About Dr. Kreft
Hi there. My name is Carla and I'll be facilitating your experience. Here's a bit about my background to help you decide if you'd like to spend some time with me and trust me with your inner life:
01.
SAFETY - MENTAL HEALTH EXPERIENCES
During my Naturopathic Physician and Chinese Medicine training, I treated patients in various mental health settings, including dual diagnosis clinics (patients with both addiction and mental illness), with homeless youth, mandated rehabilitation for meth addicts, I also translated in inpatient Psychiatric hospitals. This does not qualify me to treat mental illness in a psychiatric or psychological capacity, but it gives me a good familiarity of where minds can go in their extremes. I am not unaware of potential risks and I can recognise when things are going down a slippery slope. This helps me hold safe boundaries for you. I recognise the limits of my qualifications and won't venture into overly delicate places. I won't attempt to psychoanalyse you or offer advice outside of my scope of practice.
02.
EDUCATION IN PHILOSOPHY & MEDICINE
Here are the specifics of my educational background: I went to school in Switzerland as a teen, (an attempt to remove me from elements of my youth). Then I came back to NYC to finish High School. I did well but I was a bit of wild child. While I was Commencement speaker, apparently my teachers took wagers on whether I was wearing anything under my graduation robes.;-) From there, I went to college for philosophy, specialising in the History of Math and Science. I chose a school in NM to get away from home and I had no idea what I signed up for. This was at St. John's College, a 'Great Books' school in both Santa Fe (3yrs) and Annapolis, MD (1 yr). It was one of the best experiences of my life. It taught me how to think expansively and creatively, and how to have a respectful conversation with people who perhaps saw things differently from me. My thesis was called The Unification of Subject and Object Through an Examination of Perception. It discussed the phenomenology of Maurice Marleau-Ponty and Heisenberg's early writings on the Uncertainty Principle. I tell you this to explain that I've had these questions on my mind for a long time. I was the Commencement speaker there too. After that, I had adventures, lived in Spain, danced Flamenco with gypsies, then went back to NYC, where I 'got serious' and worked at a Columbia Business School Research Institute, from which I was poached to a Fortune 50 company. After a couple of years in corporate culture, I realised it wasn't my path, so, I went back to school. I pursued a Post-Baccalaureate Pre-med program at Columbia University in order to get the missing chemistry and biology education I needed to go to Naturopathic school. That was really tough. After a long break from the student mindset, I suddenly found myself in the library at 3am, studying along with everyone else in that university. After Columbia, I moved to Oregon to attend the National University of Natural Medicine, the oldest of it's kind in the nation, and completed the dual degree, Doctor of Naturopathic medicine and Master of Oriental Medicine. Here, I was Commencement speaker again. Naturopathic Doctors are primary care physicians in the USA, so similar to a General Practitioner (although some NDs can even deliver babies), but specialising in using natural treatments first, before resorting to things like antibiotics etc. My practice, however, leans heavily towards acupuncture, Chinese herbs and Classical Chinese medicine as I was fortunate to study with inspirational teachers in this discipline, such as Heiner Fruehauf and Arnaud Versluys. After graduation, I went into private practice in various settings. I worked in high-end boutique wellness centres in Washington, DC (Georgetown). From there, I moved back to NYC and ended up teaching Physiology in a Master's Program while working at Yinova with Jill Blakeway and also at NYU Lutheran Medical Center, with Claudia Citkovitz in Brooklyn, serving in 3 departments, Oncology, Labor and Delivery and Post-stroke. Since then, I've been in private practice while also teaching ancient Chinese medical cosmology and researching the intersection of Eastern and Western medicine within a Classical Chinese cosmological framework. Outside of school, my training consisted of: Upledger Craniosacral Therapy Myofascial Release Visceral Manipulation Ortho-Bionomy level 5 Somatic Reeducation Strain-Counterstrain Manual Spindle Technique Bio-Linguistic Kinesiology Muscle Energy Technique Emotional Freedom Technique Focusing Church of Divine Man Psychic Training Reiki Level III Homeopathy training with Dr. Massimo Mangialavori Leap to the Similimum with Dr. Divya Chhabra
03.
