The Power Transformation Podcast
The Power Transformation Podcast with Alethea Felton is where unstoppable resilience meets life-changing success. This Top 5% ranked show dives deep into the extraordinary journeys of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and visionaries who have shattered obstacles, conquered adversity, and redefined success on their own terms.
Hosted by resilience expert Alethea Felton who has thrived with autoimmune disease since birth, overcome severe stuttering, and turned setbacks into stepping stones, this podcast delivers raw, inspiring conversations packed with actionable strategies for personal and professional growth.
Whether you're an ambitious leader, a high-achiever seeking motivation, or someone ready to transform challenges into breakthroughs, this podcast is your blueprint for success.
Subscribe now and join the movement - because your transformation starts here!
The Power Transformation Podcast
134. Rethinking Mental Health from the Inside Out with Dr. Tiffany M. Smith
What if what you’re calling a “mental health issue” is actually your body crying out for help? In this transformative conversation, we sit down with Integrative and Functional Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Dr. Tiffany M. Smith as she shares how her husband’s painful battle with PTSD and depression changed everything ultimately for the better and greater good. She exposes the deeper truth behind many diagnoses, from mold toxicity showing up as psychosis to detox issues mimicking ADHD. This episode will leave you rethinking everything you thought you knew about healing and inspired to reclaim your wellness from the inside out.
Connect with Dr. Smith:
Episode 134's Affirmation:
I embrace a lifestyle that supports my well-being, knowing that every conscious decision leads to a healthier me.
I invite you to leave a positive message with your insights, feedback, or uplifting message.
- GOOD NEWS: As of March 4th, 2025, The Power Transformation Podcast is now on YouTube! Many episodes are being uploaded gradually so please be patient as they are. Please note that not all episodes will be included particularly most from Season 1. Meanwhile, subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE.
- Thanks for being a part of The Power Transformation Podcast community!
As of February 2025, NEW episodes are released every Tuesday AND Thursday, so follow to not miss an episode.
- Want to be a guest on The Power Transformation Podcast? Send Alethea Felton a message on PodMatch, here.
The power of love is absolutely remarkable and, yes, that is how I want to introduce this guest is that the power of love brought her husband back to health, but also through her holistic principles. And the guest today is none other than Dr Tiffany M Smith. She is your holistic root cause treating psychiatric nurse practitioner. And Dr Tiffany is a trailblazer who found her calling by helping her combat veteran husband recover from chronic pain, ptsd, depression and anxiety. And this interview is so powerful because she talks about how your mental wellness, how your holistic health matters and how you can take control of it. And, more importantly, she discusses how she nursed her husband back to health through dedication, patience, love and so much more.
Alethea Felton:And welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast. I am your host, alethea Felton, and it is a joy to have you here today. If you are new to our show, welcome. I am so glad to have you here today. If you are new to our show, welcome, I am so glad to have you here. And if you are a longtime subscriber, thank you so much. It is because of you that this show continues to be a success.
Alethea Felton:And guess what? If you have not yet subscribed or follow the Power Transformation Podcast, what are you waiting on? Come on and join us, because we are more than just a podcast. We are a movement, and it is because of you that we are continuing to reach the world, and so let's go ahead and jump right into this episode. Oh, we also have a YouTube channel. I am gradually uploading interviews on the YouTube channel, the Power Transformation Podcast. Go ahead and subscribe, subscribe and share our YouTube channel, as well as from your favorite audio platform.
Alethea Felton:Let's go ahead and dive into this interview here on our show. We always begin with a positive affirmation on our audio platforms, and it is because we are speaking things into existence. We are resilient. We do not only bounce back, but we bounce ahead, we move forward and we thrive, regardless of what obstacles may attempt to come our way. So we are speaking those things as if they are. I'm going to say this affirmation once, and then you repeat it. I embrace a lifestyle that supports my well-being, knowing that every conscious decision leads to a healthier me. As I said, I am so excited today to have Dr Tiffany Smith here on the Power Transformation Podcast. Welcome, dr Smith.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here today, looking forward to having some fun and give us some education, hopefully helping some people.
Alethea Felton:Yes, indeed, and you are going to help a lot of people and you yourself have such a story and I want to dive right on into this. But let's start with something fun, lighthearted. Just a random icebreaker question, okay, random, off of the top of my head, just want to dig into your brain more. Okay, my question for you is is, dr Smith, do you believe in the possibility of parallel universes?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Oh gosh yes, interesting.
Alethea Felton:Tell us more. I don't know.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:We don't know. You know, and things are more complex and sophisticated than it seems. It's simple to say yes, but I think we just don't know and you got to be open to what can be out there to actually discover it and find it. You know, if the scientists aren't open to what they see, they won't see it. You know they'll only see what they expect to see. So I think it very well could be. I mean, I'm not. I am waiting on the day to run into my doppelganger. Yes, it's so much talk about it. It makes you lean into believing it's true, it really does.
