Exploring Holistic Healing

Hello! My name is Jules Thompson, and I am a rising junior at Whitman College. I am pursuing a Psychology major with a deep interest in mind/body medicine. This summer, I worked at a natural wellness center that offers integrative and cutting-edge treatments. The center is focused on natural remedies to support each person, treating a wide range of illnesses. This summer was monumental for my own personal studies, as well as for the center because four new practitioners and doctors were onboarded to support the role of mental well-being and its effect on chronic illness. A majority of my summer has been focused on understanding and educating about the different modalities offered at the center to try and help patients discover what their own healing journey might incorporate. 

Each day presents new patients and unique health cases, promoting critical thinking and deep discussions. A typical day consists of talking with patients (either diving into their health history or giving them a run-down of our offerings), prepping patient paperwork, calling in patients' prescriptions, stocking practitioners' equipment, and working on specific projects I have at hand.

As a clinic with twelve unique doctors and practitioners specializing in medicine that is not widely accepted in the United States, patients and coworkers have many questions. This summer, I accomplished a large project that entailed creating an online informational board for patients and practitioners about our offerings. I worked on gathering research and information for different protocols and modalities, including heavy metal toxicity protocols, ozone therapy, intravenous vitamin therapy, long-haul COVID-19 protocols, food allergies, and psychosomatic therapy. 

One of the most mind-blowing modalities I researched and summarized was VSel (Very Small Embryonic-Like) therapy. Just this month, the center began offering this regenerative medicine, which extracts your stem cells, multiplies them, and re-injects the expanded stem cells back into the body, restoring damaged cells. This therapy has promising effects on treating many diseases and conditions. 

Reading about all these natural remedies while creating these information boards gave me so much optimism for the future of medicine. I experienced eye-opening moments while discovering new therapies that can treat conditions I previously thought were untreatable.

My internship at Fig Tree Wellness Center has been a pivotal learning curve to my Whitman college education and career path. By expanding my knowledge of medicine and chronic illness, I have found my true passion in treating chronic illness using whole-body healing. I plan to take my major in psychology and my rigor for learning about medicine into my last years at Whitman, and future medical studies. I am so grateful for the Whitman Internship Grant! It has opened my eyes to an alternative approach to medicine that embraces preventive healthcare and finding the root cause of illness.