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How to Access Effective Holistic Therapies – a conversation with Alenka Kyslik of Saha Collective
23 Plays1 month ago
Alenka Kyslik explains how Saha Collective helps you to navigate your holistic health journey.
Alenka Kyslik was an IT professional until she realised the way the industry worked was giving her burnout and destroying her health. Conventional medicine was not delivering results, so Alenka decided to investigate holistic approaches to health care.
It was not plain sailing, but Alenka did eventually find the correct therapists. Her lived experience motivated Alenka to use her technical skills to ensure that other people would find it easier to identify the right holistic therapists for them.
In this episode of Fit For My Age, Alenka explains to host Michael Millward what holistic health is. She explains using her lived experience what holistic therapies can do and what they will not be able to do.
Alenka explains how Saha uses an extensive range of criteria to match clients to the most appropriate holistic therapist
Find out more about Alenka and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.
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Transcript
Introduction to Fit For My Age
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. Because Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform that makes every stage of the podcast production process so easy.
00:00:16
Speaker
Use the link in the description to visit zencastr.com. It has a built-in discount on the subscriptions. Hello and welcome to Fit For My Age, the health and wellbeing podcast from Abysida.
Interview with Alenka Kaishlik: Background and Mission
00:00:31
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I'm your host, Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abysida. Today, I am finding out about the Saha Collective of Holistic Health Experts from founder, Alenka Kaishlik.
00:00:45
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Alenka is an eldest daughter, an overachiever and a recovering people pleaser. Alenka has gone through a series of health issues. She saw how finding answers to your health problems is a challenge in itself for many people and decided to do something about it.
00:01:03
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With over a decade of experience in building software, Alenka decided to build an online platform using custom matchmaking to connect people to vetted holistic experts based on shared values and current needs.
00:01:18
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the Her mission is to give people back control of their health. Alenka is Canadian but based in Los Angeles, California in the United
The Ultimate Travel Club Promotion
00:01:27
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States. I've been to Canada and I've been to Los Angeles as well.
00:01:32
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Whenever I go back to Los Angeles or Canada, I will be sure to make my travel arrangements with the Ultimate Travel Club because as a member of the Ultimate Travel Club, I travel at trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, holidays, and so many more travel-related purchases.
00:01:50
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I've put a link in the description to The Ultimate Travel Club and has a built-in discount on membership fees. Now that I have paid some bills, it is time to make an episode of Fit For My Age that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading, and subscribing to. and hopefully well worth telling your friends, family and work colleagues about.
Podcast Philosophy: Inspire Thought
00:02:13
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Very importantly on Fit For My Age, we will not be telling you what to think, but we do hope to make you think. Hello, Alenka. Hello. Thank you for having me.
00:02:24
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It's a great pleasure and I'm very interested to find out all about the Saha Collective. But before we start on the Saha Collective, let's find out find out a little bit more about you.
Alenka's Personal Journey and Health Challenges
00:02:36
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am a child of Czech immigrants. They were political refugees from the Soviet Union. i spent my childhood split between Europe and Canada. Then I had the opportunity to work in software, which I didn't think was ah an option growing up. And I moved across the country to Montreal. Actually, I spent some time there. And then about nine years ago, I moved down to to Los Angeles. But what is um what was kind of mentioned in my introduction is the the way that all went down and happened was I was very much pushing my limits in terms of
00:03:11
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ah my work life and not really respecting my body, meaning i would i would kind of I would work until my body said no. And that sounds easy, but the reality of it was um it was really awful.
00:03:26
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The sort of thing where you're looking at the computer screen and all of a sudden you're looking at the keyboard and falling asleep. Or just not able to process thoughts and and what's going on around you. Like you try to absorb what's happening in the meeting and it just, like your body says, this is enough. You need to rest. Yeah.
00:03:43
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yeah And it it can look differently day to day, but some people term it as burnout. And that can look like no matter no amount of rest is enough. You're constantly exhausted. um um Your gums can be really sensitive and you can have a lot of bleeding in the gums. ah People, i ground my teeth to the point where I cracked my tooth twice. Yeah.
