Episode 180 Multidimensional Psychiatry & Water Healing: Interview With Elizabeth Nguyen

Chris McDonald: Dive deep beneath the surface of traditional therapy where the mind meets the mystical and healing flows like water. Today on the Holistic Counseling Podcast, our guest is Dr. Elizabeth Nguyen. She helps us move beyond the surface of traditional treatment and dive into multidimensional psychiatry approach that integrates water into treatment.

Water provides benefits for both our physical and mental health. Water also teaches us how to work with our emotions. Dr. Nguyen isn't your everyday psychiatrist. With her groundbreaking approach to healing, she offers a unique path to wellness that transcends conventional psychiatry. It's about harnessing the elements and energies that have been here since the beginning of time, guiding individuals to a place of healing and understanding.

Don't miss this wave of healing on today's episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast. Stay tuned. This is Holistic Counseling, the podcast for mental health therapists who want to deepen their knowledge of holistic modalities and build their practice with confidence. I'm your host, Chris McDonald, licensed therapist.

I am so glad you're here for the journey.

Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast. I hope things are going well for you. I got back from my trip from Aruba a couple weeks ago. And I just feel so refreshed. Sometimes you just need to get away a little further from home to tap into your true self and to release all the stresses that are holding you back.

So getting away really is powerful for your overall holistic well being. But, I wanted to mention how my heart is touched from the positive feedback I've been receiving about my self care for the counselor workbook and the kind reviews I've gotten on Amazon. Much thanks and love, loving kindness to all who have messaged me, who have sent Facebook messages and Instagram messages.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It's just wonderful to see the impact. That my workbook has received, and if you haven't seen my book yet and haven't received it, it's a full holistic guide to self care. And in it, I break down self care into manageable pieces that allow you to add to your schedule no matter how busy you are.

So there's journaling spaces, bonus content that is not found in my original book, Self Care for the Counselor. And it's also interactive, so it has links to meditation, self massage, and yoga. So you will love it. So if you are somebody who's more holistic and you want to boost your self care, 'cause I know as helping professionals, we often put others' needs before ourselves.

So now is the time to take care of you. So go give yourself the gift of self care today. Go to hcpodcast. org forward slash workbook. That's hcpodcast. org forward slash workbook, or you can go to Amazon and just type in self care for the counselor companion workbook, and that shall come up there as well.

On to today's episode. One thing that I discovered very young was I always love being surrounded by water. I grew up on Lake Ontario in New York state and we would spend the whole day there in the summertime. Just being around water, being in water, it's just so profoundly healing. But have you ever considered the profound impact of water on your clients as well, their mental and emotional wellbeing?

Or, how exploring dimensions beyond the conventional can lead to breakthroughs in mental health treatments. So it goes beyond just, ooh, I feel good and relaxed by water, that this can really make therapeutic outcomes for clients. Today we'll uncover the principles of multidimensional psychiatry with Dr.

Elizabeth Nguyen and how traditional psychiatric methods intersect with holistic practices. We'll jump into her unique water therapy intervention, and she demonstrates a way for you to release energetic and water blockages within your own body. Dr. DeWin was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She started her career in community mental health with specific interests in cross cultural psychiatry, the intersection of spirituality and mental health, and the healing power of water in the natural world.

She is currently in private practice in Davis, California. where she integrates energy healing into her psychiatry work. Elizabeth says there is so much trauma and healing in the human ancestral lineages and water art and storytelling helps us in becoming whole and natural again. Welcome to the holistic counseling podcast, Elizabeth.

Thank you, Chris.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Such a honor to be here. Thank you for having me.

Chris McDonald: I'm so excited for you to be here, but I'm just curious, what first interested you in a more holistic perspective in psychiatry?

Elizabeth Nguyen: Well, I think I entered psychiatry because I really find people interesting. I find just listening to people's stories and learning about who they are interesting.

And the more, more you do that, you realize that people are complex and you can't, you have to. really view them holistically to order to understand them, especially if you're in a practice like psychiatry, where you're really trying to help people understand themselves and grow into their full selves better.

