About Dr. Kreft

Education

I'm a Naturopathic Physician (ND), acupuncturist (LAc), and herbalist with a Masters in Oriental Medicine (MSOM). I've also been practicing Focusing since 1999. My undergraduate degree was in the Philosophy of Math and Science through the wonderful St. John's College (the Great Books school). With a degree in philosophy, in order to be admitted to the Naturopathic program I needed to attend a post-baccalaureate pre-med program, which I did at Columbia University. (Read more about my mentors and the specific things I studied BELOW.)

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Experience

After school, I worked as a physician or acupuncturist/herbalist in various boutique wellness environments both in Washington, D.C. and New York City. I also did a Research Fellowship and practiced at Lutheran Medical Center, now part of the NYU hospital system. I worked in various departments under the guidance of Claudia Citkovitz, including Labor and Delivery, Oncology and Post-Stroke recovery. I taught Physiology at PCOM in NYC. Finally, I worked at the Yinova Center, a center specialising in fertility, with the wonderful powerhouse, Jill Blakeway, which is how I ended up in her book. 

 

Who & What I Treated

My clients were frequently suffering from complex chronic diseases. They had multiple autoimmune disorders, together with infertility and cancer, or various diseases during pregnancy. I've had success treating many 'non-treatable" conditions that threaten a pregnancy. For example, I've been able to reverse things like rapidly growing large intramural fibroids, or Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy. I regularly resolved cases of capsular contractures in post-oncological implants, manually returning them to the proper position, and many other difficult to manage scenarios. For many of my patients, complex surgeries were avoided. Not everything was related to Women's Health. I've also regularly reversed diabetes, post-stroke sequelae, tick-borne neurological illness, Parkinson's tremors, MS complications like optic neuritis and many other challenging cases in both children and adults. 

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Rigorous Approach to Care

What this all means, is that I ​enjoy rigorous standards and clear methods. In my previous work, I dedicated myself to finding root causes of diseases and restoring normal physiological function, not masking symptoms. I would frequently spend hours outside the office, using a client's bloodwork to create an individualised map of their biochemical profiles. I would tailor specific dietary recommendations for their conditions, cross referencing Western and Eastern approaches. I made sure there were no interactions with oncological treatments, opting for supplements that boosted treatment effects and protected against negative side effects. I researched rare disease mechanisms when functionally applicable to a case. ​I was developing a style of Functional Medicine that integrated not only modern Western biochemical pathways but also holistic ancient Chinese and Eclectic medical models.

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Pivot to Spiritual Work

For any root-causes practitioner, it's so obvious that mindset or emotional wellness go hand-in-hand with physical health. It's not even a question. We've all experienced meeting people with such high anxiety or depression that they can't even hear you to implement any other healthcare advice. But even much lower intensity emotional discomforts, considered normal, can affect health in a very significant way. Unconscious beliefs can sabotage joy, meaning, and thus physical healing.

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In some patients, the emotional component of their physical symptoms are just too big to ignore. I had a couple of these patients that really made me shift my practice. One came to me with a frozen shoulder. She'd had it for months and it was very incapacitating. During our session, I just talked to her. By the end of the session, she could raise her arm - no needles, no medicines, just shifting her emotional profile. 

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Current Emotional-Spiritual Techniques with Clients

Drawn to systematic, reproducible approaches, I primarily use Focusing-based techniques to access a person's spiritual foundations. That means that I work in a space that is liminal, or in-between. It's an aspect of our being that lives between physical sensations and our mental-emotional state. Gendlin called this sensation the Felt-Sense. It's a more embodied correlate of our mental-emotional experience.  Because it bridges both spiritual and physical, it's possible to have very deep embodied changes that go beyond the mind.

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By guiding people into a sleepy, relaxed, in-between state, it's possible for them to access this liminal space, where abstract information spontaneously arises and then becomes legible.  Its the realm of their own inner knowing; a unique kind of resolution that leads to catharsis, insight, or simply shifts longstanding patterns. It restores emotional plasticity that allows for new ways of being, more in line with ease, and health.

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I also do straight energy work. As an acupuncturist, moving and directing 'energy' or Qi, is our daily bread and butter. It's not a mysterious ability. It's learnable and repeatable. It's a very straightforward palpable skill. My untrained clients can feel the movement so clearly that they can trace channels they know nothing about, giving total confirmation of the phenomena.

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Doing this at distance for someone requires just a small adjustment in approach. 

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Cultural-Spiritual Influences in the Background

To these techniques, I bring my own cultural and spiritual background. My heritage is Peruvian and Polish. The Peruvian side is from deep isolated jungle areas, and rich with a lineage of healers and psychic abilities. The Polish side are a mix of sea-farers and forest-dwellers. If you've ever been to a Polish forest, you'll understand how alive and magical that is.​

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As for spiritual backgrounds, I was raised intensely Catholic, which essentially means that my family believes in 'love thy neighbor' (frequently sheltering strangers), prayer, and the real possibility of miracles.  Peru is a hub for miracle healings. ;-). Having many family members with psychic-type abilities, just meant that traditional healing was always present in the house - passing the egg, candles, herbs, flower baths etc. Ghosts, astral travel, awareness of deaths, etc. were just facts of life. But God and the Rosary were placed above all of these. What I took from this experience is an appreciation for the immense power and beauty of spiritual love (agape).

