In this audio-only interview, Dr. Marcantel explains her approach to treating the whole person and shares how she seeks to connect on a deeper level with each of her patients in an effort to provide them with the best possible care.
Transcript:
I always say that my patients are my greatest teachers. The reason I say that is because the people that I see will tell me what they need and what hasn’t worked for them. And each person that comes in I treat as an individual. What might have worked for somebody else doesn’t work for them, so I can focus in on what has worked for them and what has not worked for them.
So they give me information and they teach me from their history what their body has been telling them through signs and symptoms what is going on with their body and in their life.
When a person comes in for their initial visit, I will always ask them, “How can I serve you? What is your priority? What can I do for you? What is your body saying? How is your lifestyle affecting your body? What do you think?”
And what it does is it makes them part of their healing process because they know all the answers and they will be a part of me looking at all the clues that they give me to get to the root cause of what’s causing their problem.
It could be emotional, it could be lifestyle, it could be on a psychological level like old thought patterns that are causing the body to go into illness. It could be trapped emotions that they haven’t been able to express and it’s affecting them at the cellular level.
They’re giving me all this information and it’s like putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to get to the root cause of their problem–what’s ailing them, or what’s bothering them, or what’s hurting them. So we don’t just look at the physical signs and symptoms, but they are a big contributor to their whole life and how this may be affecting the physical.
The other thing I do on the initial visit is that when I’m doing a physical exam–auscultating their lungs, listening to their heart–I am sending an intention for healing, asking the body, asking the mind, and asking the spirit, “How can I assist you on your journey to healing?” Because a lot of times people will come in and they have a lot of anxiety and maybe they’re not thinking clearly and I am receiving things from a different place. Not just what their words are saying, but their body’s going to tell me things that maybe they might not even have picked up on or been sensitive to because they’ve been in so much anxiety.
So that is why it’s so important to look at all aspects of the individual and their body will tell me things; they will repeat old thought patterns, so their mind will be telling me things; and even at a spiritual level I tell people, “Your soul led you here and my soul’s been waiting for you.” Because I believe our connection–every person that comes in there’s a connection there much deeper than just looking for a relief of physical signs and symptoms.
Speaking on a spiritual level, I have had quite a number of clients that have come in and sat before me and said, “You wouldn’t believe how I found you, but this is what happened…” Some people will say, “I’m at the end of my rope and I prayed for what doctor I should go to, and this fell into my lap.” Either somebody told them at the grocery store about me helping them, or it will pop up on Facebook, or they’re looking but it seems like out of nowhere sometimes they get connected to me in ways that are out of the ordinary. So that’s why I tell people I believe on a spiritual level, on a higher level, that their soul led them here. Even when they’re in anxiety and pain and they can’t think straight on what to do–at the end of their rope–I believe that we have a guidance within us that leads us to where we need to go.