So I think it goes hand in hand with our mental health practice to view people holistically and just sitting with people, sitting with people, maybe

Chris McDonald: want to

Elizabeth Nguyen: view them holistically.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, and as a holistic therapist, I can't imagine not coming from the holistic perspective, I'm sure you feel the same.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yeah, and it's really, you know, there's a parallel process that the more I allowed myself to become whole and view myself.

Holistically, that that translated into my professional work, because I think in our training, we so often get squeezed into one dimension or a narrow view of ourselves in our professional seats. And the more that I allowed myself to become more whole, I think that just spilled over into, you know, interacting with people on a whole level.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, yeah, that's so true. And I think the more that I've worked on myself personally, spiritually, physically, it's just, I think I've come into my own to be better equipped and better able to be there for my clients. It just made me think of that as you're saying that. What do you think about that?

Elizabeth Nguyen: Absolutely. I think there's always been a parallel process that the more whole I become, the more. I appreciate another person's wholeness and almost help and encourage them to unfold it.

Chris McDonald: And I think especially when we've been through some difficult things, but then we've been able to come to the other side sometimes.

It's like, Oh, even though, you know, I've been through trauma, been through hard times, difficult things, but I've been able to find some healing.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Totally. Yes. It's, it's like the ruptures help us or that we are always whole and we always can

Chris McDonald: come back to being whole. Yeah, so true. So how is what you do as a psychiatrist different from other psychiatrists?

How is the, and I want to say the word multidimensional that you use. I love that word.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Well, I'll just speak for myself. I think multidimensional psychiatry, which is the practice that I have, is my way of embracing my wholeness and my client's wholeness. And I use the term multidimensional because I really feel like There's multiple dimensions of myself and my work and my client that when I sit in the room together with them, so much comes out.

So there's of course the, just what we were trained to do in psychiatry and mental health, which is, you know, gather symptoms and make a diagnosis and come up with a treatment plan. But I think as I opened to my multidimensionality, my spirituality, my energy healing, my deep connection to water. And intuitive knowing all of that comes into the practice when I sit with a patient.

So whatever intuitively comes up in my energy body and my body of water that I can reflect to the patient, it becomes a part of our healing, uh, modality and therapeutic tool, which is what I find most exciting and fun

Chris McDonald: for myself. And I know you mentioned water healing. Let's get into that. I'm so excited that this is something you offer.

So what is water healing?

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yes. This is my favorite topic. I let's, so let's just dive into it. Uh,

Chris McDonald: literally,

Elizabeth Nguyen: literally because we're already in there. Cause our bodies. I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii on the Pacific islands of Hawaii, just surrounded by the Pacific ocean. So I think I've always had this soul level connection to water, just love the water.

Just as a young child would just spend hours just looking and staring and playing with the water and feeling like this is where I want to be. And then as I grew up and, you know, continued in my medical training, I kind of both literally and metaphorically became more disconnected from the water. I had to move away from the islands to California to pursue my undergraduate studies.

That I moved further inland Midwest to pursue my medical school studies. I had to be hard for you. It was. I ended up in Chicago, which is on the shores of Lake Michigan. So there was a nice big body of water and plenty of snow there to introduce me to different forms of water, but it was a difference and this whole journey.

Feeling so connected to water and then at times in my life feeling like my relationship with water had to be either shelved or neglected. It really came full circle in my own personal life journey as I came to realize that water was actually calling me back into relationship with it. Like it literally was calling me saying, you forgot your relationship with water.

And this is such a big part of who you are and what makes you whole. So as I continue to listen to that calling after I graduated from my psychiatry training and just re stored my connection with water, I realized how much healing came out of that. And I wanted to bring that into my healing psychiatric practice because I think all of us to some extent have been disconnected from our relationship with water without even knowing it.

