Episode 223 Dr. Erica Steele How Holistic Medicine Can Treat What The VA Can’t Transcript

This transcript is from episode 223 with guest Dr. Erica Steele.

[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host Scott DeLuzio and now let’s get on with the show.

[00:00:21] Scott DeLuzio: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today, my guest is Dr. Erica Steele. Dr. Steele is the founder of Holistic Family Practice, where she specializes in natural health healing, disease prevention, and holistic healthcare. And she’s here today to discuss options for healthcare beyond the VA. I know a lot of our listeners.

[00:00:45] Scott DeLuzio: Who listen to this podcast, use a VA for their healthcare, myself included. And while the VA is a great option for many veterans there are some drawbacks and it may not be the best option for everyone in every [00:01:00] situation. So we’re gonna be discussing alternatives to healthcare that the VA may not be able to handle just may not be equipped to handle.

[00:01:08] Scott DeLuzio: So, welcome to the show Dr. Steele. I’m really glad to have you on.

[00:01:11] Dr. Erica Steele: Yes. Awesome. Thanks for having

[00:01:12] Scott DeLuzio: me. Yeah, absolutely. So why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background for the listeners who may not be familiar with you.

[00:01:19] Dr. Erica Steele: Yeah. So, my name again, Dr. Erica Steele, I’m a holistic doctor in family practice.

[00:01:24] Dr. Erica Steele: I hold six degrees in my field. They’re all in the natural healthcare space ranging from psychology to laboratory diagnostics. I have hundreds of certifications, functional medicine, integrative medicine. So a lot of biochemistry, a lot of science, but then also a lot of you know, the wisdom of natural medicine and you know, all of the natural things that you wouldn’t necessarily find in the traditional VA.

[00:01:46] Dr. Erica Steele: Offices.

[00:01:48] Scott DeLuzio: Right? Exactly. And that’s the thing that is really interesting to me because I know just through talking to other people who have been through the VA, my myself included it seems like the VA very [00:02:00] often is very quick to just prescribe something to. Control, whatever the symptoms are, of whatever it is that you might be dealing with.

[00:02:09] Scott DeLuzio: If you’re having back pain or if you’re having if you’re suffering from depression or anxiety or whatever the issue is that you’re dealing with it seems like a quick prescription. Here you go take this and you’ll start to feel better, which in many cases is true. You will start to. See less of those symptoms, but a lot of times these medicines have side effects and they’re not always the most pleasant side effects.

[00:02:32] Scott DeLuzio: And so, you know, these types of things could be handled in a different way. And I’m not saying that every single case can be handled one way or another, every case is going to be a little bit different. Right. But in your practice, you treat veterans who are dealing with a lot of this type of stuff.

[00:02:50] Scott DeLuzio: Sometimes they, they are. Toxic from things that they’re exposed to in their service. So what are some of the things that you do in your practice to, to help [00:03:00] people who are looking for these alternative ways of healing themselves?

[00:03:04] Dr. Erica Steele: Yeah. And so, I think you’ve said a lot there, so I’ll kind of break it down.

[00:03:08] Dr. Erica Steele: So the first thing is oftentimes people, they find me out of desperation. I’m not their firstchoice right, because they, a lot of times they don’t even know doctors like me exist. So, so that’s one perspective. I did mention I’m also the child of two Marines. My dad was a drone instructor. My parents met in the Marine Corps.

[00:03:28] Dr. Erica Steele: I live in Virginia Beach, you know, Norfolk is right next door. My mother works for the VA now, so, you know, they were in Camp Lejeune the whole thing. Right. And so I have a lot of direct experience. I treat veterans from all different. You know, service branches not just the Navy, but also the Marine Corps and air force and coast guard.

[00:03:48] Dr. Erica Steele: And I’ve treated the gamut and also treated many veterans that have been exposed to all kinds of things. Right. And so. You know, in an alopathic [00:04:00] model, right? Meaning a standard medical model, which the VA is gonna be privy to. Right. Number one, let’s look at the military mindset, right. It’s like, let’s go ahead and get this patched up so you can get back out in the field.

