pleasure to be here today, Wendy.
Wendy Myers: Why don’t you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself and your background?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! Well it’s a long story, so I won’t bore you with all the details.
Originally, my background was in special education. I was a teacher. And I thought that would be my future. But I always loved learning and moving on to something else. And so from teaching, I moved into clinical psychology and got a doctorate. And those were the days when there was no positive psychology. It was really focusing on what’s wrong with you.
But I was intrigued about what’s right with people, and particularly about the mind-body connection, which, again, back in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, that was really unheard of, that there was this connection. But that was something I specialized in and explored for many, many years in my practice.
But I was also always very, very interested in what we what and how we move and how that affects, not only physical health, but mental health. So I started studying everything that I could in those areas and found the Institute for Functional Medicine which is a way of looking at root causes of illness. And the more I studied this, the more I became convinced that that program needed health coaches to partner with doctors.
And so, I founded a coaching academy that collaborates with the Institute for Functional Medicine. And so that’s what I’m currently doing. I’m running the coaching academy, and going back to my roots as an educator, to be a mentor for coaches and to teach.
Wendy Myers: And so how did you get started doing that? What’s your personal journey where you wanted to found the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! Well, it was either that or retire and play cards with my friends. And fortunately, I was never a good card player. I never liked playing cards and the idea of learning mahjong or canasta with my neighbors and friends. I wish them well doing it, but I was always someone who was looking for the next opportunity and looking for a challenge. And I didn’t want to retire.
But I had been in private practice as a psychologist for many, many years, and felt it was time to spread the message in a broader stage. I could influence and teach people online throughout the world. And that’s what really excited me. I was so excited about functional medicine as a result of functional medicine applying these principles integrated with mind-body medicine.
Many years ago, I was able to stop panic attacks, which I suffered from in my early 20’s. So that was really what got me started in seeing the benefit of this mind-body connection, how you can pull together facets of so many different techniques and theories—positive psychology, cognitive behavior therapy, and you blend that with mind-body medicine and those kinds of techniques.
And that’s what I brought to the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. We teach all of those, and then we combine them with basic functional medicine principles. That’s really how people can thrive, how they can find wellness, when they dig down to the root causes which chronic illness is often driven by inflammation which is resulting from what we’re eating and how we’re living our lives.
Wendy Myers: And so, for anyone listening who maybe doesn’t know what functional medicine is, it’s just doing testing to get to the root cause of health issues rather than just giving out medications or surgery to cover it up. It’s about really just relieving yourself of the problems altogether.
Wendy Myers: And so, a lot of people listening are really into health. It’s kind of like their hobby. They listen to a lot of podcasts. And they might want to be thinking about turning their hobby into a profession and helping other people and making the world a better place for that.
So, why do we need health coaches, and specifically, functional medicine trained health coaches?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Well, that’s a great question, Wendy—because doctors cannot do it alone, whether they are working in a conventional setting, such as a large medical center. We’re given now seven minutes to be with a patient. They have rims of paperwork or actually computer work that they must complete. They’re very frustrated, and patients are frustrated.
So, if you break your leg, then acute care is correct. You need to go to the emergency room.
And the best of acute care will help you. But what if you have a chronic illness such as type II diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis or so many of the other autoimmune conditions? Well, that’s not so easy. And physicians are at a loss because just throwing more medications at the problem, at the symptom, that’s more like a band-aid. It doesn’t address, as we’ve said earlier, those root causes.
And what’s driving illness has to do with how we live our lives. And that’s where doctors are not trained. And even if they are, they don’t have the time to really do what it takes, what a patient may need, to change their life, to change their behavior.
But health coaches can do that.
A health coach is an ally. They are like somebody’s personal cheerleader. And they partner with patients to help them reach their goals, whatever those goals may be.
And so, there’s been an explosion of interesting in health coaching. And coaches are partnering with doctors to create these incredibly powerful, collaborative care teams. So now, a doctor kind of see a patient, they can then refer that person to the health coach.
And the beauty of this model is it doesn’t have to be face to face in the office any longer.
