Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Greer.
Hi Caleb, I’m so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, how can you bring our readers up to speed on your story? How did you get to where you are today?
My journey in healthcare began with a fascination for understanding how the human body functions. Having had my musculoskeletal issues in high school, the most relevant field of study proximal to my felt purpose was physical medicine. Fortunately, I acquired some new relatives as a result of some familial strife, and some of them were chiropractors who influenced me in the direction of becoming a chiropractor. Driven by a respect for holistic approaches and an eagerness to delve deeper into the interconnectivity of mind, body, and spirit, I found myself at Parker University in Dallas, Texas. Here, I first encountered applied clinical neuroscience and functional medicine, subjects that would significantly shape my future. While at Parker University, I seized an opportunity to intern at Carrick Brain Centers (CBC) in Dallas. At CBC, I was deeply involved in innovative receptor-based therapies, particularly aimed at assisting military veterans suffering from combat-induced traumatic brain injuries and PTSD. This experience was profoundly educational and allowed me to grow exponentially in clinical wisdom. This transformative period has led me to rethink my path in Chiropractic, inspiring me to pursue a broader scope of practice. I then embarked on a journey to earn a bachelor’s degree in Nursing, further feeding my growing interest in neuroscience, functional medicine, and integrative psychiatry. This path took me to Revive Treatment Centers in Denver, Colorado, where I played a crucial role in a multidisciplinary team, treating conditions like TBI, stroke, concussion, and PTSD. I employed various modalities like repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (RTMS), regenerative cell therapy, ketamine, intravenous therapies, and other receptor-based treatments. My relentless pursuit of knowledge and skill didn’t stop there. While working full-time, I continued my education, ultimately earning a master’s degree in nursing and certification as a Nurse Practitioner with a family focus. My subsequent experience in pain management and rehabilitation with Mihnea Dumitrescu, MD, in Austin, Texas, allowed me to refine my expertise in image-guided injection techniques, the technical application of regenerative medicine, and the art of pain management. This experience was pivotal in helping me develop a unique, systematic approach to health and wellness for optimizing patient care. I am committed to being a well-rounded practitioner, continually studying all aspects of human physiology and applying this knowledge to improve mental and physical health. I aim to go beyond treating overt physical and mental conditions, focusing on restoring the philosophical aspects of health and well-being. This involves understanding the Self and the narratives that shape individuals’ perceptions of the world. In my practice, I have had the privilege of helping over a thousand individuals across various age groups reintroduce and optimize function through my multidisciplinary approach, integrating neurology, psychology, epigenetics, nutrition, biomechanics, and medicine. Outside the office, my time is dedicated to studying, spending quality moments with my family, and engaging with friends and colleagues. In these personal spaces, I apply and share my knowledge, creating an environment that reflects the values of mindfulness, breath, self-awareness, and self-control, which I strive to instill in my children.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Every rock in the road had a purpose. You don’t get to be successful by taking the path of least resistance. Numerous social, intellectual, familial, and professional challenges proved necessary to achieve what I have.
As you know, we’re big fans of Dasein Health. What can you tell our readers who might need to be more familiar with the brand?
The concept of Dasein has shaped my clinical practice by helping me establish the following principles.
- If you listen to and observe another person, what they tell you will reflect how they perceive the world.
- The reduction of suffering every day is the highest priority.
- Designate something to aim at and strive for authenticity.
Principle #1
Dasein is a German word that means “being there.” Martin Heidegger was the 20th-century philosopher who developed the term into an entire account of Being – which can be described as the fundamental layer upon which our subjective experience is built and from which all meaning is derived. For the phenomenologist or someone who looks at the world through ‘that which appears,’ the world is not a place of objects, places, or things. Instead, the world is a manifestation of Being – for what good would a world be if there were no experience of it? So, instead of a classical scientific approach that aims to strip the subjective out of the procedure of consciousness and its contents, phenomenology aims to orient in the opposite manner, i.e., that consciousness and its contents can best be understood through the lens of subjective experience. This leads to one of my first clinical principles:
~If you listen to and observe another person, what they tell you will reflect how they perceive the world.~ There is nothing intrinsically ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ here – no objective truth behind how they should instead act in some arbitrary moralistic sense. Instead, the process of understanding why they perceive the world in the manner that they do and if that perception serves them in pursuing their goals and dreams. Many people are unaware of the software they run in the background – the literal programming from our intrauterine environment until adolescence. This is part of Dasein. How we behave in the here and now depends on the idiosyncratic experiences of our youth and how that integrates with our genetic hardware. Our entire development is geared toward solving the problems of existence, mainly that we depend on maintaining what are designated as “preferred states.” As humans, we have homeostatic needs – like the need to stay within certain temperature parameters (thermoregulation), the need to stay balanced in our blood gases (chemoregulation), in our electrolyte and fluid balance (osmoregulation), in our energy balance with food intake, metabolism, and sleep (metaregulation). Such states are maintained via feelings (cold/hot/air/hunger/thirst/salt craving/hunger/fatigue/sleepiness), without which there would be no motivation to ‘correct’ a deviation from the preferred states. As infants, learning how to get these basic needs met requires external support, which is where caregivers play a critical role. Infants need to attach to caregivers to get what they need from a homeostatic perspective, and they are equipped with the evolutionary tools to do so at a very simple level: reflexes, neuroplasticity, and feelings. How the infant is taught and reinforced will lay the foundations for what behaviors facilitate getting what they need or want and what behaviors hinder the same. Such is the basis for our perception – in a world full of noise and endless tools, what signals should I pay attention to and act upon to get what I need and ultimately survive? I could go on here, but the main point to capture is that when people complain of life not working out the way they’d hoped or planned, there is no better clinical intervention than to listen to their narrative, reflect on how their expectations have not been met, and examine what beliefs they have around why. It is important not to dwell on the past, but knowing where you came from and how you got to the present is a precondition to building a reflective and mindful life.
