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Consultation

Stephen Chee, MD, MPH, MA, MTOM, LAc

About Dr. Chee

Hi, I’m Dr. Steve Chee.​

I am a physician that guides patients and coaching clients along the journey of healing the root causes of "dis-ease". I'm also a Certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapist, and I also have extensive training and experience with Eastern and Western medicine, Spiritual Psychology, Mind Body Medicine, Intuition Medicine®, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, yoga and qi gung. I help people to bridge the gap between what is happening physically and what is occurring psycho-spiritually.

Who is the typical person that sees me and how do I help?

The typical person that sees me has something going on with their health, whether that be a health condition or symptom and they are not getting the answers or relief they are looking for. They've been seen by traditional western medicine doctors and not just wanting to medicate their symptoms away. They are holistically oriented and are wanting to explore their health on all levels, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

So what I do with people helps to bridge the gap between what is happening physically and psycho-spiritually. I help people to explore their health, their health condition, their relationship with their body. Here we not only discover the root dynamics, the root causes at the heart of their suffering, of their "dis-ease" and but also help them to unburden it.

I help people to come back home to themselves, back home to a felt sense of embodiment and a sense of fully inhabiting their body with their Soul essence, their Self.  When this happens, this is very healing, and from my experience I've seen symptoms or conditions improve or even resolve completely.

And as my patients get to know their parts inside, I frequently see their parts being amazed at really reconnecting with their true Self, their Soul essence. And perhaps, most importantly for my patients, is the willingness, the courage, and the ability to live their lives with greater joy, greater meaning and greater connection with themselves and with others.

How did I come to be interested in treating patients this way?

About 17 years ago, I had an experience of both a spiritual break down and a spiritual break through. I was working as a family physician at a community health center and began experiencing burn out. I also felt lost because the career path that I had envisioned since college wasn't working out. So I started to explore meditation and went on my first ever 10-day silent meditation retreat. On that retreat, I had the most profound mystical experience of my life. Some may call it a kundalini awakening. What I experienced was my body feeling fully alive and flowing with vital energy and a sense of truly being home, of truly being my Self.

I experienced what Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet and mystic, once said, "Soul, a moving river. Body, the riverbed."

Ever since that time, I wanted to know more about this energy that I experienced flowing through my body and how it can be utilized for health and for healing. Here’s a list of what I’ve studied and explored:

● Completed a yoga teacher training

● Authorized by a qi gong master to teach qi gong

● Trained in Reiki

● Studied Interpersonal Neurobiology with Dr. Dan Siegel

● Completed a degree in Spiritual Psychology with an Emphasis in Consciousness, Health & Healing

● Completed another degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine

● Completed a mind body medicine training program developed by Dr. Herbert Benson, Mind Body Medicine Professor at Harvard Medical School

● Completed a Level 1 and Level 2 training in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and also became a Certified IFS Therapist

● Received a Master Certificate in Intuition Medicine®

● Completed a Level 1 training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

● Served as faculty at the University of Santa Monica's Spiritual Psychology program, Consciousness, Health & Healing for over 10 years

Whole Person Therapy & Coaching is an amalgamation of all of that which I have found to be the most beneficial for health and healing.

About Internal Family Systems (IFS)

What is Internal Family Systems and why is it my main approach

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a psychotherapeutic modality developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz in the 1980s. It's based on the notion that people are made up of an internal system of parts and Self. In general, there are two types of parts: protective parts and the vulnerable parts that need protecting.

The Self is present in all of us and it's been called by esoteric spiritual traditions different things: the Soul, Atman, Buddha Mind or Buddha Nature, God seed, and God within to name but a few. It's identified by qualities such as love, compassion, curiosity, presence, wholeness and wisdom.

Our internal system is meant to function collaboratively and in harmony with the Self in the lead and parts as essential resources. The Self has a motivation toward health, wholeness, and connection. Problems occur when parts take on maladaptive roles, burdens, and the Self is not in the lead.

How this often shows up in my patients is with internal conflict. Whether that be the conflict that results from having a health conditions and it's impact on one's life, one's relationships, and one's dreams. Or the most common inner conflict dynamic related to health conditions is a part of us that pushes us to live, to work harder, or to take care of others and a seeming push-back from the body that prevents or gets in the way of that happening.