[00:04:13] Dr. Erica Steele: Right. Let’s get this patched up so you can get back to work. So it’s very reactionary, right? So you’re already kind of thinking from that perspective already. And so it’s all very reactionary to like, okay, we gotta patch this up and get you back out.

[00:04:27] Dr. Erica Steele: So now let’s say you’ve retired out. It’s the same mindset. It’s like, let’s get you patched out, but not necessarily to get you back out, but just get you outta my office. So a lot of times you have a lot of symptoms not to mention the wait times, right? Mm-hmm so people are getting sicker and sicker, right?

[00:04:44] Dr. Erica Steele: As they’re waiting and waiting and waiting. To be able to be seen. So there’s a lot of stress on the system. And unfortunately in, in Virginia, you would think we have the greatest one and our lag times are probably even worse. Unfortunately. Then let’s say some that I’ve heard, you know, from Florida [00:05:00] or some of the other VAs around.

[00:05:02] Dr. Erica Steele: I think some of the systems and modeling is kind of a part of it. But I digress when we’re looking to treat right in an apathic model, they look to diagnose and manage a disease, right? So it’s like, I’m gonna look at your gamut of symptoms. I’m gonna find the closest label. I’m gonna label it as that.

[00:05:20] Dr. Erica Steele: And then I’m gonna look and I’m oversimplifying it, but I’m gonna look it up and go, okay, this medication or this procedure, or this surgical intervention is designed for X, Y, Z. However, A lot of veterans, as you mentioned, right? Let’s just look at nutrients, fueling the body. Right? A lot of veterans, the food, you know, that are given in bootcamp, basic training I’m shocked that people are living off of this.

[00:05:45] Dr. Erica Steele: You know, it’s like very, very like, you know, it’s not nutritious. It’s not necessarily the most, you know, nutrient dense and that’s, what’s feeding the body. So that’s the first thing we look at is nutrients and nutrition, and [00:06:00] really breaking a lot of those bad habits because that’s gonna give the body energy.

[00:06:04] Dr. Erica Steele: Not to mention if your body’s not it being energized properly, it’s not able to naturally detoxify. Okay. Because that’s just a part of the process. We fuel our bodies. It runs through the engine of our car known as the metabolism, and then it leaves the exhaust pipe, the waste. But then let’s say, so we’re not fueling properly.

[00:06:21] Dr. Erica Steele: It’s slowing down in the engine. It’s not eliminating out through the exhaust pipe, but now we put that human. In an even toxic environment with molds and radiation exposure and nuclear reaction exposure. I mean, I’ve treated, you know, veterans. Or part of Fukushima and how to deal with all of that.

[00:06:41] Dr. Erica Steele: Right. And then, you know, being over in Afghanistan or Iraq and all the burning and the, you know, I’ve got, I had 20 something year old kids coming back who couldn’t even walk up steps, you know, their lungs were just so toxic. And the mindset around the VA, nothing against the VA. Again it’s great emergent care, but it’s like, okay, let’s patch this [00:07:00] up and get you back out.

[00:07:01] Dr. Erica Steele: Right. Instead of let’s figure out what you’ve been exposed to. Right. Right. Or perhaps what we’ve injected into you, you know, because that’s the other thing I have a Marine that I, you know, she’s no longer a Marine she’s retired. And we did lots of tests and sh the amount of vaccines that she’s tested for toxicity from those you know, you know, inoculations, which were necessary for service that has now triggered an autoimmune reaction.

[00:07:30] Dr. Erica Steele: And now she’s dealing with RA like symptoms, right? The VA’s way of handling it is here. Go ahead. Pain medication, you know, steroid. You know, which compounds the problem. And so it takes us time to be able to identify what it is, provide the nutrition that needs that the body needs, just to be able to release it on its own.

[00:07:51] Dr. Erica Steele: And then we have gotta really structure a detoxification protocol so that the body can actually heal itself by taking the pressure off of [00:08:00] it. So that’s a, I do a lot of detective work.

[00:08:03] Scott DeLuzio: It sounds like it, and it also sounds like a lot of. Individual cases are going to be different, that you’re not gonna get two people who served in the same location.

