Green Tea Conversations
Integrative Wellness for Overall Wellness with Guy Odishaw and Fran Bieganek
July 26, 2020
Meet Guy Odishaw, the founder of Bhakti Wellness Center and a practitioner of microcurrent, and cranial sacral therapies, and Fran Bieganek, a licensed psychologist practicing holistic psychotherapy and practitioner of neuro-imaging, neuro-feedback, and heart rate variability They explain Heart Rate Variability Training (HRV), and how it facilitates health and harmony in the system. They also introduce the Essential Worker Program - an effective and affordable care program for frontline workers. For more information, and to make an appointment, visit BhaktiClinic.com.

Integrative Wellness for Overall Wellness with Guy Odishaw and Fran Bieganek


[00:00:09.810] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Good morning and welcome to Green Tea Conversations, the radio show that delves into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine to bring you the local experts who share their progressive ideas in the latest information and insights needed so you can lead your best life. I'm your host Candi Broeffle, publisher of the Twin Cities edition of Natural Awakenings magazine, and I am honored to bring these experts to you. Today in our studio, we have Guy Odishaw, the founder of Bhakti Wellness Center and a practitioner of microcurrent, and cranial sacral therapies, and Fran Bieganek, a licensed psychologist practicing holistic psychotherapy and practitioner of neuro-imaging, neuro-feedback, and heart rate variability training. Thank you for being with us today, Guy and Fran. 
 
[00:00:57.610] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
Thank you for having us here.
 
[00:00:59.690] - Candi Broeffle, Host
So the two of you recently wrote or co-wrote an article for Natural Awakenings magazine in which you talked about a therapy you provide at Bhakti called Heart Rate Variability Training or HRV. So, to get us started, let's talk about what is HRV?
 
[00:01:18.320] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
OK, a complex topic, really, so often, if people have heard about it at all, they're aware of it more on kind of the Apple Watch level, something that runners do, cyclists do. They'll take their HRV as a measure of either the strain they're putting on their system or their fitness level. So, this is the most common way that HRV is discussed and thought about. And although that's all true, it is the simplest and most superficial use of it. It has much more depth and science behind it. So, there's the Apple Watch level of HRV and then there's what Fran and I do in the clinic. And they really couldn't be further apart in the sense of referring to the same thing. We use incredibly expensive high-tech equipment monitoring up to 10 different biometrics and statistical programming to determine somebody's heart rate variability. Again, very different than what happens when you use a simple device that maybe has one lead, that estimates all of that. Let's say that's the biggest thing in the clinic when we're talking with people about this, is to get them to understand the complexity and in the complexity is why it's so valuable to know and why the HRV training is so effective. So, I'll say a little bit about what it is. So, it's a combination of a couple of different things. So, one is, we're looking at the beat-to-beat difference. So, many of us think of our heart rate and say, well, my heart is 60 beats per minute or 70 beats per minute. We have these ideas of what's healthy and what's not healthy. So, that's your average beats per minute. HRV is looking at the difference, the time difference from one beat to the next beat, and then from that beat to the next beat, and that time changes. And so it's that the beat-to-beat difference that we're looking at. And as a kind of predictor of health, the more variability there is in the time between beats, that is considered a healthier system. But there's a reason for why that happens. It's not just somehow your heart magically beats at a different rate, beat to beat, it is based on physiological processes and it has a lot to do with the vagus nerve. And it kind of what's called the vagal break and where it slows or allows the heart to accelerate. And that has to do with autonomic tone and how well regulated the autonomic nervous system is. And that has to do with our overall health.
 
[00:04:20.380] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Okay.
 
[00:04:21.370] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
HRV is kind of a window into this very complex system and tells us something about how well it's regulating itself and that as a window into it can tell us a great deal about somebody's overall, what they call all-cause mortality. And so, it's a very valuable and important metric and is trainable and that's what gives it its value.
 
[00:04:51.190] - Candi Broeffle, Host
And that's what I was just going to ask you is it's called heart rate variability training. So, the information is provided to you. It tells you something. But then it also, I would imagine, also allows you to be able to train yourself to respond differently. 
 
[00:05:09.980] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
Yes. Fran, do you want to...
 