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My own path led me to explore many many different traditions, including things like Rebirthing, Family Constellations, Self-Realization meditation centers, Art of Living, psychic churches CDM, Sufi Zikr, Native American Sweats and Drum circles, Exorcisms, and many more. I've tried a bunch of things while getting to know the spiritual dimension of life.

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My Current Personal Spiritual Practice

While I carry a lifetime of experience that is always with me, at the moment, I mostly practice apophatic early Daoist-like approaches to spirit. I meditate, and/or Focus daily, and do Qi-gong for an embodied approach to meditation and Qi movement. 

 

Beyond classical spiritual approaches, I was a longtime Flamenco dancer. Dance engages the spiritual body in a way that few other things can. It was a huge learning that still informs how I sense today. I also currently have many physical light hobbies that continue to keep me engaged with nature and the lived experience of the body - rock climbing, surfing, snowboarding, hiking, wildcrafting etc. Engaging Nature, and keeping her rhythms, is a very important part of my spiritual life. 

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Classical Chinese Medicine Research & Teaching

In addition to the spiritual health services that I offer, I also keep a very active research focus. For the last 20 years, I've been working on decoding the meaning encapsulated within the textual structure of the HuangDi NeiJing SuWen, the origin text of Chinese medicine. This text places humans and health outcomes into a systematic, predictable relationship with Nature. The system integrates the psyche with the body and the planet and I've been utterly fascinated with it for decades. This is also very much in the background of everything I do.  

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I currently teach Classical Chinese medical cosmology locally, but it will hopefully soon take center-stage in my online offerings as well. I'm currently building that. 

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​Some Details of My Education​​

My undergrad thesis from 1994 was titled "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 share this just because it's kind of funny to realise that I've been interested in unifying science and phenomenology since I was a kid. We don't know what path our lives will take, but sometimes we look back to find that the interest was always there. 

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I've also been trained in many hands-on techniques that engage the subtle dynamics of the mind-body: 

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• 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 Practitioner

• Church of Divine Man Psychic Training

• Reiki Level III

• Homeopathy training with Dr. Massimo Mangialavori

• Leap to the Similimum with Dr. Divya Chhabra

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In reference to mental health, during my Naturopathic Physician and Chinese Medicine training, I treated patients in various settings, including dual diagnosis clinics (patients with both addiction and mental illness), harm-reduction clinics for homeless youth, mandated rehabilitation for meth addicts, and translation experience in inpatient psychiatric hospitals. 

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Finally, A Word About my Mentors:

 

Heiner Fruehauf changed the trajectory of my life. I went to NUNM, intending to study only Naturopathic Medicine. Then I heard Heiner lecture about Classical Chinese Medicine. His fluid expertise and reverence made the beauty of that system irresistible. He shared a logical, magical symbolism, and true systematic holism that made me sign on for the dual degree program. When I saw him reverse conditions like late-stage cirrhosis and various cancers using a beautiful logic, I realised I had found my teacher.  He absolutely lives the medicine, surrounded by nature, practicing qigong, regularly hosting trips to remote healers in China, actively seeking out folk healers and rare lineages. It is an honour to call him my teacher and friend. 

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Arnaud Versluys was my herbalism teacher and thesis advisor. While Heiner connected me with the magic in the medicine, it was through Arnaud that I learned how to approach ancient Chinese texts with total rigor.  He was very systematic and unyielding in his search for excellence with textual study of the Shang Han Lun and Jing Gui Yao Lue. It is due to his example of uncompromising discernment that I have been able to unlock meaning and enjoy the fruits of my own research in the NeiJing. 

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I met Liu LiHong in China through Heiner. Dr. Liu showed me how to have total faith in the Classics. He gave examples of cases of people getting cured of diseases simply by travelling to another location, a logical outcome according to the Classics. He explained how to use the logic in the texts to research possible new medicines. His faith in the system and successful application of cryptic passages gave me a role model to emulate. Furthermore, his deep spiritual Buddhist faith and the loving kindness of his person showed me how to approach rigorous study without sacrificing the heart. (We also laughed a bunch).

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Claudia Citkovitz showed me how to straddle conventional medicine, IRB research and hospital environments, while being part of a very different mode of operating. Her ability to seamlessly and powerfully interface with hospital staff and regulatory bodies and make Chinese medicine meaningful in those high-stress contexts was astounding. She spoke two languages, conventional materialism and ancient energy systems without skipping a beat. Her ability to collaborate with total integrity, and generosity and get things done in two worlds is bar none.

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I have been blessed to study with many greats across many disciplines. This is only a partial list for the sake of brevity.