In season 3 finale (Episodes 8 and 9), Ramey reflects back on her journey to form her unique Health Strategy.

She now understands health in a whole new way. The key ingredient is noticing.

In Episode 9, Ramey completes her Health Strategy consult, and reflects on all the components that inform her health now and in the future. 

She understands the power and value she brings to her health through balancing lifestyle, relationships, and nutrition.

Ramey gains confidence on how to tap into her best medicine.

She draws from what she needs, whether it's Western or Eastern medicine, and she plans to use more self-care methods.

Season 3 is a narrative that was born from the inspiration that my mother started. She was also the number one fan who supported me to think outside the healthcare box and ask questions.

Christina was the pioneer who offered new ideas about healthcare before people were ready to hear them. 

But I think you're ready to hear them now.

Health Strategy at Third Opinion MD is about manifesting a quiet revolution in healthcare. I’m continuing a family legacy to spark a wave of change in the way we practice medicine, how you can care for yourself, and how you can navigate the healthcare system. 

It’s about searching inward for your strength, discovering your innate ability to heal, and expanding the window to be in charge of your health again. 

So, here's to my mom. Episodes 8 and 9 were published on the 15-year anniversary of her death, but she will live on with what we do together.

My client, Ramey, reached a point where she wanted to go deeper than that with the Health Strategy Consult program. Season 3 is about pulling the curtain back so you can learn the process with Ramey on how to form a unique health strategy.

Thank you for Subscribing/Following the podcast and leaving a review! It means the world to this independent podcast host and producer. 

Sign up for the Third Opinion MD Newsletter to stay up to date on workshops, podcast news and more: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/newsletter

Follow Third Opinion MD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdopinionmd/

Book a Complimentary consult meeting with Barbara de la Torre: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/contact

Imagine a healthcare system where you actually matter. Not just the symptom you walk in with, but who you are as a person, the struggles you face, your family legacy, your family secrets. Imagine all of these things matter. 

In the season 3 finale, Episodes 8 and 9 reveal Ramey’s layers of family history in the context of relationships and identity. By looking backward, Ramey moves forward with the knowledge and confidence to form her own Health Strategy.

In Episode 8, Ramey takes a deeper dive on how people and events influenced her life experience and identity.

No one lives in a vacuum.

Family diseases, events and relationships contribute to your emotional and physical states of health. 

The word, Genogram, is just a fancy term for a family tree that maps out who you belong to and some basic patterns of these relationships. 

Genograms include biological and legal members of a family, but they can also include pets, friends, and other relationships. They reveal clues about family secrets and mythology, since families usually modify what is painful or embarrassing in their history.

You draw from your point of view as the key person at the center of the map, going back at least two generations and forward to your children and grandchildren.

I use genograms with my clients as a building block to fully know who they are in their environment. 

With context, there is meaning.

With reflection, there is growth and potential for healing.

My client, Ramey, reached a point where she wanted to go deeper than that with the Health Strategy Consult program. Season 3 is about pulling the curtain back so you can learn the process with Ramey on how to form a unique health strategy.

Thank you for Subscribing/Following the podcast and leaving a review! It means the world to this independent podcast host and producer. 

Sign up for the Third Opinion MD Newsletter to stay up to date on workshops, podcast news and more: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/newsletter

Follow Third Opinion MD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdopinionmd/

Book a Complimentary consult meeting with Barbara de la Torre: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/contact

McGoldrick, M. (2020). Genograms: Assessment and Treatment (4th edition). W. W. Norton & Company.

Launer, J. (2022). Why Doctors Should Draw Genograms—Including Their Own. In Reflective Practice in Medicine and Multi-Professional Healthcare. CRC Press.

Sometimes good medicine is so simple that people don’t even try it. In Episode 7, Ramey is prepared to practice a powerful self-care tool for emotional balance called EFT. When you learn to become a systems thinker, becoming healthier is not only possible, you believe in yourself again.

Be sure to also listen to Episode 6 on Ramey’s preparation for this transformative tapping experience.

Ramey has years of experience in therapy, as a teacher, and now working in the healthcare system. She reached a place in her life when she was ready to develop her Health Strategy, including a cultivation of mental and emotional well-being.

