Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

Dr. Jessie Mahoney and Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang
  • 4.9 (119)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Semiweekly

Mindfulness, mindset, and sustainable well-being—not as another task to add to your plate, but as a way to experience life, love, medicine, and leadership differently. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast. Same hosts, same mission, same conversations — new name. Dr. Jessie Mahoney and Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang share practical strategies, coaching tools, and real conversations to help you feel more present, fulfilled, and in control. When physicians are healthy and well, we become powerful agents of change. The podcast explores burnout, mindfulness, leadership, and sustainable careers in medicine. It helps physicians reclaim balance, leadership, and a love for medicine—one mindful step at a time.

  1. 2d ago

    324. Physicians Caring for Aging Parents: Boundaries and Buoyancy

    There is a moment many of us know is coming: a parent's health changes, and our role changes with it. For physicians, caregiving can be especially complicated — our medical knowledge comes with responsibility, worry, and a powerful instinct to fix. We can know what might be medically best and still not be the person who gets to decide. Jessie and Ni-Cheng explore how mindfulness and coaching don't remove the difficulty of caregiving, but can change how we carry it and help us remain present, connected, and buoyant along the way. In This Episode: Why being "the doctor in the family" can complicate caregiving instead of easing it The difference between resilience and buoyancy Walking alongside aging parents versus managing them Letting go of overfunctioning and over-optimizing in caregiving What overwhelm, frustration, and resentment are actually telling us Pearls of Wisdom: Being "the doctor in the family" can make caregiving harder rather than easier. We may recognize every red flag and feel responsible even when the decisions are not ours to make. Buoyancy is different from resilience. Most physicians already know how to endure; buoyancy is about capacity, nervous system steadiness, repletion, and rising again when life pulls us under. Walking alongside our aging parents is different from managing them. We can offer knowledge and be helpful while still respecting their autonomy. Sustainable caregiving requires letting go of overfunctioning and over-optimizing. Doing something most efficiently doesn't automatically mean it's ours to do. Overwhelm, anger, frustration, and resentment aren't evidence that we're failing. They're information that may be asking us to rest, ask for help, regulate, or set a boundary. Reflection Questions: Where has caregiving opened us to a conversation or relationship we didn't expect? Where is caregiving difficult right now in a way that doesn't need to become a lesson? Where might our medical training be making caregiving harder rather than easier? What might change if we used mindfulness or coaching instead of our instinct to fix? Ways to work with Jessie 1:1 Coaching: www.jessiemahoneymd.com CME Wellness Retreats: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats Free Live-Stream Mindful Yoga: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/yoga Jessie's Blog: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog Podcast Page: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast.

  2. Jul 19

    323. Why Shame Keeps Good Doctors Silent with Dr. René Roberts

    Shame around failure and rejection isolates physicians and fuels burnout. Dr. Jessie Mahoney and Dr. René Roberts explore why, and what failure actually teaches us instead. Dr. René Roberts is a board-certified family medicine physician, a three-time Castle Connolly Top Doctor, and a TEDx speaker who got into medicine the hard way — rejected by every school she applied to for three years and failing her boards not once but twice. For years, she hid her story from almost everyone in her life. In this conversation, she and Jessie unpack the real cost of that hiding, why vulnerability is a skill worth practicing, and why how we receive someone else's vulnerability matters just as much as the courage it takes to share it. What We Explore Why failure and rejection are data, not evidence of inadequacy How shame fuels isolation and physician burnout Why the physicians who've struggled the most often become the most connected ones The overlooked role of the receiver — why not trying to fix someone's story is its own skill, and one that's rarely talked about Why elegant vulnerability changes culture faster than perfection does What it means to model wellness and vulnerability for the next generation of physicians Pearls of Wisdom Failure is data. It is not a personality trait or a scarlet letter to wear. The struggles that feel most disqualifying often become the equipment that makes you a better doctor. Hiding shame has a cost. It isolates us from our colleagues and from ourselves, and that isolation is part of what burns us out. Patients don't want a perfect doctor. They want a human doctor who understands what it's like to be given bad news. Sometimes the most healing thing you can do is just receive someone's story without trying to fix it. It's not what stops you. It's what you choose to do next. Reflection Questions Is there a failure or rejection you've never told anyone about? Where have you mistaken inadequacy for evidence, instead of equipment? What might shift for you and your colleagues if you were willing to show up with a bit more vulnerability? Are you someone people feel safe being vulnerable with — do you listen, or do you try to fix? What would change if leaders in your workplace modeled vulnerability instead of self-sacrifice? Ways to Work With Jessie 1:1 Coaching: www.jessiemahoneymd.com CME Wellness Retreats: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats Jessie's Blog: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog  Podcast Page: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast.