00:04:06
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um And i I ruined my back teeth from the grinding permanently. I mean, it was a mix of that and um tearing apart my ankles multiple times to the point where the MRIs now show an insane amount of scar tissue um that kind of led me down the path where I didn't have a choice but to try to find some answers and to try to find
Holistic Health and Cultural Perspectives
00:04:30
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answers.
00:04:30
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a way to work with my body instead of fighting it and um pretending like these weren't problems. It's an interesting expression to work with your body rather than fighting it.
00:04:43
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It's almost like you want to do things, but your body says no, and yet you carry on doing it. And it can be know athletes, people who want to desperately finish a long walk by a particular time, do lots of housework, chores around the house, all sorts of things. But your body says, enough, stop, rest.
00:05:05
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And yet it is really easy to sort of say, no, I'm not going to listen to my body. And there's almost in some organizations, I think when you talk about that situation in a work context, is that there's an element of um credibility is gained by being seen to be the person who carries on, even though they would be better if they took a break and had some rest.
00:05:33
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There's a lot of baked in assumptions to success and what that looks like. And also assumptions that like, oh, yeah, if you're a hardworking, successful person, you will likely have a heart attack in your 50s. And that's just what it is. And I...
00:05:50
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am vehemently opposed to just accepting those kind of um like, oh, that's just, you know, like if I, if I work this hard and I'm successful, my health is just going
Saha Collective: Mission and Challenges
00:06:00
Speaker
to suffer. And that's that. And I just don't think that's okay because what is the point of working hard and being successful if you don't get to enjoy the fruits of your labor, right? If you're unhealthy and um you're not able to go on those trips that you were talking about or spend time with family.
00:06:15
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And for me, it just became a point where I couldn't do the small things that I enjoyed doing. And so it forced me to make a change. Yes. I can remember in the early days of my career, at the time where I was doing the junior jobs, the number of senior managers who would have heart attacks, strokes.
00:06:37
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And yet I totally agree with you. it was almost like seen as part of that's how the world works rather than this is a problem. You've had all of these health issues and you've found alternative what what people call alternative health, but actually is the the health services with the much longer history than our conventional health through drugs. So you've found alternative holistic experts who were able to help you rebuild your your health and you set up the Saha Collective.
00:07:12
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Where did the name come from? Is it Czech? No, it's it's not Czech. Most people can't pronounce a lot of words in Czech because it's a very difficult language. um So that would be mean on my part. ah It's actually Sanskrit, um which is the ancient um Indian language, or one of them, obviously. Saha translates in Sanskrit to connection together or endure. And in Arabic, it translates to health or wellness, which I didn't know until after I chose it. The reason I picked it was first, it's easy to remember and pronounce for most people. And um for me, I think the way that we get through difficult times is together and in community and with others. Because we we're not meant to be solitary beings, right? We are meant to find connection and and grow with others. And yes, it is important to learn to love and be with yourself and on your own and not rely on others. But at the same time, we are community beings and we need others to support us. um
00:08:19
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And I just found that finding that right community and that right group of people who can help support you is essential to your healing. the Problem shared is a problem halved in many ways. Exactly. The issue was finding the right type of um expert, the right type of therapist. And you as someone who doesn't know an awful lot about this, one the big concerns that I have is is that I know if I go and see a general practitioner, part of here in the United Kingdom, the National Health Service, or a doctor, you know that there is a qualification, there is expertise behind that. And they've spent years at university and medical school learning their profession.
00:09:08
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But there isn't the same regulation um around the holistic health arena as there is around the drug-based, pharmacy-based health arena.
00:09:19
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How do I know that the person who's giving me something is giving me the right thing?
Holistic vs Conventional Medicine: A Comparison
00:09:27
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Yeah. And it is a concern for a lot of people. I think the there's a lot of... um it can be really difficult more than understanding who is like the the regulation aspect of it, but understanding like, it can someone really help me?