Alethea Felton:Or I've seen the images taken throughout history where it's a person who lived years ago and they look exactly like someone now. That is so mind-blowing to me so it's absolutely amazing. So anyway, thank you for that. It's just something fun and zany. But I guess the million-dollar question here, and getting into the heart and the core, is how would you describe yourself? Who is Dr Tiffany?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Smith. I think Dr Tiffany Smith is awesome sauce. I believe that Dr Tiffany Smith is just a genuine human being that, through her experiences and who she is as a person, can help to guide other people to better health. She is a leader. She is just genuine and authentic.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:So what you see is what you get, and you know I mean in the challenge, like and I'm going to dive off of me the challenge with a lot of people is we have to put on masks and I've always worked hard to just be who I am, because that's too much work, you know, but sometimes you have to do it to fit in to society for other reasons. I have a genuine. I feel like all of my needs are divinely met and so because I'm not worried about meeting my needs meaning I'm not selfish it allows me to open up and help others. I know I'll be okay as long as I'm doing what I'm divinely supposed to do in this world and to help others. So I'm very spiritual, very grateful, very open to things and people and understanding. I try not to be biased, you know, or bring that in. I know there's unconscious bias, but I really openly accept people with open arms and help you get from where you are to where you want to be and what works best for you, not what Dr Tiffany says works best.
Alethea Felton:Exactly.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:And I'm a problem. I think my number one thing is I'm a problem solver and I'm an authentic listener. Those are my superpowers.
Alethea Felton:And with the line of work you're in. That is needed. And what I appreciate about your answer is you didn't describe yourself by the work you do. You really described the essence of who you are and I think that that's a huge premise of this podcast is that it can be very easy especially those of us who are entrepreneurs or professionals or just anybody to identify ourselves by our work. And while the work is important and titles are cool, at the end of the day it's the core of who we are. And I want to shift this into just give us a brief definition, without going into the deep end, because I'll have questions later talking about this. But if you could put into your own words what functional medicine is, could you explain that to us?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Yeah, Functional medicine is about finding the dysfunction within the body and fixing that. That is what functional medicine is making sure the body is functioning properly and being able to identify dysfunction thank you.
Alethea Felton:That's very simply put, and when I described you at the intro I used that term, but I wanted you to go into that a little more, and so thank you for that, and that leads me to kind of going back to your origin story. Is that your journey into that route actually did begin with some deeply personal experiences that helped to lead you down that road. So what aspects of your personal life, or even your career life, actually led you to embrace a more holistic approach when it came to mental health, and how did that help to shape who you are today?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Okay. So I was always interested in mental health, going through nursing school and as a nurse, so there was that. But I kind of got caught up in medical surgical nursing and all kinds of other nursing and when I worked in a crisis stabilization unit for geriatric patients, it all came back to me that I was so interested in the brain and went to nurse practitioner school. He is the reason that actually put mental health and holistic health together, because he was having some issues with chronic pain and it leads to other emotional stress because you can't live your life, just all these things.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:And we were leaning into the health care system but our quality of life was not improving. And we're talking like almost two decades of leaning into the health care system. And we're talking like almost two decades of leaning into the health care system and it's just potions and pills and they weren't. While he could be in pain, he might be knocked out of sleep and that's being not in pain. You know medications can make you groggy or there's invasive procedures and it's just a possibility of hope, no guarantees. So you have all of this, these hopes, and you know, maybe this will work.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:And after so many disappointments, we just got to a point he was almost bed bound and really couldn't stay up for long, disengaged with the family because of it, and he just said no more, no more Western medicine. We got to find some other kind of way to do this and that put us on a journey to try to figure out what that is. We knew we both come from a healthy family, so we really personally hadn't engaged in the health care system and felt that the health care system was there if you had any issues with your health. But a lot became known to us about how to use the healthcare system and what it's for, and so the healthcare system was there.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:When you have that acute, chronic need, something emerging, I mean it's beautiful and it's great. However, your wellness, that day-to-day is up to you and how you live your life, and I got to divert. I always talk about the 90s because I love the 90s because, it's an example of when wellness was built in. Wellness was built in our daily society life. You know Sundays the stores were closed. Families got together on Sundays, remember. We had to go outside. You couldn't sit around inside, so you were in nature.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Yes, indeed, the girls had the journals with the locks on the diaries. I mean, yes, diaries, yeah, we were journaling. Then we had family time, we cooked at home, we had community. You know, and now think about today. It's totally different. Most people don't have that neighborhood they grew up in and everybody grew up together all the way through and stay in the same neighborhood. The families are more dispersed. You got notifications and people on your phone and trying to reach you all the time. The barrier and boundaries aren't there, everything's 24 seven. You know and I'm. Boundaries aren't there, everything's 24-7,. You know, and I'm in Las Vegas now, so you know it's really 24-7.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:There are some places that hold to still some. I went to a place in Arizona. They still had some stores that were closed on Sunday. So some of it's there sparsely, but for the majority of the population, these boundaries, we kind of lost them.