CULTURAL BACKGROUND - MAGIC & MIRACLES
My mother is from the deep jungles of Peru (2 hours by canoe from the nearest fishing village). To harvest potatoes my aunt grew, for example, we would have to take the canoe downstream on the Chivis and trek through the jungle to the place she knew where they were growing. My grandmother would wake me before dawn to look for turtle tracks on the riverbanks. There was no running water. We washed in the river. There were no screened windows, and so bats flew in and out of the house at night. There was no medicine in this place other than traditional ways of "passing the egg", curanderos or herbal remedies. My grandmother was a gifted herbalist. She raised 10 kids in that condition. No-one understands how she knew how to cure. She would get eggs for example, cover them in lemon juice until the shell fell off and feed this to the kids. My family was always trading in herbs. There were cupboards of dried herbs everywhere. This was in Shipibo/Campa territory. One time, my uncle, LuchÃn who enjoyed hunting, went deep into the jungle on a hunt and disappeared. Two years later, someone spotted him and we found out that he ended up staying with and marrying into the Campa tribe. In any case, this is all to say that while I have rigorous scientific and philosophical training, I grew up with ghosts, and magic, and miracles. People were commonly healing from serious diseases like gangrene, snake bites and tumours - not always, but enough, even in these rural places, so that I grew up seeing what the body is capable of. What's more, nearly every female member of my family has some ability. My mother can leave her body. My cousin, even as a small child, knew when people in the village had died. My nieces see spirits. My aunts are herbalists and can cure crazy things. It's just something we can all do. Since it's all just a normal part of life down there, it doesn't seem that special - or at least not more special than being good at anything else, like soccer or painting. And so, insofar as anything can be taught, I'm happy to share what I can with you about my experience with the spiritual world, how I think it works, and how to find your way in this invisible place, in a simple and straightforward way, without the usual trappings and drama that can sometimes go along with that. I think everyone can develop this sensitivity with a little direction.
04.
PERSONAL APPROACH - SHARED JOURNEY
My personal approach to the inner world is always evolving. I'm always learning from life and from my clients. Currently, I see this work as a chance to introduce you to your inner world and show you how to navigate its twists and turns so you can get familiar with it, and enjoy being there, in your depths. Each person is on a journey and has an inner compass which points to their very own North. I have no idea what your unique North may be, but I can help you listen to the signals your body is giving you to enjoy moving on your path. I can help you find a safe space within, so you can face scary things and shift old patterns or ideas that might be holding you in a stuck loop. I can help you avoid the habit of your mind, pulling you into stories, so you can hear your own body's wisdom. I can act as an amplifier, reflecting back to the person what is going on in their system, so they can feel it more strongly. Since I can feel what is happening in another person, I can sense their inner world, during a session I might suggest things like "take a step back" or "move behind that object" to help draw out a vague sensation into stronger awareness. In this way, I just help move things along on each person's own path towards what's best for them. I don't think it's my job to "change" anyone or "heal" them, or bring them towards any image of perfection or any particular specific state. I think everyone is perfect as they are, meaning, they are exactly where they need to be in this moment, but could likely benefit from being able to hear all of themselves more clearly. I believe that our paths are leading us toward states of blissful calm and love and internal order. I believe that the natural state of the body is health and that we are all receiving signals to get us there. I believe that we are more than this body, but I also believe that the body is the vehicle by which we experience that which is more. I respect that each person has an internal knowing about what is best for them. I'm old enough to know that the world is full of many very smart and capable people and all I can do is share my take on things, as I see them, in this moment, which hopefully, feels insightful and helpful to you. I think health is a state of self-arising order in a state of coherent unimpeded flow within oneself and with nature or the world in general. To the degree that one can by fully self-accepting and self-loving, this induces a state of peaceful internal physical flow which also radiates outward in all our relationships. So, as I see it, my job is to help people to flow better internally, to love themselves more, be at more peace with themselves and their current conditions so their can release resistance and struggle, and instead, root in self-love and acceptance - a good place from which to jump off into wider, more esoteric spiritual exploration, if one is called to do that. I write more in detail about these topics in my newsletter on Substack.
