Creating Successful Patient Healing Journeys: Restoring Connection, Finding Hope and Evolving Wellness
Each patient brings their own unique background, experience, and beliefs about their illness to the discussion with their health practitioner. What has become clear is that the success of the outcome from therapy provided by the practitioner is partly dependent on the nature of the communication established between the patient and practitioner. The success of this communication is context-dependent and follows from the recognition by the practitioner that each patient is an N-of-1 experience requiring personalization of communication to promote optimal outcomes.
In order for this conversation between patient and practitioner to achieve optimal success, three broad questions are important to consider in the establishment of the relationship. These are the following:
- In the 20th century, we discovered how primordial matter, over 14 billion years, evolved into humans. How does the patient connect this new understanding of being human in terms of this cosmic evolution to the patient’s belief system?
- What tools/techniques/understanding can a practitioner bring to the sacred encounter with a patient that incorporates the larger scope of illness that will accelerate their healing journey?
- How do we help change the patient’s perception that their illness results from a genetic inevitability to one of their opportunity for self-improvement?
[restrict paid=”true”] This Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute educational program will explore these important questions from the perspective of leaders from three interconnected disciplines- medicine, biology, and cosmology. The faculty includes:
- Brian Thomas Swimme, Ph.D.- renown Cosmogenesis and author of the book, “Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe”
- Joseph Lamb, M.D.- clinical leader in Functional and Integrative Medicine, and primary researcher in the LIFEHOUSE N-of-1 trial
- Jeff Bland, Ph.D.- nutritional biochemist, and author of the book, “The Disease Delusion”
A dialogue among these three opinion leaders addressing these three questions and their relationship to the creation of successful patient-practitioner communications will be facilitated by Deanna Minich, Ph.D.
This two-hour program is the first for the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute to address this very important and challenging topic of practitioner-patient communications. Effective communication requires a shared context between the practitioner and patient. This context is unique to each patient and needs to be built upon a shared understanding of the health-disease continuum and its relationship to belief systems. This program will focus on identifying a shared context for healing through exploring the patient’s concepts of their health and how it connects to their healing journey.
[/restrict]Speakers
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Jeff Bland, PhDFunctional Medicine Founder and PioneerDr. Jeffrey Bland is a personable and highly respected thought leader who has spent more than four decades focused on the improvement of human health.
He is known worldwide as the founder of the Functional Medicine movement, which represents his vision for a care model that is grounded in systems biology and informed by research that he has a unique ability to synthesize. His pioneering work has created the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute (PLMI), as well as the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), the global leader in Functional Medicine education. Since 1991, hundreds of thousands of healthcare practitioners have participated in PLMI and IFM programs, and this collective knowledge has positively impacted the lives of patients all over the world. -
Deanna Minich, PhD, CNS, IFMCPNutritionist, Scientist, Lecturer, Educator, Author Food and Spirit, LLCDr. Deanna Minich is a nutrition scientist, functional medicine educator, and author with more than two decades of experience exploring how hormones, metabolism, nutrition, and lifestyle intersect to shape human health. Her work integrates endocrinology, phytonutrient science, circadian biology, and systems medicine to help clinicians understand hormonal physiology within the broader context of metabolic function and daily living. In addition to her role as Chief Science Officer at Symphony Natural Health, she is the 2025 recipient of the Linus and Ava Helen Pauling Award in Functional Medicine and serves on the Board of Directors for the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute. Dr. Minich has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and several books and has been a longtime faculty member for the Institute for Functional Medicine and other professional training programs. Her teaching emphasizes the foundational role of nutrition, phytonutrients, stress physiology, sleep, circadian alignment, and environmental inputs in shaping hormonal expression across the lifespan. She is particularly known for her work in environmental health and metabolic detoxification, illuminating how toxicants, metabolic load, and detoxification pathways influence endocrine function and overall hormonal resilience. Dr. Minich’s current work focuses on the metabolic and environmental drivers of endocrine imbalance, the hormone–mitochondria connection, and the ways food, lifestyle, and daily rhythms can support long-term hormonal vitality and well-being.
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Brian Thomas Swimme, PhDDirector, Third Story of the UniverseDirector of the Third Story of the Universe at Human Energy, a public benefit non-profit that focuses on scientific and interdisciplinary research on the future of human collective consciousness. Swimme did his doctoral work in gravitational dynamics at the University of Oregon and is author, with Mary Evelyn Tucker, of Journey of the Universe, book and film. (www.journeyoftheuniverse.org). His recent book is Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe (storyoftheuniverse.org)
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Joseph Lamb, MDFounding Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative and Holistic MedicineJoseph Lamb, MD, completed his education at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA and his Internal Medicine residency at Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Holistic Medicine/Integrative Medicine, he is a Founding Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine. In 2013, he achieved certification as an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner.
Past clinical experiences include 17 years of private practice in Alexandria, Virginia, 4 years as a Senior Clinician at the Hypertension Institute in Nashville, TN, and most recently 6 years as Medical Director at the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Center in Gig Harbor. Dr. Lamb has been the Primary Investigator in over 80 clinical studies to date; conducting these studies at the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Center (formerly the Functional Medicine Research Center) and the Hughes Center of Excellence where he is the Medical Director. Dr. Lamb was the Principal Investigator for LIFE-HOUSE – a Lifestyle Intervention and Functional Evaluation: a Health OUtcomes SurvEy – a novel study design utilizing N-of-1 reporting.
Having lectured internationally and authored multiple book chapters and academic papers, he co-authored with Mark Houston, MD a textbook, Vascular Biology for the Clinician. He is currently at work on his latest book. He is the Principal Partner in the Consilience Partnership. He is a board member of the Commonwealth Consultants Foundation, a regionally recognized Middle Atlantic charity chartered to provide unique educational and social experiences and opportunities for economically deserving children and young adults.