And when we can restore that sacred relationship, there's so many ripple effects in our healing and wholeness. And so there's so many layers to that when I bring into the patient and client encounter. But I think even just having that overarching principle to start with, which is that we all have a sacred connection.

and relationship to water and, and all of us have had a disconnection from it without even knowing it. If we haven't even realized it, that's because it just hasn't come into our consciousness yet. And the part of my mission is to restore that human relationship to water that has been disconnected.

Chris McDonald: How do you do that?

Elizabeth Nguyen: I do it in a multi dimensional way. So first of all, it's just kind of like, Opening that concept to people of, have I been disconnected from my relationship with water? And then really first and foremost, restoring people's connection with their own body of water. Because this is the body, this is water.

This is the body of water that you have the most access to 24 seven. So when people forget that people do forget that. And when I forgot that when I moved from Hawaii to California to Chicago, I was like, Oh, you're taking water with you. I'm like disconnected from the ocean. I'm like, I don't have that same relationship with water that I used to, but I forgot that I have a body of water that I carry with me at all times.

And when I could tap into that through meditation. Through energy healing, it was transformative to realize that my relationship with water was first and foremost in my body. And then, and then realizing that there's water wherever you live. So maybe I wasn't living close to the ocean anymore, but literally humans need water, all life on our planet needs water.

So if you are alive, there's going to be a body of water source. outside of your body, very close to you. And how can you restore your connection to that body of water, whatever it is, and really restoring your connection to the body of water inside of you. And then wherever you live opens up this connection to yourself and your environment that is so healing and therapeutic because most humans have become disconnected from nature and the natural world.

And more than half the humans live in urban populations now. And in the next 20 years, Over 75 percent of people will live in urban populations, but that doesn't mean we need to be disconnected from nature. So how can we find ways to still be connected to the environment we live in, to the natural resources and the environment that's all around us?

to heal ourselves and to heal our planet. There's multiple layers of working with water. First, it's just the consciousness of reading, reconnecting, reconnecting your body, reconnecting to the environment and the communities you live in, and then continuing to work to purify your water and restore its flow.

I tell people when you work with water, it's so simple because water is so powerful and yet so simple that if you just focus on the quality of your everything else will take care of itself. So that's, that's primarily the technique and modalities I use in terms of helping people to reconnect to their water and re clearing it and purifying it and restoring its flow.

Chris McDonald: So if it's not flowing, I would think that stagnate, is that like energy? Cause I know you mentioned energy healing is what you also use. So I'm thinking that too is like if our water's not flowing, it's like that stagnant energy.

Elizabeth Nguyen: So energy healing and water healing work together are kind of the same. I think this is like people, people don't realize how energy works in our body.

It works because it's conducted through the water in our body. Water is how energy is conducted through our bodies. And so water work is energy work, one and the same. And there's different ways to, there's different modalities of energy work, breath work, you know, yoga, qigong, tai chi, everything that works with energy is working with water.

And so when you work with energy and you realize there's an energy blockage or stagnation, it's the same. There's a blockage in your water flowing. And there's a lot of different reasons and causes for that, that most energy healers know, you know, there's usually locked trauma, unprocessed grief, actual physical, um, disconnection from rigidity in our bodies of increasing mobility in our muscles and in our tissues.

So there's all these layers of the physical, the emotional, the psychological, and the energetic all stored in our bodies that we help to unblock and restore flow to.

Chris McDonald: Are you feeling stressed and overwhelmed as a counselor? Do you struggle to be consistent with your self care practices? You are not alone.

Introducing the ultimate tool for your well being created by a fellow counselor. The self care for the counselor companion workbook designed specifically for counselors like you. This fillable workbook is your first step towards rejuvenating your practice and your life. Embrace a holistic approach to self care with strategies that easily blend into your hectic schedule.

From interactive activities to enriching bonus content. This workbook is packed with resources to guide you on your journey towards self renewal. Plus you gain exclusive access to video and audio resources for meditation and yoga practices to enhance your experience. Start prioritizing your wellbeing today.