After her first experience with a tapping technique called, EFT, Ramey said:

“I just feel like this is just more immediate and just something I can immediately take in. And it's not a pill and it's not something that's going to have some side effect. It's for me, and it's also made by me… I'm part of it too.”

My client, Ramey, as she states it best, wants to avoid the “hamster wheel” of “therapy, pills, therapy, pills.”

There’s so much more to mental health treatment than just medications and therapy. There are so many amazing and dedicated people in the mental health field, but they can only treat so many people at a time. The healthcare system is fragmented and rewards specialists over prevention and self-care.

The best person to get off the hamster wheel between meds and therapy is You.

Based on the current healthcare system, it might seem normal that trauma is permanent, that everyone has to suffer if they've had trauma, or that it takes years of therapy and medications to relieve the suffering. 

But seeing and hearing are not always believing.

You have the freedom to take care of your health according to what’s best for you. It’s time to build back the resilience and the strengths in your system. Your body, mind and spirit have powerful tools to do that.

And one of the ways to access these tools is through tapping. 

My client, Ramey, reached a point where she wanted to dig deeper to find more health solutions through the Health Strategy Consult program at Third Opinion MD.

Season 3 is about pulling the curtain back so you can learn the process with Ramey on how to form a unique Health Strategy.

Please Subscribe/Follow Third Opinion MD podcast and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts! It will mean the world to this independent podcaster!

Sign up for the Third Opinion MD Newsletter to stay up to date on workshops, podcast news and more: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/newsletter

Follow Third Opinion MD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdopinionmd/

Book a Complimentary consult meeting with Barbara de la Torre: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/contact

In episodes 6 and 7, Ramey discovers a self-care technique for tapping acupuncture points to relieve negative emotions.

One of the most studied methods is called EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique. EFT is an emerging, research-based example of how Eastern medicine bridges beautifully with Western psychology.

Listen to how Ramey prepares for her first tapping experience.

Most mental health treatment in America includes prescription medicine and psychotherapy. But results in the last century show that the biomedical healthcare system, alone, can’t fully manage America’s mental health needs. Since the pandemic, the number of people suffering from emotional and mental anguish is staggering.

More than 1 in 5 adults in the United States live with a mental illness.[1]  Just imagine, in the wake of modern life and current events, how many people live with a negative emotion like anger, sadness, anxiety or fear. The numbers are likely much higher!

You are fortunate to be in charge of your own health and have the power to add self-care skills to your life.

You can go to therapy to treat your negative emotions. You can also combine psychotherapy with prescription medication. And if this combination works for you, that’s wonderful!

1. Not Enough Healthcare Practitioners
2. Poor Access to Care
3. Treatments are Not Unique to You
4. Too Much of the Same Thing Leads to Overtreatment

One technique that can help reduce your emotional burden is a self-care method called EFT.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), is also known as tapping. It’s a rapid and simple technique that involves tuning into an intensely stressful thought while tapping acupuncture points in a sequence. EFT combines the effects of stimulating acupoints with Western cognitive behavioral therapy, desensitizing techniques, and imagined or actual exposure therapy.

The results, if EFT is correctly applied, lead to long-lasting or permanent relief from negative emotions connected with a thought or situation.

But how is it possible for a simple method to help with depression, anxiety, addiction, and phobia? Don’t complex problems require complex solutions?

Listen to how my client, Ramey, discovers EFT and shares her experience in Season 3, Episodes 6 and 7. Consider Ramey’s health story as a way to witness how to expand your thinking about mental health from mental disorders being a problem of the mind to a more systematic approach to achieve emotional balance.

• EFT is not meant to replace your mental health care like therapy or medication, but it can enhance and potentially liberate your dependence on them.
• Third Opinion MD values education, and does not take the place of clinical decision-making by healthcare providers. Please consult with your doctor for your health issues.
• Do not learn EFT without supervision and guidance by a trained individual in this technique.

Season 3 is about pulling the curtain back so you can learn the process with my client, Ramey, on how to form a unique...