They can see somebody online. And they can walk them through how to change. They, again, are their cheerleader. A coach takes someone from where they are to where they want to be. And so many people are passionate about helping others.
So many of our students have no formal training as a healthcare practitioner. They just feel like they have a mission to serve. Maybe they had a chronic illness themselves they found an answer. And they now want to spread this message. They want to go out in the community and create health.
Wendy Myers: I like what you said about doctors not being able to do everything for their patients. And with so many of us having health insurance, HMO’s, or even limited access to healthcare, you only get a few minutes with a doctor, and no one health practitioner knows everything. Your doctor doesn’t know everything. He might be a specialist in surgery or medication or a particular specialty, but no one person could be the authority on supplementation or diet or exercise or lifestyle or de-stress techniques or what-have-you. So it’s really not their realm.
You want to have a collaborative care team and have different people that specialize in different things based on what your needs are. It just makes a lot more sense to me.
Wendy Myers: And so, what are some of the ways that functional medicine health coaches can help their clients and help people?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! What they can do is apply these basic principles of functional medicine.
So, the first thing that they do is gather information because everyone has a story to tell.
But again, when they are coming in for a medical visit just a short amount of time, the doctor may ask, “Why are you here today? What are your symptoms? We can only address one condition today.”
A health coach can really have a patient tell their story. They can look at all of the events that have occurred and even events that happened before they were born. And they may help this person explore “When was the last time you felt well? When were you really thriving in your life? What was going on?”
And if they have a chronic condition, maybe “What were some of the events that may have happened six months to a year before you got sick.”
And then the person might say, “Well, I got divorced” or “I started a new job” or “I moved into a new home.”
And then, the coach might say, “Well, tell me about that new home. Did you do a lot of renovation?”, for example, “Was there a lot of work that you had to do?”
And they might say, “Well, yeah, we discovered we had to do a lot of construction.” That may be a trigger for that chronic condition.
Now, a health coach would never diagnose a certain condition. That’s outside of their scope of practice. But they ask the questions, so that they empower that individual to find the answer. They might say, “Hmmm… have you ever considered that there could be a connection?”
Wendy Myers: And so, we’re going to talk today about positive psychology. That’s something that you’re an expert in and have an interest in. So how can we use the principles in positive psychology to feel better?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! So, taking that example that I just described, somebody telling their story, what a coach would do is look at your strength story. So maybe that person has told their story of when they developed all of these chronic conditions and all the stress in their life. But now, let’s take it and let’s change that story. Let’s do what we call a redemptive version. And that is “Well, it sounds like you were really brave and you were persistent in trying to find an answer. I love that you love learning and you’re so curious, that you’re always going online to find different remedies, different solutions.” So, they would point out character strengths.
Positive psychology began in the 1990s. It was the then president of the American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman. He started to focus on what’s right with us, not what’s wrong. What do we need to thrive?
And until then, it was really about diagnosis and a treatment plan. “There is something wrong with you.” And this was something I personally never was comfortable even back in my special education days. I would do these long battery testing on kids, learning disabilities or ADD. It was all focused on what are the deficit areas. But I always liked to think of “Well, what are his strengths?”
And that’s what we do in positive psychology. We look at the good. We all have character strengths. And when we are using our character strengths, we are thriving.
So, we can look at these as the building blocks for flourishing. What do I mean by flourishing? What do we need?
Well, Seligman came up with this acronym called PERMA. The P is positive emotion. We need positive emotions. And we can’t force it. But we can set up times during the day to ensure that we’re going to feel good.
So, for example, you like yoga (which I happen to like), I might schedule in a yoga practice because I know that I’ll feel good. I might schedule in a walk at a beautiful surrounding because I know that I’ll feel good doing that activity—or going to a movie, whatever that might be for you.
We prioritize that experience because that will ensure that you’ll experience these good, positive emotions. So that’s the P.
The E is engagement or flow. So right now, I’m totally focused on this conversation. And when you are in that state of flow, again, positive things occur—mentally as well as physically.
The R stands for relationships, relationships that are important, that are positive.
