Dr. Schulz is a world renowned medical intuitive, behavioral neuroscientist, practicing psychiatrist and a best-selling author whose latest book ?The New Feminine Brain? explores the hidden potential of women and gives practical, grounded instructions on how to capitalize and manifest inherent mental gifts. She is a foremost authority on brain function and blends her expert ?right brain? with ?left brain? medical intuition consultations.
The focus of her life work is to capitalize a person?s potential for maximum health both on the physical and emotional level. For over 20 years, her groundbreaking research has helped to accelerate an acceptance and inclusion of non-linear approaches to medical healing outside conventional western medical techniques.
Dr. Schulz teaches us how to become aware of how our symptoms of illness are part of our intuition network, letting us know when something in our lives is out of balance. During a medical intuitive consultation, there is no physician/patient relationship, no diagnosis is given nor is any psychotherapy being performed. Mona Lisa will educate you in how specific emotional situations in your life are associated with the increased risk of illness in a specific organ in your body.
Like many gifted psychics, Dr. Schulz was encouraged as a child by very accomplished parents to develop her intellect through logic and analysis. Although she was able to intuitively solve difficult math problems before the age of ten, family and cultural conditioning caused her to block her intuition. Surprisingly, her success was more limited as a result. Dr. Schulz has herself had to overcome challenges that many people would have used as an excuse to not succeed in life. She has ADD and was diagnosed with a brain disorder similar to narcolepsy in college. Narcolepsy is a condition whereby a person falls asleep out-of-the-blue no matter what they are doing at the time. This was a turning point in her life as the events forced her to rely on her intuition more than her rational mind. Several more experiences came her way afterwards: a bout with medication to relieve her symptoms, a car accident, and the discovery of Louise Hay?s ?You Can Heal Your Life?. All these episodes convinced Dr. Schulz to claim her destiny as a trail blazing healer in mind-body medicine. By the time she entered medical school she was also blossoming into the revolutionary field of medical intuition.
Today, Dr. Schulz lives at full force her life passion. She is a board-certified psychiatrist who on one hand, she has a Medical Intuition business, and in a separate practice, sees patients in Neuropsychiatry.
Bio written and interview conducted by Rheba Estante, Integrated Health Writer.
Q: There are plenty of books on women?s health on the market, what is different about yours? What does it offer that is distinct and of practical use to women? A: The New Feminine Brain takes account for and examines how as civilization advances the environmental changes impact the brain. As life gets more complex with things such as satellites, cell phones, iPods, PDAs, these shape our brain. Information changes our wiring. I call this plasticity. Women in the year 2006 balance motherhood, career, childcare, and eldercare of aging parents. These are more complex lives than ever in history. Multiple roles lead to pressure and combined with technological advances in medicine have altered the hormones in the female brain.
Q: Does this mean that the brain of women in 2006 are very different than females in 1906? A: Yes. We are hormonally altered women. Women are deferring until 40 to have children. One new mother in the news recently was 60. Pregnancy and childbirth changes a brain. Think of the kinds of pressures that women have in their lives by the time they are 40 and compound that with later in life motherhood. If a woman has had to be on fertility drugs, or contraceptive pills, or has lived for decades in an environment of zeno-estrogens those all impact the brain.
Q: So what is the effect of synthetic prescription? A: Tamoxifen and other cancer drugs are anti-estrogen. Estrogen is a mood elevator. When you save a woman?s life and then put her on Tamoxifen, within two months she frequently gets off. Studies are inconclusive. Side effects can be depression, mood, attention problems, and memory. The New Feminine Brain give resources to women of today on how to navigate challenges with an understanding of how environment impacts their brain chemistry.
Q: Can you describe how The New Feminine Brain outlines these suggestions for women on how to take an active lead in their mental health? A: The book indicates major suggestions to pay attention to. It asks women to look at their unique brain in four areas: moods, anxiety, attention, or memory. Our conditions in these areas are born or acquired through trauma and medicine. Once we know our mental roadmap we can capture the genius behind our brain type. We can maximize our gene potential. Women should also complete the questionnaire in the book to evaluate their brain type. This exercise helps elucidate their brain type and directs them to chapters to pay attention to. It teaches women that the problems or ?holes? in their style are part of a unique genius for intuition.
Q: You are open about your ADD. How can The New Feminine Brain be of help to other women who are ADD? A: ADD and mood are an access to intuition that can be capitalized. 15% of people have a different style of attention. Some environments are conducive and others aren?t to this style. There are plenty of supplements and medicines to lend support for attention boosters. The ADD that is often called a disorder is defined by what the school teacher says about you. It is a unique form of diagnosis. So for ADD women, The New Feminine Brain teaches you how to figure this out and work with it if you have to be in an environment counter to your special attention style. Medicines don?t alter a lot because you are still the same person. If prescriptions really worked on ADDers, our society wouldn?t have Robin Williams because he has severe ADD. Someone like him has learned how to hone in on what is different with his brain and transform it into a strength in a supportive environment.
