Uncategorized

Community Engagement Can Look Many Different Ways

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

Think about what Community Engagement means to you. What are the words, images, or feelings that come to mind? For me, this concept has evolved over my lifetime and my work as I have spent more years being in this world and as a professional. What leaps to my mind are: activism, advocacy, connection, social networks, and ground-floor solutions. And as I have reconnected with my own writing, poetry, and creativity (I am even taking a screenwriting class!), I am also deeply aware of how impactful art is to community engagement, growth, and social change. Sometimes social change happens when … Continue reading Community Engagement Can Look Many Different Ways

Adulting, Behavioral Health, Mental Health, Teaching

Professional Alchemy: Clinical Energy to Creative Energy

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

This past Summer the clinic and practice that I built over nearly 15 years transitioned to new, old hands. I knew it would provide a psychic relief for me; and even still I underestimated the freedom that the transition offered to my life. Not just a release from time expenditure or financial responsibility, but the low-grade white noise that had pervaded every waking minute of my life for so many years. For those of you who have had an experience like this, you know… it’s priceless. I decided, very unlike myself, to take a pause. To reject diving into yet … Continue reading Professional Alchemy: Clinical Energy to Creative Energy

Adulting, Events, Musing, Self-Awareness, Teaching

Eastside Natural Medicine is graduating!

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

This is the time of year when many of us are watching our babies move up and move on. Whether it is transitioning from elementary school to middle school (like my young gentleman), from high school into university life, or from college into the wild world of adulting, this season is abundant with transitions. Our lives are as full as our days are long. Soon this long season of growth and upward progression will have its day in the sun. Well…not that much sun…it is the PNW in June-uary after all 😉 Alongside it all, my other baby, Eastside Natural … Continue reading Eastside Natural Medicine is graduating!

Midwifery Care, Musing, Postpartum, Pregnancy

International Day of the Midwife

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

Today is May 5th, the International Day of the Midwife You might wonder why there is an international day of celebration for such a seemingly smaller or insignificant profession.  You might even be someone who struggles to categorize “midwife” as a profession at all. I will save you the history lecture for the moment but suffice to say that midwives have been around for as long as human beings, sex, birth, and death. For a profession that is utilized most commonly for perinatal care around the world, and in many places globally where health outcomes for the birthing parent and … Continue reading International Day of the Midwife

Behavioral Health, Teaching

Talking a bit more about what I do, where I have been, and where I would like to go…

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

One of the things we like to do at the University of Washington Bothell and in the School of Nursing & Health Studies is to highlight what folks are working on. It is hard when professors are teaching, doing research, writing, and also living their good lives to connect with each other on what we are passionate about. Or what brought us to this work and continues to drive us. I find out new things all the time about my colleagues and I love it! Just the other day in a meeting we had a chance to share what instruments … Continue reading Talking a bit more about what I do, where I have been, and where I would like to go…

Adolescent Health, Behavioral Health, COVID-19, Mental Health, Parenting, Pediatrics

Our kids & mental health

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

Many of you know I have been working on a lot of mental and behavioral health projects over the last few years, as I shared in my latest post. Alongside this work, I have had the opportunity to present at a few conferences on pediatric and perinatal mental health topics, and even make a handful of podcast appearances! After spending a lot more time listening to podcasts in the last year, I have a lot of respect for what goes into making and maintaining a podcast! So, I truly appreciate being able to participate as part of what these series … Continue reading Our kids & mental health

Grief & Loss, Self Care, Self-Awareness1 Comment

2021 Mental & Behavioral Health Work in Review

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

Hey all! It’s been a while. Mostly because it’s been a really busy and strange year. It’s been radical shift from all completely at-home Zoom work, teaching, and meetings in addition to having a remote schooling 4th grader at home, to now teaching in-person and my son being back full-time in school. The whole family has gotten vaccinated, many of us boostered, traveled, and done a handful of super pre-COVID normal things. And I do crossfit in a mask 🙂 When I spell it out like this, it really hits me that so much has changed and that we have … Continue reading 2021 Mental & Behavioral Health Work in Review

Adolescent Health, COVID-19, Pediatrics

Mental and Behavioral Health in Kids and looking out for the folks who teach and work with them

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

This past year brought a lot of new challenges; I don’t really need to remind any of you. I am sure that they are just as pressing and present for many of you as they are for me, and our kids. Working in high -risk situations, working at home, losing employment, financial distress, parenting, schooling at home, staying at home, masking/unmasking drama, sociopolitical unrest…did it ever stop? It might not have for many of us. However, for some of us, there is a chance that it affected us slightly differently. Perhaps all of these challenges were slightly less pressing and … Continue reading Mental and Behavioral Health in Kids and looking out for the folks who teach and work with them

Midwifery Care, Natural Childbirth, Pregnancy

2020 was a lot of things; it was also the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

For many, it really is the year of the midwife – December 2020 – News – UW Bothell This Fall I had a chance to chat about 2020: The Year of the Nurse and the Midwife and how the pandemic underscored the desire, need, and appreciation for Nurses and Midwives all across the United States. The article linked above was shared in the UW Bothell Newsletter to highlight the vital role that Community Midwives (midwives that serve people birthing outside of the hospital) played in this unique year, how well poised midwifery care is to serve families when healthcare and … Continue reading 2020 was a lot of things; it was also the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife

COVID-19, Immune Health, Preventive Medicine, Vaccinations

Looking to Learn More About the COVID Vaccine?

Dr. Sunita Iyer ND, LM

If you are genuinely interested in learning about the vaccine because you are #undecided or #vaccinehesitant, the linked article is for you. If you have decided that the vaccine is a vehicle for government surveillance, but are reading this on a discoverable device that connects to the Internet, you will likely not find what you are looking for here or in the article. As Naturopathic Physicians we honor Preventive Medicine; vaccines are part of the prevention of community and individual disease that could cause more harm than the intervention itself. Additionally we honor Wholism, and in that vein, we take … Continue reading Looking to Learn More About the COVID Vaccine?