The M in this model is meaning and purpose. And that is so important. That’s what creates well-being, when you have a sense of meaning and purpose.
So, when I founded the coaching academy, I felt like I had a sense of purpose, I had a mission, a reason to live basically. You need to have some kind of meaning and purpose connected to longevity.
And then, the A is accomplishment or achievement which could be something as small as “I made my bed” in the morning.
So, PERMA, those are the pillars of well-being. How do we get there? We use our character strengths.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, you had mentioned character strengths when you were talking. So tell us about those and their connection to longevity and well-being.
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! So, you can find out what your character strengths are, which we call, your top ones, your signature strengths by going to VIACharacter.org. So the VIA is a non-profit institute that studies character. It was started by Martin Seligman, Chris Peterson. They look at philosophy, at writings from psychology. They studied around the world and looked at what are the traits that are key to our surviving and thriving.
And so, some are of the mind; some are of the heart.
Of the mind, it would be things like having perspective, having perseverance, having creative (creative solutions to problems).
Of the heart would be things like love, like kindness.
Some are more social like teamwork, leadership. Some like zest. Zest is one of my top
strengths. And it’s this excitement, kind of love of life.
And others have to do with what we’re calling transcendence. So that would be gratitude. We know that gratitude is very connected to physiological well-being.
Forgiveness is another one, another character strength, those who exercise that.
And we can exercise. We can build up these strengths. So when you experience forgiveness, it’s very closely tied to physical well-being [inaudible 19:01].
There’s actually a kids’ version of the VIA survey. Get your kids to take them. You can see this in your colleagues. And certainly, if you’re working with clients professionally, you can point out their strengths and how you can use these strengths [inaudible 19:21].
Wendy Myers: You had mentioned mind-body medicine a couple of times. And that’s certainly something I use in working with my clients. The mind has a tremendous amount of influence on the body and our health.
So, what are some of your favorite techniques in working with mind-body medicine?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! Imagery is one of the best.
Mind-body medicine, they’re basically a collection of different strategies, different techniques that can explore this connection. In other words, what’s real in the mind is real in the body. And it’s very unique to each of us.
So, if I’m standing in line to go up a rollercoaster, for me, that would be very nerve-wracking. And so I’d be telling myself, “I don’t like this. I’m not going to feel good. I don’t want to do this.” And so I would be inducing a stress response.
Someone in line with me might be “Oh, this is going to be great! This is going to be wonderful,” and they’re picturing something really good. They’re imagining it. But I’m picturing something not so good. And so, physically, I wouldn’t feel great. We have tremendous ability to take ourselves away.
And so, many people say, “Well, to release stress, I have to do something.” And that’s not the case. That can be helpful. Going some place that will guarantee you’re going to feel relaxed, that’s great. But what if you’re some place, and you can’t escape? Well, you can escape mentally. And that’s where imagery comes in.
I had an experience. Just last week, I was at the dentist. And I was having some procedures done. The light when you’re at the dentist, it can be uncomfortable because it’s pretty bright. But at one point when my eyes were close, I just felt this light, and I just had this idea of sunshine and warmth.
And so, I started to imagine this light associated with all of the positive experiences I could imagine of soaking in the warmth of the sun, something very healing. And then, that took me to “Oh, I’m at the beach” or “I’m at a gorgeous swimming pool.”
And so, that’s imagery where you just go along in the moment mindful of turning any sensation into something that could be healing or very positive.
Wendy Myers: And so what about biofeedback? Biofeedback is used a lot. People use it in progressive psychology techniques. What is it used for?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Great question! So, biofeedback was something I started doing way back in the ‘70s. I was grandfathered into certification. It simply means bio which is the body, feedback, you’re getting feedback about something going on in your body. So, if you step on a scale to weight yourself, you’re doing biofeedback.
But we have many different modalities that can measure the stress response.
Back when I was seeing patients and we had a biofeedback practice, I had a room that looked like a laboratory with all these big machines, dials and funny sounds that were being emitted. And then, we could measure some things, for example, like temperature of your fingertip.
