Torn Between Two Worlds: Being a Doctor Who Sees More Than Just Symptoms

Everything I do is grounded in evidence-based medicine. I follow NICE guidelines, and I know pharmaceuticals have a role—just like every UK doctor. But I also know we are missing something huge in modern medicine: disease prevention.

In the UK, healthcare is mostly firefighting—treating illness once it has already taken hold. And this isn’t the NHS’s fault. The burden of disease is massive, and our system is built to react, not prevent. But if we don’t start shifting towards prevention, lifestyle, and subconscious work, we’ll keep running ourselves into the ground.

The Science of Healing Beyond Just Medication

There’s solid research—especially in cancer care—showing that when a patient fully processes and accepts their diagnosis, three things change:

• Their symptoms improve.

• Their mood and quality of life shift.

• There’s evidence that treatment works more effectively, and in some cases, there are reports of complete remission.

That’s not magic—it’s neuroscience and the mind-body connection.

We know that the body can create symptoms based on unresolved emotions.We know that chronic stress and trauma keep people locked in fight-or-flight, leading to inflammation, immune dysfunction, and disease.We know that if someone experienced trauma as a child and never resolved it, it still lives in the body today.

And yet, medicine barely talks about this.

What We Weren’t Taught in Medical School

When I trained as a doctor, we spent almost no time on nutrition and barely touched on how different body types have different needs. There was no discussion on how exercise should be adapted to a woman’s menstrual cycle or how the subconscious mind plays a role in disease.

But we were taught how to diagnose depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions—and how to treat them with pharmaceuticals and counseling.

So now, when I talk about subconscious healing, energy work, and nervous system regulation as part of health, I know I’m stepping outside the box.

The Fear of Speaking Up in the Medical Field

I still feel that knot in my stomach sometimes, that worry that I’m about to be told off. It comes from years of medical training, where everything had to be backed by large-scale clinical trials to be taken seriously.

And yet, that way of thinking misses so much—because not everything can be measured in a trial. Some of the most powerful healing tools are deeply personal, energetic, and ancient.

Doctors are told to stay away from social media, to avoid risk, to stick to the script. But I’ve worked with thousands of patients, and I can tell you this: patients are already looking beyond conventional medicine. They are seeking natural health, energy healing, subconscious work, and lifestyle changes—because they know something is missing, too.

Medicine Needs to Change—And It Can

In Ayurvedic medicine, food, herbs, and energy balance are the foundation of healing, with treatments tailored to the individual’s constitution (dosha).

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), acupuncture, herbal medicine, and Qi (life force energy) flow are central to restoring balance.

In Japan, doctors prescribe forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku) to regulate the nervous system, lower stress hormones, and improve immune function.

In Indigenous cultures worldwide, healing is deeply tied to spirituality, nature, and ancestral wisdom, using ritual, plant medicine, and energy work to restore wholeness.

In South America, shamans work with plant spirits, breathwork, and energetic clearing to heal trauma and align the mind, body, and soul.

In ancient Celtic and Pagan traditions, grief was processed in community—by the rivers, allowing emotions to flow and be witnessed.

Yet in modern Western medicine, we often separate the mind and body, overlooking lifestyle, nutrition, subconscious patterns, and the environment we live in—all of which are fundamental to health.

We need all of it.

True healing comes from integrating the best of modern medicine with the wisdom of ancient traditions, alongside a deeper understanding of how nutrition, movement, and lifestyle shape our well-being.

I’m not here to reject modern medicine. I’m here to expand it. To bring together science, subconscious healing, and energy work so that people can actually heal, not just survive.

And I want more doctors and nurses to step into this space, because we need a healthcare system that prevents illness, not just reacts to it.

The future of medicine is integrative. And I’m here to be a part of that shift.