Alethea Felton:And.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:I think that's the biggest struggle in what we have, and so, anyhow, just wanted to interject that because I love talking about the 90s.
Alethea Felton:Yeah, let me just comment here really quickly. I thank you for that comparison, because wellness is my thing, as you know, but I never I can confess I never paused to really think about. In the nineties, we did do so many wellness-based practices in just everyday life and we didn't think of it as that. It was just normal living. I never considered that. You're right, though. Everything you said resonates exactly with me, because that's what we were doing. Wow, that's amazing.
Alethea Felton:Tell me about when your husband was experiencing these challenges and let me first commend you even for saying that both of you came from healthy families, because that even breaks some of well, talking about you. I don't know your husband, but in terms of you as a Black woman, that even breaks stereotypes of how Blacks, latinos, et cetera we have more health conditions, chronic health problems, and for you to say you actually came from a healthy family. Take us back briefly to that. In terms of coming from a healthy family, was it based on the way you ate growing up? Was it based on the lack of not having chronic sickness in your family? Talk about that with us.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:That's good, you know. So, to talk about the health of my family, my family lives up over to 100. You know, they reach that age. My grandmas I have great grandmas because they live to 100 and such, I have great grandmas because they live to 100 and such and it's not that they didn't have all of the challenges that we have, that that emotional daily weathering that we suffer as being black individuals and my husband is black as well, so having those daily struggles, it's not that they didn't have it, but I think that they put.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:I can say, for, like my grandma who lived to 101, she had emotional boundaries around her. Certain things just didn't, she didn't let certain things penetrate her. I never saw the penetration of that that daily racial weathering on her. She was just a strong individual that lived her life on her terms and did her thing. I think that, yes, they, my family, they cooked, you know, at home, you gosh not a lot of drugs and alcohol, not to say nobody's without. But I'm just saying it wasn't something that was really a lot in our family and it was that community, you know, we all got together, we all was together and so we had a place of belonging. So I think that the community, the belonging, those sorts of wellness things we just talked about it were the protective barriers that helped them to live the life that they lived for so long.
Alethea Felton:Oh, that's beautiful. That is so beautiful. And thank you for even mentioning that because it's so important, because even with the quality of food was just different then the quality of how food was. I remember when nutrition labels started popping up on food items. I want to say throughout the 80s they weren't there, but maybe the late 80s, early 90s they started being put on food and it seemed like prior to then. I'm all for nutrition facts, don't get me wrong, but it just seemed that pre that time food in terms of fresh produce and things I remember growing up, especially as a Southerner, going in grocery stores you didn't have to worry about if it was an organic section because all of the produce was organic and so you didn't think about if this was organic or conventional. You just went in and knew you were getting quality food.
Alethea Felton:And I want to just comment on a fact, with your grandmother living to be 101. My great grandmother she was actually a cousin that raised my grandma. That's the only great grandma I knew. She lived to be 104. And one thing that I regret to this day she died when I was 16. And I remember her when I was a small girl telling me about different herbs and different things that you put together.
Alethea Felton:Dr Smith, I will admit to you, I heard a few things, but as a preteen, as a teenager, I wasn't interested. And now fast forward all these years later.
Alethea Felton:that's all people are talking about, and I had a woman at my fingertips who learned this from her mother and grandmother and I was like why didn't I listen? And so the fact that when your husband got sick, something triggered in you to say I want to do more. Take me through how it was being a wife, having to experience being of support to your husband. What kind of toll did that emotionally take on you, seeing him like this?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Well, it takes a lot of emotional toll but, this is the thing I had to stay focused and keep working for us, so so.
Alethea Felton:I working for us, so right.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:So I'm focused on the end, I'm focused on the goal of getting through this. So I'm not like sitting with the emotions that could be present during that, if that makes sense. I'm not allowing a pity or despair or frustration. It's like, okay, I'm just doing what I need to do so we can get through this. A term that I use is like not putting nothing on it, don't want to put no extra emotions on it, nothing else, because you don't want to reach a breaking point or something that would affect me and break me down. Now the whole, the whole, everybody breaks down. So I have that staying strong. I had my self-care in there. I had my time, you know, to do whatever I wanted to do for me as well as taking care of the family.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:We had, uh, two boys at home, then at a, then I had a baby, so then we had three and then the oldest one always had at least two kids at home during all of this and it was just, you know, keeping everything going.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:I took care of myself and I took care of everybody else. Emotionally, I have, as I reflect, I can't say anything negative. All I know is the answer is there. We're going to get through this. I'm always I see myself as someone who goes through their situations and their problems. We're gonna, like they say. This too, shall end so.