[00:05:09.980] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
Yeah, sure. So, the training really is about providing feedback to the individual as they are doing the training so that their system is learning how to pace itself in a way that is more consistent, with what it is, kind of their optimal way of functioning. And so, when we train with HRV, we're doing a breath pace training. And so, it's a sequence that we go through when we train somebody in the clinic that starts with us getting what is called the resonance frequency, which is just really kind of the when the heart rate and the breath are synchronized; when that happens, what the result is, is what Guy was referring to when the system is kind of functioning optimally. And so, the training initially identifies what the individual's resonance frequency is, the average person. So, we look at like breaths per minute and the average person is somewhere around six breaths per minute. But that can vary to four point five to seven somewhere around that range. And he can be depending on the individual. So, when we determine the resonance frequency, we're actually finding out at what breaths per minute cycle does that individual system functions more optimally? Once we have that information, then we can use that to move them through a period of a few sessions to start pacing their breath to optimal. So, for many people, the way they are normally breathing isn't necessarily what the resonance frequency is. And so, we can start kind of gradually moving them, kind of shaping their system to breathe more closely toward the resonance frequency. So, we can do that over the course of several trainings. And while we are doing that training in the clinic, our equipment allows us to have access to all of those metrics that Guy was referring to, that really help us to be able to guide the clock so that they can more effectively move toward getting closer to being able to breathe, kind of naturally breathing at that resonance frequency. And so, that that process is typically what we do in the clinic, and once I've gotten that training in the clinic, we start to introduce them to some work that they can do at home. So, they start doing homework in between the sessions. And then we can identify an app that they can use on their phone, their computers that will allow them to do some of that practice in between the sessions. And then when they come back, we can work them to kind of tweak their training so that they are getting the most effective benefit that they can from the training. For a lot of people, breath becomes very problematic and can cause a lot of anxiousness. And so, that's also, I think, one of the benefits to doing this in the clinic with a practitioner who can kind of work with you on some of that as well, as opposed to just kind of grabbing Apple Watch.
 
[00:09:21.640] - Candi Broeffle, Host
So, let me ask you; when you say it can become problematic, why can it become problematic?
 
[00:09:25.460] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
The anxiousness?
 
[00:09:30.380] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Yes, why does it cause anxiousness with that breath?
 
[00:09:33.920] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
Oh, Okay. Yeah, people just... When people start to think about regulating their breath, if it is, if their breathing is not optimal, it can start to create, like both a physiological and, I think psychological sense of distress. And that can create some anxiousness or a panicky sort of feeling. So, like I've had people when I've trained them with HRV, who, as they start to kind of practice the paced breathing in a session, they can start to hyperventilate or, you know, start to just feel really anxious about it. I have had a client once who just insisted that I can't do this, I can't do this, and would just kind of get worked up about it. And so, that's the piece that I think is really beneficial to be doing this with a practitioner in the clinic is that you know, we can be there to help to guide and mediate that some.
 
[00:10:50.450] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Great, that is really interesting. I know right now I just want to let everyone know we are visiting with Guy Odishaw and Fran Bieganek, who are with the Bhakti Wellness Center. And we are talking about heart rate variability, training. For people who would like to learn more about heart rate variability training and the other services that are provided at Bhakti Wellness, you can visit BhaktiClinic.com, or call 612-859-7709. When we come back, we're going to continue our discussion about HRV or heart rate variability training and learn what some of the ailments or ailments are that this can be used for. To read the online version of Natural Awakenings, visit NaturalTwinCities.com. You're listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota.
 
[00:12:05.390] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations, where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine to talk to the professionals who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And today we're visiting with Guy Odishaw, the founder of Bhakti Wellness Center, and Fran Bieganek, a licensed psychologist and practitioner at the Bhakti Wellness Clinic. So, just before the break, Fran, you were sharing with us about or Fran was sharing with us about some of the importance of having learning this training within the clinic. And I know Guy, you had some other things that you would like to add to that, why it's so important for people to be able to do this within the clinic instead of just maybe trying to learn it of their Apple iWatch.
 
