Biznik Blog

What makes someone an “artist”? Many agree that art is something that evokes an emotional response from the beholder. An artist is therefore someone who creates the object, sound, environment or experience. Hannah Albert was a visual artist before she discovered medicine and applies the principles of creating beauty to her practice as a Naturopathic physician. In way, the human body has become another one of her media. Hannah shares her story…

Q: How did you become interested in natural medicine?

While I was first in art school back in the early 80’s, I attended a
course in Alexander Technique, a practice used by theatre people to
help initiate authentic movement. The teacher was studying to be a
chiropractor and I became a patient of his. It was the first
introduction I had to the idea of being proactively health-conscious.
That was the seed…

Over the years of making and teaching art, I considered studying
various forms of bodywork, nutrition, and even psychology. When I was
about 28, a friend told me about Naturopathic medicine, which
incorporated all of the above and much more. It struck me as a
beautiful blending of “hard science” and energy-based, quantum
mechanic, non-dualistic approaches for creating wellness.

Without really knowing what I was getting into, I signed up for a
bunch of pre-med classes, beginning with algebra! There was a lot of
frustration as I learned how to use the left side of my brain….but
it all eventually started to make sense as I got to the last third of
each class. I was accepted to the National College of Natural Medicine
in Portland, fairly oblivious about what I was about to embark upon.
I’m an Aries, so I usually jump first, experience some shock, and then
figure out where I’m going. It was a good thing I didn’t know how much
work it was going to involve…I was still a bohemian artist chick
dancing to my own drummer, as it were. All those years of being a
visual artist did eventually pay off, when it came time to actually
work in a clinical setting. Now I can genuinely call what I do “the
art of medicine.”

Q: You’re a survivor of breast cancer. What was that experience like, and how
has it affected your practice?

Having cancer is an opportunity to get real with yourself. It’s the
worst-case scenario most people fear, and when it happens to you at 39
it’s not exactly party conversation material. It was very, very
difficult to have to make the choice to do surgery, chemotherapy, and
radiation, given my Naturopathic training and beliefs. In the end I
received both conventional and “alternative” treatment. Ultimately
what I chose was based on what made me feel most at peace, which is a
hard thing to understand given the choices I was given. Interestingly,
some people who had never dealt with cancer berated me for the choices
I made, or advised me, as if they were my doctor! Cancer really brings
up everyone’s shit. The best advice I can give anyone wondering what
to do for someone with cancer is, show up with food. Do the dishes.
Listen. Ask what is needed.

Having cancer changed my practice in many ways: I realized that none
of us have the answer, and I lost some arrogance I had about
“alternative” medicine being superior. The truth is, what I personally
resonate with is naturopathy, homeopathy, and mindbody medicine–so
that’s what I practice. And I see incredible transformation happen in
my patients. But conventional medicine saves lives when used
appropriately, and we all know people who wouldn’t be with us now if
it weren’t for drugs and surgery.

An article came out May 29th in Business Week called “Medical
Guesswork,” highlighting the fact that most conventional treatments
offered today, including those most invasive, don’t work. I think a
lot of people have already figured that out–and those are the people
that end up coming to see me. But I don’t tell people to just stop
taking their meds; they need to shift their behaviors and get
nutritional and herbal support on the way to weaning off
pharmaceuticals–if that’s appropriate.

I would say the biggest shift in how I practice medicine is that I’m
always looking for where a person is limited or stuck emotionally–and
I encourage him or her to consider that as important to address as
exercise and eating well. We all have a “big but” as PeeWee Herman
used to say….and those “buts” can and do eventually create
destructive patterns in our bodies. The mind is a powerful instrument
in the healing process, and over the years I’ve developed many ways of
coaxing it into promoting what is best for a person’s healing.

Q: One of the things you’ve developed is you creative side, as an artist. What kind of work do you do?

I’ve always loved collage and creating a beautiful surface with
texture. The work I’m doing now is often “mixed media,” which means
I’ve used more than one material within a painting. I might use as
many as 6 or 7 different materials, such as pencil, india ink,
powdered pigment, acrylic paint, torn paper, photographs, and oil
paint. Of course the oil paint has to be the top layer if I want the
finished piece to last a long time. This layering effect creates a
rich and sensual surface with a lot of depth.

The subject matter has been largely based on human form and images
found in nature. I took a long break from making art while going to
medical school, and when I came back to it I knew I wanted to make
things of beauty that touched people’s emotions. I also wanted the
images to be inspiring or stimulating in some way….so I have infused
them with a lot of symbolism. “Beauty opens the heart” is my m.o.

I felt that in order to heal from cancer I had to honor that part of
me that creates beauty, and I have carried that idea into my medical
practice. I take patients through a process I call “expressive arts
therapy,” developed from my skills as an art teacher, a bodyworker,
and a doctor. When there is pain or dysfunction somewhere in the body,
we can tap into that place to get information. Sometimes that
information can best be expressed through symbols, words, and images
with the use of color, pencils, torn paper, and such.

In the near future I’ll be offering day-long retreats where
participants will get to use breathwork, writing, visualization, and
art-making together. Creativity is an incredible healng force that we
often take for granted, and I want to tap into that as a way of
empowering people to become healthier.

Q: How is Biznik working for you?

I have met some fun and inspiring kindred spirits here. The classes
I’ve attended have all given me delicious food for thought. I love
that I have a network of creative and smart colleagues I can count on
for great service, get support from, and brainstorm with. I think
being part of Biznik has made me redefine what radical self-promotion
means. It’s really helping me discover in a new way, why I do what I
do, and how to talk about that. So thank you again Dan and Lara, for giving me
this opportunity to tell my story.

On Wednesday, July 26, Hannah is hosting a Biznik event in Seattle called, 10 Cool Ways to Deal with Heat: Stress Busting 101 at a gorgeous new yoga and pilates studio recently opened by Bizniks Adrin Stauffer and Martine Dedek in Wallingford. Click on the event’s link to RSVP.

Hannah’s website is www.hannahalbertnd.com
Her blog is www.hannahalbertnd.com/blog

This entry was posted on Friday, July 21st, 2006 at 10:31 am and is filed under Interviews. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.