Principle #2
The next aspect of Heidegger’s philosophy that influenced my clinical practice is that of the everyday. The everyday concept highlights Dasein in the present time, where Being is manifest in daily engagement with the world and where we utilize tools and equipment in meaningful ways to help us achieve and complete projects. It is, of course, oriented toward the future, but in a very practical sense, in that if action is not taken in the present, the expected future will have less chance of realization. This leads to my second clinical principle:
~The reduction of suffering every day has the highest priority.~ It blows my mind when I hear stories of people’s complaints not being taken seriously. Sometimes, it happens because of simply not knowing what to do, but most often, it is at the hands of ideology. It is particularly evident at both ends of the alternative and conventional spectrum, where dogma prevents a nuanced analysis of individuals and their constellation of complaints. The more time spent suffering every day reinforces that Dasein is better off without experience and can devolve into hopelessness despite the logic that states otherwise. While the principles of “root cause” medicine are still held, I have made it a point to offer solutions with various levels of time commitment and intensity dependent on client goals that are not necessarily going after the original cause of anything. The integrative medicine perspective develops after acutely understanding the patient’s needs. Addressing suffering comes first, fortunately, accompanied by greater insight into each individual’s physiology. It then becomes a retrospective, reverse engineering task to figure out how to address the issues with nutrition, supplementation, intravenous infusions, peptides, exercise, stress management, and continued pharmaceutical care.
Principle #3
The third and final piece of Heideggerian thought that shaped my practice is that of authenticity. This concept outlines the importance of knowing Dasein across the space-time continuum. The involvement of the past in developing the present and the projection of the future about the probability of realized potential. To live authentically means to live in a manner in which Dasein is appreciated consciously and generates a somewhat self-involved journey to “know thyself.” I equate this to consciously knowing what one wants or needs, elevating that to a unified or ultimate goal, and then configuring how one should act or behave to realize that potential future. This is stacked on top of the first two clinical principles, which are about listening and challenging beliefs and values that shape worldview and perception, aided and enhanced by reducing suffering. Those fractured pillars must be made whole and repaired, which calls for re-orienting around a new North Star – clinical principle number three.
~Designate something to aim at and strive for authenticity.~ Positive emotion – happiness, joy, euphoria, belonging, etc. – is generated in the nervous system primarily by the incremental progression toward a goal. Where positive emotion is generated, then, can be a proxy for what a person designates as a meaningful pursuit. You have to know where you want to be if you want any shot of getting there without bitterness and resentment. Like the quote attributed to Lewis Carol at the bottom of my email signature, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Although many interpret this to mean that even if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up where you’re supposed to be, I would argue that where one is ‘supposed’ to be is different than where one desires to be. Dasein in authenticity is akin to complete awareness of the underlying software system and algorithmic prediction machinery. There, the hidden causes of emotional dysregulation can be appreciated and identified, allowing for greater voluntary control over reactions and responses and enhancing the ability to move forward so that the environment facilitates progress rather than impedes it with obstacles. As Marcus Aurelius said, “The impediment to action advances the action, and what stands in the way becomes the way.”
Dasein Health is a system based on improving Being by listening to subjective experience, examining limiting and supportive beliefs, reducing suffering, and orienting around an ultimate goal that reflects where meaning is to be derived. The majority of the practice is geared toward reducing suffering from physical issues, it’s true, but more and more people are opening up to authenticity and examining more than their physical state. This model transcends the mere treatment of conditions. It orients toward better existence, better being, better Dasein – and my aim is to bring that to the masses.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
An unwavering commitment to learn and grow, as well as the humility that comes along with that process
Pricing:
- Membership is $500/month
Contact Info:
- Website: www.daseinhealth.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calebgreerfnp/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/caleb-greer-aprn-fnp-c-802200b5
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@daseinhealth