[00:12:52.280] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
Absolutely. So, one of the things that I hear in the question as we share this with clients as a possible avenue to pursue for their well-being is, why do I need to do this in the clinic? Can I just breathe slowly at home? And the answer is yes and no. And the no part of it is there's this thing called the Baro Reflex, and every individual person has their own, unique baroreflex. And it's a stretch receptor in the vasculature that is part of controlling blood pressure. And so it's a feedback loop in our system for when our vessels dilate or constrict and how how much blood can move through with what force. We have this baroreceptor reflex. And part of what we're doing in the clinic when we're doing what's called the resonant frequency determination, which is figuring out what breath rate is proper for a person, as Fran mentioned, it can vary. Six is the average. But if you can, if we were doing this with you and your resonant frequency was really 6.5 and we had you breathing at 6, that might be really dysregulating for your system. So, you're doing something that, and you might even experience it is feeling good. But if we're looking at what's happening in your other biometrics, we might see your autonomic nervous system is getting more and more dysregulated at 6 breaths. But if we shifted you to 6.5, all of a sudden everything settles and this harmony starts to be produced by the resonance between the different systems. And the feeling of that is is utterly different than the feeling of being relaxed.
 
[00:14:50.770] - Candi Broeffle, Host
And so you're able to give people that information in real-time as they're in the clinic... Kind of adjusted as you're as you're visiting with them, as you're going through their appointment.
 
[00:15:03.190] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
Yes. So we do this thing called the Resonant Frequency Determination, and it tells us again, what is the beat-to-beat difference so that part of it and then what is this baroreceptor? And those those are the two main rhythms that we extract from the data and we try to bring the body so that those two rhythms come into harmony with one another. And we can bring in a few other ones. But that's the idea, right? Is this idea of resonance. We're bringing more of the body functions into resonance with one another and it creates a state of ease. There's just a harmony where the heart isn't working over against the vasculature, but the heart in the vasculature are working together. And the heart and the nervous system and the vascular system are working together. So, we have this harmony building. And when one finds that state, it really feels like that it has this very kind of pleasant quality of ease. And that's the value of doing clinic-based heart rate variability is really finding what is right for a person, because what we see is that's what brings the results. Right. So if you are breathing at a pace that slow but not yours, you'll get maybe 30 percent of the benefit. But if we get you dialed into your right frequency now, potentially you have access to one hundred percent of the benefit. And that's a big difference when you're talking about health outcomes over again somebody who's just doing it say for relaxation.
 
[00:16:41.420] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Great. So, Fran, maybe you can share with us some of the maybe ailments or some of the things that can really benefit from using heart rate variability training.
 
[00:16:55.810] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
So, that ease that Guy is talking about the harmony in the system, the way I think about that is the impact that that man has on the individual is a flexibility is the word that I oftentimes use. There's a physiological flexibility so it can be beneficial for blood pressure, for kind of other cardiac functioning, also cognitive flexibility and behavioral flexibility. So, the cognitive flexibility is the one I think when we wrote the article, we sort of focused a little bit more on that. But it really is about having a more flexible, like executive functioning system, one that is able to just move more smoothly between tasks. And so that can can have a positive effect on your ability, your working memory, your ability to not only encode, but also kind of recall and retrieve information, that kind of a flexibility with problem-solving, and like any kind of organizational planning that is part of that executive functioning. And it also benefits like emotional and self-regulation.
 
[00:18:25.090] 
And so that, again, that idea of flexibility and being able to kind of switch and move between states more easily, it doesn't mean that there isn't like a moment of, 'oh, I forgot where this is'. But you know better ability to retrieve that or, you know, if you are in the midst of a stressful experience, that your system is better able to kind of just move with that because it has what Guy was talking about, your system is more in harmony. And so, both the physiological and the cognitive flexibility then influence the behavioral flexibility.
 
[00:19:14.610] - Candi Broeffle, Host
So for someone who is, say, my age and maybe having some of the effects of, you know, brought on with menopause where we talk about having real brain fog problems, that type of thing as we age. Is this something that people would get a benefit from by using the heart rate variability?
 
[00:19:39.300] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
Sure. You know, when I think about, Guys, you can chime in here, too. But when I think about heart rate variability, I think about it less as a treatment and more as a facilitating health and harmony in the system, which then results in being better able to either manage symptoms when they come up or maybe less frequency of those kinds of symptoms.
 
[00:20:08.490] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Very good. When we come back, we're going to continue to talk about that and continue to talk about how we can use it for overall wellness. To learn more or to make an appointment visit BhaktiClinic.com or call 612-859-7709. To read the online version of Natural Awakenings magazine, visit NaturalTwinCities.com. You're listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And we will be right back.
 