In episode 5, Ramey starts her six-week Health Strategy program, and she’s ready to work on her wellness unlike any health visit she’s had before. 

It starts with the skills to become a systems thinker. This mindset doesn’t just expand outside the box. Embracing the best of traditional and nontraditional medical models is both an art and skill you need to navigate today’s fragmented healthcare systems.

To understand your current state of health, you need to look back in time to the root causes.  Roots are easier to find in the earth when you have the right tools to dig for them and know enough about the plant to avoid causing harm. You wouldn’t think to treat the leaves to nurture a tree back to health. Why, then, would you just focus on your symptoms?

The answer is in the culture we live in. Symptoms matter more than the root causes of illness. The healthcare system in the United States is failing you by remaining stagnant and holding tight to their biomedical model as the dominant narrative – specialist-driven care, mostly time-limited appointments, focusing on the symptoms. This a big reason why you can’t afford to fail yourself. 

Right now, a lot of healthcare practitioners are siloed in their own specialties, both on the Western and Eastern medicine side. Most don’t communicate with each other, and that still leaves you in the passive role. 

That really didn’t sit well with me as a second-generation physician with Board certification in traditional Family Medicine and in Medical Acupuncture. To truly change a system in the most profound way, you must transcend medical systems in order to gain the most from them.

Blended medicine is good medicine. And I believe you deserve to have the best that multiple medical systems can offer. The dominant medical system won’t serve it to you. You need good strategy to access what you need.

That's why I created the Health Strategy Consult program. It’s almost like a boot camp to be the CEO of your health now and in the future. 

Join Ramey and me in Episode 5 to start the journey to become a systems thinker. It’s never too late to get to a place of knowledge and power for your health. You can have all the best tools, but you need a good strategy to know which tools work best for you. 

My client, Ramey, reached a point where she wanted to dig deeper to find more health solutions through the Health Strategy Consult program. Season 3 is about pulling the curtain back so you can learn the process with Ramey on how to form a unique Health Strategy.

Thank you for Subscribing/Following Third Opinion MD podcast and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts!

Sign up for the Third Opinion MD Newsletter to stay up to date on workshops, podcast news and more: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/newsletter

Follow Third Opinion MD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdopinionmd/

Book a Complimentary consult meeting with Barbara de la Torre: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/contact

In Episode 4, Ramey is at a crossroads with her health, and she is ready to learn about the Health Strategy program at Third Opinion MD. What's motivating Ramey to take this giant step now more than before? Listen to our conversation on how you can achieve so much more when you move beyond a linear and passive way to address your health.

Part of forming a Health Strategy involves taking a step back to get the broad view of what’s going on with you, health wise, and exploring the best options based on your ability and the existing options in the system.

But there are two major issues with healthcare today. One you already know about is that the healthcare system is fractured, and it still operates with competing and potentially wrong goals for you individually. This situation can’t be “fixed” by one person or organization. Unfortunately, most healthcare organizations still operate in a linear and restricted way.

The other healthcare “elephant in the room” is you. In order for any system to function well, it has to serve the lowest denominator. But, in order for you to be served well by the system, you must serve yourself first. Remember, you are a system, too! If you don’t serve the parts of you best – your organs, your emotions, your unique window to remain balanced – the larger systems like insurance, clinics, and pharma can’t help you best.

In order to improve the healthcare system, it must always start with your self-cultivation. I’m calling on you to start listening, ask questions, and take action to be in charge of your health again. No one else will do this for you.

This doesn’t mean abandoning the healthcare system and going out on your own. The more you learn health strategy, the more you will be empowered and knowledgeable to benefit from the existing system as well as becoming self-reliant.

Healthy individuals build healthier communities. And healthier communities help to heal the world around you.

My client, Ramey, took one of my classes to learn about eye health qigong, and she reached a point where she wanted to go deeper than that with the Health Strategy Consult program. Season 3 is about pulling the curtain back so you can learn the process with Ramey on how to form a unique health strategy.

Thank you for Subscribing/Following the podcast and leaving a review! It means the world to this independent podcast host and producer.