Go to hcpodcast. org forward slash workbook. That's hcpodcast. org forward slash workbook to discover how your journey to self care begins today. I know you mentioned those movement modalities. So do you like to incorporate a lot of that into healing as well?

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yes. I personally practice yoga and something called the melt method, which I don't know if you're familiar with it.

No, I haven't

Chris McDonald: heard of that.

Elizabeth Nguyen: It's like restoring the fluid hydration to your myofascial layer. So it kind of really helps you just feel into all those Like sort of aches and pains and places of rigidity in your body. It's because your myofascial layer is dehydrated and needs.

Chris McDonald: What would be an example of a movement with that?

Elizabeth Nguyen: I learned from my dear friend, Ellen, who's a certified melt instructor. There's like these blue balls that you use to, they're so pretty. They're like little earth balls to, to like rub around different. And there's also these blue rollers that you use. to roll around. Uh, so you do use these blue balls and blue rollers to like move the fluid in your myofascial layer.

And I'll share the,

Chris McDonald: yeah, that would be great. I have little massage balls. I don't know if that's similar, but

Elizabeth Nguyen: probably similar. Yeah. I think just restoring hydration to your myofascial layer.

Chris McDonald: Okay. So that's another way to move water.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yes. Yeah. And then, um, gosh, jinshin jutsu is that sort of hands on noninvasive acupressure that helps to move energy through your body by placing your hands at different, uh, places in your body and that you don't need anything.

So I can also, I can give you some.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. That would be hand

Elizabeth Nguyen: movements. Would you be interested in that?

Chris McDonald: Yes. Yes. Can you show me one?

Elizabeth Nguyen: I can show you one. Um, and I learned from my teacher Shelly as well. I just want to like acknowledge my teachers. So there's a central channel in our energy body and system that moves through kind of like the chakra system.

So different, different holistic bodies of knowledge have all have all worked on the same human body. They all work on the same energy system. Um, they just have different ways of. You know, describing that. So the chakra system, the central channel, you know, there's a very, there's an acknowledgment that there's this great sort of passageway of energy through the middle of our bodies.

And in a water sense, that's like our main waterway. And so clearing the great central channel is, a great way to move the energy and restore the flow in your body. If you just do that, that's what Shelly taught me. Again, you just restore flow to the main central channel, to your main energy system. So you could start by putting one hand on the top of your head and you can choose whichever side you can start.

And then you could put the other hand on your sort of like middle eye and your hands right now are just kind of like acting like a, the two ends of a battery or a conductor to kind of improve the flow between those, those places. And then once you intuitively feel like I'm ready to move on, you know, in the beginning they say hold it for like 10 seconds, but as you intuitively get to know your body of water, you could feel where there's a blockage and you need to hold it longer or when like, Oh, it feels like it's flowing.

And then you can move the next step. The next, you can keep one hand, I'm moving my left hand on my head and you can move your next hand to your, just right below your nose. So you're kind of just opening up the channels between wherever your hands are.

Chris McDonald: So this is under the nose.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Where the nose, and then you can move it to the throat if you feel like that's ready.

And this is what acupuncture does. I was going

Chris McDonald: to say, yeah, reminds me of some of those, those spots where you get acupuncture.

Elizabeth Nguyen: This is a genshin jutsu, non invasive acupressure. It's working on the chakra systems. You can move your next one to your like heart chakra and you're just opening the water.

Opening the energy flow in your great central channel, in your main waterway. You can do the sitting up or lying down. It's traditionally done lying down, but we're recording the podcast, so we That's okay. right in your navel.

Chris McDonald: Navel too.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Navel. Mm-Hmm.

Chris McDonald: right at your belly button. Yeah. I'm just like picturing where the chakras are as I do this.

As you open

Elizabeth Nguyen: up energy flow where there's usually stagnation. And sometimes it feels like uncomfortable at first. You're like, Oh God, I feel tension there, but it's opening it up. It's opening it up. Water's flowing there now. So I

Chris McDonald: guess, is that good to use visualization of flow, water flowing?

