We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Serena Goldstein, ND recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Serena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

When I first began my practice, I thought I had to be like ‘every other’ health professional and run cleanses, as it was a nice source of extra income, people seemed to like it, and I even enjoyed partnering with a health coach a few times who was very creative in her recipes, and I handled the cleanse kits and the more tactical matters.

However, every time we would follow up after the cleanse, people would ask how they could keep these changes (i.e. weight loss, no more headaches, clear skin, decreased pain) over the long-term. I remember I didn’t think much of it the first few times people said ‘long-term’, but at one point it gnawed at me to that gut instinct, that this is something I always believed! Quick fixes are easily advertised and ‘sexy’, but somehow without meaning to, I was attracting people who wanted long-term solutions, passionate about growth and change (as I am too), and in turn it challenged me to dive deeper. I have an extensive background in psychology, and not too long after being able to find words and meanings to ‘energy’ and ‘as above, so below’ (aka what’s happening in our reality is a reflection of the world we choose to see), our work on habits and mindset (in addition to what was happening physically), also became, as an example, ‘why does this symptom occur when you’re around this person?’.

The heartwarming piece is that sometimes my patients, or even those who choose to share their woes with me, somehow reflect what I also know to be true in this world, that people are yearning for answers, want to make sense of their mind and body (and spirit). It’s a delicate dance, per se, where I don’t believe it’s just ‘listen to others and dis-obey yourself’, but if we pay attention and truly listen, we’ll see there’s so much more out there than what we seem to bear witness too.

Dr. Serena, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I discovered this medicine by accident, but it was the ‘what else’ I knew was out there. I had my life changed by a therapist when I was a teenager, chose to give back the healing she gave to me, and after getting into Japanese 2 freshman year of college after finishing with Japanese 3 Honors in high school, I remained a Psychology major- just now without a minor (Japanese). A close friend suggested pre-med so I could do ‘more’ for people, and still attached to a doctorate (my therapist was a PhD), I’d go into psychiatry. It didn’t feel quite right.. until I found Naturopathic medicine, where I would truly spend time with patients, would learn pharmacology, as well as now clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, physical medicine (manipulation), IV therapy, and minor surgery so we would have more tools in our toolbox to not just treat the patient, but to get to the root cause of disease.

As a Naturopathic Doctor I work with patients, though have many other passions as well. I enjoy speaking, meeting people, being interviewed, writing, as I also saw this as a profession where we could get creative in our endeavors!

The common issues I tend to solve are those related to weight, hormones, gut, mood, and thyroid, I work with both men and women, and will commonly extend too into heart disease related concerns, as blood sugar and cholesterol tend to go hand in hand especially with hormone- related issues. However, both before people tend to sign up and upon even shortly into us working together do they say:
-“I want answers, I finally want to know what to do for the long-term”
-“I’m noticing a sensitivity around certain foods that I haven’t noticed before”
-“I didn’t know that (usually something emotional) about my body/symptom!” (i.e. our body holds emotions that can come out as symptoms)
-“I’ve never learned so much about my body until working with you”

I believe what makes me different, as evident of my brand as well, the Phoenix Rising, as I see that with each realization – especially when it becomes internalized – I can work with my patients at each stage of their health journey, providing insight and thought to where we need to go next as we truly work together.

And speaking of different passions, I would love to connect with you whether it be on a more one to one basis, or you can always sign up for my free gift on my website (the pop-up), and you can sign up for my newsletter as I have new offerings and engagements that will be coming out that will expand on this knowledge so you too can up level in your own health (and life) journey!

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Believing in oneself. One of the greatest aspects throughout my medical school and professional journey, was reflecting on what my colleagues have been through and wanting to learn the ins and outs of different ways of looking at the body, different organ systems, and the chance to truly connect with patients and their audience. It does take being around the right type of people for you and your interests, though this may take kindness and patience with yourself too in step by step, embracing and breathing into that self-expression.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I began gymnastics when I was three, but didn’t begin competing until I was in middle school. I knew strength was so important to our success, based on conditioning routines that would render most people immobile the next day; so when I began high school, an elite private school in the Bronx, NY, I walked into the weight room and saw two cork boards – one for boys, one for girls – of names under the weight they had maxed out bench pressing. Once the weight got to 95 lbs and higher, there were 1-2, or even no names under the label. I saw a challenge, and chance not only for mental resilience (as gymnastics requires this too), but physically as well.

What I remember most, is that he had me doing reps of 95 pounds for many weeks, much longer than I had stayed on any other weight. I was growing impatient, constantly asking if I could finally go up or try to max out at a higher weight, but he refused and had me keep going, saying I wasn’t ready. To be honest, it was quite frustrating! I continued to trust him, until one day, he puts 105 pounds on the bar (includes the weigh of the bar).

Without even touching the bar, I am firmly on the bench, breathing correctly, and do my one, maxed out rep. I was in shock. So much time, patience, yet, I could now place my name under that weight.

And what also surprised most people? I was 14 years old, height: 4’11, and weighed 105 pounds. In other words, I benched my own weight, a feat in and of itself not many people have been known to do.

After thinking of about 20+ careers during my formative years, it wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that after a gymnastics injury I sought counseling, and this therapist made such an impact, I wanted to get a PhD just like her and help others. That said, there aren’t any doctors in my family.

I began college as a Psychology major and Japanese minor, but when the latter didn’t work out, a close friend suggested I go pre-med to do ‘more’ for people (i.e. pharmaceuticals), which led me to eventually discover Naturopathic medicine. I was 19, and knew this was what I wanted to go to school for. However, it wasn’t mainstream, but I still really wanted a ‘doctor’ title.

Something I knew though, was that medical school was going to be tough. I’m not just talking about learning the subjects, but realizing (and it is an honor) that we are responsible for people’s health,

When a few turns later now as a freshman in college, my ambitions rose to that of a pre-med to practice psychiatry (but ‘only’ pharmacology in addition to speaking to patients felt too limiting), and then I found Naturopathic medicine a few months later, where the biggest ‘ah-ha’ descended on me, as now I would learn so many more healing modalities- and get to spend time with people.

“Why did you decide to become a doctor?” is a question I regularly get asked. If I’m feeling facetious, I’ll answer with “I’m Jewish, I could ‘only’ be a doctor, lawyer, or accountant.” (common stereotype.) I’ll usually get a good laugh, then launch into the story of how I had my life changed by a therapist when I was

I thought I had it planned out- a therapist changed my life when I was a teenager so I became inspired to get my PhD just like her and help others. I began college as a psychology major, and then took up Japanese as a minor because I truly enjoyed the language, and after finishing with 3 honors in high school, I tested into Japanese 2 in college. However, while I was willing to put in extra work as I was in a class nearly full of sophomores, for whatever reason my teacher and I did not jive. I tried going to her during office hours to get my grades up, but it was only the other Japanese teacher who really seemed to get through to my understanding. Later that Fall, I realized I couldn’t have this subject as a minor because I’d have many more classes to take, and the chance that now it would only be with one teacher was pretty slim. I was venting to one of my close friends at the time how Japanese was 5 credits and that I couldn’t ‘just’ learn psychology, I wanted more subjects, classes, something to fill my schedule.

There aren’t any doctors in my family, so when I decided I wanted to go pre-med shortly into freshman year, I was actually faced with some opposition. The original plan was that I was going to get a PhD in psychology

Contact Info:

• Website: www.drserenagoldstein.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/drserenag
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/drserenand
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/drserenand
• Other: threads- drserenag

Image Credits
Carrie Roseman Studios John DeMato