08.10

Do What You Love interview – Dr Lynn von Schneidau

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Lynn von Schneidau became a naturopathic physician following a health crisis when she was just 23. Determined to   to find a natural way to heal herself she discovered liver detoxification and live whole foods at an alternative cancer clinic in Mexico and within a few months her tumours had dissolved and she was pain-free. Fast-forward 25 years and she is healthy, happy and has three wonderful children. She’s also grown a fantastic business helping others to discover the healing power of food and healthy living. Enjoy the interview! ~ Rachel

11178_620738827978290_973049903_n-2-1Dr. Lynn von Schneidau 

1. How are you doing what you Love?

I love to travel and have been a healer most of my life. In my daily practice as a naturopathic physician in Seattle, I teach people about the importance of healing themselves, with the right tools. I really enjoy spending time with my patients and building strong relationships with them. As a physician it’s very important to get to know a patient so they can tell you their life story. Only then can you really help the healing process as often it is what someone has experienced as a child that is causing them distress or dis-ease as an adult. The best part of my job is seeing a person’s health change in just a matter of weeks.

I also run retreats, which I love. There’s nothing better than seeing people leave their normal, stressful environment  and go to a tropical place to relax and detox. Every time I lead a retreat at the Haramara Retreat, my favourite place in Mexico, I stop when I walk into the yoga palapa overlooking the ocean and say “wow, this is my job!”. Being here and helping others is truly is what I love.

2. Tell us about your journey to this point; how did you discover the world of detoxification, naturopathy and healing and how did it change your life?

My journey to naturopathic medicine began when I was 20 and developed endometrial tumors on my sciatic nerve and ovaries. The pain was debilitating and I had to stay in bed for one week each month. I could barely walk and weighed just 98lbs. Conventional drug treatments and surgery didn’t work and when my condition got worse it seemed the only option was surgery to cut the nerves in my back, remove my appendix, cauterize my tumours and do a full hysterectomy.

Luckily, with my mom’s help, I found Charlotte Gerson,  who offered an alternative, non-toxic treatment. She talked me through every drug I was on, its outcome and side effects, and told me about a therapy where the body can heal itself given the right nutrients and and enzymes by removing toxins. So off I went to the Gerson Clinic – a decision which changed my life. I felt my tumours get numb and dissolve.

IMG_8195I’m now 53 and have three grown up children

3. When did you realise you could make a living this way and how has your business grown and changed over the years?

My main motivation for becoming a naturopath was to teach people that they can really get well. My mission is to empower people to heal themselves by educating them and giving them the right tools to do so. I was spurred on by the fact I had three young children and my ex-husband and I were struggling to make ends meet. At one time I had to go back to school and I was working three jobs so it was a tough road. I joined a very successful practice with a physician, Thomas Young, who just handed over patients to me, then went on to work at other practices before starting my own business in Seattle.

4. What kind of things do people come to you for?

I see patients for all types of conditions: hormonal imbalances, respiratory conditions, cardiovascular ailments, digestive complaints, allergies, migraines, musculoskeletal issues, MVA related ailments, chronic pain, and skin conditions. I have seen a decline in health since I have been practicing, especially in conditions related to digestion, allergies and stress. I tell people you can no longer eat pasta, white rice or bread unless you are in another country that does not use GMOs. Truly they are destroying people’s health by causing an inflammatory condition in the gut, as well as in the body as a whole. The treatments I use are based on nutrition and detoxification and for pain and musculoskeletal and stress I use cranial sacral treatments.

5. What are the principles of naturopathic medicine and how can they help us all live healthier, happier lives?

Naturopathic physicians practice the six fundamental principles of naturopathic medicine:

  1. The Healing Power of Nature: Trust in the body’s inherent wisdom to heal itself.
  2. Identify and Treat the Causes: Look beyond the symptoms to the underlying cause.
  3. First Do No Harm: Utilize the most natural, least invasive and least toxic therapies
  4. Doctor as Teacher: Educate patients in the steps to achieving and maintaining health
  5. Treat the Whole Person: View the body as an integrated whole in all its physical and spiritual dimensions.
  6. Prevention: Focus on overall health, wellness and disease prevention.