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yes. Yeah. Use the visualization of water flowing to areas that have been parched and stuck and stagnant.

And then putting the, I usually stand up for this part just to open up the flow more right above your pubic bone. So right above your pubic bone, it just helps the flow. If your whole channel is open and you can kind of sometimes if you get more familiar with energy flow in your body, you can feel like, Oh wow, it feels really like tight and tense there.

But now that flutter doesn't help

Chris McDonald: it feel more relaxed. Maybe. Yeah. That's interesting. So listeners, this might be something to try to be even laying down.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yeah, I can I can email you a link to this. Yeah, that'd be great. We're almost done. You move your right hand that's on your pubic bone to your right sort of like hip area.

Okay. And then you move your left hand that was on top of your head. So kind of like your sacral area. So now you're opening like one side of your hip for women and for men too, but for women, especially there's so much stagnant stuck energy here. And it's going to take some time to re hydrate, restore, replenish.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. As I put my hand there, it's just like all of a sudden my body just wanted to take a deep breath.

Elizabeth Nguyen: So take a deep breath and just imagine water flowing through your central channel into your pelvic bowl, opening these tributaries that have been dried and parched for a long time. And you're just restoring water's flow to these, you know, dammed up areas, these restricted areas in your own body that have been.

You're probably not even aware that the water has not been flowing there. But whenever you feel physical tension in your body, that's because there, there's not enough hydration there.

Chris McDonald: Oh, okay. So this could be good for our listeners that are therapists that like to do this between sessions.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Oh my God. If all the therapists who sit in our tests all day restore hydration to our hip.

Oh yeah. And then we take that work into our client work and help them restore hydration in their body and in their flow. The ripple effect of this energy healing. is going to be very healing for yourself. First and foremost, you know, I focus on, I want results. I want direct experience. You're going to feel so much better in your body.

This feels

Chris McDonald: really calming. The reason I do this

Elizabeth Nguyen: is because it's so easy and I feel better. And I want people to feel better and feel that they have. The power and ability to really redirect flow of their water in their bodies. It's so empowering to know that I can really sense and restore the flow of water in my body, and that's going to help me feel more whole and healthy and fluid and, and really into all my work in the world.

Thank you for that. You're very welcome. Yeah. My hips feel a little, little looser. Right. It like

Chris McDonald: brought up a like. Some calm, because like I said, I was telling her before I started saying my microphone fell apart. My stance, I'm trying to get ready for this interview and had all these tech problems. I don't know.

We have the eclipse today as we record this. I don't know. The energy's weird today. I had some other tech issues. So I was trying to, my flow was a little stagnant.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Well, it could be restored very quickly. It's very

Chris McDonald: restored. Yes. Well, one thing that I've learned, uh, I've taken a lot of mindful movement courses and, and teaching Qigong to clients as well, and that's been so powerful to add that in addition to yoga.

That's all about moving the chi and the energy. I can't say enough good things about it. Cause that's, is that, does that get the water flowing too?

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yes. Anything. That works on the energy in your body. Qigong, yoga, that's the water flow. But then when you actually can consciously be aware that it's, that it's like actually water that, that is facilitating this energy.

I never even

Chris McDonald: like put that together. Yeah. Again, this is like

Elizabeth Nguyen: the, this is like the big sort of like disconnection we've all had from water. that once we restore that, it's going to be life changing in terms of how you relate to yourself and water in yourself and on our planet. And that's really, you know, when you're talking about planetary health, the reason our environmental crisis.

is the way it is, is people have become disconnected from the environment and from water. We, we kind of like take life for granted that it's just going to continue to take care of us. But if we don't take care of it, just like our bodies, if we don't take care of our bodies, our bodies can't support our lives.

We can't take care of our planet. our planet won't support us. So it's a really important connection to remake.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Cause it's not, I've never heard this before in all my experience. So this is really fascinating to think about with all my yoga training and movement trainings.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Well, I love, I love that Chris, because you have spoken, I looked at your, to so many holistic practitioners.

