My Mission: Getting Personal With Dr. Leia

Why I Believe the Future of Medicine Starts With the Mind

People often ask me how I became so passionate about mind-body medicine and root-cause healing. The truth is, this mission has been forming since I was a teenager.

Back in high school, I was fascinated by prevention and the deeper “why” behind illness. Genetics was an emerging field—this was just before the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003—and I imagined a future where understanding genes would transform healthcare. I studied microbiology and genetics at Ohio Wesleyan University and later completed my master’s degree in Genetic Counseling at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

But something felt off.

During my clinical rotations, I saw oncologists routinely recommending preventive mastectomies and hysterectomies to women with BRCA mutations. While the risk increase is real, not all BRCA-positive women develop cancer. I kept wondering: Why weren’t we studying the women who didn’t get cancer?What protective factors—diet, lifestyle, emotional health, toxin avoidance—were keeping them well?  We now refer to these factors as Epigenetics, which is the study of how behaviors and environment can cause changes in gene function without altering the underlying DNA sequence. These changes, which don't change the DNA "letters," act like switches that can turn genes on or off.

No one seemed to be asking those questions. As a genetic counselor I was calculating risk, not promoting health. And I realized I wanted to be a doctor—but not the kind I was seeing in the conventional system.

Then I discovered naturopathic medicine, and I was all in.

I attended Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (now Sonoran University of Health Sciences) and have been in practice for more than 12 years. Over that time, I’ve helped countless patients using functional labs, nutrition, botanicals, lifestyle counseling, and targeted supplementation. Many improved beautifully.

But the patients who didn’t get better—or couldn’t follow through with treatment plans—revealed a pattern.

It wasn’t a lack of willpower.It wasn’t a lack of knowledge.It was stress. Emotional pain. Limiting beliefs. Self-sabotage. Mindset.

When I asked deeper questions, an overwhelming majority of patients with chronic symptoms reported significant, persistent stress—often from relationships, jobs, family conflict, financial strain, or unresolved internal narratives. Their bodies simply couldn’t heal while their nervous systems were stuck in survival mode.

So I sought additional tools and became certified in the Vis Dialogue Method of Holistic Counseling, a naturopathic counseling technique that addresses the deepest emotional and subconscious roots of physical symptoms.

And what I found was life-changing—both for my patients and for me.

When someone shifts their internal world—releasing beliefs that don’t match reality, softening harsh self-judgments, and reconnecting with their inner truth—their physical symptoms begin to improve. Their faces brighten. Their energy lifts. Their bodies soften. Their lives open.

It’s the most profound and rewarding work I’ve ever done.

I now believe the future of medicine requires flipping the current model upside down.

The healing hierarchy should be:

1. Treat the mind.

2. Transform the lifestyle.

3. Optimize the diet.

4. Use functional medicine testing and targeted supplements.

5. Reserve pharmaceuticals and surgery as a last resort.

This sequence honors the Hippocratic oath to “first do no harm,” and it truly addresses root-cause at the beginning rather than the end—unlike the many patients who find me only after exhausting every other option.

My mission is simple: 

To help as many people as possible heal at the deepest level—mind, body, and spirit—so they can live with more peace, more vitality, and more joy.