Medical Consultations Overview
The Chopra Center is pleased to offer integrated medical consultations by David Simon, M.D. and Valencia Porter, M.D. These consultations address a person's health concerns from a physical, emotional and spiritual perspective. Integrating the theoretical frameworks of Ayurveda and modern science, these sessions focus as much on the person who is facing a health challenge as the health challenge being faced.
During a typical evaluation, the doctor takes a complete medical and lifestyle history and performs a physical examination that looks at the body both as a physical system as well as a field of intelligence, reflecting the needs and choices of a person's life. Based upon this assessment, a personalized body/mind/spirit health-enhancing prescription is formulated, including recommendations on diet, stress management, exercise, emotional healing, nutritional and herbal supplements, and sensory modulation. If indicated, appropriate laboratory testing or specialty consultation is suggested.
If you are facing a condition that you believe can be influenced by your perceptions, interpretations or lifestyle choices, an integrated medical consultation can help you become an active, empowered partner in your healing process.
*Please note: The Chopra Center does not have a direct relationship with insurance companies. We provide guests with the documentation needed to provide to their companies for reimbursment.
Consultations are available on an outpatient basis, by phone or as a component of the Perfect Health program
Mind-Body Phone Consultations
Call us from anywhere in the world for help healing physical illness, emotional pain, and chronic stress.
Whether you live in rural Wyoming, downtown Tokyo, or central Europe, you can benefit from the renowned medical expertise and personal care guests receive when they come to The Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California.
The Chopra Center developed Mind-Body Phone Consultations to share the healing power of mind-body medicine with the members of our extended community.The Mind-Body Phone Consultation is a rare opportunity to receive one-on-one guidance from Chopra Center medical staff member and Women's Health Director, Valencia Porter, M.D. Board-certified in General Preventive Medicine and Holistic Medicine, Dr. Porter is also an expert in Ayurveda and other Eastern healing systems.
During your Mind-Body Phone Consultation, Dr. Porter will work with you to explore the mind-body connection behind your current symptoms and make specific recommendations to set you on the path to wellness.
To schedule an appointment or learn more, call us today at 888.736.6895 or 760.494.1604 x 1639 or request more information here
Medical Consultation FAQs
"Ultimately the best use of a physicians knowledge is to
teach people how to heal themselves."
David Simon, M.D.
What is a Chopra Center integrative medical consultation?
Conventional medicine focuses on making precise diagnoses and applying disease-targeted interventions to alter the course of illness. The intention of an integrative medical consultation is to understand sickness in the context of one's life, drawing upon a broad range of approaches to awaken and support a person's inner healing response. Health challenges impact many aspects of a person's life, and many aspects of a person's life can influence illness and the restoration of health.
What can I expect in a Chopra Center integrative medical consultation?
During an integrative medical consultation with a Chopra Center physician, your doctor will explore the problem you are facing, the diagnostic and therapeutic experiences you've been through, and your understanding of your health concern. Your doctor will ask you a broad range of questions about your lifestyle, relationships, work, and emotional state, seeking to identify opportunities to awaken healing and transformation.
While taking your history and examining you, a Chopra Center doctor applies principles from both Western conventional medicine and ayurveda, the 5,000-year-old healing science from India. The goal is to understand deeply not only the illness, but also the person facing the health challenge.
What can I expect to take away from the experience?
Based upon the information revealed, your doctor will formulate a personalized mind body prescription designed to enhance your natural healing resources. Recommendations will usually include suggestions to manage stress, improve your nutritional status, normalize your sleep-wake cycles, reduce physical and emotional toxicity, and use nutritional supplements wisely. When appropriate, a program of detoxification and rejuvenation may be recommended. Your doctor will help you integrate holistic mind body approaches with your conventional medicine treatments, at times suggesting ways to safely reduce optional medications and supplements.
Our choices are metabolized into our biology. The Chopra Center Medical Staff believes that if we make different choices, we can manifest different outcomes. If you believe that there are choices you can make to enhance your health and vitality, and are seeking reliable and compassionate guidance, an integrative medical consultation will help you become a more conscious and empowered partner on your healing journey.
Please call 888-424-6772 x1639 or click here to request more information.
Practitioners - Dr. Simon
David Simon, M.D., Medical Director and Co-Founder
David Simon is a world-renowned authority in the field of mind-body medicine. As a practicing physician, innovative researcher, and insightful teacher, David continues to expand his vision for an effective and compassionate healthcare system. More than three decades ago as an anthropology student exploring humanity’s earliest communities and cultures, he was drawn to the understanding that the role of the doctor was much more than a disease technician; a true healer had to be a diagnostician, medicine man, psychotherapist, and priest ― an expert navigator of the mind and spirit as well as the physical body.