[00:08:12] Scott DeLuzio: Who’s gonna have exposure to radiation and burn pits. And well, we all ate like crap in the military. Let’s just face it. You know, especially on deployment. I know we had a delivery on our FOB when I was in Afghanistan and I was helping unload. And it was pallets of food and stuff. And I just saw some of the stuff that was sitting on there.

[00:08:34] Scott DeLuzio: And before it even came off the pallet, it already had an expired expiration date on the label. And I was like, well, great. You know, what have we been eating for the last, however many months that we’ve been here and, you know, we’re about to have this too. And it just kind of floored me that that’s what we are being sent, you know?

[00:08:54] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Not to mention the fact that we had a burn pit on the base and just down the street, a couple miles and a [00:09:00] place where we frequently would patrol and work in was this enormous x-ray scanning machine that admitted so much radiation that some of the people who were working there, some of the local Afghans who were working there, they were concerned.

[00:09:13] Scott DeLuzio: Some of their friends, they kept getting cancer and they’re like, what’s gonna happen to me because I’m working here too. And come to find out it was so much radiation. Like we, we drew like a, an imaginary line around this building. Like, don’t go any closer than this, cuz you’re gonna be a bad situation if you do.

[00:09:31] Scott DeLuzio: So. Yeah. You know, I’m actually surprised I’m. Still kicking, you know, with

[00:09:35] Dr. Erica Steele: all this by the grace of God. For sure.

[00:09:37] Scott DeLuzio: I know. Right. For sure. Yeah. I’m clearly not done with whatever it is that I’m doing here. So resilience. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, there’s so many people who have so many different things and you’re absolutely right.

[00:09:47] Scott DeLuzio: You have to be a detective. And if the people who are. Treating these veterans are not doing the detective work. They’re just you know, checking a couple boxes and saying, okay, yeah this sits under this [00:10:00] criteria. Let’s treat it this way. It’s not digging down to the root cause of the problem.

[00:10:04] Scott DeLuzio: It’s really just com treating the symptoms as opposed to the. Root of the issue and mm-hmm, , you know, our bodies are really incredible in terms of how well we can heal and recover from things. If we allow them to, you know, if we yes, provide them with the right fuel and the right. Yes. You know, the right energy and everything like that, that we need.

[00:10:24] Scott DeLuzio: And so that’s where someone like yourself comes in and that’s why I’m excited to have you on and talk about this stuff. Yeah. Because there are so many medications, so many treatments and other things that go on that may not even be necessary if we go down and figure out what the root cause of some of these things are.

[00:10:41] Scott DeLuzio: So, and this isn’t, you know, I’m not knocking the VA at all throughout this episode. I think the VA’s great. I’ve dealt with a lot of great people from the VA. But it seems to me though, the, through some of these conversations that I’ve had with other veterans. That they just like to prescribe medications to [00:11:00] treat these problems.

[00:11:00] Scott DeLuzio: And these medications can be pretty problematic,

[00:11:03] Dr. Erica Steele: right? Yes. Oh, a hundred percent. Well, not to mention the, you know, addiction component of it. Right. Especially if you’re in pain. Right. And, you know, the VA definitely has a reputation of being very heavy handed with, you know, prescriptions and again, it’s that very like.

[00:11:21] Dr. Erica Steele: Let’s get you, you know, the mindset is like let’s patch you up and get you out, right? Yep. And when you’re hurting and you’re not feeling well, and you don’t have the energy to advocate for yourself, you just kind of take whatever is given to you because you don’t really know of another option. You don’t really know that there’s another opportunity, you know, available to you and it’s, and sadly, I tend to get people.

[00:11:45] Dr. Erica Steele: At their worst when they’ve been to every doctor under the sun, they’ve been to all the specialists and they’ve exhausted so many options and, you know, they’re in a very desperate state and then they come in and, you know, I have to take all this data on them. So I take [00:12:00] three 50 to 500 data points on each individual patient.

[00:12:03] Dr. Erica Steele: And that’s. So to answer your. Figurative question about like you’re treating patients individually. Absolutely. And the way we do that is we take all the data on them and then we create kind of a controlled experiment and then prioritize what needs to happen first, because we can address a. Everything all at once.

