Mind & Body Healing: How Therapy and the Medical Medium Lifestyle Have Helped Me in Different but Powerful Ways

Physical illness sparked by emotional trauma is what led me to begin my therapy journey over 20 years ago, so I’ve always understood how the mind and body work together. That’s why I searched and searched until I found a master’s degree program in Somatic Psychology - a discipline that integrates the mind and the body.  Healing, to me, has never been just about one thing.

And yet, as life handed me more lemons (which are, by the way, a very healing food) in the health department after having covid, I continued to investigate solutions across categories—mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, technological, or otherwise. What I’ve learned is that answers tend to find me in the most unexpected ways—through a class recommendation, a conversation with a new friend, or, in this case, through multiple people telling me to try celery juice for my long-haul COVID symptoms.

At first, I was skeptical that diet could help me. I’d been deep in the world of therapy, healthy eating, nervous system regulation, and emotional healing for years already. I had already cut out foods that disagreed with me, got enough protein and good fats–what could a green juice do for my emotional and physical resilience that years of self-work and general healthy eating had not? Turns out, a lot. 

So, what did and what do each of these systems - therapy, somatics, and the Medical Medium protocols and lifestyle - add specifically to my healing journey? Read on…

🧠 Therapy: Understanding, Healing, and Growth

Therapy, which I sought out for myself first around age 17 to process a traumatic breakup, has been my anchor in learning how to navigate relationships, emotions, and self-awareness. It’s helped me recognize unconscious patterns, relational wounds, and self-sabotaging behaviors—the things that played out over and over until I saw them clearly enough to shift them.

Some of the biggest ways therapy has helped me:

✔ Understanding my attachment patterns—so I could stop unconsciously replaying old wounds in relationships.

✔ Building emotional resilience—learning to respond, not react, even when emotions feel overwhelming.

✔ Developing self-trust—so I’m not outsourcing decisions to others or ignoring my intuition.

✔ Understanding trauma 

✔Regulating my nervous system—so I don’t get stuck in stress loops or burnout cycles.

✔ Creating healthier boundaries—in dating, friendships, and work, without guilt.

Therapy has helped me feel more present, more in tune with myself, and more aware of the “why” behind my choices—which has made everything in my life (including dating) more aligned and intentional.

💃 Somatics & Bodywork: Releasing, Reconnecting, and Feeling at Home in My Body

While therapy gave me insight into why I felt the way I did, somatic practices and bodywork helped me actually release the stored emotions and tension from my body.

I’ve found that true healing isn’t just about processing with words—it’s about moving, feeling, and reintegrating on a body level. While the below list is incomplete, some of the biggest game-changers for me have been:

✔ Authentic Movement – A deeply transformational practice of following the body’s impulses, helping me tap into deep, unconscious emotions and let them communicate to and through me.

✔ Rolfing – Deep fascial work that literally unwinds old patterns stored in my body, shifting not just pain but the way I move and experience myself.

✔ Physical Therapy – Healing my body from injuries, misalignments, and chronic tension that kept my nervous system stuck in a stress response. Not every PT was able to help me, but the ones who were, helped immensely and deeply understood and addressed the interplay between emotions, nervous system, and muscular functioning. The ones who did were all in private practice, not at clinics.

 ✔ Body-Mind Centering – A practice that helps bridge awareness between mind and movement, deepening my relationship with my body's wisdom.

 ✔ Dancing and physical movement – From rock climbing to aerial arts to cultural dance forms, dance has allowed me to engage my body in different ways and learn how it works together - how a strong core and strong muscles can correlate with a sense of self or good posture can facilitate expression of my voice.

✔Somatic Therapy & Nervous System Work – Learning to listen to my body’s signals instead of overriding them, helping me build trust in my own sensations and gut responses; Learning tools to work with the breath and nervous system. 

Somatic work taught me that you can’t usually think your way out of emotional pain—the only way out is in and through.

There were moments in therapy where I understood my trauma but still felt stuck. It wasn’t until I started releasing emotions and patterns through movement, bodywork, and breath that I actually felt free.

🍎 Medical Medium Lifestyle: Supporting My Physical and Emotional Well-Being

At the same time, Medical Medium protocols have been an absolute game-changer for my physical health and energy levels. What I didn’t expect was how much physical healing would also shift my emotional experience.

Some of the biggest ways MM lifestyle changes have helped me:

✔ Reducing chronic symptoms that no doctor had a good answer for and I thought I’d just have to live with.

