The Dr. & the DJ Podcast

On Death and Grief EPISODE #13 - nOVEMBER 10, 2021

This week, John & Amy speak to Dr. Brad Lichtenstein, ND BCB BCB-HRV. Dr. Brad is a Naturopathic Physician practicing in Seattle. He is the creator of The Breath Space, a training program that uses the power of breath to transform health, & has been a clinical supervisor for mind-body medicine/biofeedback & core clinical faculty at Bastyr. John, Amy & Dr. Brad discuss living with grief & why it is important to our living selves to accept the inevitability that we all face, death. Dr Brad shares his experience & research with hospice patients & how managing the HIV clinic at Bastyr impacted his outlook on dying & grief. We also learn that grief is not exclusive to a death experience & how to remove the power of vulnerability in order to make people in our community feel safe.

Delivering Health Podcast

Mind-Body Medicine & Breathwork Episode #26 - sEptember 26, 2020

In this episode of the NBI Delivering Health Podcast with Dr. Jon Neustadt I talk about how my experiences with hospice patients influenced my work as a naturopathic physician. I explain what mind-body medicine is and the benefits of practicing these modalities, emphasizing the power of breathwork.

The Lab Report Podcast

Mind-Body Medicine: Part 1 - August 22nD, 2020
Mind-body Medicine: Part 2 - August 25th, 2020

We are often reminded to adopt mindful practices in an attempt to mitigate the stress response and promote optimal health. But the concept can seem lofty and, at times, intimidating. Where do you start? How do you become more mindful? Finally, we hit this topic straight on. Dr. Brad Lichtenstein has dedicated his career to the practice of mind-body medicine, mediation, and mindfulness.

In part one of a two-part interview with Dr. Brad, he discusses the physiology of the stress response (“Fight, Flight, or Freeze”), types of biofeedback, and novel ways to engage and regulate the autonomic nervous system.  

In part two of our interview, Dr. Brad dives into what mindfulness is, and how to cultivate mindful practices. Additionally, if you stick around to end of the show credits, Dr. Brad also leads us in a mindful meditation.

Project Mindfulness Podcast
It’s All about Breathing

January 10th, 2019

In this episode, we talk about what methods Dr. Lichtenstein uses in his private practice. About 15 years ago, Dr. Lichtenstein started to study the breath and found that the central theme of breath is a re-occurring theme in many spiritual practices.

“We might be breathing in a way that is dysfunctional for our physical health. So there are certain absolutes in breathing…….. Learning to breathe in a way which is very slow, abdominally. Where the inhale is never longer than the exhale. Where the volume is never really large. These are structural, functional types of breathing practices that can help our overall health and nervous system.” 

KEXP - The Mom Show
Death, Grief and Death Cafes

November 9th, 2017   /   Seattle WA 

Interview on the Mom Show with KEXP's John Richards talking about work with death, dying, grief and death cafes.

TEDxSeattle Talk
"Breathing into Life "

June 23rd, 2013   /   Seattle WA 

To heal we must be vulnerable, open, honest and authentic. Through the breath we can physically, emotionally and spiritual heal and be present to our lives.
 

Body, Mind, Spirit, Nature, and Medicine:
A Series of Conversations - The Mind

Bastyr University Center for Mind, Body, Spirit, Nature   /   February 1, 2010

The segment of the series covers "Mind" and features Dr. Brad along with Seattle naturopathic physician Sheila Dunn-Merritt and Robert V. Taylor, author of "I'm Spiritual Not Religious: Making Sense of Finding Meaning."

King5 News
Death Cafes Help People Live Life to Fullest

April 21, 2014

Short news clip about the Death Cafés I am hosting at Bastyr Center for Natural Health.  Over tea and cake, let's talk about our attitudes, beliefs and even fears about Death. 

Q13 Fox News
Traffic Stress Experiment

May 19, 2015 

Dr. Brad Lichtenstein a news reporter to a biofeedback machine, monitoring her heart rate, breathing, and sweat response on her 405 morning commute between Lynnwood and Bellevue.

Q13 Fox News
Mindful Breathing

September 4, 2013

Mind over Matter: What you can learn from Seahawks QB Russell Wilson. Brad Lichtenstein, ND, discusses mindful breathing with Q13 Fox anchor, Marni Hughes. 

4 Tips to Better Breathing You've Probably Never Thought Of!
iHealthTube.com

August 8, 2014

Find out how you are likely causing your body to work harder by breathing improperly. Dr. Lichtenstein also discusses how functional breathing can help heal the body in a number of ways!

Orienting Response - A Powerful Way to Cultivate Health

Published June 2014

I believe the fundamental goal for all care, regardless of discipline and modality, is the same – to help people identify how they orient to life, and discover novel ways to move through their days. Rather than the emphasis being on the elimination of disease, what would happen in the clinical encounter if we spent an equivalent amount of time asking patients to identify how they are orienting to life? 

Integrative Men's Health

PUBLISHED 2014

As a field, men's health is far behind women's health in terms of the availability of reliable, scientifically based information that men, their partners, and health care providers can rely on when seeking information and treatment. Moreover, integrative approaches are becoming more popular with men whose healthcare providers understand that most of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in men, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, urologic disease, and sexual dysfunction, can be ameliorated using an integrative approach, with more emphasis on the patient-provider relationship, lifestyle change, and the use of proven complementary modalities.

Bargaining in Medicine - NDNR

Published June 15, 2012

Said the patient: “I meditate daily, but I’m not doing it great. My diet is pretty good, but not great. I take my supplements, but I’m not doing it great.” With these words, Sally was off and running.

