Core Faculty Member
Donna Gross
My background includes thirty years of experience in Holistic Care with licensing in Respiratory Care and Personal Training. I have worked ventilators in critical care and I was the therapy specialist in a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program. I ran a Senior's Wellness Program teaching Yoga, Tai Chi and Chi Gung.
I trained under and worked as a therapist for the founding President of the Holistic Medical Association.
I also have worked for other doctors using Naturopathic and Ayurvedic therapies. All this experience has taught me a lot about
health as well as disease. I know the power and limitations of medical treatment in the field of
pulmonary health. Most of the effective treatments are useful in acute or emergency situations. They have
limited success in long term health management. For example, most of the breath testing done on pulmonary patients has to do with forcing an
inhalation or exhalation to record air flow. Forced breathing causes increased tension in the lung tissue. This is not a healthy practice in a patient already suffering from high levels of tension in the lungs.
This same principle holds true with many of the medications given patients. A bronchodilator can save a life by forcing open swollen airways, but it can not improve anyone's overall state of health if used regularly. Eventually the patient fails to
respond to the chronically used medications, and the possibility of tissue damage from these medicines
increases as they are used year after year, decade after decade.
I try to teach my clients to find the underlying causes of their breathing problem. Then they can work to improve their immune system and develop improved life style habits. The idea is to wean off the medicines eventually. It takes someone with an open mind and a brave spirit to travel this path toward healing. This is the road less traveled, and it is unique to each individual. It seems to me to be the path of beauty and well worth the effort, if one is truly intending to heal.
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