HealingStrong - Interview with Suzy Griswold

welcome back to another episode of

Christian Natural Health today I'm

excited to have Susie Griswold with us

Susie is the founder and president of

healing strong she is a 13-year thyroid

cancer survivor and thriver after

surgery and conventional treatment

failed and subsequent scans revealed

lymph node involvement Susie ultimately

took a very different route to Healing

that was revealed after much prayer and

research when friends and family noticed

the transformation they asked Susie to

meet with their loved ones in 2012 Susie

began healing strong as a blog post that

was just the start as she brought

together a group of natural thrivers and

caregivers in her living room to pray

about next steps the vision for the very

first healing strong conference in 2013

became a reality it became a Grassroots

movement and small group communities

that continues today to date 450 groups

around the U.S Canada and eight

International countries have been part

of healing strong healing strong

continues to empower Inspire motivate

and equip group group participants and

members to live more whole and

hope-filled lives welcome Susie thank

you so much for joining us thank you Dr

Lauren for having me appreciate it so

tell us a little bit about your your own

backstory first of all so I know in your

blog you also or your your bio rather uh

the part that I truncated out you also

mentioned that there was a lot along

family history before you had your

personal diagnosis so it must have been

terrifying when you got your diagnosis

after all of that I imagine it was

because I I am number 13 in my family

and these are family members we did you

know life with so 10 of them passed away

so

um when I was diagnosed in 2009 it was

super scary and I did everything I just

got on the train and did everything they

told me to do and

um all along just wondering is this is

this right am I gonna head into the same

you know direction that my family went

into and it wasn't until

um they found

um after they did the subsequent scans

after I had surgery and then I did the

radioactive there therapy they found my

lymph nodes were lit up so that's when I

said oh wait a minute

obviously didn't work like it was

supposed to and I was assured by the

doctor oh no it's just going to take

extra time just you know we'll we won't

worry about it right now but in the

meantime that's when a friend sent me a

book

um called Knockout by Suzanne Summers

and you know what's amazing is that my

background has health and never had I

really been exposed other than when I

was in graduate school I did have

um I did some cancer research

um during my tenure at utl Science

Center and I had a family come to me and

introduced me to the macrobiotic diet

and they were doing really well as

pancreatic cancer patient stage four so

but that was just like in passing right

it wasn't something that I learned or

right wait that was really the

introduction and God was so good to

remind me of that to remind me to take

time and to see chem and ultimately I

was led to do the Gerson Therapy and

that's what I landed on for 18 months

after that awesome and so for at the end

of those 18 months what was the result

everything was clear and what's really

neat is that

um going into my thyroid cancer

diagnosis I actually was heading in for

surgery for a radical hysterectomy and

instead of getting that done the cancer

came up so I addressed that but through

the Gerson Therapy my everything healed

so when you healed Everything feels

right your body heals and from the

inside out so I no longer needed the

hysterectomy I know I still have

everything and of course I'm much older

so yeah but I'm so thankful I didn't you

know get rid of that and yeah it was

just amazing it was it was an amazing

transformation not only for myself

physically to get through the cancer but

also for my family we we turned it on

our kids or both of our children had

have Addison's disease Lyme disease has

popped up we've we've implemented all of

this to help our family heal you know

and of course we've learned that it's

more than just about juicing a 25 pound

bag of carrots a week and doing

detoxification but you know it's it's

all encompassing of forgiveness and

emotional healing and really drawing

close to the Lord so that's what healing

strong is founded on yeah that's awesome

so I'd like to for a second kind of dial

into your experience of praying and

having God lead you to what you needed

to do when what was that process like I

mean was it like ideas pop into your

head and you Google it or it's people

come across your path and say hey have

you thought of this or do you remember

all the details of how he led you to the

path that you ultimately ended up on

yeah it's a great gosh that's a great

question

so let me let me think back and tell you

what I remember I remember getting

Suzanne Summer's book after I had prayed

and asked and told the Lord how

terrified I was I didn't want to go down

the same route as my family and I really

I need help I need direction and a

friend sent me this book and she

happened to be now you know I don't know

how old you are but Chrissy Suzanne