There’s a little thermometer attached. We teach somebody to do some deep breathing, imagine images of warmth. When you warm your hands, that means that you are actually inducing a relaxation response because when your blood vessels are constricted, it means that you’re sending blood back to where it’s crucially needed. When you’re relaxed, blood can flow out to the periphery.
That’s been a classic biofeedback way of helping people with migraine headaches, for example. So, that’s one.Another is called skin conductance. So when we’re upset, if we’re nervous, we’ll be sweating. We can measure that response. And as we do that, it’s good feedback.
Sometimes, you can’t always recognize these really subtle changes, but it’s reinforcing to know “Oh, I’m making progress here.” We like to have that feedback.
We can also train brainwave activity. That’s called neurofeedback. That’s a particular type of biofeedback. I actually did a controlled study on that type of feedback back in the ‘90s where we were training kids with attention deficit disorder to increase the brainwave activity associated with focusing and concentrating. And so they practiced over and over again. And as they practiced, like training a muscle, they were then training their brain to go into this focused state.
Wendy Myers: Oh, that’s fantastic!
Wendy Myers: And you had talked about that you used to suffer from panic attacks. And you wrote a book on how to stop panic attacks. And so, tell us about your book. And what are some of the good ways to lower anxiety and stop panic attacks?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! So, when I was in my 20’s, I sometimes even have to go to the emergency room. I thought I was having a heart attack. I felt there was just something wrong physically. I was really good at scaring myself.
And the reason that I was good at scaring myself is because my mind just jumped to like the highest level of emergency like, “I’m dying. I’m having a heart attack, I’m dying.” I remember once, I was out, I was shoveling snow. And I just had the thought, “Oh, you’re going to have a heart attack doing this.” And all of a sudden, I started feeling chest pain, and my arms were numb, and “Shall we call the paramedics?”
So, my doctor at the time, “Oh, medication! This will help.” And so I started looking at what this medication was and realized, “Oh, wait a minute! They gave these to heart patients. This is not for me.”
Luckily, I was starting my doctoral program, and I was taking some workshops that had to do with mind-body medicine biofeedback and I learned how to breathe.
Most people with panic, they do one of four things.
They constrict their breath. In other words, they’re like a deer in headlights, “Gasp!” They don’t breathe at all (which I was probably doing).
Or they think they can’t breathe, so they’re inhaling, and then they don’t take the time to fully exhale before they inhale again, and now they’re hyperventilating.
The other pattern is they’re breathing from their chest. And it’s like this as opposed to a belly breath.
And then, the fourth thing that is common is they’re panting, breathing so fast.
So, we say “slow and low.” And if there’s one thing that you can focus on, it’s that slow, low belly-breathing. And there are many different tools and techniques for doing that.
But breathing alone is not going to cut it in most cases because you may be saying to yourself, “Oh, it’s not working. I’m still feeling anxious. Oh, this breathing thing is not working for me.”
So, it’s really focusing on soon because to get into a panic or a stress response, it’s very fast. It’s like an alarm going off. You have to respond quickly. But to relax, it’s a slower process. System by system has to shut down slowly.
And again, it’s how we use language. “Soon, I’ll feel better. Isn’t this great? This is just an opportunity for me to practice these relaxation techniques that I’m learning.” And then, you pair it imagery, “Imagine yourself relaxed.”
So, you pull all these techniques together. And that’s the way to stop a panic attack.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, you’re making me want to take deep breaths.
Wendy Myers: So, you also wrote another book that just came out about functional medicine coaching. Can you talk about that?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! So, we at Functional Medicine Coaching are so proud of our students. We have people that are coming from all over the world and now have stories to tell. And because functional medicine coaching is really about stories, we wanted to gather a whole collection of stories from our students—really brave people.
Like the woman from India who is in Mumbai. She’s completely isolated from functional medicine or alternative approaches. She has a daughter who has very severe eczema. It’s not getting better.
Her love of learning kicks in. And she just goes online and she finds functional medicine.