00:09:46
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And is this the right person or, and a lot of like, cause when we start to look, there's tons of products and supplements and other things that are promoted to us. And like, you can go, you can spend years and insane amounts of money, trying to find someone who can help you out. And really my goal is for people who have already tried everything in conventional medicine and have not found answers. My goal is to help those people because if you have found answers in conventional medicine, that is amazing. I'm so happy for you. Unfortunately, there is a large population that that just doesn't exist. There's a lot of reasons for that. um We could go into the history of what type, how clinical studies are done, um who their the studies are done on, and what the limitations of them are. And that just basically limits the audience that can be effectively treated by conventional medicine, right? It's it's just a limitation of time and money. And conventional Western medicine has only been around for, you know, since like, depending on how you define it, 1800s ish, that's not a long time to be able to treat every issue that the human population has. And it has done incredible, miraculous things. Um,
00:11:02
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The difficulty is when it does not help you, there really isn't a recourse. There really isn't a place to go to that you can trust um that will help you find answers. And I think when we say holistic, what i think of when I think of holistic is I think of treating you as an entire person. Not treating you um saying, oh, you have migraines, like take a painkiller. It's looking and saying, oh, you have migraines. um What does your diet look like? What is your stress level? Are you taking enough water? Have you looked at your blood tests and are you missing um key things in your blood that may be contributing to why you're getting that, right? It's it's how are you sleeping? There's many, many aspects of holistic health.
00:11:48
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Well, let's be honest, the way in which the media treat it and position it is very often as if it's a ah bit crackpot. Sure, sure, yeah. And the media themselves don't really understand the holistic approach to health. And so because they don't understand it, the easiest way to deal with it is to ridicule it.
00:12:07
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You raise a very good point about the the need to know whether the holistic health expert that you have found is actually expert in your type of condition. And that's where Saha Collective would come in, I suppose. Right.
00:12:25
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Yes, exactly. because Because what I have experienced in talking to hundreds of individuals and professionals, I have seen that there is basically, um there's a disconnect between what people perceive that they need what they are ready for in terms of what they are ready to commit in terms of changing their lifestyle or changing their diet. And then there's also this difference in, i if you come in to an appointment and you have a certain expectation of that appointment, and then it seems to not fulfill it. I've heard this from
00:13:00
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all sorts of people, right? From like, you go in to see a specialist and you've been waiting for six months and then you hope that they're going to give you that magical answer and they give you nothing. And now you're desperate to um your friend recommended this person that has fixed so many things for them. You get there and you're like, this is not the right, I don't understand what they're trying to
Saha's Algorithm and Health Journey Insights
00:13:22
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do. This doesn't make sense to me, right? And so the goal of Saha is to take all of these things and more And give you options to give you back what I call agency, right? To give you back a feeling of control. Because when you have options, when you have a path forward, it it's...
00:13:41
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it gives you back this feeling that I can do something about my life versus when you've tried everything and you are, you feel absolutely lost. It becomes also a um, like even if your condition or whatever you're going through, maybe mostly physical, like I couldn't walk for two years properly because i I had torn apart my ankles over and over again. it wears on your mental health as well. And when you don't have the mental energy to try to find answers and continue advocating for yourself, it wears you down to the point where you might just give up or not not put in the time that you would like to. And then it just continues kind of cycling and getting worse. Yeah, it sounds a little bit as if you know someone finds that the pharmacy-based medicine has only taken their cure so far, and then they start looking at the more holistic approaches.
00:14:37
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Without the expertise, they find a holistic solution that isn't quite right for them. And you can ah get the impression that people can go down route which goes from one holistic person to another one to another one and as each one doesn't work because they're not actually doing the selection process effectively they almost get more and more desperate and their health conditions can actually get worse rather than getting better because of the the lack of success with the process
00:15:13
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It can happen. It can happen. I will say that there generally isn't a like one size fits all solution, right? If we go to my example of my ankles, um part of it was I had to change my nutrition. Part of it was I had to change my um something as simple as paying attention to where I was stepping instead of going over my to do list when I was walking. Yeah.
00:15:35
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all the way from learning how to stand and walk differently. um Like even today, as I was brushing my teeth this morning, I realized I was leaning against the counter instead of engaging my muscles. um Those types of things, I went through so many different practitioners and i learned something different from each of them, but I didn't need to go through as many as I did if I had had the solution I'm building now when I needed it, and which is the entire reason why I'm building this is I just saw there were so many different aspects of I would meet with someone and I now know it would have been better to meet with them a year later. um it was too early to have them as a part of my healing process. It's it's just, so if you don't know there's no there's no one guiding you through it. And unfortunately we have to become our own advocates for our own health. And that can be really difficult when you're in a place where you just don't have the mental space or capacity to continue doing that. It sounds like you must've had to build some very complex coding.
