We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Brooke Schneider & Dr. Nicole Lewis of Women Strong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Brooke and Dr. Nicole, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Work life balance is always at the forefront of our minds, both personally and as a cornerstone of our business. As passionate and busy doctor-moms, we are dedicated to the health and well-being of our patients and our families, sometimes giving so much to others that we have very little leftover to nourish our own health and well-being.

Women tend to be natural and gifted caretakers. When we have a to-do list a mile long focusing on everyone else’s needs, self-care can seem like one more “chore” that often falls to the bottom.

We started Women Strong, our women’s wellness program, as a resource for our female patients who were struggling to make self-care a priority AND as a result of our own personal struggles to maintain the ever-elusive, possibly mythical, “work-life balance”.

With the post-pandemic mental health crisis on the rise and significantly impacting today’s youth, we mothers have even more to manage on our overflowing plates. A lot of us have been in survival mode the past few years and might not have been able to take the time and space needed to process, breathe, and notice how our work-life balance has changed.

With summer on the horizon, it’s a great time to check in with ourselves, reconnect with what’s most important to us, and if necessary, make adjustments to that work-life balance.

As integrative mental health providers, we absolutely practice what we preach as a crucial part of our self-care and burnout prevention regimen. Our Women Strong program and community definitely fills our buckets! Women Strong is all about education, empowerment, connection, and women lifting one another up along the health journey.

The program curriculum provides written lessons and a variety of expert interviews covering the following foundations for health: Mindset, Nutrition, Physical Health, Self-Care, Movement, Stress Management, and Mental Health. Our expert interviews give information and actionable steps for restoring balance and improving overall health.

At Women Strong, we lean on each other often and find that learning and growing together and connecting through our shared experiences within a safe and supportive community are important components of the healing journey.

During our meet-up’s, we often discuss the importance of putting our own oxygen masks on first, where and how we can ask for help, and what are some tools and resources we can utilize to get one step closer to restoring balance. If our tank is empty, we’re no good for anybody, and with all that is demanded of us today, we need to be constantly refueling our tanks. If this feels like another “to-do” task, we have to remind ourselves that self-care is vital, AND will ultimately make all of our other tasks lighter.

Self-care doesn’t have to be “big” and doesn’t require a lot of time or money. Some examples of simple acts of self-care are giving yourself permission to pause and walk outside for a few breaths of fresh air, writing yourself an encouraging love note, or practicing saying “no” (bonus points for saying “no” AND asking that person to help take something off of your to-do list). With increased practice, flexing that “no” muscle gets easier and easier.

We encourage taking on small, simple, sometimes sassy, definitely doable, and easy-to-maintain tasks that will hopefully grow into new, healthy habits. Some of our mantras are: “progress not perfection”; “it’s a journey, not a destination”; “never compare your insides to other people’s outsides”; “you’re not alone”; “be kind and gentle with yourself”.

Practicing self-compassion and self-love has definitely helped us along the “work-life balance” journey, especially when we feel like we’re not being the best moms we can be.

The struggle is real when it comes to work-life balance! As working moms we feel this everyday and have to remind ourselves that we’re doing the best that we can, with all that we are carrying, in this moment. We women are working hard, playing hard, and growing as much as possible. At the risk of excessive cliche overuse, let’s make sure we allow ourselves to stop, put on our oxygen masks, enjoy the fruits of our labor, and smell those luscious roses!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Dr. Brooke Schneider is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist practicing integrative psychiatry in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Dr. Nicole Lewis is a naturopathic doctor, a doula, and a prenatal and postnatal coach. She practices naturopathic medicine with an emphasis on women’s health, hormones, genetics, mental health, and pregnancy/birth.

We met while working with lots of women at a busy integrative mental health clinic. We noticed that most of our female patients were struggling with similar challenges, including loneliness. We created Women Strong to connect women along their health journeys and broaden access to the integrative tools we utilize within our clinical practices. We are most proud of our ability to empower women, decrease stigma around mental health challenges, and bring women together into a supportive community. What sets our program apart are the live expert interviews! We get to talk to experts in many different fields and our members get to ask these women their own questions! At the end of every interview we ask our experts for simple tips to get started improving health in their area of expertise and the information they share is so helpful!

The biggest lessons we’ve learned as Women Strong has evolved is to stay true to our pure-hearted passion for the work that we do, to lean on one another and ask for help and support, and to trust the journey no matter how windy the path may get.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Stand-up Paddleboarding on Horsetooth Reservoir!

The Fort Collins Exchange & Old Town Fort Collins for eating, drinking, & shopping!

Meow Wolf Museum in Denver (extraordinary)! Fort Collins Museum of Discovery! Denver Museum of Nature & Science!

Parks/Playgrounds in Fort Collins

Skiing/Boarding anywhere in Colorado!

LaCreperie or Lucille’s for brunch!

The Poudre River

Fort Collins Holiday Twin Drive-in!

Red Rocks!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shoutout to Dr. Corinne Deuel-Gentile, chiropractor and owner of Foundations Family Chiropractic in Fort Collins!

The Women Strong program launched in 2019 and our very first expert interview was with Dr. Corinne! When Dr. Corinne interacted with our members in such a positive and supportive manner during the Q&A portion of the interview, we knew that Women Strong had the potential to be very special…having access to so many different health experts is such a unique and valuable aspect of the Women Strong membership program!

Dr. Corinne was very pregnant during her interview with us, and I remember after our inspiring conversation about the body’s innate capacity for healing, she said, “Thank you so much for inviting me to speak about my passion! I feel the most like myself I’ve felt in weeks!” Dr. Corinne is such a special person, healer, friend, and mother. She gives so much of herself within her communities and keeps us balanced, both literally and figuratively. Thank you, Dr. Corinne!

“At Foundations Family Chiropractic in Fort Collins, health is about giving your body the care it needs and deserves to function optimally so you can express your greatest potential for life!” -Dr. Corinne Deuel-Gentile

Website: https://www.womenstrongtogether.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/women_strong_together/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-strong/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/womenstrongtogether

Other: podcast: womenstrong.buzzsprout.com amazon e-book (available on the kindle app): https://amzn.to/3LPhDhq email: support@womenstrongtogether.com

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