  3. Jul 12

    322. Is It Too Late to Change Careers as a Doctor? How Retreats and Coaching Helped Dr. Karen Fromhold Start a Fellowship at 58

    Dr. Jessie Mahoney talks with family medicine physician Dr. Karen Fromhold, ten days into her hospice and palliative medicine fellowship. Karen had a good enough job. One she had loved and was a great fit for a while. She wasn't burned out. She simply had a dream she'd carried for over 20 years.  Our conversation explores what it took to voice her dream, trust it, and finally move toward it and the role retreats and coaching played at each step along the way. In This Episode: Why leaving a job you love can be harder than leaving one you don't How retreat spaces create room for clarity to surface The difference between moving away from something and moving toward something Why Karen waited for the right opportunity instead of rushing What it means to give yourself grace as a beginner again How the Retreat Space Made Room for This Decision Karen attended four retreats over four years, each one meeting her at a different point in the decision. At her first retreat, the dream was voiced out loud for the first time — in what Karen calls a "fragile, baby idea" state. Coaching conversations that followed helped the idea take shape. By her second retreat, she'd begun pursuing an alternate mid-career fellowship path. Jessie offers a framework for why this kept happening in the retreat space specifically: stepping out of daily environment and into relaxation activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is often why clarity that's been hidden or hard to access at home surfaces in that container of safety. Karen also describes going back through her retreat journals before quitting her job and noticing the same themes recur and deepen each time she returned — what Jessie calls "peeling a different layer of the same onion." Pearls of Wisdom Once you make the decision, you make it the right decision. We don't want to run away from something — we want to move towards something. A busy life makes it easy to leave a dream on the shelf. If not now, when? Reflection Questions Where have you made do with "good" instead of pursuing "great"? What dream have you left on the shelf, telling yourself it's too late? What would it look like to move toward something instead of just away from what isn't working? Ways to work with Jessie: 1:1 Coaching: www.jessiemahoneymd.com CME Wellness Retreats: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats Free Live-Stream Mindful Yoga: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/yoga Jessie's Blog: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog Podcast Page: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast.

  4. Jul 5

    321. Feeling Restless in Medicine? One Pediatrician's Story of Leaving, Returning, and Finally Feeling Found

    Many physicians reach a point where they are functioning well on the outside — delivering good care, staying credentialed, showing up — and yet something beneath the surface feels flat, restless, or not quite right. Not burned out exactly. Not unhappy exactly.  Just not fully found. Dr. Abhay Dandekar, a pediatrician who was a resident with Jessie, shares his journey of not feeling lost but also never feeling found either.  In this conversation, Abhay shares the arc of a career that has moved through clinical hospital medicine, residency program director, leaving for full-time administrative leadership in another institution, and then his journey back – to the exact clinical home he left. What changed when he returned was not the place. It was him. This is a generous conversation about navigating the pulls of medicine, the stories physicians tell themselves about staying and going, the difference between mentors and sponsors, and what it actually means to find yourself –  from the inside out.     What We Explore The specific feeling of "not yet being found" — distinct from being lost or burned out Why binary thinking narrows physician careers  What it means to return to a familiar place as a genuinely different person How to build what keeps you stable without stopping what keeps you moving The inner work of agency — and why waiting to be seen keeps you stuck How thought partners and daily reflection sustain longevity in medicine     Pearls of Wisdom The roses and the trash smell the same no matter where you are. What changes is how you show up. You can be functioning well on the outside and paying a real cost underneath. Agency does not come from the institution. It has to start from within. You can take a step without calling it a misstep. Sometimes it is a sidestep — or a diagonal forward step that puts you somewhere truer. Find thought partners, not echo chambers. The people around you carry wisdom you have not seen yet. Appreciating diastole — pausing and reflecting — is not recovery. It is practice.     Reflection Questions Where do you feel the gap between how you appear on the outside and what you are carrying underneath? Are you waiting for your institution to solve something that might need to start with you? Where is binary thinking shaping the choices in front of you right now? Who are your thought partners — and where are you in an echo chamber when you need honest conversation? What would it mean to appreciate diastole in your own career this week?     Ways to Work With Jessie 1:1 Coaching: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/ CME Wellness Retreats: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats Free Live-Stream Mindful Yoga: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/yoga Jessie's Blog: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog Podcast Page: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast.

