Chapter 2

Chapter 2 The Real World

During Operation Urgent Fury—the U.S. invasion of Grenada in October 1983—a tragic incident underscored the perils of inadequate planning in special operations. On October 23, a Navy SEAL reconnaissance team from SEAL Team Six, accompanied by an Air Force combat controller, was tasked with assessing the Point Salines airfield to prepare for an upcoming airborne assault by U.S. Army Rangers. The team, comprising 11 SEALs, a USAF Combat Controller, and three Zodiac F470 rubber boats, was deployed via static-line parachute from a C-130 cargo plane at an altitude of 500 feet. Unfortunately, four SEALs drowned due to the overburdening of equipment and entanglement in their parachutes. Airspace Historian+9Combat Operators+9Wikipedia+9

The mission was further compromised when one of the two transport planes missed its drop zone, and the team encountered a rain squall off the island's coast. The bodies of the four SEALs were never recovered.

While Navy SEALs are among the most elite forces in the world, in real life, it’s often the small things—mist, a wrong drop zone, a simple accident—that end up claiming their lives. In much the same way, I was told I was a highly trained integrative medicine specialist, but a single moment of chance was enough to derail my entire career.

My first position should have been an excellent one, but instead, I resigned within weeks. There was a manager who was quite a bully, and I just couldn’t see myself enduring that kind of meanness. Looking back, I think it triggered some PTSD from my childhood—specifically, my relationship with my father. I started to realize that when overwhelming pressure was applied, my instinct was to withdraw—resignation became my coping mechanism.

But resigning turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I began looking for opportunities in multiple places and eventually became a consultant. That opened doors to work with several companies interested in becoming more sustainable. One of the most impactful moments was helping a health system develop a strategy to compete with a dominant academic rival. While the university had a commanding presence in one city, this system had a broader footprint—multiple sites that could launch integrative medicine programs and gradually redirect referrals away from the academic center. And that’s exactly what unfolded over the next two decades. 

I ended up creating my own position as Dean of Integrative Medicine at a local acupuncture school, and that turned out to be a really interesting experience. We were able to build an integrative medicine clinic within the framework of Chinese medicine, and I also practiced acupuncture as a private practice faculty member.

I didn’t stay very long, though, because another opportunity came along—a chance to start an integrative medicine program from scratch. Everyone thought it was a terrible idea. The state had a reputation for being backward, and the clinic’s location was seen as too blue-collar to support something like integrative medicine. And honestly, they weren’t wrong.

About a year later, the clinic closed, and I started my own private practice: That journey is actually well documented in another book, Tao of Healing: A Story of Georgia Integrative Medicine (also available on Amazon).

It was an incredible experience. People seemed to appear out of nowhere, ready to help build the clinic from the ground up. At the time, my main goal was simply to make a living—but just as important to me was creating a true community of healers. We even supported two team members in furthering their education: one became a licensed counselor, and the other earned a certificate in nutrition and homeopathy. I also remember that two people from our circle went on to become licensed acupuncturists, and two of our interns were so inspired by the experience that they decided to pursue careers in medicine—both of them are now physicians. I also had the opportunity to work with a local state university to create a certificate program in integrative medicine. That effort has since grown, and now they offer a full master’s program that evolved from the original certificate.