Beyond Chemotherapy: Integrative Cancer Care Supports Healing

Love Letters to Our Bodies

Show Notes

What if cancer care could go beyond managing symptoms to help patients truly heal in mind, body, and spirit? Joining us today is Melbra Watts, Executive Director of Charlotte Maxwell Clinic, a women’s health clinic in Oakland, California, offering free integrative care to under-served, low-income women with cancer. Melbra shares how this clinic goes beyond conventional care to deliver acupuncture, energy healing, nutritional counseling, and more, all in a space that honors the full person. Discover how their holistic support helps women manage pain, renew their spirits, and reclaim power in their healing journeys, transforming their treatment experience. This episode reveals not only the clinic’s impact but also the inspiration and resilience that drive Melbra’s work to make compassionate care accessible to those who need it most. Listen in for a heartening look at how love and dedication fuel a healing community!

Key Points From This Episode:

• A warm welcome to today’s guest, Melbra Watts.

• The history of Charlotte Maxwell Clinic and its mission.

• How complementary therapies can support cancer care.

• Melbra's journey and how she joined Charlotte Maxwell Clinic.

• Understanding the difference between curing and healing.

• How unresolved trauma and shame can affect your health.

• The surprisingly positive impact that the pandemic had on the clinic.

• Unpacking some of the funding and support challenges that the clinic faces.

• Volunteer practitioners and their indispensable contributions to the clinic.

• Why integrative care is essential for comprehensive cancer treatment.

• Reflections on the beauty in helping clients reconnect with their mind, body, and spirit.

Quotes:

“Studies have shown that complementary therapies actually do improve the quality of life. They actually do boost the immune system so that the women can recover from the radiation and the chemotherapy and surgeries and different kind of things that they go through.” — Melbra Watts [0:08:47]

“I have to say, the pandemic, in a way, was a gift for us because it really helped us to shift what we were doing, and we were able to take advantage of some resources that became available during that time.” — Melbra Watts [0:16:54]

“One of our principles is making sure [women don’t] – blame themselves for having contracted the illness or the disease.” — Melbra Watts [0:18:43]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Melbra Watts

Melbra Watts on LinkedIn
Charlotte Maxwell Clinic
Gwendolyn Mitchell on LinkedIn
MOYO Institute, Inc
Love Letters 2 Our Bodies is sponsored by Moyo Institute, Inc and the Lloyd Symington Foundation
Gwendolyn Mitchell on LinkedIn
MOYO Institute, Inc
instagram.com/moyoinstitute