  5. Jun 28

    320. When Life Blindsides You: Mindful Lessons from a Hit-and-Run

    After being rear-ended at highway speed by a driver who fled the scene, I found myself navigating physical pain, emotional shock, unanswered questions, and a choice I didn't expect to face: pursue justice or let go.  This solo episode is Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang's account of what happened, what I learned, and the mindfulness lessons that emerged.  If you've ever been blindsided by something you didn't choose, this one is for you. What We Explore What happens when your sense of safety changes in an instant Why acceptance is not the same as approval How people around us can restore our faith when one person breaks it The difference between being afraid and being incapable Transmuting pain into intentional good  Pearls of Wisdom Mindfulness is not about controlling outcomes. It is about how we meet what is already here. Getting help helps. Giving yourself permission to receive support is a strength, not a weakness. We can handle hard things even when we do not want them. Our choice lies in how we handle them. Even when the person responsible leaves, others show up. And we can show up for ourselves. There are inherent inner resources we do not give ourselves enough credit for. Reflection Questions When was the last time something unexpected revealed both your vulnerabilities and your strengths? Where are you resisting asking for help because you believe you should be able to handle it on your own? What would it look like to accept something difficult without approving of it? Where might you transmute a painful experience into something intentionally good? If this episode resonated with you, here are ways to go deeper: 1:1 Coaching: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/  CME Wellness Retreats: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats  Free Live-Stream Mindful Yoga: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/yoga  Jessie's Blog: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog  Podcast Page: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast #PhysicianWellness #Mindfulness #Resilience Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast.

  6. Jun 21

    319. What If It's Not Woo at All?: The Method Behind Real Transformation

    In medicine, we are trained to trust what is hard, measurable, familiar, and structured. We question whether something spacious, nourishing, or beautiful can be meaningful, impactful, and lead to real growth and learning. Many physicians are skeptical of coaching, mindfulness, breathwork, retreats, and yoga as relevant and meaningful learning because they do not resemble traditional medical education. This episode encourages you to reconsider what medicine may have taught you to dismiss. PEARLS OF WISDOM • What medicine sometimes labels as "woo" may simply be unfamiliar, hard to measure, or outside the traditional medical framework. Mindfulness, coaching, yoga, breathwork, retreats, and nervous system regulation can still be rigorous, evidence-informed, and deeply impactful. • Suffering is not required for growth. We often equate exhaustion, discomfort, and over-effort with value, yet real learning is often more accessible when we are rested, regulated, and receptive. • Transformation is not the same as information. Physicians are excellent at consuming information, but lasting change comes from integration, practice, embodiment, and living differently in real time. • Simple practices are not shallow. A breath, a pause, a hand on the heart, a walk, a reflective question, or a meaningful conversation can interrupt old patterns and open space for a different response. • Conditions matter. Safety, spaciousness, beauty, community, nature, reflection, and skilled facilitation can make rigorous inner work more possible, not less credible. Real transformation happens when learning becomes embodied, integrated, relational, and safe.   Reflection Questions Where are we still equating suffering with value, rigor, or meaning? What kinds of learning have given us information without creating the change we were hoping for? Where are we treating something unfamiliar as not credible? What might become possible if comfort, beauty, rest, and spaciousness became part of healing and growth? Stay curious about the places where medicine has taught you to dismiss what you have not yet experienced.  Coaching, retreats, mindfulness, breathwork, yoga, reflection, and community are invitations to relate to ourselves, our work, our patients, and our lives with more presence and sustainability. www.jessiemahoneymd.com www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats www.jessiemahoneymd.com/yoga www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

