08 Mar March 8, 2024 – Wave Mental Health Dr. Sarah Adler and Power of our Minds Brandy Gillmore
Dr. Sarah Adler – CEO/Founder of Wave Life – Mental Health Platform
There is an old Silicon Valley adage that says if you ask people for advice
they will give you money, if you ask for money they will give you advice.
Dr. Sarah Adler
Dr. Sarah Adler is CEO/Founder of Wave Life, a mental health platform that pairs affordable and quality coaching with engaging and immersive skill-building for Gen Z. Dr. Sarah Adler is an entrepreneur, clinical psychologist, and behavioral health executive with a robust background in finance and healthcare delivery design. She possesses an obsessive passion for building data-driven, engaging, and empathetic products to increase access to high-quality behavioral health. As an operational leader, she focuses on building people-centered teams to drive significant change in the field. In her illustrious career, Dr. Adler has held the position of Chief Clinical Officer at Octave, where she led Clinical, Product, and Engineering teams. Additionally, she was a Founding Partner and owner/operator of Peninsula Behavioral Health, where she spearheaded the development of practices providing high-value service through clinician culture, machine learning, product innovation, and deep relationships with commercial payers. Currently, Dr. Adler serves as a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University Medical School. In this role, she contributes to the advancement of care delivery through quality improvement, technology, and user-centered design. She also builds predictive models to enhance patient outcomes. Besides her administrative and teaching responsibilities, Dr. Adler has co-authored a book on emotional eating, further showcasing her commitment to addressing a broad spectrum of behavioral health issues.
Brandy Gillmore – Health and Wellness Coach
Our emotions can affect us to the point of death. Studies have proven that if
you are optimistic after surgery, you heal faster. Our emotions have such a
bigger impact that we don’t even realize.
Brandy Gillmore
In July 2005, Brandy had the honor of being a bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding. The day was filled with beauty and joy as they celebrated together. However, for Brandy, it also held another significance: her failure. She had longed to fully recover and walk down the aisle alongside her sister. Before that day, Brandy had been working on healing herself. She had come across research about healing with the mind and even the placebo effect, which suggested that our minds can heal our bodies. Therefore, at the time, Brandy believed that her daily practices of meditation, visualization, affirmations, and gratitude would lead to healing. Unfortunately, despite her follow-through, it didn’t work. So, instead of walking down the aisle, Brandy used her wheelchair. She held a smile because she was so happy for her sister, but in her heart, she was also disappointed that she was not able to fully partake at the level she would have wanted to. Brandy had several pivotal moments throughout her injury, this moment was one of them. Brandy knew she could not spend her life disabled and trapped in debilitating pain. She’d had both a car accident and then a fall, which had changed her entire life. On her “better” days, she relied on a wheelchair, walker, or cane to venture outside. However, on her worst days, she was confined to her bed. This was the reality she faced. Brandy saw a range of doctors and specialists who advised her that she had a variety of ailments, including nerve lesions, spinal endplate fractures, spondylosis, complex regional pain syndrome, sciatica, reduced bone density, and more. And that there was nothing more they could do to help her condition. Even on the “good days,” when she was able to get around with a cane, it was for short distances and very slow. Her body felt frail, and the pain she experienced was excruciating. She explored every possible method to heal and manage her pain, both conventional and alternative. From nerve ablations to infusions and injections, she left no stone unturned. When those approaches fell short, she delved even deeper into alternative therapies, ranging from acupuncture to reflexology, special diets, supplements, and even mystical rainforest elixirs. Still, despite her best efforts, none of these remedies seemed to provide lasting relief. When those didn’t work, she began working even more with her mind. Each day, she immersed herself in meditation and theta state, wrote affirmations, cultivated gratitude, and adhered to a healthy diet (gluten-free, vegetarian, pH, candida). She even spent hours each day focusing on feelings of belief that she was already healed. Yet, nothing seemed to work. It was then that she noticed others engaging in the same “alternative therapies” she had pursued, without experiencing any improvement. If you find yourself here, chances are you have tried many of these same approaches as well. Despite the failures, Brandy refused to give up. She knew that the placebo effect had been scientifically proven, demonstrating that the mind could, in fact, influence the physical body. This realization fueled her determination to uncover the how. After years of dedicated research, Brandy made astounding discoveries that created a radical shift in her pain and her health! So much so that Brandy began healing her body and even going to the gym.