Bioenergetic restorative practitioner Pamela Smith began her medical career as a physiatrist—a doctor of rehabilitative medicine. With a successful practice in Houston, all was going well for Smith for about two decades until she was diagnosed with breast cancer and given a grim prognosis of six to 12 months to live. Refusing to accept that fate, Smith began an alternative wellness journey that ultimately led her to form The Healing Sanctuary Institute of Texas (THSI), a membership-based wellness center with a spa-like setting where Smith teaches, educates and empowers people to be their own doctors and take charge of their health.

“I made a conscious decision that I wasn’t going to do chemotherapy or radiation, and I’d try anything and everything in the alternative medicine realm to heal myself,” Smith relates. “I left the country and studied from other health leaders throughout the world to figure out what they were doing.”

Smith’s quest to restore her health and learn of natural modalities led her to many countries, including Ecuador, Costa Rica and Indonesia—all with relatively low cancer rates. She learned about their lifestyles and dietary habits, such as how Ecuador’s food supply is all organic and locally grown, and how the Costa Rican people use guanabana juice to fight illnesses. Smith also observed these cultures’ simpler, low-stress ways of life, and she’s learned much about natural and alternative medicine during her sojourns. Now cancer-free for eight years, Smith feels great and wants to share what she’s learned with others.

“You have to remember that health is a gift, and it’s the most valuable thing you have. You have to take care of yourself, and that’s something the Western lifestyle does not do,” Smith emphasizes. “That’s why I felt led by God to return to the U.S. to share and give people the opportunity to learn how to properly take care of themselves.”

In 2016, Smith opened THSI on Greenville Avenue. Due to rapid growth, Smith and her staff are now in their current 6,000-square-foot location on Oak Lawn Avenue. For a small fee, a person can become a member of THSI and learn to implement and study alternative rejuvenating treatments.

New members first receive a hair analysis, which Smith says determines a person’s heavy metal and toxicity load. Once toxicity is determined, members are scanned on the Ondamed, a biofeedback instrument commonly used in Germany. The device reads and helps reset the electromagnetic fields in the body, which can ultimately help the body heal itself naturally. Smith also creates a detoxification plan for each member.

“We live in a highly toxic environment, and almost 200 diseases are caused by toxicity overload,” Smith says. “Once we identify the toxin, we safely detox it out the of body, but it’s important to do it properly. If you detox on a regular basis and build your immune system, your body can recover from almost anything.”

THSI has wellness tools such as an infrared sauna and detoxification footbaths to aid in the detox programs. Intravenous vitamin C therapy, which boosts the immune system through high doses of vitamins and minerals injected directly into the bloodstream, is also available. While Smith occasionally uses herbal supplements, she encourages members to ultimately use food as medicine, which, along with detoxing and juicing one day per week, can help people maintain optimal health.

Smith also promotes grounding, which is standing on the ground and walking barefoot outdoors. The sustained contact with the Earth’s natural, mild electric charge can relieve inflammation, pain and stress. “My goal is to help prevent disease and save people a lot of pain and suffering. Prevention is power, and it’s also the most cost-effective way to live,” Smith says. “I’m an educator, not a medicator.”

Smith’s continuing efforts to educate people to take charge of their own health include classes and lectures, and her upcoming book Juice Medicine, containing juicing recipes.

The Healing Sanctuary Institute to Texas is located at 2603 Oak Lawn Ave., Ste. 100, in Dallas. For more information, call 972-521-6550 or visit TheHealingSanctuaryInstitute.com.

Sheila Julson is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer and contributor to Natural Awakenings magazines throughout the country.