Alethea Felton:I'm not stuck with how it is today.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:We kept working through it, staying open, giving gratitude and just doing the best we could through the situation, and we know that we'll figure it out. And the figuring out part was the one thing that just started was when someone introduced me, just going to a craft fair essential oils oh, try this, what's this? I'm like. Oh, because he didn't want anything invasive, he don't want no pills, you know, and he was very. He didn't think that this oil could bring down his pain better than a pill, but he's open to whatever it is I present and we did it and it worked and that's what started the wellness journey and getting us moving from that significant pain and emotional distress.
Alethea Felton:That is absolutely incredible and thank you for saying that, because what I want listeners to understand is that you know, as you know, this podcast focuses on times when people overcame obstacles, adversity, and the fact that you are making it clear you can go through a challenging time, but you don't have to be in despair, you don't have to feel hopeless. You can use that as the fuel to really catapult you and to get you to that next, and you're doing that totally exceeded your expectations, because you ended up founding Aroma, functional Nutrition and all of that. So, prior to this just briefly, because I want to shift but what was your perception, say, of Western medicine prior to you going all out with holistic treatments? Prior to you going all out with holistic treatment?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Okay, well, you know, I thought that everything related to health you found in health care you know the wellness and the goodness and how to be the best you can be and live your you know your most fabulous life. I thought the health care system would teach us that, but what I learned was that you know the health care system is there and they call it the sick care system, and it fits because it is best when you are sick. So even if you go to your doctor and you do your yearly exams and they say, well, you need to eat a low sodium diet and decrease your fat, it stops there, right. And that's where now wellness must take in, and you got to bring in wellness practitioners to help you figure out. What does that mean for me? What does low salt, low fat, no sugar? What does all that mean? How do I fit that into my life? And that's where there's a stop and start with wellness, health care and wellness, health care and wellness. And they'll only bring you so far. We're now in the thing.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:The problem is there isn't a connection between the health care system and your overall wellness. We have to create the next step. So, like I worked as a case manager in the hospital, so I help people that were leaving the hospital and going back into the community and the protocol is that you have their doctor's appointment set up, you know they have the equipment that they need, that sort of thing. But it's not making sure that they're eating properly, getting the proper nutrients, making sure that for their wellness, that emotionally they're sound, they might be scared to death to go back home.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Maybe it's not as if, just all these things. So it's not a holistic perspective, it's just you're okay, you're okay to not be here. You know now you go out and good luck with that. You're healthy enough to figure it out, and so we want, I think what is ideal is if the health care system could refer to more holistic and wellness practitioners when people are out in the community for the transition, so that they can get a holistic approach to their life and how to be better. And that's, I think, where the shortcoming is and what I found, and so I'm trying to say, hey, I'm here, I can help put the whole pieces to all the pieces together for you.
Alethea Felton:I may be mental health, but the mind and the body are connected that's right, because we are going to talk about that and that's what I wanted to point out. But what? What I will say is the work you're doing is so important and that I have found, having been a person born with autoimmune illness and, like I said, since birth, the holistic principles were a game changer for me. They really were. And I have Western medicine and I have a naturopathic doctor. The benefit of my naturopathic doctor and she's a Black woman from Greenbelt, maryland, but a benefit with her, why I love her so much. She first started in Western medicine, so she has a totally different perception, so she knows how it both works.
Alethea Felton:What I just want to briefly say is that you're right, I think that our healthcare system does cater to the sick and what I have found in certain support groups it's not everybody, so y'all listeners, I want to put it out there it's not everybody, but I do find in certain support groups I'm a part of it is a huge pushback to anything naturopathic, a huge pushback. Until a person gets to know me. Then they become a bit more inquisitive, like, wait a minute, you what, you do this and that and I'm not anti-Western, I think it has its place. It definitely has its place. But it's just so interesting how I think sometimes not all people, but I think some people who are sick are so used to being sick that the possibility of being healed and whole or at least have a better quality of life is not necessarily something in their mind.