Like you are so in steeped in holistic healing community. And, and I think people, even holistic practitioners who are so open to energy healing and intuition, we need to make the connection that this is through water.

Chris McDonald: Yeah.

Elizabeth Nguyen: And this is through our connection to nature and our environment. And that is, Going to just open a whole nother dimension to our healing.

This is what multi dimension is about. So there's a dimension of our connection to the natural world that has been severed. And this is the work of reconnecting that dimension. So you can do your holistic healing work, you know, in your practice, in your communities, but there might still be another dimension of connection to our planet.

To our natural world that is needs to be restored for greater healing.

Chris McDonald: Absolutely. And that's why I talk to a lot of clients too, about getting outside more too. And yes. And I'm wondering too, now that you say all this with water, like, is that a good recommendation for clients to go to water? Especially, yes.

Even if it's cold, just, can you sit by a body of water?

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yes. Yeah. So. Okay. Like, can I just speak more about blue health? So it's becoming the, the scientific and academic data and evidence is now emerging on all the health benefits of being outside and not just at home. in green spaces, but specifically in blue spaces near and around water.

And for someone like me, who's like loved water and has known it's healing qualities from a young age and has always been naturally called to water, having the scientific and academic community now show like published data around it in one way is validating to be like, Oh, now other people will hear and listen.

But on another way, it's also like, This is so obvious, but maybe, but maybe we need to spell it out. Maybe. So yes, there's a whole emerging body of water called blue health now, which is showing that the health benefits of spending time in and around and near water improves our physical and psychological and emotional health.

And they're, they kind of have found that. You need to spend about two hours a week in order to get those health benefits. If you spend less than that, they don't really see that it's really sinking in as much. But the two hours a week can be split up into, you know, multiple shorter encounters. It doesn't need to be two hours together.

And yes, just even looking at water. You don't even have to get in it. Even looking at water, it makes you feel more calm. And get this, it doesn't even have to be like real water. You could even look at a picture of water. Oh, okay. So having artwork. Having artwork, you know, your screensaver, my screensaver is of a picture of like dolphins swimming.

And I feel like just having, I sit in front of my computer a lot and just having that almost kind of reconnects my brain to the consciousness of water. But there's so many different ways. of intentionally connecting with water that will improve your physical and emotional and psychological health. And the aspect it seems is like having the intention, because literally we're all around water all day.

Like you're connected to your body of water 24 seven, but if you have no consciousness, sort of awareness of that. And you're not intentionally going to connect with your body of water. You're probably not going to get the health benefits, even though you're literally around water. We're all literally around water all day.

But if you, if we just spent like, I don't know, 10 minutes reconnecting to that internal waterway. inside of us, that was, that would be considered 10 minutes to add to your blue health of two hours a week. Yay.

Chris McDonald: We did good.

Elizabeth Nguyen: And there's so many ways you can connect to water and add it up to two hours a week.

And you're going to really feel its benefits.

Chris McDonald: I'm wondering too, with water spores getting out on the water more. Cause I know when I went to Aruba last week, I had some moments too, that I'm especially on vacation, of course, but just. Taking a catamaran and floating through the Caribbean, it just, it took me so into the moment, that mindfulness of the breeze, just floating through the water, just feeling the sun.

It was just, there's no words. It's like, I don't even know how to put words to it.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Exactly. What you're describing is water's multidimensional healing properties. Water itself is very magical. Like there is, there's just the physical chemical H2O that is needed to hydrate our bodies and make sure we're alive and pump the blood through our bodies and tissues.

But beyond that chemical and mechanical property of water, water has multi dimensional quality, which is why even looking at it calms your brain, which is why there's It's a philosophy around thinking like water that helps us as humans learn how to train our brains to think more like water and be more in harmony with water, which is the biggest substance on our planet.

And if water's in harmony in our planet, then we will all be in greater harmony. And then there's the energetic and spiritual connection with water that is beyond words that is ineffable, but it's so much a part of our multidimensional wholeness.