These inner dynamics can trigger all kinds of reactions, fear, worry, concern, anger, frustration or even a sense of embarrassment or having been betrayed by one's body.

To address this, the majority of people focus on trying to find solutions to fix, to solve or cure the health condition, whether that be a drug, procedure, test, specialist, herb, supplement, diet, or exercise routine to name but a few possibilities. Now, as a physician, I not only understand this, but will often make recommendations aimed at providing such solutions.

But where Internal Family Systems can be helpful is when people are able and willing to not only look outside of themselves for a solution and but also open to exploring and looking inside at their own inner world. It's in the inner world that we can help our parts to heal, not by pushing them away or trying to fix them, but by truly getting to know them and understanding the underlying hurts.

What I often find is old hurts that people never believed anything could be done about and what I've seen time and time again is that those old hurts just haven't been truly connected to the healing capacity of the Self. Internal Family Systems (IFS) is the main approach I use because of the benefits and healing it's provided my patients.

I've seen it work where other modalities and approaches have not.

Is there any research on IFS and physical health conditions?

Research on Internal Family Systems was published in the Journal of Rheumatology in 2013 where IFS was used with patients who had rheumatoid arthritis. And what did they find? Pain and joint function improved and a year after the study they found that improvements in pain, depressive symptoms and self-compassion were sustained. I've heard from Dr. Richard Schwartz, the creator of Internal Family Systems, that there was also a couple of cases of remission amongst those studied.

IFS has also been found to be an evidenced-based approach by the NREPP (National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices).

I've tried talk therapy before why is IFS different?

There are many ways it's different:

1. First off, IFS is body-based. It's not about recounting or retelling a story that we have in our mind. Or mechanically trying to change our thoughts or beliefs about ourselves or our experience. With IFS, we explore the various ways the body communicates to us, through our physical sensations and all of our other senses (seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting), through our movement or gestures, as well as our feelings and our thoughts.

2. Secondly, with IFS we will explore physical experience not through ordinary consciousness, but through a state of mindfulness. We create a safe container to experience our inner world more deeply and richly; this state helps facilitate profound healing and transformation.

3. Thirdly, IFS utilizes the notion that we all have a Self and that this gives all of us the capacities for love, compassion, and wisdom. Essentially, we all have our own inner healer and IFS helps us to become more aware of it and utilize it.

I've tried other types of spiritual healing or spiritual approaches and they haven't worked, why is IFS different?

There are a few key aspects to IFS that make it unique versus other spiritual healing approaches.

1. Firstly, IFS is driven by the patient. It's a process that the patient consciously engages into as opposed to a passive process that is done to the person. Ultimately, this allows the patient to actively experience their parts in direct connection with their Self and their Self as a source of healing and connection. For parts that have been isolated or outside awareness, this can be incredibly healing. This also means that the patient is learning and experiencing a new way of being that can facilitate on-going growth and healing.

2. Secondly, IFS has specific approaches that help for identifying and working with spiritual bypass. The most common way this shows up is patients are telling themselves some spiritual principle, like, "I should be more accepting of this situation". But their body reacts in a way that isn't reflective of acceptance, or there is another part inside of them that still is disturbed by the situation. IFS has specific ways of not trying to make or change parts, and yet also allowing them to evolve and express themselves in harmony with the rest of the internal system of the patient.

3. Thirdly, IFS sees the Self as the ultimate loving parental figure. Why does that matter? Ironically and paradoxically, some spiritual healing approaches are not very gentle or are dismissive. For example, they may try to eradicate certain intense or extreme feelings (like rage or suicidal parts) or imply that those feelings are bad or wrong.

Yet often, spiritual individuals are incredibly sensitive individuals. And in their families of origin they were seen as too much, too sensitive, or their feelings as too intense. Some spiritual based approaches may work temporarily by sheer brute force but inadvertently end up recreating old family dynamics where younger parts feel like they are too much, flawed in some way and ultimately those parts can feel unheard and unseen.

This is where IFS is different. IFS sees all parts, regardless of behavior as having some beneficial intent underneath. When parts can be truly seen, felt and heard this can be very healing. And IFS helps patients to become more aware of the Self as the ultimate caring parental figure that can bring unconditional love to any and all parts. This can become the bridge to help heal the underlying hurts that are often driving these more extreme or intense parts.

Who is a good fit?

