Women In Wellness: Dr Patricia Celan On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Expand your social circle! Remember that a strong sense of community improves your physical and mental wellbeing, and can extend your years as well as the health in your years.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Patricia Celan.

Dr. Patricia Celan is a Canadian physician working as a junior mental health professional for the Nova Scotia Health Authority. She obtained her MD at the University of British Columbia. She is currently in postgraduate training to specialize in psychiatry.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

My pleasure — and thank you for inviting me! Before I started medical school, I was always interested in physical and mental wellness. I also love animals, and growing up I had several friends and family who were vegetarian or vegan. It became a natural transition to combine my love of wellness and animals into choosing to become vegan in 2014. As well, I plan to open a clinic focused on treating people who have depressive illnesses, anxious illnesses, and trauma-related illnesses, and I will incorporate animal therapy into my clinic and encourage others to consider including animals into their approaches to wellness too. The value of the human connection to animals in improving our wellbeing cannot be understated! Outside of my professional training, I am passionate about advocating for animal rights and raising awareness about veganism. One of the ways I do this is through my work with Anonymous for the Voiceless as well as promoting the Animal Justice Academy.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I have to say that the amount of stigma in medicine against veganism is very interesting. Even among some of the most educated people in our society, there are a lot of anti-vegan stereotypes and…