[00:21:18.280] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations, where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazines to talk to the professionals who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle, and today we're visiting with Guy Odishaw and Fran Bieganek of the Bhakti Wellness Centers. And just before we went to break, I had kind of brought up about possibly the symptoms that HRV can can help with. And we started to talk about that a little bit. So, Guy, I'm going to ask you to kind of expand on that for us, if you would.
 
[00:21:54.060] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
Sure. Yeah. So, I always like to kind of dodge that question of what what symptoms does this treat? And for good reason. And it's kind of factually based, but it's also kind of philosophically based. So, we can say that we there's two general schools of health care. There's disease care and health care. So, one is about looking at pathology in the in the body and doing treatments that try to eradicate or minimize the pathology. We call that disease care, and that constitutes most of Western medicine. And then there's this idea of health care or positivistic medicine that isn't about focusing on the pathology. It's focusing on health and creating and generating more health with this general kind of assumption that if you have more health, the health will shift the environment, such that the pathology cannot persist. So, yeah, so there's these two general philosophies.
 
[00:23:06.770] 
And HRV, one of the things that I love about it is that it very much lives in this middle ground right, it has a strong Western medicine research-based clinical aspect to it. But its advocacy is about creating help. Right? So it's unique to find in kind of the Western medicine side of things. So, that's part of why I try to dodge the question. Does HIV treat anxiety? Well, no. But does somebody who has anxiety benefit by doing HRV? Quite likely. There will be a benefit. Will that directly reduce or eliminate their anxiety? I don't know. But again, to have that conversation, that I'd have to target the anxiety as a pathology that we're trying to get rid of versus saying what I want to do with the person is I want to help them create more help. As a consequence of their anxiety is ameliorated or eliminated. Great. So, it's a shift of the intention of the practitioner, but also we invite our clients to join us in what I like to think of as the cultivation of health. Rather than the fight against disease. It is not what I want to get rid of, it's what I want to get.
 
[00:24:39.700] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Right.

[00:24:39.890] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
So, and that's not just straight philosophy, it is based on really sound principles that are reproducible in the clinic and we see it happen all the time. So, this isn't just mere, like positive affirmation. Think positively and it'll all be okay, not that. So, it is to say with with something like HRV , part of what we're doing is trying to eliminate disharmonious, dysregulation in the system and move the system into a more optimal functioning. And what we find is often removing the dysregulation. It's the dysregulation that's leading to the thing we call, say, anxiety or depression or antisocial behavior or those are all things that kind of put into the mental health category. But we also talk about HRV as a predictor for something like cancer or cardiovascular disease or Type two diabetes. It doesn't have to be mental health. It can be straight up physiological health and shifting, doing HRV training can help those conditions, can help change one's trajectory toward developing it or what is already developed, it can help minimize the presentation of that condition such that one might no longer be diagnosed with it. We would never say that HRV treated that condition. It just eliminated the situation that allowed that particular behavior to manifest.
 
[00:26:23.590] - Candi Broeffle, Host
So, Fran, give us an idea of perhaps a client who you worked with, what would be like a typical client coming in and what could be the results that they might see? And so, I don't want to have you not asking you to give us a specific client, but give us an idea of someone.

[00:26:45.820] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
Yeah. So a typical client, again, that could be a, look like a variety of things, perhaps somebody who is experiencing, you know, a certain level of distress in life and is having a hard time coping with it. So, they, you know, and so the difficulty coping may appear as anxiety or lack of motivation, a lot of cognitive processing issues, that sort of thing. And so, they would be a very important client to look at doing HRV with. Perhaps somebody who has chronic pain, things like fibromyalgia, history with that, oftentimes they can benefit significantly from HRV training in the clinic. And then again, anybody, like anybody that I do neurofeedback with generally is getting HRV done as well, HRV training. And so, then that opens us up to people with all kinds of experiences, traumatic brain injury, you know, OCD, just of ADHD, again, because it is that HRV is providing that regulation that can just then facilitate improvement in whatever it is that that individual is experiencing.
 
[00:28:31.060] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Okay. So, I know that you guys have equipment. So, we talked about, you know, as part of this program that you have, as part of this HRV, that they are also then practicing that outside of the time that you're with them. And so you actually have equipment that you lease to your clients, correct?
 