00:16:38
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Yes. I presented my design for the algorithm to my developer and she said, this is really complicated. And I was like, oh, I didn't think it was enough. I thought it needed more.
00:16:52
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um And so, um yes, it is a pretty complex and dynamic system. But it takes into account things like your symptoms, right? That is important. um It takes into account where you are in your healing journey, because being like in the very acute initial stage of pain and symptoms, that's very different than being in a, like you've managed your symptoms and now you're looking to make changes.
00:17:16
Speaker
It's more complex than that, but you're going to see someone very different at those different stages. We take into account what you're comfortable with, right? The holistic and alternative space is very diverse. You can, um because technically this includes things that we don't think of as all that alternative space. DNA testing is in there, different types of massage therapy, Pilates, etc, are part of that alternative space. And so that is more on the conventional side. So we have a spectrum of what you may be comfortable with, and we match you based on that. And then we also match you based on shared values. So things like religion, politics, ethnicity, et cetera, those are optional, but in some cases that's very relevant to what you might be going through. um And then we also do shared um experiences in the sense of if you're a parent or if you've been in the military, or if you have some sort of disability or chronic illness, you do want to speak with someone who understands those things specifically.
Managing Chronic Conditions: Lifestyle Changes
00:18:20
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And that can be different than
00:18:21
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um any of other of those filters. There's more, but that's the basics of it. um And I do find that that does help you get to a place where, get into the appointment, you feel heard and understood and you don't feel like you need to justify why you're there and why you need help, which for many of us being in these positions, we get into rooms and they're like, I don't understand why this is a problem. you're You're about to lose your mind.
00:18:46
Speaker
I can appreciate that. It sounds as if you're not necessarily always looking for a cure. You can actually be using this to manage the the symptoms and the pain that is caused by a chronic illness, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to find a total cure. For example, things that we do in early on in our life impact us down the road, right? If you're an athlete and you've worn down your joints, you're not going to get a cure for that, right? You're not going to get a cure for the pain in your joints. But there are things that you can do to minimize the symptoms and changes in your lifestyle that can really make a big difference.
00:19:26
Speaker
Because cures are sound great. Taking a pill, taking an herb, whatever it is, can sometimes work. But other times we need to make a larger commitment to ourselves to say, you know what, if sugar makes me do all sorts of crazy things, I'm just going to find a way to take sugar out of my life. or caffeine, or you know what I mean, it might be something that it sounds big, because we have a large dependency on our coffee in the morning. But if it overall improves our sleep, and therefore improves our mood and our relationships to the people we care about, then it doesn't feel like that big of a sacrifice. But it's sometimes very hard to pinpoint what that thing is without someone helping you.
00:20:04
Speaker
Yeah. It's almost as if the 21st century Western lifestyle is one where we assume or believe that we can do whatever we like with our bodies and that's someone will come up with a pill to put right what it is that we have created for ourselves because of our own behaviors, our own desire, like you say, sugar or alcohol or nicotine or lack of exercise or burning the candle at both ends, all sorts of different things that we do because we simply believe that we're indestructible.
00:20:43
Speaker
The interesting thing is that with the holistic approach, the changes could be a change to the type of exercise that you do. it could be a change to the food that you eat, the type of food, the time of each day, all sorts of different things because they're looking at, you know almost like what goes in influences or dictates what the body is able to do.
00:21:09
Speaker
And if you're going to be doing something extremely physical, you'll be looking for the food which will enable you to do that physical activity. But at the same time, things that you eat, drink, could actually be limiting what it is that you do ah just as much as they enable you to do other things. It's it's really interesting to listen to you talk about the the issues and then how the Saha Collective helps people to find their own solution by connecting them to the a more appropriate expert who will understand
00:21:49
Speaker
not just the condition that they're looking for help with but also their total lifestyle if you are from a particular religious group then it would be beneficial to talk to someone from that same religious group because they will understand the rules of that religion if you are a woman you probably want to talk to another woman if for a man you want to talk to another man it's that you've thought about almost everything haven't you really tried.
Evolution of Saha's Services and Future Prospects
00:22:13
Speaker
really tried. I've really tried, yeah. Yeah, it's I mean, it's ah it's always a work in progress. um And I joke about this because my background is software. And and as we all know, none of it's ever perfect. That's And we're just trying to to do our best with the information we have and collecting information software.