Alethea Felton:Because I don't. I acknowledge the conditions I have, I'm not ignoring that, but they don't have to make my existence. And that goes back to the mindset. And so you brought up something so pivotal and I want people to really understand this the brain is an organ, just like our lungs, our heart, our skin, et cetera. So as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, you've transitioned from a conventional approach to a more functional holistic practice, and that involves some significant shifts. So did you have any challenges in making that transition and how did those challenges, if any, actually deepen your understanding of wellness?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Did I have any challenges making that transition? I want to say yes, ok, because in the information and what's taught as far as holistic care, functional medicine and all of these, these other modalities, it was mainly focused on the primary care physician, the general practitioner, and it wasn't specific to psychiatry. So I'm sounding like everybody else, you know, saying the same things and those same things are important. But I had to find and dig in to get the psychiatry piece. So I did end up finding some a couple, just a couple of organizations that did teach on the mental health perspective. But I learned. But the great thing was I learned about the whole functional body first. Then I dug deeper into the brain and how they were teaching and can put them both together, all of that knowledge. But I was.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:It took me time to find my voice because I was. You know, I'm not trying to say be a PCP. I want you to understand these mental health conditions and how things going on in the body can reflect here and vice versa what's going on in the mind can reflect in the body. It's not a silo and so by looking at yourself holistically, looking at your nutrition and everything in your life, you'll be affecting your mental health. So I often say mental health is everything and everything is mental health, everything is mental health and we have to accept that. I still have people when I say I'm a psychiatric nurse practitioner, they'll be like they'll back away from me and shut me. Yeah, they don't want to be associated with crazy.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:That's you know. So I'm, I'm. I'm trying to help to break down that stigma and say it's about mental health. It's about you every day, how you think, how you feel, what's around you, what's supporting you and how you're getting through life. It's not about only hearing voices and seeing things and talking to yourself and all these sorts of images. It's not that. Psychiatry and mental health is all about just daily living and getting through.
Alethea Felton:What actually? I'm just curious what actually sparked your interest in mental health.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Okay, In school they said that mental health, psychiatry was a revolving door that you never got out of it. You just you come into treatment, you know, and you're going to go back in the community and you're going to come back again.
Alethea Felton:It's just this circle.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:What that meant to me was there was no resolution, there was no solution. They're just. You're just on a hamster wheel going in a circle and I couldn't accept that. And I'm seeing these beautiful people with the psychosis and they're talking to themselves and how they're responding to different things, and I'm like what is going on in your brain? To find the answer? To help you live your best life, you have to stay institutionalized, and so I wanted to know more. It was just the most curious thing to me, profound thing. I just wanted to know what was going on in there, and that's what led me to this.
Alethea Felton:That is so honorable. That is very honorable and I ask that from a personal standpoint. With my immediate family. We're very open in terms of mental health. My father was a psychiatric counselor for many years and he's had mental health challenges. Ironically enough, he always listens to the podcast.
Alethea Felton:It's no secret of how brilliant, practically genius, he is when it comes to that. You know psychiatric field, but yet he's had his own challenges. And then over the years, I've had certain challenges with anxiety, anxiety. But I'd like the fact you said about a revolving door, because I had therapy for many years until I got to a point where I graduated from it, where now I only see her on an as needed basis because I have the coping skills. And I think that is a key part is that if you can get to that point, you don't have to stay trapped in what has you bound. You know what I mean. And so when it comes to say, for example, in certain people using medication as a transformation aspect of, say, I had to have medicine, Do you think that medication should be an immediate go-to or could it possibly even be considered as a last resort? How do you trust a patient to really start to believe in or trust their body's own natural healing abilities.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Yes, and so the first thing is that everybody's individual you know and so it's.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:The level of severity is the biggest thing you know. So if you're in extreme distress, the medications are going to help you to to get out of that distress sooner. Then we can bring in the healing and other things that are needed. If it's not as that extreme distress, then we can bring in more holistic lifestyle things. So it's going to be really individual to that person, so someone who may say, okay, I have, I'm, I'm ready. Well, I got a couple of examples.
Alethea Felton:I guess you know.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:I had someone come to me and they had said you know, I think I have ADHD. I I can't sleep, I can't stay on task, my dad just got diagnosed with ADHD. I'm restless, I'm ready to take medication. So you come in, they're going to. You know Adderall, you know here, try this. I'll see you in a couple of weeks see how it works. But what I did I said, before we get on the medication, let me run some functional tests, and one of the tests I started with was a DNA test. And especially with the fact that he said his dad was diagnosed Genius.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Yes, he had no mental health issues in his genes. His issue was detoxification. His body wasn't detoxifying properly and therefore he had the symptoms of ADHD. Once the liver and gut got squared away, the symptoms go away. Now think about the life of this person on Adderall. That don't work, so you increase it. You increase from two times a day to four times a day. Now you can't sleep, so now you got to get something to help you sleep. You lost your appetite, so now you also need an appetite stimulant. And then those medications aren't working, so now you switch to other medications, and this would have gone on for the rest of his life.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:But by getting to the root cause we were able to address what was really going on. So if someone has that space from the stress, even if they are on medication, we can get to that root cause and then we start to shift and address what's really going on there so they can get the proper treatment. So that was the case. I had another person who was severely mental ill from tons of trauma and everything on medications, came to me and said I am not feeling well, things are getting worse and I want to increase my medication, and she was getting ready to pay like many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars to do some other treatment, and I'm like, well, let's find out what your body is saying, what's going on?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:So the first this was this was a different test I did with her going on. So the first this was this was a different test I did with her and what we found out was she was off the charts with mold toxicity, and so once we address that, then now we optimize her health and if she needs to be on medications, it would be the absolute lowest doses if necessary. Um, and you eliminate those sorts. So it's so. That's what I said. Mental health is everything and so hers.
