Dr. Peter J. Weiss

You prob­a­bly noticed right away in my video post today that I look a lit­tle scruffy.  Well I did that on pur­pose because my mes­sage today is, “Let’s not judge a book by its cover.”

Today is Sat­ur­day.  I’m relax­ing a lit­tle and I decided to make this video mes­sage after some com­ments that I over­heard at a health fair recently. I was at this health fair and a whole vari­ety of health and well­ness related peo­ple were there.  A friend of mine went to talk to some­body and this per­son said, “You don’t want to talk to me I’m a nobody.”

Now, first of all, no one is a “nobody.”  Every­one is a “some­body,” but what this fel­low meant was that, in the con­text of health and well­ness, he didn’t really have any cre­den­tials.  He didn’t have a lot of ini­tials behind his name.  He wasn’t a well­ness pro­fes­sional (at least not yet) and so he didn’t feel that he had any­thing to offer at this well­ness event.

It got me think­ing a lit­tle bit about how com­pli­cated health and well­ness has become in our coun­try.  How we really over­com­pli­cate it.  How many dis­ci­plines we have with cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and ini­tials behind our names, or “cer­ti­fied” this and “cer­ti­fied by ” these peo­ple or “approved” here or “passed” there.   We have really made it so com­pli­cated.

But some of the peo­ple who can help you the most might not have these cer­ti­fi­ca­tions.  They may not have any ini­tials behind their name.  They may not be doc­tors, and they may not even be part of tra­di­tional health­care sys­tem.   They might be “alter­na­tive” providers.

So what you need to do, as you are look­ing for peo­ple to help you along your well­ness jour­ney, is iden­tify the right peo­ple.  To find the right kind of peo­ple, look beyond the ini­tials and look beyond the labels.  Expand your mind, learn some­thing new, and try to find peo­ple that are actu­ally com­mit­ted to you.  Peo­ple who can help you design and imple­ment the pro­gram that you need to live well.

They might be your friends and neigh­bors.  They might be peo­ple you know at work.  They might have noth­ing to do with the well­ness indus­try, or they might be pro­fes­sion­als with a lot of cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and a lot ini­tials behind their names.  But look beyond that.  Don’t judge a book by its cover, and I will clean up the next time I see you.