On this episode I’m joined by Dr Lauren Macdonald, who worked as a doctor in Brighton for several years before being diagnosed with aggressive stage 4 cancer in 2014.
The years that followed gave her a deep understanding of what it is to face a life-threatening illness. Consequently, she became fascinated by the emotional experience of illness, the mind-body connection, and the body’s ability to self-heal.
To optimise her chance of survival she explored Integrative Medicine, specifically focusing on nutrition, the gut microbiome, and stress management techniques, alongside conventional medical treatment. She achieved complete remission in 2016 and has gone on to study vedic meditation, Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Ashtanga yoga.
We talked about:
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“It wasn’t until I’d come through it that I realised just how numb and probably depressed really I was.
And looking back, I wish I could tell my younger self to go and seek some therapy, and actually the best thing I realise I could have done was to reach out and just speak about it.
Even if they didn’t have anything to say back to me, just to get it out of my body and really help soothe myself”
Dr Lauren Macdonald
What an absolute pleasure to have Dr Lauren on the show – I’m incredibly grateful to Lauren for taking the time to share her journey and experiences with cancer with us and for being so honest and open. I’m sure that so many of you will find this an incredibly fascinating and super useful episode and please do share with anyone who think might like to listen to it.
I really do hope that you enjoyed this three part series on cancer – which I know is an incredibly emotive and at times, difficult topic to talk about. Our three guests have been incredible and so generous with their time and their knowledge on the respective episodes.
Dr Lauren Macdonald is an integrative practitioner and an expert in the mind-body connection. After graduating from Cardiff University with a Psychology BSc she went on to complete a medical degree at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
She worked as a doctor in Brighton for several years before being diagnosed with aggressive stage 4 cancer in 2014. The years that followed gave her a deep understanding of what it is to face a life-threatening illness. Consequently, she became fascinated by the emotional experience of illness, the mind-body connection, and the body’s ability to self-heal.
To optimise her chance of survival she explored Integrative Medicine, specifically focusing on nutrition, the gut microbiome, and stress management techniques, alongside conventional medical treatment. She achieved complete remission in 2016 and has gone on to study vedic meditation, Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Ashtanga yoga.
She now splits her time between Psychiatry, speaking at events, online coaching and facilitating transformative, healing retreats. She has a keen interest in trauma and psychedelic medicine.
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