Summers was Chrissy to me right this

dizzy blonde so I'm like what is she

gonna tell me about cancer but because

it was the CEO of the company I was

working for at the time and I respect

her very much I read the book right I'm

so thankful that I did because it began

to open my eyes and then the Lord began

to remind me remind me of what happened

when I was in grad school with that

family and I'll call the the guy Gordy

who did really well with the pancreatic

cancer you know and was doing really

well and then

um my husband who's if you meet he's

such a wonderful man but he was really

leery about what I was saying Jeff I

don't want to do anymore because they

were talking about at that point to

pluck my lymph nodes out one by one

um one doctor I kept seeing doctors one

doctor said we'll do a radical neck

dissection

and I just kept praying and the Lord

kept bringing he kept bringing people

into my past so I I said my husband came

home with a video that somebody gave him

out of the blue from Dr Lorraine day so

it's I think that's what's so beautiful

about the Savior we serve is that he is

in the details so I watched this thing

on the rain day who healed her own stage

four breast cancer and it was it it was

mind-blowing to me so I just it just

kept encouraged me okay Susie you're on

the right track you're on the right

track and ultimately someone sent me a

link to the Gerson website Max Gerson

and then I ordered his book which was a

crazy book to read you probably could

understand it way better than I could

but it was the 50 case studies and I'm

like you know it took me you know two

hours to get through two pages almost

and look up the words and um and then I

I read Charlotte gerson's book I read

and prom's book

um my cancer battle plan I mean their

tests were I just dove in head first and

it came from these little beautiful

nuggets of praying and asking God to

show me and he did he sent he sent it to

me he would send me these little

beautiful nuggets and my spirit would be

encouraged and I would have joy instead

of dread and fear and you know that's

one thing he tells us is to seek him and

to seek his his Spirit as the spirit of

love joy peace patience kindness

goodness gentleness and self-control not

fear dread

anxiety you know all of the things that

he is is what I was I was feeling those

things and I knew that this was correct

it was the right way to go yeah

absolutely and when when we're following

his path there's going to be peace as

part of that Hallmark you're supposed to

follow our piece let that umpire in our

lives I love that so did you chart your

own course here did you have like a

natural practitioner to come alongside

you or how did that part work oh I tried

to find this alternative practitioner in

Houston we were from the Houston area so

I went back and I went to see this

alternative practitioner but he wanted

to do chemotherapy

in the meantime I had been introduced to

the Gerson clinic right at that time

they they were just now I believe

starting to look at training

practitioners but they were just very

few and far and so I bought all of

Charlotte gerson's videos and I followed

the videos I followed her book I

followed the videos and Anne fromm's

book which was my cancer battle plan she

really did a lot of research with Dr

Gerson and so it was she laid it out

like it was very very easy but

um so I would say I did this uh mod very

subtly modified Gerson Therapy fully in

Dr Anne Fromm or and from not Dr Ann

from but and froms

um testimony and how she laid things out

so I wouldn't say I charted my own

course because I really had that

research and background that I believe

so strongly in the Gerson Therapy but um

I did modified a little bit I was a busy

Mom I had two you know kids I was taken

care of I worked full-time you know

there were just things that I did so I

had to thank God I was at home doing

this but you know I had to work work and

take care of the family so I would

modify things a bit just to weave it

into my lifestyle

and so how did God incorporate the

issues of like forgiveness especially it

seems like that comes up a lot with

cancer it seems like and forgiveness and

bitterness especially but all of like

the mental emotional components how did

he intervene that what did he like to

the extent that you're comfortable

sharing what did he reveal he really

felt like was helpful in terms of moving

everything along

you know that was probably one of the

biggest things for me because I felt

like

um

walking into this this healing approach

and doing it alternatively I thought the

answer was the Gerson Therapy that was

it yeah but what I what I found was is

that God wanted to take me deeper and

when we press into him which I did this

was my turning point for me was the

diagnosis was my turning point to really

get to know him so it's the first time I

ever read scripture from start to finish

I had you know done little bits I'd done

Bible studies I've been introduced to

Beth Moore's studies you know so I've

done things like that that's the first

time I ever read his word from start to

finish and I through that

he healed me

um with a lot of unforgiveness that I