I use these principals every time I see a patient, and in my daily life. They are all the more important now, given the way modern orthodox medicine works; it’s all about suppressing symptoms and getting a quick fix with a drug, or performing surgery to cut out something that’s wrong. Naturopathic medicine, on the other hand, follows the principle that your body has an inherent wisdom to heal itself, given the right ingredients. For example:

  • refraining or limiting things that harm us, like stress, alcohol, sugar, packaged/GMO foods, etc.which deplete the body of essential vitamins and nutrients needed to remove the toxins in those foods or additives.
  • using what nature provides as therapy like getting some sun, taking a walk, doing exercise, getting enough sleep and eating healthily.
  • using natures remedies, like plants and minerals, to give the body the nutrients it needs.

If you don’t have the right vitamins, the additives, toxic substances, hormones, bowel toxins stay in the body and are unable to get excreted and start to do havoc and harm the system creating disease, allergies, endocrine imbalances, nervous system imbalances, cancer. In addition to physical impediments, there are also emotional and mental components to health. How one thinks and processes their emotions can be very positive and healthy or be a contributing factor to ill health. Treating the whole person is key to health. If you treat a person’s immune system or heart palpitations with a change in diet and immune and cardiovascular herbs, but fail to address the grief they are suppressing as a result of losing a loved one, their symptoms will recur.

Following naturopathic principals I teach patients how they can heal themselves naturally – in mind, body and soul – to avoid the impediments to health and feel healthier, calmer, more energised and full of life.

6. How do you take care of your health and wellbeing?

What I learned early on, without really knowing it, is that being healthy is a habit. You can have good habits and bad habits when it comes to your health. I have been making two 16oz fresh organic juices every day since I went to the Gerson clinic 25 years ago. It is really just habit, but it’s a great habit to have and really kickstarts my day. My Green juice is a variety of lettuces: green leaf, red leaf, dandelion greens, spinach, small slice of green pepper, apple and parsley. My carrot juice has evolved from just carrots and apples to include spinach, parsley, tumeric root, ginger root, beet and mint. The juices are anti-inflammatory and packed with nutrients. They balance my glandular system and glucose.

IMG_8717Doing yoga at the Haramara Retreat, Mexico

Other healthy habits I’ve developed include going to the gym five days a week and doing yoga twice a week to help me stay flexible and strong as I get older. I also visit sunny places often, spend time being creative, and regular time  alone, and I eat mostly organic foods – fruits, vegetables, oatmeal and other grains, organic chicken and beef, wild salmon. I avoid bread and pasta due to GMOs and gluten but I do still eat chocolate and drink alcohol on occasion.

7. What do you do to relax, practice mindfulness and help heal yourself?

I always find peace in my home. It’s my sanctuary and it’s where my soul is truly happy. I stay positive by reading inspiring books and writing down what I am grateful for each night. I also spend 5-10 minutes in stillness every day, usually walking around the lake which is just a block from my house. It’s good to be in nature, calm my mind and appreciate my beautiful surroundings. When I am not at home I find a beach as I love sun and warmth and water.

To help heal myself I get cranial sacral treatments once a week, a massage every few weeks and go to a Korean women’s spa every month or two. I enjoy lying in the hot salt, sand, stone rooms and it helps me to detoxify and relax. I find that soaking in the hot and cold pools is very good for my immune system too, especially if I alternate hot and cold hydrotherapy treatment three times.

8. What advice would you give someone who’s looking to bring greater clarity, balance and harmony to their busy life?
Always schedule time for yourself, even if it’s just 20 minutes a day to be by yourself. Exercise and healthy food are vital for mental clarity and maintaining balance in the body. I advise people to eat little and often to balance blood sugar. When you get so busy you forget to eat your body has to get energy by breaking down glucose stores in the brain, heart and liver which is why you might end up feeling light headed, or getting heart palpitations.

9. Why is self-discovery so important in today’s modern world?

Those who really know themselves are able to bring great ideas and an abundance of creativity to the world. Our society is full of technology and we tend to follow what’s put out there by the media. Much of which is false. We always need to research things that claim to be good for us, and things that can improve our health. Only you know what is best for you so be guided by your intuition and always trust your instincts.

