Next Level Healing

Days after her six-year-old son Jesse was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, Scarlett Lewis found three words he had written on the kitchen chalkboard: nurturing, healing, love. Those words became the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement, a free program for courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion in action.In this episode, Scarlett and Dr. Tara Perry talk about the moment at the firehouse that shaped how she would raise her older son through it, the "brave breath" (in for four, out for six) she teaches kids to stop a reaction before it starts, why forgiveness is not the same as letting someone off the hook, what she saw in a courtroom that changed her, how she forgave herself, and what to say to someone in deep grief.Content note: this episode discusses the loss of a child to violence. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the US, any time.Connect with Scarlett Lewis and the Choose Love MovementChoose Love Movement (free program, summit, donate): https://chooselovemovement.orgScarlett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scarlett-lewis-7428a5b7Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chooselovemovement/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JLChooseLoveYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/chooselovefoundationLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jesse-lewis-choose-love-foundation/X: https://twitter.com/ChooseLoveMChapters0:00 Dr. Tara Perry introduces Scarlett Lewis0:22 Cold open0:59 Next Level Healing intro2:22 The firehouse: the moment she chose5:49 Refusing a life of rage9:27 Where Choose Love began12:27 Choose Love in schools worldwide14:43 Thank you, brain15:09 The Choose Love formula18:20 The Choice Moment and the brave breath23:49 Simple, not easy25:29 Your brain wants revenge27:28 Forgiveness is not condoning28:39 What she saw in court32:30 The hardest people to forgive34:29 What to say to someone in grief37:34 Forgiving yourself38:35 Shawn Gallaway's songs40:41 How service nourished her light42:22 The chalkboard message44:49 Where to find Choose Love47:37 Closing and disclaimerFrom Dr. Tara PerryFree 20-minute guided breath session: https://consulttara.com/meditations/coherent-breathing-5-5Book a free consultation: https://consulttara.com/bookNext Level Healing is for education and inspiration. It is not medical or mental health advice.

What if feeling stronger, having more energy, and getting healthier didn’t start with eating less—but with eating more of the right foods? Today’s guest helps fuel elite athletes, and her approach might change the way you think about taking care of yourself.Julia Furlipa, plant-based nutritionist, wellness coach, author of The 7+ Lifestyle, and founder of Best Life By You, joins Dr. Tara Perry to challenge the most common assumption people make about getting healthy: that it requires eating less, cutting things out, and white-knuckling through willpower.Julia is the nutritionist to two NBA championship-winning Knicks players, a plant-based power athlete known as the Pull-Up Princess, and a coach who has helped clients lose over 40 pounds, reverse infertility diagnoses, and reclaim energy they thought was gone forever — all by adding, never subtracting. She turned a deeply personal experience with illness and loss at 15 into a career dedicated to helping others find the version of health that actually works for their real life.KEY TAKEAWAYS04:31 At 15, Julia watched her mother survive colon cancer and walk away with no nutritional guidance — doctors said she was fine and sent her home unchanged. That gap is what drove Julia into this work. 08:45 Most people stay stuck in learned eating behaviors from childhood not because they don’t want to change, but because no one has invited them to unlearn them. 16:28 Two books — Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr and How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger — read back to back in December 2019 turned Julia fully plant-based overnight. She says her energy went from here to somewhere entirely different. 21:34 Julia’s first NBA client came to her through a series of four interviews — with the team dietician, the sports department, the chef, and the player’s family. Her passion for plant-based nutrition is what sealed it. They’ve since won a championship. 27:09 Every coaching engagement starts with a why that’s strong enough to hold up in court, then a foundation: sleep, morning and evening routines, and water. Fix the foundation first, then address the food. 28:52 Julia never tells clients what to cut. She adds in a green smoothie, some carrots — and lets them arrive at their own conclusions. They quit the Oreos themselves, and that decision sticks. 32:08 The biggest lie in health and wellness is that it’s not possible for you. Julia has seen clients who ate 800 calories a day and couldn’t lose a pound transform completely — not by eating less, but by eating more of the right things. 40:06 One client came in over 300 pounds and said she didn’t want to lose weight — she just wanted to cross her legs. They added food, water, herbal teas, and outdoor playtime with her kids. She dropped 44 pounds and went from a size 24 to a 16. 43:20 A 35-year-old client was told she would never conceive. Four months of mindset work, whole food plant-based eating, and reconnecting with her faith later, she got pregnant at 38 and wrote Julia a book-length thank-you note. 44:40 Three things anyone can do in the next seven days to feel a difference: get seven to nine hours of sleep, drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water, and add one cup of berries plus two to three handfuls of dark leafy greens daily.RESOURCES MENTIONEDBest Life By You Podcast — Julia’s podcast featuring top achievers, physicians, professional athletes, and entrepreneurs — 66 episodes on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify Best Life By You App — Julia’s all-in-one membership app with 100+ plant-based recipes, workouts, group challenges, food tracking, and daily gratitude check-ins The 7+ Lifestyle — Julia’s book, currently available on Amazon and relaunching in stores next year Julia Furlipa on Instagram — @juliafurlipa or @bestlifebyyou Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr — One of the two books that inspired Julia’s plant-based transformation How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger — The second book Julia read in a week that changed her approach to food permanently consulttara.com/book — Schedule your free consultation with Dr. Tara PerryIf you’re ready to take your healing to the next level, schedule your free consultation with Dr. Tara at: https://ConsultTara.com/book

