by Alvin Ramirez August 19, 2014
Last week’s feature on Book Journeys was Natural Health speaker and practitioner, Dr. Kathy Gruver. Angela interviewed Dr. Gruver on her journey into writing her very first book, The Alternative Medicine Cabinet, which basically introduces people to alternative ways to health and wellness. Dr. Gruver dispels the notion that alternative medicine is some kind of obscure practice that people perceive as scary or taboo, and opposed to Western medicine. She emphasizes that it can be very mainstream and complementary so that we can in fact pool the best aspects of both practices. People can easily incorporate alternative medicine in their lives and make subtle, self-propelled changes to their health. Technical, but fun and easy-to-read, the book starts out general, with an explanation of different types of alternative medical practices like Reiki, homeopathics, and massage, then going more specific into such topics as cancer, weight loss, and different ways to apply alternative medicine in daily life.
Dr. Gruver started out as a massage therapist and in her work, she interacted with clients who would ask her about health questions that were not at all related to massage. This started her interest in expanding herself from a massage therapist to being a health practitioner, which led her to take her Masters and Ph.D. in Natural Health as well as lots of certifications and training on related fields. She credits her venture into writing the book to two things: the practicality of wanting to reach out to more people, and the need to establish her credibility as an expert in the field. She started by writing articles in health magazines and blogs, not to mention that her being in school also gave her opportunity to write lots of papers and projects about her field. But what finally propelled her to write the book was her aspiration to become a public speaker and be part of a speakers bureau. Finding out that without a book she will not be taken seriously as a speaker, she then took to the task of writing, and realized that she had quite a body of work with all the articles, projects, and papers she had already written.
Dr. Gruver takes confidence and pride in the legacy that she leaves in writing a book, and has added a few more to her list, including a phenomenal book on stress which was based on her dissertation. Having multiple books to her credit has established her as an expert in the field and has propelled her to even more media attention, being invited to magazine interviews and being quoted in major publications, websites, and news channels which ultimately allowed her to reach out and help even more people. Aside from being a writer, she has lectured around the world and has done hundreds of radio and TV shows, including one that is based on her book, The Alternative Medicine Cabinet. She has definitely seen much value in writing a book and it is for this reason that she encourages others to do the same.
Her advice to aspiring authors who procrastinate in their writing is to have to realize that a book will never be perfect and they just have to do it and turn it in. “At some point you have to be done with it… pick a day… cut the cord.”
Listen to the Kathy Gruver interview on BlogTalkRadio
Next week, watch out for Angela’s interview with another exciting author.