10. What’s the key to living joyfully and peacefully?

Truly it is about your mind and what you think. I spent years being depressed, wanting what I didn’t have but my whole outlook changed when I finally stopped blaming everyone else for my unhappiness and started focussing on what I actually wanted. Now I write very specific goals and look at them daily, imagining how it would feel to have already achieved them. Finding compassion is so important too. It’s always good to think about others, and what they might be going through.

11. What are you most proud of?

My greatest accomplishments seem to happen when I follow my intuition and stay true to myself and my dreams. I believe that a higher power is always there, guiding me along my chosen path. Like when I chose to have my three babies at home – they were all beautiful water births and I had no drugs whatsoever. And making it through medical school as a single mother when my kids were just one, three and five.

I’m also proud to be doing what I’m doing. My patients have told me that I’m the only doctor who they’ve felt has ever really cared about them. Knowing that I’ve become the compassionate doctor I always wanted to is more fulfilling and rewarding than any dollar I make for my time.

12. What inspired you to start running detox and yoga retreats and what can people expect from them? 

How my first detox retreat started is a really good example of how great things can come out of your worst moments. It was 2008 and I had been in a hostile working environment for years and feeling sabotaged by management I knew I had to quit. I couldn’t be a good naturopath if I was stressed out and unhappy. As a single mum with three kids to support, leaving without a plan probably wasn’t the smartest move but somehow I scraped by.

Back home I got on the computer and started creating my one detox kits; 33 beautifully illustrated visual guide books complete with everything you would need to do the detox I recommend. I’d been writing instructions on how to treat individual symptoms for years by hand and dreamed of doing it differently. Now I had the time to.

850a0582_3_4-3In the moment: a class in the yoga palapa overlooking the ocean at the Haramara Retreat, Mexico

I also dreamed of giving people the chance to experience how it feels to be truly healthy in a beautiful warm location. While I was researching how to do this online I found Haramara in Sayulita, Mexico and decided to go on a retreat there myself. My goal was to book my first retreat before I left and so I met with the owner and did just that. I’ve been running yoga and Detoxification: Mind, body and Soul retreats here for over a decade now and the next one runs from October 17-24, 2015.

During my detox you drink between five and seven freshly made juices a day and eat whole organic foods which are full of nutrients and fibre. By removing all the impediments to health – stress, technology, pollution, toxic food, sugar, refined carbs, packaged food, stimulants, alcohol – and getting back to nature you immediately start to feel better. Plus everything is done for you. My aim is to help people forget all the worries and temptations that come with daily life and help them detox and cultivate healthy habits.

Many people find that their symptoms will completely disappear. I’ve had people with chronic debilitating diseases, cancer, chronic pain, daily headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, heart conditions, as well as emotional and stress related conditions, who’ve become healthier and free from pain and disease in just a week. When you flood the body with nutrients you no longer have any cravings, your nervous system calms down, your hormones become balanced… it is like a switch that turns on all your glands and allows them to function again at an optimal level.

13. What is your philosophy on life?

Everyone is here to evolve their soul. I have great compassion for people as I have seen some of the worst cases of suffering and abuse. I too have had illnesses and awful experiences that have taught me what it means to survive, forgive and thrive. The human soul has incredible strength. If you can do one thing a day to take care of your health and to help another person through kindness you’ll be greatly rewarded. I am constantly trying to learn, improve and evolve. In my life, and on my retreats, if I can teach at least one person what it feels like to truly be healthy, then I have done my job.

14. What’s the ultimate dream?
Personally: to raise my three beautiful kids to be self sufficient happy human beings who are not devoid of suffering but who understand pain and who can grow stronger from it. In my career the utimate dream for me would be to have my own wellness center on a beach in a tropical location – something small and contained, that serves juices, that grows organic food, has naturopaths, therapists trained in massage, cranial sacral, reflexology, reiki, acupuncture and numerous healing rooms, Himalayan therapy rooms and hydrotherapy pools looking over the ocean. Somewhere people could come for a week and heal all types of ailments.

11403293_936831679702335_5124969491345901338_nRelaxing by the ocean on one of my retreats

For the world: that we care for our earth and our bodies and our minds with consciousness and kindness. We as a world save ourselves and our planet through educating on the harms of big pharma, monsanto, food companies and corporations who seem intent on destroying our human population and earth through there own greed.

For more information about Dr. Lynn and her upcoming yoga and detox retreat visit her website.

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