Dear Doctor: Erica Matluck
The naturopathic doctor and nurse practitioner on creating an integrative model of healthcare.
As a child, Erica Matluck saw firsthand the need for holistic medical care. Since then, she has travelled the world and studied with people from different cultures, a journey that helped her develop her own philosophy of care that she now weaves into her integrative practice. Read on to learn how this doctor’s journey inspired her to create communities of people through travel, education, and experience.
“My mother had lung cancer when I was a girl and she passed when I was eleven. I remember being in the hospital with her as she went through very aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments. It seemed like she became sicker and weaker after each one, and I questioned whether the approach was actually helping her heal. Years later when I was in high school, I had a boyfriend whose father was diagnosed with another type of cancer. He went down to a clinic in Mexico where they emphasized diet, lifestyle, and IV nutrient therapy. After that, he went into remission. Seeing that had a profound impact on me because it exposed me to the possibility that there are ways to heal that I wasn’t aware of, and that we didn’t have access to when my mom was sick.”
Studying Medicine and healing
As an undergrad, I was pre-med, but my major was in anthropology. My focus was on exploring how people of different cultures heal, and I intended to synthesize that into a professional offering. Right after college, I took a job in Japan, and I travelled around Asia. I wanted to learn from different types of healers around the world, so I shadowed various practitioners on my journey. When I was in Northern Thailand, I took massage and herbal medicine classes with a local woman, and it inspired my to go to massage school when I returned to the US.
As a result of those experiences, I started my career as a healer doing massage and energy work (I also studied with a Reki master in college). I ended up deciding to go to naturopathic medical school, and I later got my masters in nursing. With both of those degrees, I was able to bridge the two worlds I was interested in — alternative modalities and conventional medicine.
Finding One Medical
I joined the One Medical team in San Francisco in 2011. I was drawn to the company because they were fostering an innovative culture in medicine. Primarily, I worked with patients one-on-one. Throughout my time there, my colleagues and I were seeing a pattern of stress and anxiety among our patients. These complaints are frequent in a general primary care setting, yet a lot of providers don’t have the tools or the time to help. You may see ten people in the same day who are complaining of similar things, yet each patient feels so alone and isolated.
Additionally, a lot of people seek medical attention for complaints that are secondary to stress — digestive issues, fatigue, insomnia, headaches. Stress impacts all the systems of the body, and patients are often referred to therapists — but therapy is not always accessible. This inspired us to create a group program for stress and anxiety management for One Medical members. We wanted to meet the needs of people who could benefit from group support for lifestyle and behavioral changes.
When you get a group of people together with a similar experience, it becomes apparent that what’s happening to them is as much a cultural problem as it is an individual one.
We worked with groups of 15–18 people in a four-week series and empowered them with education and tools like breathwork, mindfulness, and positive psychology to better manage stress and anxiety. The group and the community itself served as a therapeutic tool — we saw great results. When we started the program, there were three people working on it, and now there’s a whole team and the program lives in three different cities.
Starting Seven Senses
While at One Medical, I discovered my love for working with groups. The more I did it, the more I fell in love with that approach and the more I wanted to try it in different settings. So I started Seven Senses, where I lead retreats internationally and work with people privately. Being able to bring groups to beautiful places, where participants can step out of their lives, take a pause, and reflect from a different perspective is very rewarding.
When I started my private practice, I was able to spend 90 minutes with people instead of 30 or 40. Thus, I started making more connections between what’s going on in people’s lives and what’s going on in their bodies.
By bringing awareness to the ways in which people’s lifestyles are obstacles to healing, I am able to help them make decisions that promote health.
Witnessing their transformations and seeing them make connections between their choices and how they feel is what I love most about what I do.
It took me a long time to figure out how I could synthesize a practice where I could draw from all the different perspectives I’ve been exposed to. As I grew Seven Senses, I started to solidify my own philosophy of health, which is the understanding that health has four quadrants: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. As a culture, we are familiar with the physical, mental, and emotional. However, we tend to shy away from the spiritual because it’s often associated with religion. To me, the spiritual component is the question of “why”; it’s the meaning piece. For example, I’ve worked with a lot of people who are chronically ill, and that illness has led them to their life’s purpose. It’s really underlooked, and it’s an important piece of the puzzle. When we are unwell, we have an opportunity to discover something about ourselves — and that something may be the greatest gift of our lives.
A Shift in Medicine
I do think there is an increasing demand for an integrative perspective on health. In my experience, patients are interested in trying various modalities and are craving trusted practitioners. In many ways, medical doctors, therapists, acupuncturists, energy healers, and other practitioners are speaking different languages, which can be confusing for patients. However, we all share the same intention — to restore health. So one of the challenges I think we currently face is how to best integrate differing perspectives in a way that is effective and affordable for patients. Operational and economic constraints related to insurance billing versus cash-based services can be an obstacle. My hope is that we see more and more settings with various provider types under one roof, and that we can use technology to provide more trusted sources of information.
Lightning Round
If I could live anywhere in the world other than NYC, I’d live in…Byron Bay, Australia.
Everybody needs a good cry sometimes.
One quick way to de-stress in NYC: Kundalini yoga.
Ideal day off in NYC: A day trip to Fire Island!
Favorites
NYC Park: Central Park
Neighborhood: Williamsburg
You can learn more about Erica Matluck and Seven Senses here.
Know a great female doctor in NYC? We’d love to meet her, introduce us here!