✔ Increasing energy and mental clarity—so I can actually implement what I’ve learned in therapy. This is the essential part of Medical Medium info. If people are chronically ill, it is hard to even get to therapy. I understand from my bouts with chronic illness how under water one can feel. 

✔ Feeling more emotionally stable naturally—less anxiety, fewer mood swings, better sleep just from the eating protocols. Meditations and other tools can enhance this.

✔ Deepening my intuition with food and healing—Guided body interventions help me to know what to listen for in my body instead of overriding its signals. I’ve always listened, but sometimes I didn’t know what I was listening for. For example, I had already cut out most the foods that irritated me immediately, but never realized that a lower fat diet makes my body function better. I had never tried because fat doesn’t usually cause extreme or immediate symptoms for me. 

✔ Strengthening my nervous system—because gut health and emotional regulation go hand in hand.

Before making these changes, I sometimes felt like I was doing all the right emotional work but still struggling with brain fog, fatigue, mystery neurological symptoms, insomnia, or low resilience to stress. It turns out, my body needed just as much healing as my mind.

💡 The Missing Link: Why Each of These Approaches Matter

Therapy gave me the tools and awareness to shift deep-seated emotional patterns, while the Medical Medium lifestyle gave me the physical clarity and stability to actually implement those shifts without my body holding me back.

Healing isn’t just mindset work or just lifestyle shifts—it’s both. You can do all the deep emotional work in the world, but if your nervous system is in a chronic state of dysregulation, it’s going to be hard to feel the full benefits. And you can eat the cleanest diet, but if you haven’t processed emotional wounds or examined relationship patterns, you might still find yourself stuck in cycles of stress or self-sabotage.

I used to think I had to choose one focus at a time—mental/emotional or physical. Now I see them as part of the same holistic process of healing and self-discovery.

What This Means for Love & Relationships

In LoveWell, I focus on mindful, intention-based dating and relationships—which means understanding yourself first. And that’s not just about mental clarity—it’s about feeling good in your body, clear in your emotions, and steady in your nervous system. Through personalized dating counseling, I help you navigate relationships with self-awareness, confidence, and emotional balance.

Because when you feel physically drained, anxious, or dysregulated, it’s easy to:

• Make relationship choices from a place of depletion rather than alignment.
• Mistake nervous system activation for attraction (hello, anxious attachment loops).
• Struggle with boundaries and discernment when your emotions feel overwhelming.

But when your body and mind are both nourished and supported, you have more capacity to choose partners, relationships, and experiences that actually align with you.

Final Thought: A Holistic Approach to Love & Well-Being

If you’re working on emotional growth but feel stuck or exhausted, look at how your physical health might be impacting your resilience. If you’re prioritizing your body but still feel off in relationships or stuck in old patterns, consider diving deeper into emotional work and self-awareness. Relationship therapy can help you uncover hidden patterns, heal past wounds, and build healthier, more fulfilling connections.

Both are valuable, and together, they create the kind of deep, sustainable well-being that allows you to love, live, and connect with more clarity, ease, and joy.

In my experience, there's no perfect or fixed formula—balance is fluid, and approaching it with a mindset of growth and experimentation helps you find what truly works for you.

👉 Have you ever experienced how physical and emotional healing are connected? What techniques work for you? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q.1 How does emotional trauma impact physical health?

A. Emotional trauma can manifest in physical symptoms such as chronic fatigue, digestive issues, brain fog, and nervous system dysregulation. When the body is in a prolonged state of stress or unresolved emotional distress, it can lead to inflammation, hormonal imbalances, and immune system dysfunction. Somatic therapy, bodywork, diet protocols, and nervous system regulation techniques can help release stored trauma and restore physical well-being.

Q.2 Can diet really help with emotional resilience and healing?

A. Yes! The connection between gut health and mental health is well-documented. A nutrient-rich diet, and gentle low-fat and anti-viral protcols like the Medical Medium protocols, can help in the process of reducing chronic inflammation, lessening autoimmune symptoms, and supporting the nervous system—all of which contribute to emotional stability. By healing the body, individuals often experience reduced anxiety, improved sleep, and greater emotional resilience, making therapy and personal growth work even more effective.

Q.3 Why is a mind-body or "somatic" approach helpful for healing and improving relationships?

A. Healing isn’t just about mindset shifts or lifestyle changes—it’s about integrating both. Therapy helps uncover unconscious patterns and build emotional resilience, while somatic practices and nutrition support the body's ability to regulate stress. When both mind and body are in balance, individuals can make healthier relationship choices, set better boundaries, and attract partners from a place of alignment rather than depletion.