Dr. Michael Burcham, serial entrepreneur, Vanderbilt professor, investor, and founder of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, joins Dr. Tara Perry to explore what it actually takes to turn potential into reality — and what happens when the pursuit of success collides with life’s most irreversible moments.Dr. Burcham grew up in rural Mississippi in a Medicaid household, built and sold businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and has spent decades coaching the next generation of entrepreneurs at Vanderbilt. He has also walked some of the hardest roads a person can walk — losing his son Ryan at 25, surviving sepsis after a month in the ICU — and emerged with a radically different understanding of what success is actually for.KEY TAKEAWAYS03:38 The ticket price for entrepreneurship is walking through adversity without being rescued from it — and that resilience can be learned, but only by living it. 09:42 Entrepreneurs must be willing to live five to ten years like no one else would in order to have the rest of their life the way they want it. 11:53 Success means having meaning, being present, and sending the elevator back down — the most important measure is how many other leaders you create. 13:15 People facing end of life count backwards from their final moment and make decisions accordingly. Entrepreneurs would lead better if they thought the same way. 16:28 After losing Ryan and surviving sepsis, Dr. Burcham never once thought about his bank account — only the unfinished conversations and things he hadn’t yet said. 17:31 The most valuable thing a leader can do is get to know their people beyond their resume. In the absence of that knowledge, empathy is almost impossible. 21:56 Safety is not the absence of pressure — it’s the absence of fear. In the absence of fear, people take risks they never would otherwise. 28:08 Grief is not a single emotion. It is a cauldron — and no two people grieve the same way, even when they’ve lost the same person. 32:08 We have far greater capacity to achieve than we give ourselves credit for. We begin to believe stories other people tell about us instead of looking inside for what’s actually there. 39:24 The last night of their trip to Venice Beach, Dr. Burcham and Ryan watched the sunrise on the Santa Monica Pier and talked. Ryan was dead two months later. That trip is now the most vivid memory he has.RESOURCES MENTIONEDmichaelburcham.com — Dr. Burcham’s personal website, books, and resources for entrepreneurs Dr. Burcham on LinkedIn — Weekly newsletter for entrepreneurs, available to subscribe on LinkedIn Vanderbilt Center for Entrepreneurship — Dr. Burcham’s faculty home at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management consulttara.com/book — Schedule your free consultation with Dr. Tara PerryIf you’re ready to take your healing to the next level, schedule your free consultation with Dr. Tara at: https://ConsultTara.com/book