00:22:32
Speaker
Like when someone books an appointment and was that, did that feel like it was a good fit? That's important, right? And that allows us to improve and tweak. And I call it a matchmaking process because I think that's the most similar that people kind of have an understanding of. is that if you're talking to someone about something that you've gone through and how that's impacted your life and you don't know how to change that impact it's had on your life, you really want someone who understands that. And you don't have to explain ad nauseum what that experience was.
00:23:07
Speaker
because it's that's just not helpful. It's just not effective for either of you, right? It doesn't feel great for the provider to not be able to help. And it doesn't feel great as the client to not get the help that you're asking for. So we're really trying to minimize that. And there's a lot of software and um The way that we have access to this incredible technology can do a lot more than we realize. um And it's just, it blows my mind that something like this does not already exist. I just, I can't wrap my head around it I do like the idea of matching a need to a deliverable solution to that need. That that is a pure matching type activity. And i agree with you.
00:23:52
Speaker
Why does this not exist? Well, perhaps because people don't really understand all of the various different options that are available. And it's like you mentioned, well, doing Pilates might help with a particular condition. And I'm a big fan of Pilates. I love it. And I feel as if I stand taller and more upright after a Pilates session.
00:24:15
Speaker
because that's the process that you go through with Pilates. So there are all sorts of things and we could talk for hours about it, but just one final question is what you see as being the future of health and healthcare given the work that you're doing? Yeah, i see um I see it being a lot more accessible to people. um And what I mean by accessibility, so part of what we're doing is offering Saha as a benefit employers can offer to their employees.
00:24:44
Speaker
Because right now, um you some employers offer therapy and gym passes, but that's kind of it. And so it really
Saha as an Employee Benefit
00:24:51
Speaker
limits you. I see it being more accessible and understandable. um all of these things that are outside conventional medicine. And I do see conventional medicine already pulling in a lot of these um practices and these modalities, we like to call them, or ways of treating people into Western hospitals. And um you know you get recommendations to go to Pilates instructor or to do yoga from doctors now. And I see that expanding and becoming more more prominent and really people looking at not just what can I do to not have this migraine and what pill can I take to understanding, okay, if I don't want to be dealing with migraines for the rest of my life, what do I need to do to to change that? um It won't be quick. It's going to take time. um
00:25:39
Speaker
and I do see a lot more studies. i already see it happening around um these ah holistic practices um and where people can see um when we say science, I mean, the like the the way where we can reproduce the same results in the same way so that we know that if you do these set of actions in this way, you are very likely to improve whatever it is that we're trying to treat. And so very much looking forward to that.
00:26:07
Speaker
It all sounds very exciting. And you mentioned there that Saha is available as an employee benefit. And of course, it'll be available as part of the employee benefits program that Abysida provides as part of the Abysida H2R employee management solution as
Reflections and Podcast Engagement
00:26:22
Speaker
well. But for the moment, Alenka, thank you very much for your time today. It has been really very interesting. I've learned a lot. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me.
00:26:33
Speaker
It's been great. I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abusida, and in this episode of Fit for My Age, I have been having a conversation with Alenka Kajslip, the founder of the Saha Collective.
00:26:47
Speaker
You can find out more information about both of us by using the links in the description. At Fit for My Age, our aim is proactive positive aging. Knowing the risks early is an important part of maintaining good health.
00:27:00
Speaker
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00:27:11
Speaker
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00:27:28
Speaker
Hospital standard tests are carried out in a UK AS accredited and CQC compliant laboratory in the yeah UK and similar facilities around the world.
00:27:39
Speaker
You can access your easy to understand results and guidance to help you make effective lifestyle changes anytime by your secure personal wellness hub account. As you would expect, There is a link and a discount code in the description.
00:27:54
Speaker
That description is well worth reading. I'm sure that you will have enjoyed this episode of Fit For My Age as much as Alenka and I have enjoyed making it.
00:28:06
Speaker
Please give it a like and download it so you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. You probably will also want to tell your friends, family and work colleagues about Fit For My Age and also about the Saha Collective.
00:28:25
Speaker
Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think. Until the next episode of Fit for My Age, thank you for listening and goodbye.