Exploring Life & Business with Dr. Amy Putrus-Schnell of The Healing Place

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Putrus-Schnell. 

Hi Dr. Amy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ll start with Chiropractic school since it had such a big impact on my life. I am forever grateful for the philosophy and principles that I gained there, particularly that we are self-healing, self-regulating, resilient, and adaptable beings. When you hold that to your core, it’s incredible what you can accomplish, not only in health but in life. 

I met my husband in chiropractic school 10 years ago and we’ve been on a wild ride ever since. We’ve lived in the Philippines, in Ontario, Canada, and in London, all with our two pups by our side. In early 2020, we made the tough decision to move back to the US because we were ready to operate our own practice. We were set to take over a clinic in Boulder, Colorado but not even two weeks after our arrival, the response to coronavirus began, and subsequently, our plans began to crumble. We spent the next several months brainstorming, researching, and visualizing what our next steps would be. While it was a very difficult time to navigate, the vision of what I wanted to build was becoming more and more clear. As beautiful as Boulder was, it wasn’t going to be the place for us to develop what we were envisioning so it was time to move on. After making some trips to scope out new cities, we decided Nashville would be our new home and so we moved here in May 2021. After leaving my hometown in southern Indiana at 18, I truly never thought I’d find myself back in this part of the US, but here I am and loving it. Nashville is providing me with such great opportunities to see my vision come to life and I’m so grateful for the supportive community. Now, let me tell you what that vision is… 

I’m a Doctor of Chiropractic and a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner — truly, an all-around health nut. I love helping people take control of their own health and I live the life I preach. My food is anti-inflammatory, my products are non-toxic, and my habits are health-promoting. While doing this for work is incredibly rewarding, there are other things I love that I’ve always wanted to incorporate into my work life, and it wasn’t until 2020 that I started to see how it could be possible. When I was choosing my path for college, I had a difficult time deciding between health and fashion. While I ultimately went the route of health, I’ve never given up my love for fashion and my desire to incorporate that creative side of me into my work. I’ve been thrifting for vintage ever since I had my own money to spend, at first because it gave me a unique style, but I grew to understand and appreciate the sustainability aspect of it. Over the last ten years, healthy and sustainable living has become a fundamental for me; pretty well every decision I make or product I use is done so consciously with those things in mind. I’ve become quite adept at DIY-ing my own products, and finding brands that are not only health- and eco-conscious, but also are made to be aesthetically pleasing. I have people asking me all the time what cookware, laundry detergent, toothpaste, moisturizer {insert just about any product} I use. This is where the vision came to life. I started to see how I could combine my love of vintage fashion with chiropractic and functional medicine. Everything I was doing in my personal life was about health and sustainability so why not make my work reflect that, too? So that’s what I’m doing; that’s what I’m working toward. 

It’s called The Healing Place. A holistic health clinic that doubles as a shop, where all the products are non-toxic and eco-friendly. When I’m working with patients, it’s a whole-body, root-cause approach which means I’m helping them to remove things that aren’t serving their health and replace them with things that will. When fully realized, The Healing Place will be a one-stop shop for that as the patient can finish up with their appointment and walk right into the store to find what they need, knowing it won’t be deleterious to their health or to Mother Earth. That’s the motto: good for people, good for the planet. The Healing Place will be an educational space, too, — a place for the community to be able to come and learn the tools they need to take responsibility for their health, and a place where they feel empowered to do so. Most importantly, it will be a haven for people to heal. 