[00:12:22] Dr. Erica Steele: And that doesn’t even, we’re just really talking from a physical perspective. We’re not even looking at the mental, emotional, psychosocial, spiritual, the environmental. I also treat a lot of Navy seals and their families and the, you know, and special ops and the impact of trauma and how that has impacted them.

[00:12:41] Dr. Erica Steele: And. The more kind of training, right. Mental training that they’ve had, you know, and more of like the, the suppression and lock it in the box kind of thing. The more I have to be very delicate when I’m approaching, because I have to ensure that they feel safe and [00:13:00] that, you know, their training’s not activated where there are, because they know how to hold onto stuff.

[00:13:04] Dr. Erica Steele: But at a certain point, It’s really affecting them on a physical level because it’s literally eating them from the inside out. So again, like, this is way more than can be done in, you know, a five, 15 minute appointment and, or an appointment that you have to wait 6, 9, 8, 10 months. I mean, I see patients every three weeks, patients have access to me.

[00:13:29] Dr. Erica Steele: If they have a question, they can shoot an email and just having. That high touch really helps reassure the person to go, okay. Somebody’s there for me. Somebody’s got my back. Right. You know, me, myself I laughingly say I was recruited at birth, having Marines as parents, you know, I was recruited at birth and I went AWOL at 16.

[00:13:49] Dr. Erica Steele: When I left my house. You know, and so having posttraumatic stress myself, just being a product of two Marines when the Marine Corps did not care that you had children you know, they weren’t issued to [00:14:00] you, so, you know, just deal with it. And so, yeah, it was people don’t talk about the impact of that, but I digress, you know, like just the whole consciousness.

[00:14:09] Dr. Erica Steele: And then of course, you know, the adapt and overcome and, you know, once the Marine always, I mean, I’m totally indoctrinated with all of those concepts. And so having to heal myself and personally understanding the impacts of trauma and how you’re working with people with trauma, it’s not just a physical thing, right?

[00:14:26] Dr. Erica Steele: Yes. There’s nutrition issues. We know that yes, there are toxicity issues. We know that. But then there’s also just the humanity issues and the things that have been seen and how does the mind and the body and the spirit process, all of that and how do they come home to themselves and get peace with themselves, let alone their families.

[00:14:45] Dr. Erica Steele: And so that’s why of course suicide rates are through the roof. That’s why, of course, you know, divorce rates are so high. You know, really, and I’m not saying that those resources aren’t available, but it’s a matter of trust and wait [00:15:00] times and the ability to have access, I think is the most

[00:15:03] Scott DeLuzio: important.

[00:15:04] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, for sure. I know you talked, touched on something with the suicides and how high those rates are. Ultimately, the reason why this podcast even exists is because personally I’ve known several people that I served with, that I deployed with who came back home and took their lives.

[00:15:21] Scott DeLuzio: And I was like, this is just not okay. And I realized just how prevalent of a problem it was throughout the military and the veteran community. And, you know, I didn’t wanna just sit around, waiting for another phone call saying, another friend is gone now, you know, I, and I’m sure no one else wants to do that either.

[00:15:39] Scott DeLuzio: And so. I felt like I needed to do something right. And maybe this isn’t the best thing that I could possibly be doing, but it’s the thing that I found that can reach a lot of people and providing resources. Like what you’re providing through your practice is I, in my opinion, it’s a big benefit to the military community, because [00:16:00] like we said, in the beginning, a lot of times all the veterans think of are.

[00:16:06] Scott DeLuzio: Or as far as the options that they have available are through the VA and that’s not necessarily true. There’s so many providers out there that offer all sorts of different things that are outside the VA box. If you will. There’s. Alternative forms of you know, mental health and physical health and other, just so many different things that are out there.

[00:16:26] Scott DeLuzio: So I try to highlight as many of those as I can on this podcast stuff like what you do. And I know you said that you’re in the Virginia area. Do you work with people outside of that area? Are you mostly. No,

[00:16:38] Dr. Erica Steele: I work. So a few things about me. So I work internationally. I can work with anybody all over the world.

[00:16:43] Dr. Erica Steele: We do it through telehealth and remote. The other thing that’s very different is so I only accept insurance for labs, right. I don’t accept it for my service fees, which means I am a private provider, which means that unless [00:17:00] my records are subpoenaed or unless the person releases signs for them to release, they are completely it’s.

