Doctoring ten years ago, Ruth Marlin, M.D., wasn't feeling so hot. Constantly weak and tired, she visited countless doctors but no one knew what was wrong—nor had any ideas for helping her to get better.
Marlin finally recovered, but only after taking six months off from work to pursue a lifestyle that paid more attention to her emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.
Today, Marlin calls the experience "transformative" and is convinced that doctors spend too much time curing illness in their patients rather than encouraging prevention. In January, she joined several other like-minded doctors in the San Francisco Bay area to form the Institute for the Transformation of Medicine, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching alternative methods of healing.
"Our message is that there are other ways of 'knowing' than with left-brain science and that these need to be incorporated into what we already use," says Marlin, an internist who now serves on the Institute's board. These holistically aware therapies include acupuncture, stress management, and nutrition counseling.