My personal resources are limited so this vision is currently growing organically until I am able to expand to a brick-and-mortar. I started doing markets in October with just vintage clothing and a love for talking about health. Within a few weeks, that led to my doing chiropractic house-calls so that’s been a fun change of pace from previously only working in clinics. I currently serve Nashville, Brentwood, and Franklin. I also continue to do virtual functional medicine which is something I started doing several years ago while practicing in London. Nashville has been great for making connections and providing opportunities, which I always jump on. My husband and I are putting in a lot of work to build this and every day is so different. Honestly, the universe is helping to guide my steps and I’m grateful where it has taken me thus far. Stay tuned and come say hello at our next pop-up 🙂 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have been plenty of challenges — a road with bumps, roundabouts, potholes, and switchbacks if you will. Starting a business isn’t easy; if it were, everyone would do it. One of my challenges has been knowing where to focus my time and energy as my personal vision involves both services and retail. This is where I sort of let the universe guide me. For example, I met someone at a vintage market I was doing and after talking, I learned she was looking for a chiropractor to come to her house. So, the next week I spent building out what that service looks like and getting all my ducks in a row to make it happen. Sometimes you just have to go where the road takes you. Another challenge has been identifying which markets work best for me. Nashville has a big vintage scene so obviously, my vintage clothing fits right into those, but when you start talking health and wellness, it’s not necessarily the right crowd. In that sense, getting exposure is difficult. But no matter the challenge, I always remind myself of how resilient I am and of one of my favorite herbal tea quotes: “He who wants a rose must respect the thorn.” 

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Healing Place?
The Healing Place offers services and products to help people on their health and healing journey, wherever they might be. We will serve as a resource in navigating the path to more optimal health. Currently, our services consist of Chiropractic and Functional Medicine, and we will continue to add to that as we grow. Chiropractic is a powerful healing modality. While it’s best known for its ability to help with pain, chiropractic can offer so much more. Chiropractic influences your nervous system, which is your body’s command center. In this way, it allows for better communication between your brain & your body. It also helps to shift your nervous system into its parasympathetic state — or the “rest and digest” state — which is where your body needs to be for repair & healing to occur. Due to this phenomenon, Doctors of Chiropractic witness improvements in all sorts of conditions. There’s a saying among chiropractors to “expect miracles” because honestly, we see some pretty incredible stuff. I currently offer mobile chiropractic to anyone in the Nashville, Brentwood, and Franklin areas. 

I also practice functional medicine where I focus on the individual as a whole, rather than an isolated disease. By listening to a patient’s story and using advanced lab testing, I am able to consider the intricate network of interactions between an individual’s history, lifestyle, and physiology before developing a personalized plan to get someone back on the road to health. The labs that are used differ from a conventional medical approach in a way that allows for a more comprehensive understanding of someone’s physiology. The interpretation of labs is also different as functional medicine uses scientifically-developed reference ranges that reflect optimal health; whereas conventional reference ranges “normal” is only indicative of what is average amongst the population getting labs done in that geographic area. The therapies I use include nutritional, supplement, and lifestyle recommendations. I currently offer three different options for my functional medicine service to try to meet people where they are at. The types of patients I see generally come to me after having seen several other practitioners but are still having symptoms. The following are some conditions I’ve seen improvements in by using a functional medicine approach: brain fog, Hashimoto’s, menstrual irregularities, IBS, low libido, migraines, digestive complaints, type II diabetes, high blood pressure, eczema, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and many more. 

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Holistic medicine has been trending upward for several years, and I think we will continue to see huge increases in those who seek this approach. 6 out of 10 US adults have at least one chronic disease and only 12% of US adults are metabolically healthy. Lifestyle-driven illnesses remain our top killers year after year. Working with a practitioner who can help you make the appropriate lifestyle changes is the only way to get these things under control. We can’t medicate our way out of something we behaved ourselves into. I think the pandemic has also served as a big wake-up call and/or reminder to people that you can’t escape these things, but rather need to do what you can to be resilient in the face of health threats. When I used to tell people I practiced functional medicine, just a few years ago they would kind of look at me funny like “and what is that?”. Now we have more and more people seeking it out as the word is spreading about how life-changing this type of approach can be. 

With regard to sustainability, I think this industry is also trending upward. Overall, I feel people are making more conscious choices to do right by their own body and by the planet. The consequences are too high to not. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.doctoramykate.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/the.healing_place/
• Other: instagram.com/doctoramykate/