Integrating ancient wisdom healing traditions with modern scientific principles, David has forged a model of health that integrates the multiple dimensions of a human being ― environmental, physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. As a board-certified neurologist and expert in ayurvedic medicine and other traditional healing arts, he brings a unique perspective to the relationship between mind, emotions, and health.
Development of the Chopra Center
In 1996 David co-founded and assumed the role of medical director of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, where he continues to serve as the driving force in developing and leading the Center's flagship programs and seminars in mind-body medicine, emotional healing, and spirituality.
Recognized as a leading authority in the effective and appropriate use of mind-body medicine practices, his endeavors have resulted in the training of thousands of physicians, nurses, and health care providers. One of the first recipients of a National Institutes of Health grant to study mind-body medical approaches to improving health care, David continues to bring integrated mind-body medical programs to medical institutions, health centers, educational institutions, and health resorts throughout the world.
Best-Selling Books on Mind-Body Medicine
Dr. Simon is the author of many wellness books, including his newest Amazon best-seller, Free to Love, Free to Heal: Heal Your Body by Healing Your Emotions. His other popular books include Return to Wholeness: Embracing Body, Mind, and Spirit in the Face of Cancer; The Wisdom of Healing; Vital EnergyThe Ten Commitments: Translating Good Intentions into Great Choices. He has co-authored numerous other books with visionary Deepak Chopra, including The Chopra Center Herbal Handbook; Grow Younger, Live Longer; The Chopra Center Cookbook; Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives: a Holistic Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth; and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga.
David's books Vital Energy; The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga; and Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives each received a Nautilus Book Award. The Ten Commitments was the winner of the 2006 Foreword Award.
Education and Medical Experience Dr. Simon received his medical degree from the University of Chicago's medical school. He then completed several residencies at the University of San Diego and the University of Colorado. He began his influential career in private practice in neurology, and then served as chief of staff and medical director of the Neurological Rehabilitation Center and Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory at Sharp Cabrillo Hospital. Sharp Cabrillo is an affiliate of Sharp Healthcare, the largest health care organization in Southern California. Dr. Simon is a Voluntary Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, and he supervises medical students completing training rotations through the Chopra Center for Wellbeing.
Please call 888-424-6772 x1639 or click here to request more information.
Practitioners - Dr. Porter
Valencia Porter, M.D., Director of Women's Health
Patients and guests who visit the Chopra Center have the opportunity to receive a mind-body medical consultation with holistic health expert Valencia Porter, M.D., M.P.H. Board-certified in both General Preventive Medicine and Integrative Holistic Medicine, Dr. Porter has an integrative approach that incorporates many areas of health and healing, including ayurveda, medical acupuncture, biofield (energy) therapies, and functional medicine.
As a medical student at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, she began to explore complementary and alternative medicine. After training in Pediatrics and Child Neurology, she completed a residency in Preventive Medicine at U.C. San Diego – as well as a master’s degree in public health focusing on Environmental Health at San Diego State University.
Before coming to the Chopra Center, Dr. Porter served as a physician and researcher at the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in San Diego, where she provided integrative care to children and adults coping with ADD/ADHD, stress and anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and weight management.
Most recently, she developed the curriculum in biofield therapies for a new master’s degree program in Integrative Health, soon to be launched by National University. Dr. Porter recently completed a fellowship as a Bravewell Collaborative scholar at the renowned Program for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Porter has a caring, individualized approach that encompasses all aspects of her patients’ lives. During your consultation, she will work with you to explore the mind-body connection behind your current symptoms and develop practical behaviors that will set you on a course of wellness.
“I love supporting people in restoring balance and health in their lives,” she said. “In reality, doctors don’t ‘heal’ anybody . . . their true role is educating patients to make healing choices for themselves. The word doctor actually comes from the Latin root docere, meaning ‘to teach.’”
With more than 15 years of medical experience, Dr. Porter has helped thousands of patients find relief and healing from conditions including:
- Arthritis
- Chronic pain
- Cancer
- Fibromyalgia
- Anxiety & depression
- Hypertension
- Stress disorders
- Weight issues
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Allergies & asthma
- Infertility
- Immune dysfunction
- Osteoporosis
- Headache & migraine
- Chronic fatigue
Read about Dr. Porter’s personal experience of mind-body healing
Please call 888-424-6772 x1639 or click here to request more information.
