Archives: Events

Hidden Triggers of Early Aging
Don’t nod in agreement as your friends blame their physical and mental declines on “getting older.” Learn about five factors you might not have considered (or treated) that affect aging and energy. Factors range from the microbes in your gut to vitamin deficiencies. Discover which ones may apply to you.

The Science of Stress
The epidemic of our modern era is stress. Learn how it impacts you and what to do about it. Come away with accessible lifestyle strategies to make you more stress resilient.

A Better Brain
A healthy brain and mind are essential tools for living our best lives. Whether your concerns are occasional brain fog or a family history of dementia or Alzheimer’s, you do not have to resign yourself to future cognitive decline. Learn some basic brain science and self-assess ways to improve your mental capacity. Learn self-care techniques to keep your neurons firing for optimal performance.

Nutrition 201 –  Answers to your Burning Questions
You’ve done your homework, you know the basics of eating & nutrition. But what about all those popular diets and new books? Bring your questions about food, nutrition, and diets and we’ll discuss the scientific basis of claims and pros and cons of trying them yourself. Please do not consider this lecture & discussion an alternative to personalized medical advice!

Erica Oberg, ND, MPH, has practiced integrative & natural medicine for 20 years. She has held leadership positions in medical schools, NIH research, public health, and clinical practice. Her approach to health and medicine combines the rigors of science with the wisdom of nature and our bodies. She is passionate about helping people experience health as a state of vibrancy and vitality. As such expertise is in preventing, reversing, and taming chronic disease, neuro-regeneration, and anti-aging. Dr. Oberg specializes in nutrition & lifestyle, IV micronutrient therapy, and identifying the underlying causes of disease using advanced testing. Dr. Oberg received her doctorate in naturopathic medicine in 2003 from Bastyr University, where she also did her residency. She was awarded a prestigious NIH fellowship at the University of Washington where she conducted and published research on health behavior change, nutraceuticals, and health creation. She has gone on to practice in several internationally renowned integrative clinics and is currently in two locations in Southern California – a concierge practice in La Jolla and a wellness lounge featuring IVs, vitamin shots, regenerative aesthetic therapies.

Workshops will focus on Leadership and how each of us has the ability to be a leader within each of ourselves.  Lessons from women world leaders will be seen through the presenter’s PBS documentary, along with discussion of the myths we hold about who is entitled to lead.  The power of diversity, opportunity, inclusion and belonging is the theme of a session and why society, individuals, non-profits, governments and business are better off if these powers are embraced.  Practical tools and guides will be provided.

Women World Leaders – Lessons of Leadership Stories of Women Presidents and Prime Ministers
30-minute PBS documentary and discussion

Lessons and Myths of Leadership
What are the myths of leadership that some women (and men) believe, and how do these myths pose challenges for women in their leadership roles? What arethe best practices of excellent leaders, and what additional lessons can we learnfrom women who have led their country? Offering a unique perspective onenhancing opportunities to successfully lead an organization and shape a career, Laura Liswood, former Senior Advisor to Goldman Sachs and Secretary General ofthe Council of Women World Leaders, shares insights based on her work which became a book and video documentary entitled Women World Leaders-15 Great Leaders Tell Their Story (Harper/Pandora).

Finding the Leader Within You
The session looks at great leaders and how to see yourself in them and their actions and traits. We all potentially have traits of leadership-courage, energy, emotional intelligence, communication styles, ability to listen, be curious, create trust and hope in others. This session allows the participants to look at their own life experiences and find the leadership behaviors in themselves.

Women and men display their ambitions differently. Public recognition for performance is more likely to go to men, and women don’t get, or they give away, that recognition to their detriment. We will discuss how each of them deals with ambition and the challenges they face.

Men and women are rated equally successfully when measured as effective leaders but women don’t make it to the top in equal numbers. What is happening? The pipeline is full but the number of men leaders still far exceeds the number of women. How can women claim their authority to lead and feel entitled to lead?

The Power of Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion in Society
What is the case for diversity in organizations and society, why society, individuals, non-profits and business must embrace this power but why it isso hard to do in reality. A discussion of Liswood’s books, The Loudest Duck and The Elephant and the Mouse™.