[00:17:07] Dr. Erica Steele: Completely private. And so that also for security purposes and for, you know, all sorts of reasons for the military, right? Making sure that their autonomy is protected and their privacy is protected and that they’re able to express and communicate in a safe space, knowing that this isn’t gonna end.

[00:17:28] Dr. Erica Steele: Somewhere on a chart and that sort of thing. I’ve also helped a lot of people through their disability and, you know, helping to prove those kinds of cases as well, because unfortunately in that, or even just giving them advice into how to approach those things because of the nature of what’s happened to, you know, their systems, you know, mental, emotional, or physical.

[00:17:50] Dr. Erica Steele: And so I really, you know, coming from. You know, a military family, a huge military family, even my uncles, like every single one of them are in the military, you know? And so my [00:18:00] grandfather too, you know, coming from a huge military family, you know, it’s really important to be able to just like you. It’s like, I saw so much.

[00:18:08] Dr. Erica Steele: You know, as a result, even though I was very proud of being fr, I am very proud of being from a military family. I have also been impacted by so many of the nuances to it. So it’s like, you know what? I wanna be out of the box. I wanna think outside of the box, because that’s really how we’re gonna help people.

[00:18:26] Dr. Erica Steele: Not from this linear. You know, medication surgery, you know, kind of this conveyor belt of healthcare that people seem to get on. And that’s even outside of the military too, but it’s definitely very prevalent in the military again, because it’s more of you’re, you know, a product, you’re a number, you’re an asset number, right.

[00:18:45] Dr. Erica Steele: Mm-hmm . And so there’s really not much care going on in the healthcare system, especially in the VA. Unfortunately I think they mean well, but delivery. Yeah.

[00:18:56] Scott DeLuzio: And there are so many people who work for the VA that are [00:19:00] doing the absolute best that they can with the resources that they have available.

[00:19:03] Scott DeLuzio: It’s just, you know, it’s a huge system and it, people fall through the cracks, unfortunately and things are you know, they, sometimes they might feel like they have their hands tied and they can’t treat everybody exactly the way they might want to because maybe this is not an approved course of action or whatever, you know, So that’s the thing that, that bugs me with the VA.

[00:19:27] Scott DeLuzio: You know, I wish it was one of those things where. Everybody just had the option to go wherever they wanted and get whatever the treatment it is that they needed through people like yourself and everything that was just covered. Right. Yeah. But I think that peace of mind you know, first off you were saying earlier, you know, you like to build that trust with the patients that you’re seeing.

[00:19:46] Scott DeLuzio: But knowing that whatever is said, whatever is discovered, whatever comes up through your sessions and the everything else it’s. Private it’s gonna stay between you and the [00:20:00] patient. Right. And that’s as far as it goes. And that to me would be a huge relief. If I was still in the military, thinking, you know, how is this gonna affect my security clearance?

[00:20:12] Scott DeLuzio: Or how is this gonna affect my job? Will I be able to continue working my job or you know, whatever. That would be a huge relief, knowing that I can get the care that I need. Yeah. Without jeopardizing any of those other things professionally. And that, that. That would give me that sense of security, knowing that I, okay.

[00:20:30] Scott DeLuzio: I can trust this person. I can provide the information that is truthful and will actually help get exactly be on the right track. So that way I’m not just prolonging this unnecessarily, just because I’m afraid to admit to certain. Things that may have been a

[00:20:46] Dr. Erica Steele: hundred percent that may have done or whatever.

[00:20:48] Dr. Erica Steele: Right. Yeah. And not to mention the fact that I take it very slow. Right. Mm-hmm , I’m not gonna be, you know, and also too, I, my don’t have like a motivation, right. My motivation. And again, being [00:21:00] private, I work for the patient. So I’m not necessarily working for conglomerate with another, you know, kind of conflict of interest I’m working for the individual.

[00:21:09] Dr. Erica Steele: Right. And so. I can take it as slow as I need to with the person, depending on what they’ve been through, or I can take it as efficient. Right. And I’m always trying to help that person see the hope, see the potential, see the possibility that they have to be able to transform and heal. Right. And I use my own experiences, you know, as a product of, you know, to.

