It was 1989, and I had just returned from an annual meeting of the American Holistic Medical Association. I was filled with excitement, passion, and lots of new information about some ways to improve my patients’ health. Unfortunately, my physician and nursing colleagues in Mankato, MN were not excited about those same things. My wife, Diane, was a mental health nurse practitioner. She said that she knew ten holistic nurses in Minneapolis/St. Paul. So, we set up a Saturday morning meeting with them and some other practitioners whom they had invited. There were about 25 of us at that first meeting in 1989.
We sat in a circle, and I asked everyone to say who they were and what was exciting them in their practice. It was truly delightful to hear each person’s story, and some of those stories were about things of which I was not aware (Reiki and the Enneagram, for instance). Remember, this was 1989!
We decided to meet every four months on a Saturday morning, because Minneapolis/St. Paul was 80 miles from where Diane and I lived in southern Minnesota. So, it had to be on a weekend when we were could drive to the Twin Cities area.
The 25 of us continued to meet quarterly on a Saturday morning (while often skipping the summer meeting). Each gathering was basically the same. We would meet in a practitioner’s home, sit in a circle and share something in our practice that was exciting us. After the meeting, I would then ask two or three of the participants to give us a half-hour talk on that topic at our next meeting. As other practitioners learned about the meetings, the group gradually increased in size.
The meetings became an amazing learning experience for all of us, because when someone shares what they are passionate about, it is pretty much always an interesting talk. So, that was our format for the next 15 years—sit in a circle in someone’s home with each individual sharing with the group what she or he was passionate about. Then, for the remainder of the morning, we would listen to two or three speakers give us a 20-minute TED talk about the topic that practitioner was passionate about.
You might ask exactly HOW those three speakers were chosen to give the TED talk at those Saturday morning meetings? Well, this is a bit embarrassing, but they were the people who at the previous meeting had brought up a subject which was of interest to me. So, I would ask three people to present at more length (15 to 20-minutes) at our next meeting. The meetings, therefore, became a rather remarkable learning experience for me—and, of course, for pretty much everyone in attendance.
Our national organization (American Holistic Medical Association) had annual conferences that many of us attended. They encouraged local meetings to keep the holistic community active.
In 2000, Carolyn Torkelson, MD, a fellow family physician, offered to help me plan the meetings. I had gotten too busy, and we went 1998-2000 with no meetings. By about 2005, the group became too large to fit inside anyone’s living room, so we began to have the meetings at college conference rooms or retreat centers. The numbers attending our meetings had gone from 25 of us to around 50 participants at each meeting. So, food, drink, and audiovisual became the domain of Carolyn, and that was truly a blessing for me.
When I retired from my family practice in 2004 and moved from Mankato to Minneapolis, I began to spend more time on planning the meetings. I tried to meet with new practitioners when they asked to join the group. They were usually surprised that there were no dues, fees, or charges except $20 at the door if they attended our Saturday morning meetings. That money paid for renting a room and having some refreshments available. Otherwise, it has been a labor of love for both Carolyn and me.
What are the goals of the Minnesota Holistic Medicine Group?
Give holistic practitioners the opportunity to meet members of their “tribe.” (This meant connecting with healthcare practitioners who had a somewhat similar world view about health and healthcare.)
Learn from practitioners from ALL healthcare disciplines.
Use those connections and learnings to refer our patients appropriately to practitioners from all disciplines.
The group has continued to grow, and it now has 900 Minnesota practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines. Here is the present breakdown of those practitioners.
Types of Practitioners in the MHMG
Acupuncture (40); Ayurveda (4); Breathwork (3); Chiropractic Doctor (42); Cranial-Sacral Therapist (5); Dentist (14); Energy Practitioner (31); Health & Wellness Coach/Educator (61); Healthcare Administration & Policy (17); Homeopath (7); Hypnotherapist (2); Massage/Body Work/Skin Therapy (20); Medical & Osteopathic Doctors (301); Medical Student or Resident (11); Movement Therapy & Yoga (7); Naturopathic Doctor (40); Nurse & Nurse Practitioner (138); Nutritionist (35); Occupational Therapist (2); Pharmacist (8); Physician Assistant (15); Public Health (2); Physical Therapy (15); Podiatry (2); Psychologist/Marriage & Family Counselor (54); Recreational Therapist (1); Research (2); Shaman (3); Social Worker (10); Spiritual Director (8).
What types of Programs/Meetings Do We Have?
Carolyn and I get together and will plan for the next year. An example of a typical program would be our January 2019 program titled Complexities of Pain: A Whole Systems Approach. We shared that program with the Minnesota Holistic Nurses Association. We sent out a mailing to the group members asking who would like to give a TED talk on this topic. I got back about 20 proposals. Carolyn, the nurses, and I then reviewed them and decided to accept as many as we could squeeze into a Saturday morning gathering. For instance, there were eight speakers on this topic from the fields of MD, NP, MSW, RN, LAc, ND, and Hypnotherapy.
Another example was our April 2018 program titled “Lyme Disease Overview.” Our January 2018 program was on Controversies in Dentistry at which six dentists spoke.
As of May 2019, we have now had 83 meetings over the past 30 years. The group has grown from 25 of us to 900 practitioners at this time. We have extended our reach to the practitioner community by offering a webpage and a Facebook page for interested members to participate. In 2009, Carolyn and I wrote an article titled “Integrative Holistic Medicine in Minnesota. It was published in Minnesota Medicine Journal (92:5, pages 44-46). We wanted to educate the medical community about integrative health and medicine.
It has been an exciting and fulfilling labor of love for me, and I am truly grateful for the collaborative and friendly relationships among Minnesota healthcare practitioners from all disciplines.