By educating patients about the importance of treating root causes rather than symptoms, local holistic practitioners are turning traditional health care on its head. Because of the rising number of Charleston women paying attention, the city has become a hub for comprehensive, whole-body approaches.
This type of transformative care is trending, according to Dr. Kate Glebocki, owner of IVY Energetic Experiences, because “in traditional health care settings, women aren’t feeling heard, seen or understood. Their needs aren’t getting met and they aren’t getting any better. They still feel exhausted, anxious and disconnected. As a result, they’ve gotten to the point where enough is enough because they know they deserve more. Even though insurance typically doesn’t cover holistic care, they don’t care. They know they need it—not just physically but mentally and emotionally.”
She continues, “Women are sensitive beings. They feel everything. They are highly attuned to subtle shifts in their environments and can generally feel everyone’s emotions around them. It’s a lot for a body to handle and process. Layer on top of that children, work, a social life, fitness and keeping a home organized and clean. The nervous system is on overdrive and stops functioning properly. At that point, everything feels overwhelming. The body is shutting down, not just one organ or one physiological process. There is not one pill, one surgery or one procedure that can fix the overwhelm. It requires a reset of the body as a whole. Hence, ‘holistic’ care.”
The reason Charleston is opening up to more holistic practices, Dr. Kate says, is “humans in general are waking up to the truth that healing can be far more natural than we’ve been led to believe. The body gets sick because it’s out of touch, out of alignment and disconnected from itself. As we begin to reconnect with our bodies, they heal. So rather than scheduling a checkup with a doctor, more women are turning to life coaches, chiropractors, acupuncturists and naturopaths to visit when needed. They are choosing supplements over medication and home remedies over conventional practices.”
For Dr. Kate and the practitioners on her team, it’s important to look at the energetics that run the system. “If your nervous system lacks energy, everything shuts down,” she explains. “Your nerves lose power and you have not only physical breakdown in your body, such as aches and pains, but you feel tired, off, highly reactive and as if your fingers have been plugged into an electric socket. IVY’s main focus is unplugging you from that socket—calming down the energy in your central nervous system so you can feel more at ease. We teach your body how to do this so you can access it anywhere. Think of IVY as a school for your nervous system, where you’ll learn how to handle day-to-day stress. Instead of relying on a pill to calm you down or regulate your emotions and thoughts, your body will learn how to do it for you.”
Another women-led holistic healing studio guiding patients with a functional medicine approach to modern health care is Stat Wellness. As a one-stop shop for holistic healing, the practice has a team of dietitians, health coaches, nurses and nutritionists—and will soon add a physical therapist—who collaborate under one roof to individualize each patient’s experience.
Athena Newell, MSN and FNP-C with the practice, says, “our practice is not conventional in that we really listen to our patients’ stories, take an in-depth look at their medical history to learn their patterns and do lab testing to identify the causes so we can improve the results.”
Stat Wellness practitioners might suggest dietary changes that include boosting hydration and choosing whole foods packed with color and good fats, such as nuts and fish—choices that can improve overall health and well-being. Other simple shifts, such as revising exercise routines and supplementing specific to the root cause, can also help overcome internal and external challenges.
“So many patients are turning to functional primary care in a holistic way because they don’t want to just take a pill after a traditional doctor’s appointment, which at an average of 18 minutes seems rushed,” Newell says. “They don’t feel heard and they aren’t getting better. At Stat Wellness, our priority is supporting patients to take ownership and advocate for themselves by looking at the root causes of issues from the inside out.”
By Sarah Rose