Who is a good fit for consulting?

● Those who look or are wanting to look at their health or health condition through a spiritual context. By that I mean:

◦ Interested in a broader more holistic view that sees health issues or symptoms not only as a problem to be fixed, but also as a potential messenger of a deeper learning or even a hidden blessing yet to be realized.

◦ Knows that we aren’t ultimately broken in need of fixing, but experiencing an imbalance that can be utilized for healing and for experiencing our inherent wholeness and loving nature.

● Have tried other types of psychotherapy and want something more spiritually-oriented and/or body-oriented

● Have tried other approaches and curious about how their health condition or symptom could be related to and worked with psycho-spiritually

● On a journey of personal growth and healing, and wanting support deepening their embodiment of Self

● Expanding in sharing one's gifts with the world and wanting support accessing greater Self leadership in their life and relationships

Who is not a good fit for consulting?

● Not interested or unable to look inside of themselves

● Looking only for a quick fix

● Looking only for a solution that is done by someone else or something else (medication, procedure, process, etc)

I'm wondering if I'm a good candidate for this, can I talk to you first?

Yes, please call 310-276-3888 to setup a free 15-20 minute consultation to see if you and Dr. Chee are a good fit.

Testimonials

"I just wanted to convey how entirely grateful I am for your presence on this planet and in my life. Your innate gifts and the abilities and skills you have honed are such a help to me in my spiritual progress, and on all the levels." ~ WS

"Hi Stephen, I took myself off on a personal retreat and was rereading my journal from 2019 when I was having an extended episode of issue with my lungs. I wrote in my journal about our sessions. Your counsel and work supported healing approaches incorporating physical, emotional and energetic approaches. It was a rich time of learning for me and you were an important guide and support. Thank you for all you gave me in my healing process. I have changed how I think about my immune system and my teachers and body remind me that the body always comes first. I have not had any coughing/lung episodes for the last 2.5 years." KG

Logistics

How much do you charge? Do you take insurance for this?

I am only taking cash pay patients at this time.  My fee is $400/hr.   As a courtesy, I can submit to your out of network insurance on your behalf (for US residents only).

What happens at the first visit?

At the first visit, I’ll look at the whole picture of your health, not just one body part or organ. I’ll want to know what you are looking for help with, what you’ve tried, what you haven’t, who you’ve seen, who you haven’t, what’s worked and what hasn’t, as well as review any outside records you have including labs, imaging studies, hospital records and consultant notes. And before I see you, we will ask you to fill out an intake inform so that I can review it before I see you. Then we will together develop a treatment plan tailored for you! And, if you like, I can send a note to any of your physicians letting them know my recommendations.

And how do I incorporate other modalities into this?

I use Chinese Medicine like a rosetta stone, offering potential correlates in what could be occurring from a multi-dimensional perspective. And what does that mean? The ancient Chinese keenly observed the inner world and outer natural world for patterns and correlations.

A Chinese medicine diagnosis doesn't separate out mind, body and spirit. Rather a Chinese medicine diagnosis can provide insight into a multitude of inner and outer dynamics that could be contributing to the condition. This could include food choices, emotional stressors, why certain symptoms occur at what time and even what energetic psycho-spiritual dynamics are contributing.

I offer this information as an invitation for reflection to my patients and clients, not as a dictate. This is because what resonates as true or applicable for my patients always takes precedence over any other agenda.

Having over 20 years of clinical experience of Western Medicine, with many years of working with patients where standard approaches have failed or side effects have been unacceptable I can certainly appreciate the challenges and concerns that face many patients. Because of my background in Integrative Medicine and Chinese Medicine, I certainly can offer potential alternatives where applicable.

Other facets that I often help patients and coaching clients with is unresolved trauma from their medical experiences which can also show up as hypersensitivity and side effects to medications.

From my background in Mind Body Medicine, Intuition Medicine, yoga and qi gung, there may be other guidance or specific practices that I may suggest that is tailored to each person's situation with the intention of cultivating and deepening the experience of their own true Self.

Do you do this in person or online?

Consulting is only offered online.

Resistance to self care isn't in the way, it is the way

Find out why you aren't doing the things you know you should and how Internal Family Systems can help.

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Based in Beverly Hills, CA

9730 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 102

Beverly Hills CA 90212

O: 310-276-3888

F: 310-276-1808


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