Laura Liswood, JD/MBA is a passionate advocate for leadership, diversity and inclusion and is a sought-after speaker, author, and global thought leader on these topics.  She particularly enjoys highly interactive sessions with her audiences and uses humor and research to convey her message. She created a PBS documentary and book on her interviews with women presidents and prime ministers and was appointed Managing Director for Global Leadership and Diversity at Goldman Sachs.  After 9/11 Laura decided to become a first responder, and became a police officer in the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department, retiring as a sergeant. She is the author of four books, including The Loudest Duck: Moving Beyond Diversity, and The Elephant and the Mouse: Moving Beyond the Illusion of Inclusion.

Amazing Oceans of Life
Explore the beautiful and bizarre creatures that inhabit our seas, from tropical coral reefs to the deep abyss, with a leading expert. Dr. Mark Hixon uses stunning photographs, vivid video clips, and entertaining dialog to bring the undersea world indoors.

Coral Reefs: Rainforests and Canaries of the Seas
Explore the greatest concentration of life on the Earth including the life of corals, the amazing biodiversity of reefs, how coral reefs benefit humans, and how humans are threatening the very existence of reefs.

Abyss: Bizarre Creatures of the Deep Sea
Explore the dark recesses of the oceans, inhabited by creatures that look like characters from science fiction movies. Much of this presentation will be accompanied by video taken from deep sea submersibles.

Mother Ocean and Humanity: A Fragile Bond
The seas have provided people with numerous goods and services over millennia, yet Mother Ocean is now suffering. Dr. Mark Hixon will discuss how the invisibility of what lies below the sea surface and the myth of ocean inexhaustibility have led to environmental challenges that require each of us to become better ocean stewards.

Mark Hixon, Ph.D., is an endowed professor of marine biology at the University of Hawai‘i. For the past 40 years, he has studied sea life underwater using SCUBA and small research submarines, exploring kelp forests off California, the deep sea off Oregon, and coral reefs from the Caribbean to the Great Barrier Reef. An internationally recognized expert in coral reef ecology and conservation, Mark serves as an associate editor of multiple scientific journals, and is past chair of both the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee (for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and the Ocean Sciences Advisory Committee (for the National Science Foundation). His on-line TED talks and TV appearances about sea life are both informative and entertaining.

Vitality in the New Year
Everybody wants a little more energy, a bit more verve.  Dr. Victoria Maizes, Executive Director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona explores energy boosters and zappers.  Drawing from the integrative medicine approach to health, she presents cutting edge nutritional advances, proven mind-body tools, ancient energetic practices, and neuroscience. You will learn practical strategies to make you feel healthier and more vital than ever before.

Nourishing Your Health by Living Green
Modern life exposes us to chemicals that may be subtly or profoundly impacting our health.  We absorb toxins in the food we eat, the beverages we drink, the products we put on our skin, and the sprays we use in and around our homes. Mounting evidence links environmental toxins to developmental disorders, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative changes. Dr. Maizes addresses the evidence for harm, the steps we can take to reduce exposures, and the multitude of resources that can help nourish our own health and that of future generations.

Vibrantly Healthy Women
Questions about women’s health and well-being frequently arise in an integrative health practice. Whether it is concern about changes coinciding with menopause, hormones, sexuality, or a healthy weight, Dr. Victoria Maizes, an internationally recognized women’s health expert will address the science that supports women in their efforts to live vibrantly healthy lives.

Dr. Victoria Maizes serves as the Executive Director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine and is a Professor of Medicine, Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Arizona Internationally recognized as a leader in integrative medicine, Dr. Maizes is committed to helping individuals live healthier lives and pioneering change efforts that solve US health care system problems. Together with her team at the Center for Integrative Medicine, she created and implemented educational programs that have trained thousands of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals and impacted the care of millions of patients. A highly sought-after speaker, she is the editor of the Oxford University textbook Integrative Women’s Health and the author of Be Fruitful: The Essential Guide to Maximizing Fertility and Giving Birth to a Healthy Child. She co-hosts (with Dr Andrew Weil) the popular podcast Body of Wonder and was named one of the world’s 25 intelligent optimists by ODE magazine.

At The Trailhead: An Invitation to Transformation
As we stand at the trailhead of a new year, we are at a threshold of sorts. That space between what has been and what could be is nothing less than an invitation to transformation.

Transformation is what happens when we allow ourselves to learn from and be changed by our experiences. The Ranch offers the kinds of spirit, space, and grace that make the magic of transformation possible. Embark on an inspiring and insightful week of reflection, curiosity, and imagination, as we take stock of where we’ve been, where we are now, and where life might be calling us.

