Hi , how are you ? This is Dr Demiris Maria Grossman and I am your integrated DMP and this is the MindPlay Integrated Show . So , overall , I'm talking today about why I consider myself an integrative nurse practitioner . So what that is is that I use integrated health , which is components of traditional and integrative work .
In addition , I also use functional medicine as a practitioner . So I will look at the root cause and the problems of underlying things . But I call myself integrative because I also use other components . So , for example , you have a migraine . We're going to look at the history of it . Is it a gulfiome issue ? Is it a toxin ? Is it some overall tension ?
So , if there is an underlying cause , what the cause is , I would really go with . Then , on top of that , the integrative approach would maybe be magnesium , tension , headaches , acupuncture , massage , movement therapy , yoga , stress management .
So that integrative approach is that other additional part , in addition to finding the root cause as a functional medicine practitioner . So I , then , am very emphasized this is part of who I am . It's kind of one of those things .
When I first went to nurse practitioner school and became a nurse , I thought I knew a lot of information and I thought I had a lot of education , which I did , but I really always wanted to help people and that was the bottom line .
And when I had a lot of my own illness and my own trauma I'm a military veteran and I'm a mom now but when I was based with my own trauma , my own chronic illness and my own back injury , I had to figure out what was going to make me better .
And in my wellness journey and in my healing journey I really went from real dark to then trying to find the answers and I made it my life's work , literally and figuratively , to get better and I make it a mission to understand where the benefits of different things are .
So that's when I became a nurse integrative , using yoga , mindfulness , all different modalities of integrated health , and then finding now functional medicine . So that's for me it's necessity I call myself that to give other people at this point resources and to not think of just pills as the medicine , because that's not the answer .
It is part of equation for some , but it's not the whole situation , because when you're not looking at the real reason underlying something , then you're not really looking at your health and what happens is this integrative , functional medicine is work .
It takes time , it takes effort and you really do have to look within to find the answers , and you have to look at testing and blood work and look at where things are coming up , because if you don't , then you're just pretending there's acute things that you can fix but also understand . You're trying to find and prevent or trying to decrease chronic illness .
So that's what I'm here for . I'm here to help , be a resource , being advocate for those and others . Now that I know I don't want to go back to just a band-aid fix . I don't want to just go back to thinking about just a disease process .
I want to think about where people are and where myself am at , so that when I'm 80 years old , I may not need that much energy . I'm living to my fullest potential and that's what I want for you . So come with me on this journey , and that I'm here to help you .