[00:28:59.810] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
We do. If we speak specifically about heart rate variability training, there's a broader question here, but we'll stay on this track for a moment. What we like to do is have somebody come in and do the resonant frequency determination so that we can give them what their actual breath rate is and have an understanding of how to set up their training, because, again, we will see that a person's habit might be to breathe at 17 breaths per minute. So, that feels like normal for them. But their resonant frequency might be 5. Well, that's a big distance from 17 to five. And so, when we ask them to start breathing at five, they struggle, they grapple, they might become panicked or that's just too big of a leap. So, then the training part is them stepping down from 17 to 12 to 9, working towards 5. But we know 5 is their physiology, but 17 might be more of a blend of their physiology and psychology.
 
[00:30:06.620] 
We'd like to do that resonant frequency determination. Then we'll give them a choice of different apps. They could download for their phone. Many of them are free, some cost a couple of dollars. But we let the person decide which app makes them happy, the interface, the sounds, everything. And then they can just use a simple app to be a breath pacer that they can set to breathe that again if we're going to step them down, say, to 12 and then to 10 like that, they can manage their own practice on their own with that app and do their 20 minutes a day and work themselves down. And then part of our...
 
[00:30:47.720] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Am just going to ask you, is this something that is ongoing or do you do it for a certain amount of time?
 
[00:30:53.300] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
So, what we hope to happen in a training is that we get a person to be able to breathe at their resonant frequency and they're comfortable. So really, then, that first part of the training has happened. And that can be really simple for some people or really time-intensive for other people. But we get them there. Then the idea is to generalize that practice; so that it isn't just a formal practice you do at home for 20 minutes, but you start doing it when you're driving; when you're having a conversation with a friend; when you're out for a walk so that you start to teach your system to do this paced breathing all the time and it becomes automatic, it's a habit. The moment your system starts to feel a little dysregulated, it knows what to do. It knows to shift to this paced breathing, settle everything down, and on you go. But we want to move that from a conscious, intentional practice to a learned behavior that just happens automatically. And that's what HRV training is about, the whole thing. So, yes, a person might need to do it regularly for a period of months. But then it becomes a habit that's, you know, ingrained and then often that will continue on for life and you never have to think about it again. Although one might enjoy the practice and do the practice anyways, but that's all... 
 
[00:32:17.570] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Well, and then so, I think that's another really important aspect. So, it seems like that the really important thing is to be able to have something that you're teaching people how to use. So, Fran, I know you're pretty much in charge of the rental portion of this program for the equipment. So, why don't you just quickly kind of give us an idea of what that is.
 
[00:32:40.630] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
Sure. So, Guy talked with you about kind of what we do with clients in terms of specific training and HRV and their home office with that. And then oftentimes we will pull in other technology that we know is beneficial and working with heart rate variability. So, we have audiovisual trainman units that we oftentimes will use with clients and we have those for rental at the clinic or purchase some oftentimes frequency specific microcurrent is an appropriate one as well. And so, we have units with that. For people who are struggling with pain issues, we Pipersville to them. And all of those technologies are also and equipment is also a bid for purchase through the clinic.
 
[00:33:35.140] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Great. So, thank you for that. For people who want to learn more, visit BhaktiClinic.com. You are listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota, and we will be right back.

[00:34:21.250] - Candi Broeffle, Host
Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations, where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine to bring you the professionals who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And today we are talking with Guy Odishaw and Fran Bieganek of the Bhakti Wellness Center. Now, Guy, you guys have created this new program that you are offering called the Essential Worker Program. And can you tell us about this? This is really something that I am just so impressed with. 
 
[00:34:54.610] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
Happily. So, this really came out, of course, what's happening with COVID-19 and the pandemic and then eventually what happened with the shelter in place and many businesses like ours being shut down. So at Bhakti, we have 30 providers. During the shutdown, 3 of our 30 were working and the rest had to be shut down. So, it's a group of people who what we do and how we're wired is to care for people we found ourselves quite frustrated. And watching the news, talking to friends and family, we would hear about this category of people, the essential workers, front line workers, mostly health care, but also fire, EMS, grocery store workers. There were people who were still we needed them to go to work and to some degree put themselves in harm's way to keep essential services going. So, you know, we asked ourselves, like, what could we do to give back? And out of that came this idea of the free care campaign, which was to offer a month of free care to essential workers. And so, we decided how could we do that? And that was we could do it in our community services. So, services that aren't one provider, one client for one hour, that was was too, we couldn't serve enough people. We're doing community acupuncture, community bio-electric medicine, and chiropractic care. The chiropractic care fits because visits can be relatively short. And so, this would allow us. So, right now our capacity is that we can see about one hundred and twenty people a week through this program. And that's what we were looking for, how can we deliver as much care as possible because the need is so great.
 