  7. Jun 14

    318. Intentional Communication Is Energy Conservation: Mindful Communication in Medicine

    Communication can energize us, deplete us, or leave us energetically neutral.  When you are tired, unclear communication is even more costly. We can learn from both communication that flows and communication that feels clogged. With mindfulness, clarity, and honest reflection, communication can become a practice of energy stewardship. PEARLS OF WISDOM With mindfulness, clarity, and honest reflection, communication can become a practice of energy stewardship. Effective communication is not about everything happening quickly or smoothly. It is about clarity, transparency, and shared understanding of what is happening next. Response time matters less when expectations are clear. Knowing what we are waiting for can reduce frustration and conserve emotional energy. Communication preferences become clearer when we notice what works. We can learn from easeful interactions and use those lessons to guide future conversations. Communication clogs are part of life and medicine. We can pause, feel what is present, get curious, and choose the next healthiest and wisest response. Staying in our own energy is a mindful communication skill. We do not have to absorb confusion, urgency, or inefficiency in order to participate with care. Reflection Questions Where are you noticing communication flow right now? Where are you noticing communication clogs, delays, or unclear expectations? What helps you conserve energy when communication feels inefficient? We hope this conversation helps you notice how much energy communication requires, especially in medicine and leadership. Clear communication is not just efficient. It is compassionate. When communication feels clogged, pause, breathe, and ask what is actually yours to do. You can also notice when communication feels easeful, transparent, and energizing, and let that teach you something. This is a great topic for a workshop or keynote talk. Reach out to either of us to discuss further. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/ www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats www.jessiemahoneymd.com/yoga www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast.

  8. Jun 7

    317. Why Almost Every Woman in Medicine Feels She Doesn't Belong

    Almost every woman in medicine has, at some point, decided she doesn't belong. We were trained to do it — to scan for what's abnormal, what's different, what doesn't fit — and then we turn that same lens on ourselves. In this episode, we share our own stories of feeling alone, and the reframe that changed it for both of us: belonging is a decision, not a feeling. It's something you get to choose and practice, not something you wait to arrive — and there are simple, doable ways to start. What We Explore Why belonging is something you decide and practice, not something you wait to feel. How discomfort and unfamiliarity get mistaken for "I don't belong." The difference between deciding to belong and practicing it Why you don't have to belong everywhere — and how choosing where you don't is its own kind of freedom How vulnerability and connection become the antidote to loneliness Pearls of Wisdom We were trained to notice what doesn't belong, and we turn that same lens on ourselves. What you practice grows, and what you don't practice recedes. You don't have to belong everywhere; choosing where you don't belong is also a way of belonging to yourself. Vulnerability is valuable — it connects you, and it gives others permission. Reflection Questions Where do you keep waiting to belong, and where could you decide you already belong? Where are you spending your time, energy, and emotional currency — and are those spaces ones you've intentionally chosen? When you walk into a room where you feel different, what might happen if you started to notice what's actually the same about you? Ways to Work With Jessie 1:1 Coaching CME Wellness Retreats Free Live-Stream Mindful Yoga Blog Podcast Page If this episode resonates, the most powerful next step is to practice belonging. That's exactly what 1:1 coaching, small group coaching, and the Connect in Nature and Nicasio Creek Farm Women Physicians retreats are built for — authentic, aligned spaces where you actually want to belong. Come decide you belong, and see what shifts. Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast.

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Mindfulness, mindset, and sustainable well-being—not as another task to add to your plate, but as a way to experience life, love, medicine, and leadership differently. The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast. Same hosts, same mission, same conversations — new name. Dr. Jessie Mahoney and Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang share practical strategies, coaching tools, and real conversations to help you feel more present, fulfilled, and in control. When physicians are healthy and well, we become powerful agents of change. The podcast explores burnout, mindfulness, leadership, and sustainable careers in medicine. It helps physicians reclaim balance, leadership, and a love for medicine—one mindful step at a time.

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