An Integrative Medicine Approach with Theri Griego Raby
Doctor Raby takes a 360 degree approach to holistic medicine
Theri Griego Raby, MD, ABHM often finds herself sitting in her office across from an apologetic patient. That’s because her full-spectrum approach to medicine often dips into territories patients are unused to discussing with physicians.
“I ask patients their whole history,” says Dr. Raby. “When people discuss emotional things, their stress levels, they say, ‘Oh, you don’t care about this,’ and apologize to me. But it is important – this is a part of who you are, part of your chemistry. The psychological components affect your health.”
That’s just one non-traditional approach patients at the Raby Institute for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern experience, where care is a bit more, let’s say, involved than that to which patients may be accustomed. Founded in 2009 by Dr. Raby as part of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and relocated to spacious digs at 500 North Michigan Avenue last fall, the center follows principles Dr. Raby began forming growing up in New Mexico.
“How I was raised had a huge impact on how I am today,” says Dr. Raby, who cites her grandmother as the central figure in shaping her philosophy on nutrition, health and medicine. “We always grew our own vegetables, had our own herbal teas and supplements.”
Dr. Raby went on to medical school at the University of New Mexico, where her studies in allopathic and cross-cultural medicine exposed her to the traditions of healers like medicine men and shamans, before completing her Internal Medicine residency at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago. After arriving at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, she attempted to reconcile both sides of her medical training – holistic and traditionally Western – by proposing to look at traditional medicine in a different way. At the time, Northwestern had recently completed a patient survey and found that many, primarily well-educated women between ages 25-55 who’d traveled abroad, had an interest in an integrative approach to medicine, and so the Center for Integrative Medicine was started in 1996.
“They had faith in me,” she says of her superiors, noting that she continually defined the word ‘integrative’ as she worked out of a small office and shared lab. “It was one step at a time. And every day, every week, every month, I continued to improve what I was doing.” Acupuncture, energy medicine, herbal and nutraceutical remedies, massage therapy and other approaches merged with her traditional training in nutrition and medicine. Patients became empowered, and in many cases, experienced improvements in conditions from which they’d suffered for decades.
Dr. Raby’s background made her uniquely qualified for such an undertaking. “We truly listen to our patients, their stories, and empower them to make behavioral changes. We educate them to understand the physiology, biochemistry and how behavior impacts your health,” she says. “We’re not trained in Western medicine to do some of those things. And of course, our system doesn’t allow us to do that at times, either.” Dr. Raby holds the listening and learning process in the highest regard; patients may tell her everything from environmental factors they were exposed to as children, to diet patterns and mood swings, to how their mothers delivered them, all of which have compounding effects on an adult’s health.
is managing editor and electronic media editor of Today's Chicago Woman. She is active in various local and national women’s groups, including Step Up Women's Network, Rape Victim Advocates and the TCW Foundation, and is a member of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Young Professionals. She writes and speaks about local, national and international women's issues, including in her blog, “Twice As Well."