was carrying around with me and I I'll

just give you one example but there's

there's lots and we we'd have to talk a

long time because it's still happening

right like I I still am learning to

forgive myself I'm still learning to

forgive you know family members and

people around me that I allowed to to

get in there over really silly things

and and it gets

it's further and further now that I'm

that I'm realizing that I need to go

back and address it but but coming into

the sickness into this disease there was

a lot of stuff a lot of work I needed to

do with God it was me and God for a

really long time and I'll give you one

example yeah

um I was I so I was born in between

marriages so my mother had me in between

her marriages she was going to place me

up for adoption and she realized at the

last minute that she was Gonna Keep Me

and when she got really sick I learned

that the the sperm donor I call him

was not a very nice man and and he

actually was was very threatening

towards my mom and and it was so she

told me that right before she died

okay so so I'm stuck with this identity

of my birth you know father now my the

father I have now adopted me when I was

um three two or three or four so he's

wonderful and um but they never told me

about this until later on in my life I

knew that I was adopted by doing my own

research when I was about 12 or 13 some

things were wrong so I felt like they

had lied to me and there wasn't I

couldn't trust them so when mom passed

away I was so frustrated it was so

frustrated why couldn't she tell me more

about my past and but what I came to see

um through inner healing is that uh I

went to an inner healing Circle prayer

and and it was so beautiful Dr Lauren

because it's somebody who had been

trained in inner healing to walk me to

take me back to that

when I was born right where I'm thinking

my mother is keeping me out of fear you

know but he she brought me to the room

of my birth and she brought she said

Jesus is right there with you and he

loves you and he sees you and he's going

to take care of you that's a very

different thought than Susie I escaped I

went into hiding I had to I decided to

keep you and then we then we fled the

state and went to Texas because I wanted

to protect you no he was there and he

knew what I needed and so it's really

this kind of shift in how I think about

my circumstances you know retraining or

thinking to think on things that are

good and lovely and trustworthy and so

when that takes an effort and so that

happened very much in my own healing

through the you know this journey since

I was diagnosed that was part of the

journey and the other thing was after my

mom passed away my dad met the hospice

nurse they ended up falling in love and

getting married to the hospice nurse

well I wasn't real happy about that and

so I had to walk through forgiveness

with that whole situation as well and my

dad and I our relationship is better

than it's ever been and where the

healing took place is through healing

strongs around the word in 80 Days where

we just open up the word of God and read

it together from start to finish so I

could go on and on about the little

things that I've learned and implemented

myself it's been so beautiful and it and

it's continual I mean like if I am not

in the word

I'm I'm definitely gonna have trouble

for sure dealing with adversity right or

somebody who may have said something

that sat wrong or you know whatever so

it's just letting go and trusting God

and that's way more important I think

than

than the tumor but I think when we do

that the tumor begins to go away

oh absolutely so two thoughts as you

were talking like first is a question

about

um so the inner healing Circle that

sounds a lot like the healing codes have

you heard of that before okay so it's a

book that's very much the idea of you

the Holy Spirit takes you back into your

history and shows you where you still

have areas that he needs to deal with

and help you to heal but it sounds like

it's pretty much the same concept it's

just maybe the way that you get there is

a little bit different yeah

maybe maybe this person was trained and

I don't know it was a it was a

one-on-one healing my husband was there

too

um it was it was beautiful yeah

yeah um and the other thing was that in

naturopathic medicine there is a phrase

that the body weeps tears that the eyes

cannot shed the idea that if you love

that oh my goodness right

process if you don't process something

it will show up somewhere and if you

shove it down it is going to manifest in

some other way it's like playing

whack-able it's gonna pop up in some

places

if you don't end up dealing with the

root of it and so so many times those

those

unworked through emotions end up popping

up as physical disease so I love that

the Holy Spirit made you kind of

recognize it's not just physical we're

body-minded Spirit you have to do it all

at once so after you did you went

through your own healing Journey that's

when you started healing strong so and

it started kind of small so where are

you at now as far as like all the cancer

support groups do you have like a

documentation or like here's how you go

