Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Ashley Maltz. She shares her story with us below:
Dr. Ashley Maltz was born and raised in Houston, TX, to immigrant parents who taught her the value of hard work, generosity and compassion for those who are less fortunate then her. She learned these lessons with hands-on work feeding the homeless, adopting endangered species and assisting her mother in charitable causes.
As she grew older, she transformed this passion for service in to a career that goes straight to the heart of others and truly helps them create a fulfilling, productive life. She wanted to change the way people view health and wellness. She wanted them to fall in love with wellness the same way she had while in college and saw herself as a preventive medicine advocate.
She chose to go to medical school with the intention to focus on healing and helping people discover the root causes of disease. Unfortunately, what she experienced in medical school and residency disillusioned her as she yearned to prevent illness, not just treat it.
This yearning drove her to seek out additional studies in nutrition, mind/body medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Native American healing and Western herbalism, during and after her allopathic medical training. These Integrative Medicine modalities are safe, effective and evidence-based. And this is what she practices at West Holistic Medicine in downtown Austin.
She blends the best of Western medicine and Functional Medicine with a penchant for Eastern medicine and philosophy. To her, no rock goes unturned when seeking out the best and most effective treatments for patients.
Having suffered from chronic pain, depression, lifelong anxiety and often debilitating fatigue, she knows what’s missing in allopathic medicine and she’s on a mission to change it.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I believe every day is an opportunity to learn and grow from challenges. I’ve overcome many obstacles in her way over the years, including debilitating anxiety and fatigue. I know what it’s like to be told, “your labs are all normal and we have no solutions for your issues”. This inspired and pushed me to delve in to Integrative, Alternative and Functional Medicine modalities and helps me show up as an authentic and open-minded physician.
Not to mention, the steep learning curve that began in December 2021 as the new owner of West Holistic Medicine. Outside of insurance billing, doctors are not taught anything about business or entrepreneurship in medical school or residency. While she’s regularly navigating small business issues, like IT issues, marketing, human resources, scheduling, etc., she is reminded of how far she’s come over the years.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Our integrative medical practice values the relationship between practitioner and patient, is person-centered, informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches.
Our practice model is low-volume and places an emphasis on high-quality preventative care and wellness. This allows us the time needed to personalize care, to provide treatment options that address root causes and to offer integrative approaches to management. We combine evidence-based mainstream medicine with nutrition, mind-body, acupuncture and other healing modalities. We build a treatment plan that is right for each individual.
Our office is a clean, green and serene healing space in downtown Austin. We go paperless as much as possible. Handouts, prescriptions, records, referrals and lab orders are completed electronically.
I founded the Austin Wellness Collaborative – a Facebook group founded to serve as a model for inter-professional collaborative care in Austin.
We bring together health and wellness professionals, entrepreneurs and community members to create a new standard of care and optimal well-being for all!
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Covid-19 has been a valuable lesson for our practice. For one, we have gained insight into the lack of coordinated public health care in the U.S. Second, we have seen the toll that this virus has had on people. As our practitioners were on the “second line” of health care during the pandemic, we could see the variety of effects it took on each person. While some perished, others had minimal symptoms and even others had mild illness but lingering Long Covid. Given I’ve cared for those with similar post-viral fatigue syndromes for almost a decade, I see the research that has come out of this pandemic as one small silver lining for all the hardships endured. Unfortunately, I believe the impacts of the pandemic, especially economically, are just beginning to surface and we will be riding out it’s effects for decades to come.
Additionally, I’ve reveled in the focus on mental health which I’ve thought was a LONG time coming and enjoyed seeing businesses start to help get personal protective equipment (PPE) to front line professionals. We can only pray that our government learns and grows from the mistakes made, prioritizing the public health and mental health systems. Americans have long been suffering from a variety of ailments and it is time for them to step up and provide relief. This virus and its effects has had a lasting impact on us all. Some for the better, many for the worse. Now it’s time to come together and heal.
Pricing:
- 75 min Integrative Medicine Consultation – $400
- 30 min Follow-up – $200
- Monthly Physician Subscription (which includes 30 mins of my time monthly) $145/month
Contact Info:
- Website: westholisticmedicine.com
- Instagram: @westholisticmedicine
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WestHolisticMedicine
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5CSSmcJpg2coiPo-7vumNg
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/west-holistic-medicine-austin
Image Credits
Gary Maltz Photography
The Perfect Headshot
