Dr. Martin’s Story
As a child who was born and raised in Germany, the journey to becoming a doctor who weaves together many different medicine traditions makes sense. As a child, I became indoctrinated in traditional folk medicine. Holistic medicine is routinely incorporated in German healthcare in the form of botanicals, homeopathy, energy medicine, and detoxification and purification cleanses derived from the ancient Romans. So the leap to incorporating different modalities of healing was an easy one for me.
In 1992 I became a doctor of Conventional Medicine. During my internal medicine residency at Maricopa Medical Center, I spent a month-long rotation in Germany with an Internist who taught me how he assimilated alternative medicine into his mainstream practice.
As an educated and trained Osteopathic doctor, I believe in the benefits of structural medicine and the benefits of manipulation and bodywork. This may be through Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Massage, Yoga, Rolfing, Feldenkrais, Alexander, MAT, Pilates and any one of the other countless techniques available. I had the privilege of learning cranial manipulation from Dr. Viola Frymann, a pioneer in osteopathic medicine, who taught me things I didn’t think were possible.
After a one-year transitional internship at Botsford General Hospital in Farmington Hills, MI, I moved to Phoenix to pursue a residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the Maricopa Medical Center, at the time the largest county hospital in Arizona. My focus was critical care medicine and I concentrated my training with ICU and CCU rotations in addition to Geriatrics.
I am forever indebted to all of my attendings and teachers who imparted their knowledge, wisdom and experiences unto me. As a chief resident, I was responsible for giving presentations to my fellow residents, acting as a junior attending and handling administrative duties while learning how a hospital operates.
I became Board Certified in Internal Medicine in 1997 and have re-certified in 2007 and 2018. Studies show that doctors who maintain their board certification are better physicians which is why maintenance of board certification is highly valued, and something that is very important to me.
During my Internal Medicine Residency, I was introduced to the concept of incorporating holistic medicine by Gladys McGarey, MD, one of the founders of the American Holistic Medical Association. Dr. McGarey was an iconic healer born in the early 1920s in India to American physician missionary parents. While living in Phoenix, I attended her monthly holistic medicine meetings and was extremely grateful to shadow her in her clinic and be mentored by her. I joined the American Holistic Medical Association and became Board Certified in Holistic Medicine in its inaugural exam in 2002.
Dr. McGarey’s unique perspective shaped mine. She opened up my eyes to the world of Energy Medicine, which I have continued to pursue with ongoing education and training, learning from all kinds of leaders in their fields, such as Caroline Myss, PhD, Barbara Ann Brennan, PhD, Donna Eden, Sonia Choquette, PhD, Mona Lisa Schulz, MD, Brian Weiss, MD, Eric Pearl, DC and ISSSEEM, the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine.
In 1998, I met Jeffrey Bland, PhD, a biochemist who trained with Dr. Linus Pauling. Dr. Bland is a specialist in Orthomolecular Medicine and became a brilliant educator in the field of Functional Medicine, a term he coined. Every year, this fast-talking genius would conduct a speaking tour around the US and lecture doctors about the medical advances and cutting-edge research in evidence-based medicine as it pertained to Functional Medicine. In addition, he founded the Institute for Functional Medicine and created courses that educated any open-minded healthcare provider. However, early on, many of us learned directly through him and other pioneers in this field, practicing with our patients and developing skills before certification was available. I have been following Dr. Bland for 20 years now and count him as another one of my special mentors. I am happy to see the field has grown tremendously. Regrettably, this interest has not been embraced by conventional medicine.
As I previously mentioned, I was introduced to integrating conventional internal medicine with alternative medicine practices from the Internist I shadowed in Germany back in 1994. During my residency, while living in Phoenix, I attended seminars in Tucson by Dr. Andrew Weil. I was very impressed by his no-nonsense, straightforward logical way of looking at things and his articulate manner of lecturing.
Dr. Weil’s original interest was in botany and he studied from shamans around the world. This aligned with my upbringing with botanical and herbal medicines, and I was fascinated with his experiences. Dr. Weil founded the Program of Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson and developed a two-year fellowship to educate and train doctors in the field of Integrative Medicine, which I completed in 2002. Today this medicine includes a Board Certification. I became Board Certified in Integrative Medicine with its inaugural exam in November 2015. Dr. Weil has been another very important mentor in my life.
I have over 25 years of experience in a variety of medical and accompanying social issues, diagnostics, and treatments from a conventional, alternative and energy medicine perspective and how to integrate them all holistically. This education allows me to see things from an entirely different perspective.
In 2004 I completed the Joe Helms, MD/UCLA Acupuncture course, a 300-hour intensive training program for physicians.