[00:36:53.370] - Candi Broeffle, Host
So there's three different three different services that you're offering. Plus, you have a rental program that leads right into what we've already been talking about with the heart rate variability. So, Fran, maybe you can give us an idea about what that portion of the program is.
 
[00:37:12.450] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
Sure. And it isn't a rental program. It is a loaner program. And so we are, what we are doing with that is offering free loan of audiovisual entrainment units to hospital facilities so that their workers can use them on site. And audiovisual entrainment units can help people who are struggling with anxiety, high levels of stress or having difficulties with sleep issues. All of the things that we might imagine people working in health care systems are experiencing through this pandemic. And so, what our program does is, offers them the use of an audiovisual entertainment unit. We train them how to use it. We let them use it on-site and their workers get the benefit of that. And we have a couple of clinics, specialist clinics that are utilizing those systems right now.
 
[00:38:15.210] - Candi Broeffle, Host
If I were a health care worker working in a facility that doesn't have this, how would I go about making it happen in my facility?
 
[00:38:24.960] - Fran Bieganek, Guest
Sure. Good question. So, I would imagine talking with a supervisor, finding, perhaps talking with H.R. to find out how to make this happen, that we have, the systems that have our units right now, we have reached out to people who are kind of in management types of positions there, and they have kind of started the ball rolling. But I think anybody working in a health care system could just kind of start accessing their chain of command, so to speak, and let them know they're interested in this, have them contact Bhakti. (39:04) Yeah, absolutely.
 
[00:39:09.270] - Candi Broeffle, Host
So, Guy, coming back to, you know, the three services that you are providing as a part of this, one of them, you said, is community acupuncture. So, what is the difference between regular acupuncture and community acupuncture?
 
[00:39:25.800] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
Then I'll add to it, we have socially distanced community acupuncture, so we're being sure to emphasize that. So typically, community acupuncture is a large room, five recliners, and you're being treated in that community setting. For this program, because of the pandemic, we're doing only two people in that large room. So, people are 12 feet apart. And we extended all of the health guidelines relative to keeping and maintaining a sanitary environment. So, people are safe in the clinic. We have a 'mask all the time' policy. But so community acupuncture is the idea of you're not in a private room, one on one with the practitioner for a 50-minute session. You do a relatively quick intake. You're needle get in way. So typically arms, legs, ears. So, places that are easy to access in a community setting, one just wears comfortable clothing to the session. Sleeves can be rolled up and legs can be pulled up. And it's highly effective, I mean, community acupuncture, when you look at outcomes, outcomes are actually better than private acupuncture. And part of the reason is that understanding that the health care delivered in a community setting has better outcomes. Even if you were going in for blood pressure visits, those go better in a community setting.
 
[00:40:58.970] - Candi Broeffle, Host
So, what are the other two services as we kind of wrap up our time together?
 
[00:41:05.030] - Guy Odishaw, Guest
Yeah. So chiropractic care. So, you'll get an exam and adjustment and that's at no cost. And you can come as many times as you want. Right? So, and the same with community acupuncture. We don't limit this to an essential worker to say you can only come once or 3 times or just... People are coming, we have some people that are coming to the clinic 5 times a week, having their adjustment, having their acupuncture, and then seeing me for the biologic medicine, which might be the artificial entrainment. It might be paced breathing, it might be microcurrent therapy, infrared therapy, low-level light therapy, lots of options in the bioelectric medicine, but people coming in multiple times a week to receive care and really try and recharge the batteries after exhaustive work.
 
[00:41:52.460] - Candi Broeffle, Host
I just have to say, you guys, it is just so generous of you, so generous of the practitioners there that you're doing this for people and so, for people who are essential workers, who work in hospitals, work for the fire departments, EMS or grocery stores, they would be qualifying for this program and they should cut you to contact the Bhakti Wellness Clinic or visit BhaktiClinic.com. Or you can call (612) 859-7709. Thank you for joining the conversation as we awaken to natural health. To read the online edition of Natural Awakenings magazine or to check out our complete online calendar of events, visit NaturalTwinCities.com. You can find a podcast of this show on AM950Radio.com or Apple and Google podcasts. You've been listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota, and I am wishing for you a lovely day!