Dr. Michael Karlfeldt, naturopathic doctor, integrative oncologist, and author of the #1 Amazon bestseller A Better Way to Treat Cancer, joins Dr. Tara Perry to challenge the most fundamental assumption most of us carry about cancer: that it is the enemy. After nearly 40 years in clinical practice and tens of thousands of patients, Dr. Karlfeldt sees cancer as something far more nuanced — a survival signal from tissue under siege — and his approach to treating it reflects that entirely.In this conversation, he breaks down the Warburg effect, why fasting may be one of the most powerful tools in cancer care, what chronic stress is actually doing to your immune system, and why patients who stop fighting their cancer and start listening to it so often experience the most dramatic recoveries.KEY TAKEAWAYS05:35 Cancer isn’t rogue tissue trying to destroy you — it’s a survival mechanism from cells under toxic, hypoxic, or emotionally burdened stress, shifting into a more primitive way of producing energy. 08:13 Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize in 1931 for discovering cancer’s metabolic shift. Dr. Karlfeldt believes the medical establishment abandoned that research too quickly in favor of genetic manipulation — which ultimately couldn’t explain why two identical cancers behave so differently. 11:23 Cancer cells produce energy 16 times less efficiently than healthy cells, which makes them extremely hungry — and extremely vulnerable to fasting before treatment. 13:25 When you fast before chemo or oxidative therapy, cancer cells open up and try to absorb whatever comes their way while healthy cells go into a protective, conserving mode — creating the ideal treatment window. 19:22 Dr. Karlfeldt uses a “bucket effect” approach: address one root cause at a time, let the body respond, then peel back the next layer. A pituitary tumor disappeared with grapeseed extract alone. Three separate brain cancer patients recovered dramatically with targeted IV protocols. 24:07 Two people with identical diagnoses can have completely different root causes — trauma, chemical exposure, mold, pathogens — which is why a one-size-fits-all protocol will always miss the mark. 28:35 Chronic stress locks the body in a sympathetic state that down-regulates the immune system, prevents cellular detoxification, and creates the inflammatory environment cancer thrives in. 33:05 When patients stop treating cancer as the enemy and begin listening to what that tissue is trying to communicate, their immune markers improve, inflammation drops, and energy returns. Dr. Karlfeldt sees it again and again. 35:28 There are 7,000 known peptides — thymosin alpha-1, KPB, BPC-157, and microdosed GLP-3 are among his current favorites for immune regulation, inflammation, and tissue regeneration. 41:41 If Dr. Karlfeldt had a megaphone, he wouldn’t talk about nutrition or technology first. He’d talk about connection — to community, to nature, and to something greater than ourselves.RESOURCES MENTIONEDThe Karlfeldt Center — Dr. Karlfeldt’s 17,000 sq ft integrative health center in Boise, Idaho; eBooks, blogs, and therapy information available on the site A Better Way to Treat Cancer — Dr. Karlfeldt’s #1 Amazon bestseller on integrative oncology Breast Cancer Conquerors — Dr. Karlfeldt’s coaching and support program for women navigating breast cancer Dr. Karlfeldt’s Podcasts — Three shows available on Spotify and Apple: one on cancer, one on Lyme disease, and The Dr. K Show consulttara.com/book — Schedule your free consultation with Dr. Tara PerryIf you’re ready to take your healing to the next level, schedule your free consultation with Dr. Tara at: https://ConsultTara.com/book

Gina Conway, multi-award-winning salon owner, sustainability ambassador, and founder of Gina Conway Aveda Salons & Spas in London, joins Dr. Tara Perry to explore what 38 years behind the salon chair has taught her about beauty, confidence, and the human need to be truly seen. Gina grew up in Lake Tahoe, built her salon business from the ground up in London, and — when menopause brought her to her knees at 51 — reinvented her entire approach to wellness.This conversation starts with hair and ends somewhere much deeper: what it means to find the flame in every person, and why the most powerful thing you can offer another human being is your full, undivided attention.KEY TAKEAWAYS04:50 Gina listens with all her senses — not just her ears — and describes it as a full-body experience with every client. 05:35 What people are really seeking when they sit in a salon chair isn't a haircut. It's confidence and the experience of their inner light being brought out. 07:02 Gina built her business around a "guest journey" — replacing the word "client" with "guest" and redesigning every single touchpoint around positive energy and love. 09:28 At 51, menopause brought Gina to a breaking point — she was resting her head on the dinner table every night, too exhausted to be present with her family or her hundred employees. 14:01 Gina tracks beauty the way others track problems — deliberately following what delights her and lights her up, which has shaped every area of her life and work. 19:45 The first 30 seconds of a guest consultation are everything: connection, rapport, and trust — always eye to eye, never through a mirror. 21:20 People use their hair as armor — to hide, to disappear, to project strength. A hairdresser who understands that is doing something closer to therapy. 24:09 Gina's wellness ritual begins every appointment: 32 essential oils, three deep cleansing breaths, and a full head, neck, and shoulders massage done with deliberate healing intention. 31:40 Beauty is in everybody — not just the 3%. Gina says she would love the opportunity to help anyone who doesn't feel beautiful see what she already sees in them. 32:23 Attractiveness has nothing to do with how you look. Sexy is a state of mind — it's how you hold yourself, how you play, how you express.RESOURCES MENTIONEDginaconwaysalons.co.uk — Gina's award-winning Aveda salons and spas in London, including the flagship Wimbledon location Gina Conway on Instagram — @conway_gina If you're ready to take your healing to the next level, schedule your free consultation with Dr. Tara at: https://ConsultTara.com/book