This sentiment—that only if “I try hard enough and perform perfectly” will I get better—has been echoed repeatedly by patients over the years, and we as healthcare providers perpetuate it, I believe. Such thinking encourages the “bargaining stage” as described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD, in her seminal work On Death and Dying.1 When faced with a terminal illness or catastrophic event, Kübler-Ross observed that one moves through several stages of grief, although not necessarily in a linear fashion. She outlined these stages as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Freedom and Flow

Published Fall 2009

harles was an outgoing, gregarious fellow who sported an eternal smile and infectious laugh. I had been working with him for three sessions before I learned he suffered from Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), an autoimmune disorder that affects the peripheral nervous system and can result in weakness, numbness, tingling and potentially paralysis and death. After watching me teach a group of 8th graders meditation at the private school where he worked, Charles called to schedule an appointment, not knowing exactly what he was seeking, or even what I did, yet he added, anyone who can get those kids to sit quietly for 15 minutes is someone I want to work with.

The Mythic Arc of Healing

PUBLISHED SUMMER 2009

What are myths but stories that help us make sense of the world? We turn to the Classics for guidance, inspiration and solace, recognizing that we are not alone in our plight, that the struggles we endure now are the struggles of men and women throughout the ages. The mythic arc is universal – the separation, the search and the return. An event happens, a defining moment; we find ourselves instantly disconnected from all we know, and our daily routines and habitual ways of living become outmoded and obsolete. Forced into uncharted territory, like Persephone abducted by Hades, we come to recognize how little we know ourselves, how to live or what road to choose. With time, deep reflection, contemplation, and completion of many harrowing tasks placed in our way by the gods and goddesses, maybe we find our way home again. Yet while this home may look like the one from which we departed, at least on the exterior, it is new; on some fundamental level, the odyssey changes us for good.

The Wisdom of the Body

Published Spring 2009

Ever since Bill had bent over to pick up a dumbbell at the gym four months ago, searing pain gripped his back and shot down his legs with every move. Only total stillness brought temporary relief to his otherwise implacable pain. Convinced its origin was physical in nature, Bill sought help from a chiropractor, acupuncturist, naturopath, Rolfer, and orthopedic surgeon. He swallowed anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxants, pain medications, and tried four acute homeopathic remedies. Sitting before me now in a rather contorted posture, I could see the weariness in his eyes. Breathing shallowly to keep pain at bay, his life force was shrinking by the moment.

The Gift of Grief

Published Winter 2008

Self-disclosure and communication have never been issues for me. One of my earliest memories finds my four- or five-year-old self standing in my tiny bedroom, praying to God that I be struck mute (probably not the word I used) so no one (probably Mom) would ever be upset with me again. What I find so surprising is that I recall my childhood to be idyllic and carefree, and am hard-pressed to bring forth a time when my mother scolded or punished me. Still, feelings of hurt, sadness and grief pierce my heart when that image unexpectedly enters into my consciousness.

The Art of Knowing in Medicine

Published Fall 2008

Before focusing on her issues, Christy took a moment to tell me about the rash her 10-year old son developed three days ago after a routine tetanus shot. Within a few hours, small, red, raised, hot bumps began popping up two inches below the injection site. The next day, these bumps became confluent, and the itching grew incessant. Three days later, now, his symptoms continued to intensify.
 

During Christy’s appointment, another patient left a message about her son, also developing a rash, but of a different nature. While playing in the backyard, this 12-year old boy rolled onto a rusty nail. He, however, had received a tetanus booster six months earlier. His trauma site was neither itchy nor swollen, but cold and surrounded by red streaks.

Spirituality and Medicine

Published Summer 2008

Attend to your spirit, attend to your soul. In order to be healed, the shaman spoke, you need to reconnect with your spirituality. That said, I was then set free to determine the precise steps to fulfill that prescription. Back in my car, I asked myself, who wouldn’t expect such advice from a shaman? Were her words unusual or unique, or the counsel a therapist or well-intentioned naturopath could have provid- ed (and be covered by my insurance)? I considered her words and wondered what she meant, exactly, by tending to my spirit and soul? Have I not been tending to my life? Was there a difference? Was I not here, seeking her guidance in an attempt to do just that: tend to my soul?

A Meditation

Published Fall 2007

When his hospice worker mentioned a study providing biweekly meditation or massage, Frank eagerly enrolled, willing to help hospice and research in any way he could. Randomized to the meditation arm of the study, I began working with Frank a few weeks before he passed away. Like most of the patients I met during this study, Frank had no experience with meditation. I found Frank lying in a hospital bed in his bedroom, with a nasal oxygen tube. Due to intractable fatigue and exhaustion, difficulty breathing and anxiety, he spoke little, yet was affable and amiable. Our first session was rather typical as far as study standards are concerned. After collecting some basic data, I explained the protocol and fundamentals of meditation, and then we settled down to meditate. Although variations occur depending upon the issues and needs of the patient, the protocol remains fairly constant, and consists of a three-part guided meditation totaling about thirty minutes.

What Needs to Be Healed - How Bill Mitchell Influenced the Soul of my Practice

Published Spring 2007

The world of complementary and alternative medicine, and naturopathic medicine particularly, owe a debt of gratitude to Bill Mitchell, ND. Along with Les Griffith, ND, Joe Pizzorno, ND and Shelia Quinn, Bill was one of the co-founders of Bastyr University, or John Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine, as it was called at its inception in 1978. If not for Bill and his participation as one of the midwives of this institution, naturopathic medicine would probably not enjoy its acceptance and licensure in 14 states, the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and several of the newer schools of naturopathic medicine would most likely not exist today.