Evening Program: Threshold Moments
There are such things as “threshold moments”. Those times when we are invited to step over our fear and uncertainty and venture out into the unknown. Such moments call upon our courage, and whenever we accept the invitation being offered, we find our way to an even more authentic and full-hearted life. Come listen, reflect, and consider your own threshold moments, past, present, and future.

Workshop #1: At The Trailhead
If transformation is what happens when we are changed by our experience, then taking the next right step begins with a right understanding of where we’ve been and where we are now. Our lives don’t happen by accident. We create them every day and one step at a time. This time will be a safe space for you to engage in some courageous thinking and thoughtful action planning.

Workshop #2: A Way with Words
Words can shine a light on the trail. A well-chosen word to illuminate the way forward is both practical and powerful. It can becomes a lens through which to more clearly see our next right steps.  Come play with words to see which one(s) might guide you in this new year ahead. As T.S. Elliot said, “…last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice.”

Workshop #3 Discernment: The Practice of Choosing Wisely
Regardless of life chapter or circumstance, we are inundated with choices. Our lives are filled with responsibilities, challenges, opportunities and possibilities. Where to invest our time, energy, money, skills, and gifts? Where, how, and to whom do we offer what we have to give? This workshop will introduce you to a practical discernment framework that will help you choose wisely.

Molly Davis is a writer, speaker, and coach. The founder of Trailhead Coaching &Consulting, she helps people courageously connect who they are with how they live.

Author of the award winning BLUSH: Women & Wine, a book in which she explores why she often used wine as a classy looking coping mechanism, and why others might do the same. And yes, she still loves good wine.

“There is a trail leading deeper into our own lives; the trailhead lies squarely beneath our feet. Taking the next right step begins with a right understanding of where we stand now. Our lives don’t happen by accident; we participate in creating them every day, and one step at a time.”

A Perfect Lifestyle:  Food, Wine, Sex and Chocolate
An overview talk covering a wide range of lifestyle issues, including dietary patterns, obesity and its management, exercise, marriage, childbearing, pets, television, sleep, candy including chocolate, and success in life. The most extensive and important part of the talk deals with diets, ranging from veganism to ketogenic, and drink. All these areas are approached from a rigorous scientific viewpoint, with an emphasis on how each factor affects disease and longevity. The talk concludes with a table of exactly how much life is gained or lost by simple lifestyle choices we make every day.

Shopping for Food: Label Lies and Nutritional Information
It would be best if we bought only foods in their original form, but the time constraints of current life often force people to buy packaged foods.  Unfortunately, packaged food labels frequently contain lies and misleading information. Even nutritional labels can be misleading. A can of spray cooking oil may say that it contains no fat, when in fact the product is 100% fat. This talk covers the most common labeling misinformation and teaches exactly how to pick healthy packaged foods using simple approaches to the interpretation of nutritional listings.

Exercise, How to Get the Most out of Your Work-out
After a healthy diet, physical activity is the easiest and least expensive way to increase longevity and prevent heart disease and dementia.  Beneficial physical activity ranges from walking stairs to running marathons. This talk discusses the myriad physical and emotional benefits of all levels of physical activity, as well as the occasional adverse effects of excessive activities, such as marathon running. Our national guidelines on physical activity including aerobic, resistive, and balance exercises is discussed with an emphasis on just how to receive the greatest benefit.

Food for Thought: How to Stave Off Alzheimer’s and other Neurodegenerative Diseases
Dementia, most commonly Alzheimer’s Disease, affects one in 14 people over 65 years of age and one in six over 80. It is the most feared illness in older individuals. It is also at least partly preventable. The basic medical rule is that what is good for the heart is also good for the head. This talk describes the most frequent types of dementia and other neurocognitive diseases and discusses how they are likely to present. The value of a healthy diet and physical and cognitive exercise in preventing these diseases, amounting to at least a 50% reduction, is summarized in this talk.

Robert Vogel, M.D., is a preventive cardiologist and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver.  He received his B.A. from Columbia University (physics) and M.D. from Yale University. He served on the faculties of the Universities of Colorado, Michigan, and Maryland, the latter as Director of Cardiology. Dr. Vogel has investigated how to prevent coronary heart disease for more than 40 years.  He has authored two books and more than 250 scientific publications.  Dr. Vogel lectures frequently to physicians on lifestyle and heart disease prevention. He has received a Good Housekeeping Magazine’s “Best Doctors in America” designation, a Federal Scientist of the Year Award, and has been President of the Association of University Cardiologists.  Dr. Vogel currently serves on the NFL Medical Committee and as a consultant to the Pritikin Longevity Institute.