Alethea Felton:So hers was directly connected to her environment dealing with mold, right? So how, so how did you come to the conclusion it was mold? Was it in her blood work?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:yeah, it was in the blood it was a specific functional test I used to find that dysfunction and she had off the chart markers for mold unbelievable and she said it.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:She was like, yeah, I got this dog. The air conditioner's been leaking dot dot, dot, dot dot, so it right in. But I wouldn't have known that. You know, if she came to my office we did telehealth, I didn't see anything but a pretty background, but then right. But then when we did the test, it correlated with what she was actually living in in her environment and so she got out of that place you know and so so I just wanted to share some of those things.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:As far as the power of getting to that functional place, it depends on each individual client. Those are two different tests, but we got to the root cause, depending on how they present it. But I have to say, the majority of the people that I see I would say about 80% are people who are just struggling with day to day life. And you know, it's like, you know, life just got its foot on your neck and you feel like you are going to explode. So, yes, you feel, feel like you have depression, like you have bipolar, you can't sleep, you have all of these things, but it doesn't mean that you got to live with that diagnosis for the rest of your life. It's the symptoms that are being presented from the circumstances.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:So, as we talk because I told you one of my super skills is listening as we're talking, I'm hearing it, I'm presenting it and we're talking it through, and they don't have to get on medication Now. They feel better and empowered and can move forward. And so, instead of just saying, oh, you feel sick, let me give you the anti-sad pill. You got anxiety, let me give you the anti-anxiety pill. Now it's like okay, I can approach my shift and approach my situation differently and look at it differently, and I don't feel that pressure anymore and now I can think so I get a majority of that. Yeah, I thank, get a majority of that, yeah.
Alethea Felton:I thank you for even answering that B, because I was going to ask you if you had any general examples of transformative breakthroughs patients have made and you shared instantly. And this is why, when I first learned about you, you know, I said, oh my gosh, because I am such a proponent of holistic health and functional medicine.
Alethea Felton:Being a recipient of it, I know what it does and my heart just breaks sometimes for people who are such critics of it and, as I said, I don't necessarily think it's the end-all be-all, do you?
Alethea Felton:But at the end of the day, I know, speaking for me, that it is medical proof that incorporating certain natural remedies and self-regulating has worked wonders. Even my Western medicine doctors tell me that behind the scenes they don't knock any of the natural treatments that I'm doing, and my doctor always makes certain that none of the supplements or the treatment she is giving me is going to counteract with what I'm taking. And if more people could really understand this, what a healthier world this would be. But of course, we know that the healthcare industry is big business, and so, wow, how do you also help? And I don't know how smooth of a transition this will be. But I want to also talk about the fact you not only focus with mental health, but also you also can tap on specifically mental health in pregnancy and postpartum. And so what can families, dr Smith, do better in order to foster mental well-being during those critical times for a woman who's just had a baby?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Yeah, such a beautiful, beautiful question. I think the number one thing is conversations. We assume a lot when it comes to kids and stuff. We assume that the pregnancy was wanted. We assume that the baby will be healthy. We assume that they're in a good relationship with their partner. We assume all of these things, that the mom is happy about this, and what we have to do is take the assumptions out and just ask some open-ended questions and let us be told what the situation is, instead of coming in assuming it's all good because it's a baby. So we have to open up the questions.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:And how are you feeling about I'm starting from the pregnancy, not just the baby, but how are you feeling about being pregnant? How do you feel your life is going to change with this? You know, after the pregnancy, have you been eating and sleeping? Okay, no, because I got a baby, you know. But they're still excited, they're still happy. You know you're looking. So I'm going to jump into some symptoms that you want to look for. So postpartum blues is normally just two weeks after delivery.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:If you're working with a mom, your family member, and it's longer than that. It's more likely postpartum depression, postpartum depression. So let me see I don't know how to say this verbally I have an infographic I could actually provide that shows the different symptoms of postpartum blues and postpartum depression. But postpartum depression makes you have suicide, not makes you, but you can have suicidal thoughts. You feel down every day. You have a low self-esteem, you don't have any interest in things that used to interest you. You don't have joy and that happiness, any interest in things that used to interest you. You don't have joy and that happiness. That's what postpartum depression looks like. If you have baby blues, you're still excited about life. You're just exhausted. You can have your mood swings, but you still have a good self-esteem about yourself. You're not suicidal or wanting to harm anything that type of thing. But it's very important.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Pregnant moms have an increased rate of mental health conditions and they can present differently. Sometimes we brush it off as just being a parent. For example, maybe the mom doesn't go in the kitchen with the newborn because they don't want anything, you know, grease to pop on them or a knife to fly out the knife container and cut them, and you might just brush that off, but it might be a huge anxiety complex. So you want to ask questions and lean into that a little bit more. As far as the behavior, is it over the top or is it within reason? You know, I just want to check in with you and make sure you're OK. Those are the kind of questions and things you want to look for. Follow your gut with those that you love, what you feel and just ask questions.