through it or what kind of uh guidance I

guess do you give these groups what

makes them different than yeah thank you

for asking that so healing strong is

just it's very different because we

don't focus on the cancer we focus on

the person and so yeah we focus on the

person the cancer is just happens to be

what brings them in and plus not

everyone that comes to our groups have

cancer when we started

it was more cancer patients but what we

have found is that people want to

prevent cancer and this information is

super helpful for them so today we have

a curriculum we just finished the second

revision which was a year and a half

long with volunteers that went through

every single page and Note and it's

fabulous I have to say it's just

fabulous and we focus on three pillars

So within the curriculum we focus on

rebuilding the body which we promote

plant-based nutrition especially for

healing to focus on you know overdosing

on nutrition and so we that's part of

our curriculum we have a good better

best section so we don't think that

everybody's going to go from like me I

ate fried foods almost every day when I

was diagnosed I mean to go from that to

doing the Gerson Therapy was crazy but

um most people can't do that so we help

them go from good to better to best

within that we also address renewing the

soul which is her mind our will and our

emotions and that's part of that

curriculum and then we also address

refreshing the spirit which is how are

you going to draw close to God how are

you going to learn to listen and discern

the voice of God how are you going to

forgive and oftentimes we work with

um other organizations to help walk

people through that so rap Ministries is

one of them they're out of of Houston

and so is Journey you both of those

organizations Focus

um solely they're christ-centered and

they focus solely on helping people to

get through the emotional healing that's

needed and so we will refer people to

that as well but we teach in our

curriculum the importance of it how to

do it there are activities that we have

to help people do that as well so this

curriculum has been redone you can

download the participant guide for free

on our website if you just go to

healingstrong.org if you go to the start

here page you'll get some really great

videos that we have done

um and then you will also get for the

healing Journey jump start you'll get

our start here curriculum videos and

then you'll get the participant guide

that you can get for free so we give a

lot of stuff away all of our groups are

always free we started with 20 groups as

test groups and we wrote curriculum and

we fed it to them and they did it and

gave it back to us and we reread the

curriculum and since that time which has

been about seven years now we have had

450 groups that we've supported in the

United States Canada and a few

International countries so it's just a

it's a beautiful it's a it's a beautiful

representation of the body of Christ

coming together and really helping

people to heal we don't we don't speak

um timing over people we you know we we

don't necessarily address side effects

of chemo but what we are going to teach

you is what you can do at home

to be strong because those choices you

make at home

are the most important choices you will

make in healing whether it's you know

what you're putting in your mind or what

you're putting in your body so that's

what we focus on

what I love so much about this story is

that the area where Satan tried to take

you out has turned into such an enormous

Victory not just for you but now you're

spreading it it's like you're rubbing

the Devil's face in it for the fact that

you completely turned things around

so great and it's so amazing Dr Lauren

it's so many people I mean you know

we're just so fortunate and blessed to

have people that have stories that are

incredible testimonies that are leading

groups and they're like you know if you

could hear the stories of our group

leaders especially it it just blows me

away it's like um we bring our you know

our our Five Loaves and two fish right

right this is what we have we're gonna

bring this and and somebody else is

going to pick up on it and they're gonna

give theirs and that's what that's what

the groups are about and that's why

we're able to do what we do with 95

volunteer efforts and a very little uh

very little so it's a it's a good

investment of time energy and efforts

yeah that's awesome that's awesome so

and the group dynamics like if somebody

were to go to one of these groups for

the first time what do they expect is

there somebody reading or are they are

you guys watching videos and then

talking about it what is what actually

happens all of that so someone may

choose to do a video we have videos

online they may choose to do a video and

then discuss it there's always

discussion some of them choose to do

like every other week they'll do the

curriculum and on those off weeks they

do field events so they'll they'll go to

the local I mean someone go to Salt cane

and send us pictures of their whole

group in the Salt Cave um in California

okay

um many of them will go to the local

farmers market and help people pick out

