Meet Dr. Fischer (my story)

My original career was as a research biologist, studying antiviral therapies and immunology in a lab. My love of working with people inspired me to start my “second career” by starting medical school at age 28. I’ve spent over 25 years as a practicing family physician in multiple roles, including teaching, clinic, hospital and specialty care. I’ve also pursued graduate training in legal and medical bioethics, creating a bridge between rapidly changing technology and patient’s ethical values.

As I look back, I see my path as a constant dance between the intellect and the heart in medicine! What a privilege it has been, accompanying families through joyful life transitions and health challenges, from childbirths to the sacred moment of final breaths. It’s been my biggest honor to be entrusted with the life stories of these diverse narratives.

BUT…the practice of for-profit, corporate-controlled allopathic medicine in America changed in the last few decades in ways that can suffocate that connection. Medical visit lengths become shorter and shorter; regulations become longer. The precious assets my patients value the most - time, compassion and deep understanding - have been squeezed almost entirely out of many encounters.

I wanted to listen. I wanted to hear, and reflect, and heal.

Realizing that I was facing the burnout of being unable to fully live the values that brought me into the world of medicine, I decided to pursue a new path in 2015. I began heeding this internal truth, seeking a way to continue to provide those gifts, supporting a more expansive and holistic vision of true healing and health through attentive listening, empathy, and skill. Choosing to pursue further education in updated philosophies of trauma-informed therapy and mind-body techniques, and then training as an Integrative Health Coach under wise and exceptional mentors, has allowed me to honor my own rich background while really FOCUSING on my clients’ voices!

For now, I continue to practice allopathic medical medicine in Urgent Care settings during the COVID-19 pandemic; I feel so lucky to have the skills to be part of the solution during this unprecedented health crisis! Providing coaching to those under duress provides me the added opportunity to empower multiple paths to healing and wellness.

I practice a philosophy of “whole spectrum” coaching, with inclusive and empowering care across broad spectrums of profession, gender, age, and experience. Allowing myself the time be fully present and listening in a private coaching practice reinvigorates my own sense of joy, purpose and well-being, as I witness the power of undivided and mindful attention helping my clients to truly flourish and heal!

In my own life, I’ve raised five children and am now blessed with four grandchildren. Creativity and educational diversity fuels my own energies; I’ve volunteered, taught, dabbled in photography, ceramics, figure drawing and painting, taught myself four languages (with variable fluency!), trained obedience trial dogs, and failed to train multiple cats (despite my best efforts.)

When I’m not working, you can find me biking or walking my Golden doodle pup around the Minneapolis lakes, drawing and painting, cooking for my family, or nose deep in a good book! I’m also passionate about live theater, orchestral, folk, and jazz music, opera, and art museums, and am hoping we can all return safely to those passions soon! I consider myself a serial dilettante/dabbler, and a lifelong learner.