Alethea Felton:Wow, thank you for that. I don't think that there's always enough talk around that, that there's always enough talk around that, and I think sometimes people don't really understand exactly what a mom goes through during those times. So, thank you, thank you for that and with you educating even in that aspect of it, as someone who advocates for alternative medicine, you are on this path to helping to shift mindsets in the way that people approach mental health treatment and how can people begin to adopt this mindset now to lead towards a more holistic approach.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:I think that the conversations are being had. You know people. I think society and in every area is pressing us to be more open to individuality. Mental health day what was that in the 90s? Non-existent, right. So now you can talk, have mental health days and people give you a little bit more grace when you say something about mental health. So I think that's the start.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:And so once there's an opening that mental health is understood, that it can happen, then it opens up the possibilities and ways of how you may want to be treated People are. It opens up the curiosity and the discovery and the search for more than what's been offered in the past. I get requests where people are saying I want to look for something more holistic and not just be put on meds.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:And that's the number one reason I get consultations, for I need something else. I need to be sure this is the thing I need to be on. So I think that discovery, knowing that there is something else out there, is making the shift. We, as the people, are making the shift to more holistic options. I have people they're already taking Valerian Rudin, st John's Wharton. They're already doing things, but my goal is that I want you to do those things that are important to you. I've also had people who said they spent $600 on supplements. Well, let me tell you if you need that or not.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:You can do so much more with your money. Let me run some tests and I'll tell you exactly what you need, and then I can actually have a supplement made that fits you and your DNA. You know just for you, fits you and your DNA. You know just for you, not just all of these random things, and that's where the potential for injury comes in when you try to self-treat in that way. So you need providers that can guide you holistically in that. So I think that people will. So I think that mental health, first aid are doing a lot of things that we used to do in the 90s. It's about taking some time for yourself, getting out in nature. These are your first steps, and I think people know that and and I think that it's just that push you know you can know what you need to do and don't do it.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:I think it's going to be just them implementing some of those things more need to do and don't do it. I think it's going to be just them implementing some of those things more. So you see more support groups around it, more people embracing journaling and community. It's out there and I think we're going to take the more people are going to take that first step, which means by meeting those needs, you'll decrease the need for mental health psychiatric care.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Let's say psychiatric care per se, because you're being fed and it allows your body to heal. So if you're not making serotonin or melatonin because you're so stressed and then you get into a community where you feel safe, you are decreasing the stress response and naturally increasing your serotonin and melatonin. Now you can start to eat again, feel joy and be happy and sleep, and so that's us allowing our bodies to heal. So I think we're in that paradigm and shift. Right now I don't see us going backwards.
Alethea Felton:Yeah, I don't either.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Going forward. Now I see the push harder for medications and staying in the health care system. I mean, I can't recall no time we had this many medication commercials.
Alethea Felton:So we have.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:We have to stay true to ourselves and what we need and really ask ourselves. We need to seek the care. You know you do want to get checked out and not Skip it. You know you need to know what's going on, but you need to have to have a conversation about the ways and choices and addressing what's going on with you, and so what you want to do is have a shared partnership, the shared decision-making, with your current healthcare providers.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:If they're not willing to have a conversation with you, then you need to find another provider that will.