Q: Why do some ADDer succeed like Williams and others simply underachieve? A: You can get help from the physician but keep the power within you. You do not have to live the label. The success stories had the mind set of ?I?ll take what you told me to help myself but I don?t live your prognosis?. By not handing over your power to a professional is one step since it may not necessarily be true. Another key is that the ADD successes have a strong internal spirit so they don?t listen to what doesn?t make sense. They don?t let people break them. This is the resilience and temperament factor.
The definition of attention is the ability to pay focused perception on something free from distraction and reign in impulse. Resilience is the capacity to regulate your emotions to go after what you want in a skilled way. The New Feminine Brain explains more of that in the mood and anxiety chapter. Resilient people do not care so much what other people think.
Q: Does The New Feminine Brain examine whether or not there are two breeds of women these days caught in an evolutionary loophole? It seems like women are polarized in the realm of relationships. Some women literally need a man and can?t exist without a male partner. Others can be annoyed with one around too long. A: I am not really a feminist from the point-of-view of the brain. Some people have a brain style where their happiness has to come through someone else. They can only feel good with a strong, protective person, usually a male. A woman like this needs close companionship to feel normal. To others this is irritating because of their circuits of arousal make them too emotionally porous. Another strong figure is too much information on their system. These women are compelled to do something rather than equalize their internal emotions. So the presence of a protective male figure is very destabilizing for their life.
Consider also that a lot of women stay in a relationship due to lack of skills, independence, self-esteem, money, and other essentials to self-empowerment so then don?t really have a choice. They aren?t free to choose. The New Feminine Brain offers resources so women can have the freedom to understand their unique brain style, play out merits, fix moods, and live in peace. Whether or not this means a partner or not.
Q: A recent story here in Toronto published in The Globe and Mail talked about a study that concluded women who were mothers were smarter than those who weren?t. What are your thoughts to that? A: The studies included rat brains as well but saying that mothers are smarter is complicated. It?s true that taking care of something close to you can make you brighter. Old people in nursing homes are given pets and it improves memory and cognition. The stimulation increased flexibility of the brain. ?Aunting? behavior such as taking care of someone else?s kids can sprout the same brain pathways. It?s an unfortunate statement and misses the mark to say this. That means men are truly disadvantaged. The message to women is to have a baby and they?ll be better. Being a mother depends on what your brain is molded for. This is what The New Feminine Brain teaches you to determine. Not every woman is wired to be a mother and therefore, she should not have children. There are examples in the animal kingdom. Some sheep have lambs and then ignore them and walk away. So the sheepherder has to find a surrogate mother with a better brain adaptive to motherhood.
Q: In your own words how would you sum up what The New Feminine Brain can do for women? A: The book teaches you to find your unique genius, navigate the world, fix problems and maximize unique gifts.
If you have a problem in the brain it is also an access to intuition. A problem kid is a different kid. Mothers can capitalize the strength about their brain but also mold their brain to fit into society when need be. Labels are important. You can?t fix it if you can?t name it. BUT - you can?t let it limit or define you like a crutch or tool in the world.
Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for women who are ?self-help? addicts? There is a line between improvement and needing it to function. A: It is a form of dependency when you have lost your internal anchor and seek answers outside. It is a pursuit of a holy grail of happiness. Happiness is looking outside what you should know is inside. Some are using it just to have a relationship. Peace is within. People who need people is as old as time. The classes and workshops are a way to create a family or go to a different kind of church. Finding companionship is healthy and constant learning makes you senile resistant. The key is to distinguish whether you are using self-help to grow or if it is using you to have a life.
Q: Any advice to people who are totally new to the world of self-help when they pick up a copy of The New Feminine Brain? A: Take the questionnaire. See chapters 1,2, 3, 4 and the sections on emotional feng shui and mood and society. Recurring problems indicate that you are not listening to the intuition behind the moods. Merely getting remedies is not enough. You must understand what constant moods are all about.
Q: Do you have any feminine wisdom on how women can navigate the world of self-help with some good brain sense? A: Buyer Beware. Get someone who has a credential in an area that is board certified by the government. This is a mark of integrity and grounding in that field. It also indicates that they have a rigor to pass the hurdle. Such a person is not a fly by night but one who has mastered an area and there is something about a person who has structure in a discipline. This is a person who has had to sit with a supervisor, make mistakes, get guidance, and then get it right. A name comes with a tradition. When buying a Ford or Toyota we are purchasing this tradition. Use the same common sense as you would when looking for a new car.
Listen to her weekly radio show Intuitive Health on the Sirius Network every Wednesday at 4pm EST. For more information, visit www.drmonalisa.com
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