the right you know foods to juice and

combinations

um they'll bring in speakers I don't

you're in Phoenix you there's groups

there I know that they would love to

have someone like you coming and speak

so they have speakers that come in and

talk about the different topics that you

know they they want to address or that

the you know the group participants have

said they want to address so yeah it's

just a variety of stuff they share their

testimonies so you may have you know

there's going to be testimony day and

they have a somebody who just came back

from one of the Mexico clinics and they

want to know more about the clinics or

or maybe someone who's doing the Gerson

Therapy and they want to hear more about

their stories so testimonies are

powerful

um to see that people are doing it

really cool so and I hear this is a

special year for healing strong what's

going on it is it is our 10-year

anniversary so number one the fact that

we have reached 10 years we are

celebrating every single day

um but we are doing a conference in

September to do the celebration in uh

September 29th and 30th it's in Houston

Texas we're bringing in some of our

favorite speakers that have been a part

of healing strong for the last 10 years

we have patient testimonies that will be

their patient panel and then it's a

culmination into a night of worship uh

and celebration and that's going to be

Saturday night so it's at the Met church

which if you've never seen him or heard

him on TV um pastor Matt is amazing he's

got a message for us and I'm just so

excited we've got um I think the the

Gaither he knows two of the Gaither band

guys the southern gospel singers and

they're going to be coming into and

we'll have Chris Fork is our MC he's

with Crispy cancer he'll be a part of

the night of worship as well we've got

readers from around the world that's

going to be it's just going to be a

really special celebration and everybody

is welcome to come it's not just if

you've been a part of healing strong we

want you there it's it's you will leave

always we've done three events you will

leave always way encouraged and knowing

that you can do this so it's so awesome

is there anything I have not asked you

that you want to make sure you leave

with our audience

oh I think that um I think we covered

most everything but I I want to

encourage your audience that you know

today

um isolation and fear are rampant and

it's so easy to get comfortable sitting

at home or being like we are right now

online and this is I love that we can

use technology for this but if you are

in a place where you're healing and you

especially natural healing because this

is this goes against the grain

for sure reach out to Healing strong let

us connect you to a group because it

will help you to heal so much stronger

so much better

um you will know you're not alone you'll

know that there are other people have

been diagnosed with way worse diagnosis

than what you have that are healing

strong that they're you know they're

seven years out from a stage four breast

cancer diagnosis or you know there's so

many of those people so if there's

anything that I just want to leave with

the audience is that you are not alone

and if you are doing integrative or

conventional and you want to know what

you can do at home to help your body

heal then hook up with us there's so

much there's so much on our website

that's free and there's so much that

comes from the group so I just want to

encourage people to connect with healing

strong that's so great I'm so glad

you're doing this and making this

available for people and so people can

go to healingstrong.org to find the

groups and to find the conference and to

find all the resources and everything

right yeah that's right yep Haley and we

have lots of resources we even have a

little podcast where we interview mostly

survivors are on it but we we're going

to be doing some things different since

it's our 10-year for for our fourth

season but um yeah we've got so much

available on there please go there

download uh resources that are free and

find a group and join the conference

it's it's reasonable we've got

incredible people coming and we'll be

addressing all three of those things so

it's gonna be fun well so I will link to

that in the show notes and thank you so

much Susie this is really encouraging

I'm so glad you're doing this me I

really appreciate you thank you Dr a lot

are you looking for a holistically

minded Healthcare practitioner who truly

treats root cause rather than symptom

suppression unfortunately even in the

alternative healing professions this

isn't a given that's why I've created

wholehealthdoctor.com a resource to help

connect patients to healthcare

practitioners in their area who share a

root cause philosophy alternatively most

of the practitioners listed also

practice Telehealth so if there isn't

anyone local to you you can still find a

great practitioner to help you regain

Optimal Health go to

wholehealthdoctor.com that's whole

healthdr.com type in your location or

adjust the specialty that you're looking

for and find the practitioner who's

right for you

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