Chris McDonald: We're whole beings. We need the water.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Exactly. We, we are all water beings.

We live on a planet that's 70 percent water and we are all made up of 70 percent water. So again, it's almost like this basic fundamental fact that we all have forgotten that we actually are all water beings and water is this magical, powerful substance that's a part of us. That we haven't, we've, we've forgotten, we've forgotten that we have this inside of us, this magical healing material and substance that we have this relationship with.

And water won't let us forget it too long because we live on a watery planet. So like, you know, you just go out and there's just going to be water everywhere, but it's about the intention. It's about the intention of restoring your connection to water that is like this missing link because all of us interact with water so many times a day.

Chris McDonald: True.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yeah. Like

Chris McDonald: baths and showers. But if we aren't aware of how

Elizabeth Nguyen: If

Chris McDonald: you're intentional. Yeah.

Elizabeth Nguyen: How sacred this is and how powerful it is. It's like it unlocks so much for you.

Chris McDonald: I did go to a float spa and floated. That was amazing. I wasn't sure what to expect. I was a little nervous. I was like, what am I doing?

Like. But it's, if anybody doesn't know what I'm talking about, so they have these spas where you go and it's like all this Epsom salt and you just float, you don't have to try to float. And so I turned off all the lights cause you can have like these different shades of lights, but I turned it all off and just, you can put music on if you want.

And I just floated in silence for an hour. I highly recommend

Elizabeth Nguyen: it. Oh, yes. There's so many different ways to interact with water therapeutically. So float spas, hot springs. Baths, saunas, and besides going to wild water itself, just like going to wild water, the oceans, the rivers, the lakes, but even just in your own home, taking a bath, soaking your feet, drinking water intentionally.

There's so many ways to, to, I

Chris McDonald: wonder when you mentioned water. So the water's not flowing. So if people aren't drinking enough water, is that something that you talk to your clients about? Yeah. Yeah.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yeah, on a basic, very foundational level, if you're not drinking water and you're like, the way I say it, it's like, if your pee is too yellow, you probably should just drink more water and bring more physical water into your body.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. Cause that could cause a lot of issues too.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Totally. That's just, that's just like a foundational and drinking pure water, you know, like it doesn't need to have anything in it. Sometimes people like, you know, putting flavorings and teas and stuff, but actually, the more I do this water work, the more I just want to drink plain, pure water.

I regulate the temperature quite a bit. That's like the, what I play with the most in terms of like how hot I want it or how room temperature I want it. I very rarely drink ice cold water, which is not good for your digestive system. But yeah, just, just pure

Chris McDonald: water is probably the best thing you can drink.

Because I know a lot of clients I talked to that about because many are tired, irritable. And that's one of the things I talked to first. I'm like, you know, just check how much water you're drinking. Cause a lot of people go around with chronic dehydration and that's one thing that you can control how much you're drinking water.

Very much so. Yeah.

Elizabeth Nguyen: And just watching your own thirst level, you know, that's true

Chris McDonald: too.

Elizabeth Nguyen: It's a good, it's a good indicator.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, exactly. So I know one thing that I wondered about for you as a psychiatrist, I know a lot of listeners are therapists and many are unsure about coming out of the holistic closet to talk about, um, some of their holistic practices.

Cause many are taught in the traditional realm. So. Can you talk about your journey coming out of the closet with some of your more holistic, I guess, interventions and spirituality and all that?

Elizabeth Nguyen: I'd love to. You know, I actually have this Facebook group called Mental Health Practitioners Coming Out of the Spiritual Closet.

Oh, I

Chris McDonald: got to join that. I need a link.

Elizabeth Nguyen: I'll send you a link. My colleague started it with me and we haven't been too active in it, but I think the fact that so many people wanted to join it shows that there's so many of us out there. in this particular situation where we are multidimensional healers and practitioners, and we want to bring all of that to our therapy practices, to our mental health practices.

We don't want to be just traditional check box rote practitioners. I really ran into this as I went deeper into my own spirituality, my own spiritual growth, my own growth as an intuitive energy healer is that the more I did that, the more I felt like it was a disservice for me to not bring this into my psychiatry practice.