[00:21:32] Dr. Erica Steele: Wonderful loving Marines, you know, as examples, because I’ve seen it and I’ve been through quite a bit. Right. And that also. Builds reassurance and builds trust because it’s like, oh, it’s not just me. Cuz a lot of times people that have been through trauma have been their experiences feel siloed.

[00:21:48] Dr. Erica Steele: It’s like, oh this is only happening to me. This is only happening to me. Everybody else seems fine. Why am I the one that’s so messed up? You know, there’s all these crazy thoughts that are happening. And when you have somebody that goes, [00:22:00] no, I totally get you. I understand you. I’m validating and recreating that it’s like, that’s again, such a huge relief.

[00:22:07] Dr. Erica Steele: And I will say this to the VA’s credit. They are actually beginning to look at other things outside of the box. They are beginning to look at acupuncture. They are beginning to look at obviously hyperbaric chambers popular. They are beginning to look at AC you know, chiropractic mind, body practices and things like that.

[00:22:26] Dr. Erica Steele: They are beginning. So there’s a window there. Right. It’s still within that structure and that system. So it’s like, you know, a thousand people BU rushing to appointments. Right. You know, so there’s still that, but I think even the VA opening up, right. It is amazing. And even too. Now they’re doing a lot more plant medicine you know, different practices, of course, not within the United States, but they are sponsoring them in other countries as well, where plant medicines are legal.

[00:22:54] Dr. Erica Steele: There are some in different states. I think Utah has some some plant medicines that are legal Colorado. I [00:23:00] know, and obviously California and Oregon, you know, so those are also other ways where, you know, we do the pre integration. They do the treatment, then they do post integration.

[00:23:10] Dr. Erica Steele: But again, you have to be prepped for that. You have to be ready for that. There’s a whole, you know, whole, you know, like, you know, line that goes into that, right. A whole runway, if you will. And so, there are more resources available. I think it just really. Depends on the person’s open-mindedness willingness.

[00:23:28] Dr. Erica Steele: And it’s like, look where you’re at right now could be your rock bottom. You could go down from there, or you could choose to kind of take that breath and take that leap and get to the other side. And sometimes when you have something to hope for like either a relationship or your children, or, you know, just something outside of yourself, even though we want intrinsic motivation, but sometimes we need to.

[00:23:53] Dr. Erica Steele: Things that are accessible to go, okay. I need to pull myself together and get myself out of this hole that I’m in. [00:24:00]

[00:24:00] Scott DeLuzio: So well, that, that’s a great point. And a good example of finding something bigger than yourself to push you, to keep going or to get better than where you’re at. You know, when you’re at that rock bottom moment, it’s hard to see.

[00:24:18] Scott DeLuzio: There’s other things out there, but when you start thinking about your spouse or your kids or the people who rely on you for something, you know, maybe you’re you know, in, in your community, your you know, maybe a EMT or a firefighter, you know, someone like that. It’s like, there are people who rely on these people to go and save them.

[00:24:39] Scott DeLuzio: And so if you are. Gonna give up on yourself. You’re also giving up on those other people. And when you start to realize that, then it’s like, okay, now I have a purpose again. I have a mission. I have something to fight for and I’m not going to fail this mission. I’m going to keep going. I’m gonna keep fighting.

[00:24:56] Scott DeLuzio: Just like when people are in the military, they. [00:25:00] Have this mission, whatever the mission is. But usually there’s somebody else that they’re willing to sacrifice for. Maybe it’s the guy on their left or their right as they’re going into combat or something. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves for that.

[00:25:14] Scott DeLuzio: But if they’re not at their peak performance, they may not have that opportunity to be able to help that other person. And so. That’s why you see these military guys and gals who are in the gym, they’re getting jacked. They’re taking care of themselves because they know that they may need to help somebody else out in the future.

[00:25:33] Scott DeLuzio: And they don’t wanna let that person down. Yeah. And you know, that’s, I think just as important after getting out of the military, there are people who are counting on you. Mm-hmm could be your family, it could be neighbors or coworkers or whoever. They’re relying on you. And so do all that you can to make yourself.