Alethea Felton:Yes, because, at the end of the day, it's your life. This is your life that you're talking about and audience please understand that it is your life and so therefore, yes, listen and take heed to what doctors say, but if you have questions, come prepared with the questions. Just about everybody now has patient portals. Figure out how to use them. Communicate with your doctors, use your voice to advocate. I cannot tell you the amount of times with me living with Crohn's and also PSC, but every year I have to go in for my annual colonoscopy, and the amount of people that I can hear behind a curtain where nurses who are prepping them ask them okay, do you know what you're getting? Today? They can answer that, but the question about why are you getting it? Because my doctor said I have to Like what? Because your doctor said you have to. You doctor, but especially a naturopath who really practices what they preach.
Alethea Felton:And you said that you are big on even implementing your own self-care, so you take on a lot when it comes to mental health and helping people. So what are a few things you do for your wellness? What are some practices that you incorporate regularly?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:It's so funny. I'm very vague with this answer because I'm fluid and flexible in what self-care means to me.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:But the number one thing is I spend time with my husband so that would translate into people spending time with people that support them and care about them. That's what I do. He makes me laugh, he brings me joy If I'm feeling any kind of way, he gets me where I need to be, help me stay focused, and we go out and we have fun together. And so he's created all of these different activities and things you know for gifts and stuff. So I got all these different toys I can play with and learn how to do something new, and so we do that. We have our RV, we go take trips you know and get out.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:We have. We have a home that's rural, where we primarily live. So we're out of the city and we're in nature. You know, I get to hear the birds, chickens, you know, and all of that in the morning. So I'm fluid in what I might specifically do with him. You know, we may get up and we may take a walk or take a drive, we may do this, we may do that, but he is the cornerstone of my health and well-being may do that, but he is the cornerstone of my health and wellbeing.
Alethea Felton:You better talk about your husband. I love it and God bless your marriage for many, many more years of a joy, feel, happy, content, just a fun marriage where you'll always just not love each other but actually like each other, and that is beautiful. I love hearing that. I love love hearing that. Now I know that there's a lot more you could say, but with you being a psychiatric nurse practitioner focusing on holistic health, I'm not sure how it works in your state, but I know that some holistic practitioners can see patients cross country. How does it work for you? Are you only licensed in Nevada? Are you? So? How can people contact you and can you see anyone anywhere, or does it have to be from your state?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:So I could do a consultation and it doesn't. I'm not. It's not going to be a doctor patient relationship Got you. So I can give my recommendations and not doctor, patient, but also in like my wellness programs. I'm not functioning as the doctor, I am a coach, you know. So that goes across all lines.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:I am licensed in Nevada, Arizona, Washington and Idaho right now, and then with the DNA test that I do, I have affiliations with providers all over the US, with providers all over the US. So if I'm not in the state I can still coordinate, do a consultation and get the tests ordered, and then a provider licensed in the state would give the result. But we still have a consultation together and then you know. So I can still make it work.
Alethea Felton:And how can people contact you? Do you have a website or social media? What?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:I think social media is really good. Instagram in particular. It's drtiffanymsmithcom. I put Dr Tiffany M Smith on everything I had the period on the Instagram. So that's why I had to say that period on the Instagram, so that's why I had to say that and I like to educate, so I'm doing webinars. You can find more information out about those things there. You can Google me and all the different things I'm doing and have been in will pop up Dr Tiffany M Smith and there's lots of Dr Tiffany's.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:So that's why I say M Smith, that'll help. And then website wellnessvegas. That's easy to say. It's also AFN psych, but wellnessvegas is easy to remember.
Alethea Felton:But just in case a person's listening or singing, they don't have it readily available. Ok, yeah, so go ahead. I'm sorry.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:My goal in 2025 and the holidays in 2024 is doing more webinars, giving more education, and so I think that that's a great way to start to pick up on some of these nuggets and how you can start to implement some holistic well-being in your life.
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:picking up on those nuggets in the different webinars that I may do little lunch and learn, type things, so there's more to that to come, that people can hear more from me. And then also I've been on a lot of podcasts and answer a lot of questions, and so you can get a lot of nuggets out of that as well.
Alethea Felton:And your episode will probably not be released until 2025. But what I'll do is do my due diligence in contacting you directly just to ask you if you have any webinars or something like that, and then what I'll do is I can say that in the earlier part so that people can get to that, and I'll put links as well. But as a closing question, dr Smith, this is my question for you is what makes you most excited about the work that you do to help people?
Dr. Tiffany M. Smith:Their transformation, their transformation, you know, getting back in line with themselves, discovering things about them. I think it's just. Our living is such a beautiful journey, you know, and when you can combat some of the obstacles that come and stay in that divine lane of what your life should be, it's a beautiful thing.
Alethea Felton:Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Power Transformation Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe, leave a five-star rating and write a review. It helps us inspire even more listeners. And don't keep it to yourself. Share it with someone who could use a little power in their transformation. Little power in their transformation. Until next time, keep bouncing back, keep rising and be good to yourself and to others.