Sign up for the Third Opinion MD Newsletter to stay up to date on workshops, podcast news and more: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/newsletter

Follow Third Opinion MD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdopinionmd/

Book a Complimentary consult meeting with Barbara de la Torre: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/contact

In Episode 3, my client, Ramey, shares how she feels after learning a qigong form in class for the first time. And there's a very special surprise in the second half of the episode where we go over how Ramey responds to practicing qigong for the last two months. I also reflect on my health journey with qigong because, in community, we can achieve much more than we can alone.

The healing path is usually not a straight line, but a cycle of ups and downs. I like to call it the “yin and yang” of what it means to be healthy. Empowerment to care for yourself doesn’t just come from the times you’re healthy, but also when you’re sick. The first step is about listening to what your inner doctor is telling you.

It’s about noticing what takes place in your healthy and unhealthy states without judgment. The key ingredients include making time for stillness, adaptation, and kindness towards you.

I’m here to share my clinical and personal health experience and wisdom. There are many lifestyle methods you can learn to be in charge of your health again. Chinese medicine is not the only way to achieve health, but it’s what I know best as a Qigong Master Certified instructor, Acupuncturist and Western Family Physician. This ancient and timeless technique belongs in modern mainstream medicine.

My client, Ramey, took one of my classes to learn about eye health qigong, and she reached a point where she wanted to dig deeper through my Health Strategy Consult program. Season 3 is about pulling the curtain back so you can learn the process with my client, Ramey, on how to form a unique health strategy.

Join Ramey and me in episode 3 to learn about the power and wisdom that qigong can offer you for your health journey. 

Are you interested in learning qigong? Stay informed when classes are available in person and online! Sign up for the Third Opinion MD Newsletter to stay up to date on classes, workshops, podcast news and more: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/newsletter

Thank you for Subscribing/Following the podcast and leaving a review! It means the world to this independent podcast host and producer. 

Follow Third Opinion MD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdopinionmd/

Book a Complimentary consult meeting with Barbara de la Torre: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/contact

When is it the best time to work on your health? When you have more time? After you get sick? 

Welcome to modern life! 

But real preventive medicine always starts and ends with YOU. And the best time to address your health is NOW. Listen to this episode on how the practice of qigong puts you back in charge of your health.

Just look at what the ancient physicians wrote over two thousand years ago about their ancestors:

“In the past, … [t]hey understood the principle of balance as represented by the transformations of the energies of the universe [Nature]. They formulated exercises to promote energy flow to harmonize themselves with the universe. They ate a balanced diet at regular times, arose and retired at regular hours, avoided overstressing their bodies and minds, and refrained from overindulgence of all kinds.” 

(translated by Maoshing Ni)

Energy flow (the smooth circulation of qi) is the key to a long and healthy life. And those “exercises to promote energy flow” are collectively called qigong (pronounced chee-gong.) Qigong is a branch of Chinese medicine that offers tremendous opportunity to improve your health and, perhaps, help improve the healthcare system itself. 

My client, Ramey, took one of my classes to learn about eye health qigong, and she reached a point where she wanted to go deeper than that with the Health Strategy Consult program. Season 3 is about pulling the curtain back so you can learn the process with Ramey on how to form a unique health strategy.

Join my client, Ramey, in episode 2 to learn about the power and wisdom that qigong has to offer in your health journey. 

Thank you for Subscribing/Following the podcast and leaving a review! It means the world to this independent podcast host and producer. 

Sign up for the Third Opinion MD Newsletter to stay up to date on workshops, podcast news and more: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/newsletter

Follow Third Opinion MD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdopinionmd/

Book a Complimentary consult meeting with Barbara de la Torre: https://www.ThirdOpinionMD.org/contact

Ni, M. (1995). The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary(Revised ed. edition). Shambhala.

The definition of qi mentioned in the podcast comes from esteemed scholar, Ed Neal, who wrote that all different types of qi “can be understood as being different manifestations of the primary fabric of space/time.” Neal, E. (2012). Introduction to Neijing Classical Acupuncture Part I: History and Basic Principles.pdf. Journal of Chinese Medicine, 100. https://neijingstudies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/JCM-Article-1.pdf