[00:25:54] Scott DeLuzio: Peak in all areas of your life. Yeah. Your physical, your mental, your spiritual, [00:26:00] your all areas of your health and your life. I mean, just focus on that and get to be as good as you can, so you can be there to help those

[00:26:07] Dr. Erica Steele: people. Right. And it’s definitely, totally, it’s definitely a mind shift too, because it’s like, I’m doing this for the person in the left person in the right.

[00:26:16] Dr. Erica Steele: I’m doing this for my country. I’m doing this for this mission. Right. And then now it. Oh, but I’m supposed to be doing this for myself. Yeah. Right. So it is this little like, oh, well doing it for myself is selfish and all this all this kind of stuff. Which I think doesn’t serve people in a lot of ways.

[00:26:34] Dr. Erica Steele: Right? Yeah. However you use what you got. If it’s the neighbor, if it’s the friend, if it’s the spouse, if it’s the kids, if it’s the, whoever the job, it doesn’t matter until you have that momentum to go. I’m doing this for me now. Right? Right. And so then you can utilize that. And then what’s amazing about going through this process.

[00:26:57] Dr. Erica Steele: If I hadn’t had a crazy [00:27:00] life and believe you me it’s still in a lot of ways. I’m like really, you know, . So, if I wouldn’t have had the experiences that I had, I wouldn’t be the person I am. I wouldn’t be able to relate to so many people. I wouldn’t be able to help so many people. So even though it may seem totally grim, There is a reason for everything.

[00:27:18] Dr. Erica Steele: And I know it’s like, I roll. Like whenever people say that, like, God, wouldn’t give you something hard, you know, whatever. We all know the cliches, but really at the end of the day, it is true. Right. And. Also to bringing this into a spiritual conversation, you know, creator God, whatever you wanna believe.

[00:27:36] Dr. Erica Steele: Right. They, he does know your heart and he does know what you’re capable of. You may not know what you’re capable of. Right. And half the time I’m like, really, like, I don’t have any more left in me, but obviously someone does. Otherwise, we wouldn’t kind of keep going through these cycles, but I also know that if we continue to keep moving and we continue to put one foot in front of the other and we continue to [00:28:00] just be open to the process, we will find and get the resources that we need in order to feel better in order to transform.

[00:28:07] Dr. Erica Steele: It’s just a matter of having the willingness and the desire and being open to receiving it. And I think once, once people begin to kind of get that momentum, then they’re unstoppable for.

[00:28:18] Scott DeLuzio: How would someone know that the type of treatments that you offer and the stuff that you do in your practice, how would someone know whether or not that’s right for them?

[00:28:28] Scott DeLuzio: Is there some sort of kind of guidelines or things that you focus up better on than other things? How could someone kind of decide for themselves whether or. So I

[00:28:37] Dr. Erica Steele: would say that I get people that again, have been to every doctor under the sun and no answers. They feel like they’re getting sicker and sicker with no result, the treatment that they’re getting doesn’t make sense.

[00:28:48] Dr. Erica Steele: And they don’t have to have a medical degree to recognize that it doesn’t make sense. Right. They’re frustrated with their healthcare providers. They don’t feel like their healthcare providers are listening to them. They hate doctors. I hear that all the time. I hate [00:29:00] doctors. I don’t like doctors.

[00:29:01] Dr. Erica Steele: You’re okay. You know, so , you know, it’s those kinds. I think intuitively people know when, what they’re doing is not working. And so they’re, they need to find, you know, what definition of insanity doing the same thing and expecting different result. Right? Some of us like the insanity, right. And other people they’re observant of the insanity and they wanna get out of it.

[00:29:25] Dr. Erica Steele: And then some people are observant on insanity. They wanna get out of it. And now it’s like, oh, perfect. I listen to this podcast. And now, you know, this is the next step. Right? I really am very much a believer in inspired action. And when you’re supposed to hear the message, you hear the message and when, if it resonates, it resonates and you don’t have to question that even if you’re like, mm, I don’t know.

[00:29:48] Dr. Erica Steele: You know, like, even if there’s some. Something there. Right? Mm-hmm it may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. I have patients that have followed my work for years, and then they finally build up the courage to come into my [00:30:00] office. And they’re like, okay, now that I’ve torched down everything else in my life I’m ready.

