The Witches are Returning

Part 3 of the Wise Body Manifesto

While I was struggling to fit into a system that had no place for me, I was on another journey entirely—one that would show me there are other ways to heal besides the mainstream medical model.

The UTI That Changed Everything

Right before entering the nurse practitioner program at UCSF, I took my first trip to India. During a road trip, I got sick. Really sick. Burning pain when I peed. Fever. Full body aches. I didn’t know what was happening—I’d never had a UTI before.

If I’d known then what I know now, I would have been scared. Today, if a patient comes to me with those symptoms, I send them to the ER. But I was in rural India, unsure how to find medical care, and was not yet a nurse practitioner.

I arrived at an Ayurvedic retreat and tearfully told the doctor my symptoms. His response shocked me. He wasn’t just unconcerned—he was almost joyful. His manner conveyed absolute confidence that I would heal. He gave me some herbs and told me to rest.

Within a week, I was fine. No antibiotics. No vital signs monitored. Not because I was against medical intervention, but because it simply wasn’t available.

That experience didn’t teach me to avoid medicine. But it did teach me that healing is possible in ways we’ve forgotten. Up until then, I’d never truly taken the body seriously as a self-healing organism. I learned through experience to respect the body’s intelligence first, and to support it with whatever tools are appropriate. Whether that means herbs, meditation, or yes, even sometimes antibiotics. I’m not anti-medicine, but I’m pro-body wisdom. Medicine is just one tool in the toolkit.

From Burnout to Pilgrimage

The second time I went to India, I was burned out. I’d finished my degree. I’d worked in healthcare for several years. I’d tried everything to make it work. And I was heartbroken, hopeless, and exhausted.

At that low point, I had my “come to Jesus” moment—except it was a “come to yoga” moment.

I’d been meditating for years and was a mindfulness teacher. But something clicked during this time that made everything come together. I had just completed a yoga teacher training and fallen in love with yoga philosophy. I studied classical Tantra and the Goddesses of Tantra. I was captivated by the idea that in Tantra, the material world and the body are inherently feminine. When we honor the body, we’re honoring the feminine.

Suddenly it all made sense.

No wonder healing modalities that honor the body—like midwifery and Ayurveda—have fallen out of favor under patriarchy. They’ve been replaced by the top-down, controlling, medicine-as-warfare ideology we see in modern medicine because those are the qualities that thrive under patriarchy.

I remembered a feminist book I’d read in college: Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English. It’s about how the modern medical establishment is built on the demonization of women healers. It details the persecution of witches, midwives and nurses during the rise of modern medicine. And I realized with pride that I was all three of those things: a nurse, a midwife, and a witch.

The Calling

This second trip to India wasn’t tourism. It was pilgrimage.

In the depths of the despair of burnout, I committed to my spiritual path. And I realized that the same thing that brought me to yoga is what brought me to midwifery: the belief that our lives are sacred. That the body’s cycles, including illness and healing, are all part of each person’s becoming. It’s all part of our Divine path.

This isn’t separate from the healing process—it is the healing process. And it must be part of how we care for people.

Midwifery understands this. Ayurveda understands this. Many ancient healing traditions understand this. And finally, deep in my bones, I understood it too.

I stopped thinking of myself as just a nurse practitioner or midwife. I started relating to the archetype of the wise woman healer. The one everyone in her community turns to when they need care. The one who combines practical and mystical knowledge passed down through generations. Who knows medicines to heal the body as well as rituals to heal the soul. I choose to be the nurse, midwife, and witch.

Reclaiming the Witch

Not witch as in charlatan or villain. Witch as in the wise women healers who were persecuted for their knowledge. The ones who understood that bodies and spirits are intertwined. The ones who knew that transformation often requires us to go through, not around.

I bring my medical training—detailed knowledge of hormones, anatomy, pathology, and pharmacology. But I also bring what the medical system tried to train out of me: The ability to sit with someone for more than 15 minutes. To light a candle and begin with breath. To recognize when someone needs meditation practice as much as medication. To see menopause as initiation, not disease. To honor pregnancy as sacred transformation, not just risk management.

You Have a Choice Too

You can keep trying to find answers in a system that sees you as a collection of symptoms to suppress. You can keep accepting that 15-minute appointments where you’re not truly seen are “just how it is.” You can keep believing you have to choose between legitimate medical care and honoring your body’s wisdom.

Or you can work with someone who refuses that false choice.

Imagine healthcare that gives you time. That starts with deep listening and sacred space. That combines real medical expertise with spiritual wisdom.

Imagine a provider who helps you understand your symptoms as messages, not just problems—while also offering appropriate treatment when needed.

Imagine moving through perimenopause not as slow decline but as initiation into your wisdom years. Understanding your monthly cycle as sacred rhythm, not inconvenience.

Imagine healthcare as partnership. As a long-term relationship. As both practical and mystical.

An Invitation

• If you’re a woman who feels the disconnect between the care you’re receiving and the care you truly need...

• If you’re exhausted by a medical system that treats your body as machine and your symptoms as noise...

• If you’re seeking a healthcare provider who sees all of you—body, heart, mind, and spirit...

Then reach out. This is healthcare for women who know we deserve better. Who are ready to trust our bodies again while having the medical support we need. Who refuse to sacrifice our wholeness on the altar of efficiency.

The witches are returning. And we’re bringing both the ancient wisdom and the modern science.

Welcome home.

In my next newsletter I explain how my approach is very different from healthcare as usual. Stay tuned!

Follow me on Instagram.