I no longer want it to be, you know, one way in my psychiatry practice and then doing my healing work on the side. I wanted to find a way to integrate the two. And at the time I didn't feel like there were many role models of how to do that. So I just sort of charged ahead with like, I'm just gonna just speak my truth.

You know, I think water really helped me. Water just sort of finds a way forward. It carves new paths where there isn't one. It just trusts that if you just move forward, it will find a way. So I just sort of moved forward with the assistance of my water and water just to, just to speak truthfully, just to speak directly, just to speak plainly about what it is I'm doing and sensing and trusting that if it's coming from the right vibration of my truth that it will meet, it will meet My clients, my patients, other practitioners, wherever they're at.

And if it's the right fit, if it's the right resonance, then it will touch them in the right way. In the same way that water meets you where you are at water, if you're ready for it, you'll take it in. And if you're not ready for it, you know, it doesn't, doesn't change the fact that it's there. And so I have found that the more I just move forward.

in my path. It just finds a way forward. And I don't even think of it as being in the spiritual closet anymore because I feel like I'm

Chris McDonald: just speaking like who I am. Sounds like genuine, genuine. Yeah. Just being yourself and authentically you. Cause I think if you tried to just be traditional and your approach, it wouldn't be you.

Elizabeth Nguyen: It wouldn't be me. I would feel more for fake or more of an imposter hiding myself in this one dimensional framework of mental health work than I do being more open. Isn't that so the flip where we used to think that, oh, as we share this woo woo stuff, we are running into imposter syndrome, whereas it's the opposite.

It's the opposite,

Chris McDonald: isn't it? When I

Elizabeth Nguyen: hide all that, I'm not being true to myself. I'm being an imposter that this is all of who I am. That's not true. That's fake. I'm all of this. I'm a multidimensional. Yes. And I want to be truthful to you, my patient, my client, my community. And if it resonates with you, then, then you'll seek me.

And if it doesn't, you know, that doesn't. That's okay. That's okay.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's somebody for everyone too, I think. And I think once I started to put that out there and put it on my website and I did my about me page and do you know that clients reach out to me about that to be like, I read your about me and this is why I sought you out.

Cause I talk about spiritual practice. I talk about tarot and such. I talk about all these different things that you know, are out there and they're just like, Oh my God, this is awesome.

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yes. Yes. I love that. I love that. Yeah. Right. Clients

Chris McDonald: find

Elizabeth Nguyen: you.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. Yeah. So what's the best way for listeners to find you to learn more about you?

Elizabeth Nguyen: Yeah, there's a couple of different ways. So in my psychiatry practice, um, it's multidimensional psychiatry. com Instagram handle, and also just the website. And then in my water work, um, there's water keepers, community. com website and Instagram. And I'll be hosting a Blue Health free webinar masterclass next week, Friday, sharing all of this information about Blue Health and practical tips and guidance around it.

So I'll share the link with you if people want to register for it, learn more.

Chris McDonald: Love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Elizabeth. This was great. Thank you so much, Chris, for doing the work you do. Thank you. And thank you listeners for tuning in today. And be sure to tune in next Wednesday when another episode drops.

And are you ready to take your journey as a holistic therapist to the next level? I'd like to personally invite you to be part of our growing community of like minded individuals who share a passion for holistic therapy and the importance of investing in self care. Come on over and join my Facebook group.

The Holistic Counseling and Self Care Group. A welcoming space to connect with other fellow holistic therapists. Ask questions, share experiences, and exchange ideas. Go to hcpodcast. org forward slash holistic group. That's hcpodcast. org forward slash holistic group. And once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love.

Till next time, take care. Thanks for listening. The information in this podcast is for general educational purposes only, and it is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are giving legal, financial counseling, or any other kind of professional advice. If you need a professional, please find the right one for you.

The Holistic Counseling Podcast is proudly part of the Site Craft network.