[00:30:04] Dr. Erica Steele: you know, like, right. You know, I wasn’t ready. Two years ago, you pissed me off the first time I met you. I mean, I’ve had so many people. Side, you know, cuz I, I trigger people cuz I tell people the truth. And so, you know, sometimes people aren’t ready to hear that and that’s fine. I don’t dig it personally, but I think if there’s any inkling there, then it’s like, okay, I’m curious.

[00:30:25] Dr. Erica Steele: Right, right. I’m curious. Maybe I’ll watch some of her videos. Maybe I’ll watch her on TV. Maybe I’ll kind of, you know, do the sniff test. I get that a lot with special ops. They’re always doing the sniff test with me, you know, cuz it’s like, mm. You know, cuz they’re trained. Right. And so. You know, I try to take it really easy.

[00:30:42] Dr. Erica Steele: I am authentic in who I am. What you see is what you get. There’s no a other alternative motive other than. You know, trying to facilitate and help heal millions of people on this planet while I’m here. So that’s my mission. So,

[00:30:55] Scott DeLuzio: yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned that you work with people all over the place, so it [00:31:00] doesn’t necessarily have to be local to your community, although I’m sure that there’s plenty of that going on too, but where can people go to get in touch with you, find out more about your work and the types of stuff that you.

[00:31:10] Dr. Erica Steele: Yeah. So I’m all over every social you could imagine. IG Facebook, all the things you can Google. My name, Dr. Erica Steele. I’m on television often. So you can look at any, I talk a lot about trauma. I talk a lot about that sort of thing. My website, holistic family practice, va.com. I’ve done free webinars on various different topics from detoxification to nutrition, to mental health.

[00:31:32] Dr. Erica Steele: I mean, you name it. I’m a holistic doctor through and through. So. The reason I have six degrees is because I wanted to understand the complex human experience, because when you come from complex humans, like I did, you wanna under you, you’re like, I know this isn’t normal. I don’t know what normal and healthy is.

[00:31:52] Dr. Erica Steele: Right. But clearly this is not it . And so I kinda went on a pilgrimage to kinda understand, [00:32:00] you know, and I love my parents and they’re great. And they’ve grown up so much since, you know, their days. I mean, they were like 20 years old in the Marine Corps, like, oh my mind blown. I look back at them and I go, oh my God, you know, they gave you two guns.

[00:32:12] Dr. Erica Steele: What, you know, , you know, but at the end of the day, you know, There’s just so many opportunities to reach out to me through all the different channels, I’m very accessible. And I do that for a reason because sometimes all it takes is just that one going, you know what. I’m just gonna reach out and see what happens.

[00:32:31] Dr. Erica Steele: And so I try to be as open as I can.

[00:32:35] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, that’s great. And I will have links to all of this in the show notes for anyone who is listening, who wants to reach out and find out more about this practice and how it can maybe benefit you and. The situation that you’re finding yourselves in you can go ahead, check out the show notes, click through the links, and you’ll be able to find all the socials and the websites and everything that you can use to find Dr.

[00:32:55] Scott DeLuzio: Steele and everything that she has going on. So, with that Dr. [00:33:00] Steele, it’s really been a pleasure chatting with you and hearing about the type of practice that you do. And the work that you’ve done with veterans and other people who have. You know, all sorts of, you know, different issues.

[00:33:11] Scott DeLuzio: But ultimately, you know, it looks like, you know, just drilling down to mm-hmm the basics and finding out what’s the root cause of these problems. And how do we treat these in you know, maybe a more natural holistic kind of way that will use the body strengths. Work towards achieving this goal.

[00:33:31] Scott DeLuzio: And I, to me, it just is a breath of fresh air. When we hear about all these overdoses and addictions and all this other stuff that going on in, in the news and around the world you know, this is just a, another way of looking at things that I think it’s a good way of looking at it.

[00:33:45] Scott DeLuzio: So, I appreciate all of the work that you do and thank you for taking the time to come on this show.

[00:33:50] Dr. Erica Steele: Awesome. Thank awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:33:53] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to check out more episodes or learn more about the show, you can visit our [00:34:00] website DriveOnPodcast.com We’re also on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube at Drive On Podcast.