Healer, Researcher, Journeyman
Recently, a new acquaintance asked if holistic medicine, and more specifically Functional Medicine, was a path that I had chosen in medical school. I answered that when I graduated in 1985 from the Medical College of Virginia (now better known as Virginia Commonwealth University), I wasn’t aware of this crucially important component of medicine.
Thinking back, I recognize that my journey toward holism occurred without my recognition initially of what I was seeking. In his Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s Sam Gamgee said to Frodo Baggins,
“But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have just been landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t.”
I do not remember when I chose to become a doctor. This decision seems to have been one of childhood and indeed was cemented by reading The Making of a Surgeon by William Nolan in sixth grade. The book was a gift from my parents who were encouraging a choice of a professional career. These surgeons in training seemed as heroic as any protagonist of whom I read during childhood and their goals were appealing to me as a young boy interested in science.
An early building block in my desire to be a physician was the development of a personal sense of spirituality during my adolescence. Briefly in eighth grade, I had considered the priesthood while taking confirmation classes at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. More lasting was the concept of what a spiritual path entailed that I gleaned from reading Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull — a gift from the Dominican brothers who taught our confirmation classes. My sense of the importance of service in a spiritual path deepened during high school at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School for Boys. Our faculty was extraordinary. There, I was president of both the Service Committee (a club which provided tutors for a local public school) and the Red Key Club (another service club for the school community). Indeed, I would win the St. Stephen’s Medal for service to the school and the community.
Our shot put coach during high school was our Chaplain, the Reverend Churchill Gibson. While I may have been just an average athlete; Churchill, in class, on the field, and in all aspects of his life, taught me the importance of recognizing that every life event is infused with joy and grace. I believe the essay I wrote for the Medical College of Virginia about Churchill and his impact on my life assured the offer of admission.
So going to medical school was the goal of my adolescence and college years and one that I was fortunate enough to achieve after graduating from the University of Virginia with a BA in Biology. After my four years in Richmond, I traveled to Philadelphia to Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania Medical Center to do my internship and residency in internal medicine. My choice of subspecialty over the years had changed; my first choice had been orthopedic surgery given that my earliest medical experiences had been working with Dr. Charles Engh at National Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital in Arlington, Virginia. By second year of residency, I was interviewing for cardiology positions and was accepted at the University of Colorado.
During the first year of fellowship, I realized that I did not enjoy medical care focused on just an organ and not the whole person. One of my significant role models growing up had been my family physician, Dr. Frank Carroll, a man who lived and breathed a philosophy that every patient was a member of his extended family. My fellowship training certainly didn’t model his high standard of caring and I missed the relationships I had developed during my busy outpatient clinic in residency. After completing one year of fellowship, I returned home to join Dr. Carroll’s two-man practice. Dr. Carroll retired shortly thereafter and I left the group to start my solo practice in 1991.
Relationships have always been an important part of my practice of medicine and I believe that the rapport established with a patient is the first step to aiding a patient in meeting their goals. These relationships have transformed my life. Having noticed that I was frequently referring patients with refractory diagnoses to university center after university center and soon thereafter having the patient return, I began to seek elsewhere for answers. In 1996, I took Dr. Herbert Benson’s course at Harvard University and in 1997 and 1998 took Dr. Jim Gordon’s courses through the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC. After completing Dr. Benson’s course, I began teaching Mind-Body-Skills groups which had profound impacts on both my patients and me.
During my 16 years of practice in Alexandria, Virginia, I was generally in solo practice, with the brief exception of being employed by American WholeHealth, Inc. In 1998, American WholeHealth had acquired a loosely affiliated group of holistic practitioners (acupuncturists, psychologists, a rolfer, and a homeopath) to which I belonged. Cosper Scafidi, our rolfer, practiced a model of holistic practice that greatly expanded the vision of a recovering allopathic physician.
During my time with American WholeHealth, I was introduced to the work of Dr. Jeffrey Bland and the Institute for Functional Medicine. The education I received transformed my practice and I developed a local reputation in Northern Virginia as a resource for integrative Functional Medicine care. In 2006, I joined Dr. Bland and his teams at both Metagenics and the Institute for Functional Medicine. In 2015, I joined the Hypertension Institute and the Hughes Center for Research and Innovation. And in 2018, I returned to Gig Harbor, Washington to open the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Center by Metagenics. The center reflects the shared vision of Brent Eck (CEO of Metagenics), Dr. Bland (the founder of the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute) and myself.
In my more recent work, I have been rewarded with experiences and colleagues that grew my professional skills as a researcher (Dr. Bland, Dr. Matt Tripp and Dr. Bob Lerman) and as a healer and teacher (Dr. Michael Stone, Monique Class, NP, Dr. Deanna Minich, Dr. Mark Houston, and Dr. David Jones).
Today, in 2024, the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Center has closed. And I am embarking on a small telemedicine practice as i pursue several novel opportunities, including the opportunity to write the book that has been pursuing me in my dreams.
In 1999, I was challenged by a bad back for which I had surgery. In many shamanistic traditions, one did not begin training as a healer until one demonstrated competency in self-healing. I recognized then that my life’s journey and work provide insight to what is important, meaningful and valuable in my existence. In medical school, we saw one, did one and taught one. As such, every interaction with another is an opportunity to learn and to teach. I believe that there are few masters on this journey; instead I am, to use an old guild term, a journeyman on the path to knowledge and connection. I intend that as I explore meaning of my life’s experiences, I will serve others as a Healer, Researcher and Journeyman.