And just on her own, she starts applying some of these strategies and starts digging into diet and connects with people like Tom O’Brian and Mark Hyman online. She starts to think, “Hmmm…could it be gluten? What if I removed this from her diet? What if I did this?”No support from her community, just on her own.
And now she finds out there’s a coaching program that’s available. So she enrolls and trains. And now she’s on a mission. She’s partnering with a doctor. And together, they’re opening the first functional medicine center in that area, bringing functional medicine.
And we really believe in this community effort of people partnering with others and establishing what Mark Hyman always talks about, this community of peer-to-peer support, helping one another feeling empowered, not feeling stuck as a patient.
So, in the book, we go through some principles of functional medicine, and then, most importantly, talk about this power of meaning and purpose and belonging because people who find functional medicine, find coaching from a functional medicine perspective, feel like they found their community. And no matter where they are in the world, they feel now that they’re not isolated any longer.
Wendy Myers: Yes. Yeah, and I feel the same way too when I started the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and then went to the FDN course, Reed Davis’ course. And you do, you get this wonderful sense of community. It’s just a really wonderful feeling to have that support and know that you’re helping people and opening people’s eyes and educating them that there’s more to health than conventional medicine.
That’s what all of our message is, that there’s so much to health, and you don’t have to be that person who’s on five medications and chronically ill and going to a nursing home.
That doesn’t have to be you. You can prevent that.
And that’s something that you and me and a lot of our functional medicine coaches and your graduates are trying to do, show people there’s another way. I think it’s a wonderful thing that you’re doing.
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Thank you. And we need more coaches because chronic disease is not going away; it’s increasing. And again, medicine just can’t—well, this is a model that we can’t sustain.
But people are becoming empowered. They want to help themselves. And it’s easier now because we have tracking devices, we have support groups (people can go online and find that support for themselves), and they can connect with a health coach.
We also, for the first time, will have certification for coaches. And so this is something that’s increasingly being recognized by the medical community, that the health coach will have a seat at the table.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much.
Wendy Myers: So, I have a question I like to ask all of my guests. What do you think is the most pressing health issue in the world today?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! We talked about having meaning and purpose and belonging. So I think the most pressing is the effects of loneliness. We talked about your mission, helping people to thrive to a hundred and ten. But they’re not going to thrive if they’re lonely, if they’re isolated.
We just see too much of isolation. And that is a greater killer than heart disease, than diabetes. It is a risk factor.
And so, finding connection, finding ways to belong, whether it’s finding a hobby and now you are belonging to a group—online, many people are connecting that way.
But people who do not feel isolated, that, and experience that strong sense of love with other people, can thrive and live well well into old age. That is significant.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I think the same thing too. I think with the advent of the Internet and social media, I think people are isolating more and more. They kind of have that substitute of feeling like they’re interacting with people when it’s just not the same as touching and smelling and feeling people and interacting with them live.
And we need that! It’s shown in the research that the longest-lived cultures have a very strong tight-knit community that gives them support.
I think, definitely, the isolation does cause people health issues for sure.
Wendy Myers: Why don’t you tell the listeners more about where they can find you and learn more about you and your book and your functional courses?
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Sure! Well, they can go to FunctionalMedicineCoaching.org. That is our website. And the name of the book is Functional Medicine Coaching: How to Be Part of the Movement That’s Transforming Healthcare.
They can also get a free coaching session through our coaching center. Our apprentices in-training coach people through our coaching center. So you can go to CoachingCenter.FunctionalMedicineCoaching.org if you think that you want to try coaching.
Wendy Myers: Well, Sandra, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. I love the work that you’re doing. We do need more health coaches.
Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure talking to you. Great being here.
Wendy Myers: And everyone, if you want to learn more about me, you can go to myersdetox.com. You can also learn about my healing and detox program at MineralPower.com.
Thank you so much for listening to the Myers Detox Podcast. And if you liked what you heard today, please go to iTunes and leave a review. That helps us to reach more people when they search for talks about detox or health or what-not. It helps them find us on iTunes, so that I can help more people. I’d so appreciate you taking one minute of your time to do that.
Thank you so much for listening!
