Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Rimka.
Stephanie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Detroit as the youngest of four kids being raised by a single mom. We didn’t have any child support, and we didn’t have a long list of relatives to help us out. My mom is an only child who lost her father as a teenager. Her own mother, my grandmother, had her own long life of confusion and trauma, and she did the best she could. My mother didn’t have her to rely upon for any help. So my mother did it all. You learn a lot about grit, determination, self-reliance, teamwork, hard work, being tough, and even fighting when you come from the Midwest, Detroit in particular. Being the youngest and smallest with a single mom without a lot of money to survive despite often working 2-3 jobs, you learn those lessons quickly. And I am grateful for it. I decided early that I wanted “to be a doctor when I grow up” and gave that answer to any adult who asked.
After I graduated college, I was working with women diagnosed with schizophrenia and had just completed a week of special training at a large Michigan mental hospital. I was angry and frustrated at the cases in front of me when I read the files. I didn’t see anyone getting well. I saw more and more adverse reactions to the medications. I saw all these women institutionalized and then brutalized by staff. I was horrified and wondered if I should invest 4-8 years of medical school to be a part of this system that was already making me so frustrated.
In an aha moment with my chiropractor at a routine adjustment from an old sports injury, time stood still as he explained the nervous system and psychology in a way I finally heard and exclaimed, “So the schizophrenics all need to get adjusted?!” In that moment, I decided I didn’t need the status of becoming a “real” doctor. I wanted to adjust those patients in the mental hospital, those fighting to conquer drug addiction, and everyone in prison so when they were released they would be clear in their mind and hearts. I wanted to save lives with a drug-free approach. Six months later, I moved to Atlanta and started chiropractic college. Curing back pain or headaches was the furthest thing on my mind. I cared about how the nervous system controlled mental illness, and that was how I attacked my education.
Yes, I said attack. Because I’m from Detroit, and that’s just what we do. Focused, almost obsessively, studying and training to grasp the complexities of physiology, detoxification, neurotransmitters, how to alter brain chemistry via adjustments, diet, supplementation, lab testing, functional medicine, orthomolecular psychiatry. I never wanted to not know how to help anyone ever again. I was driven, and it was personal. Truth is, too many members of my family are or have been in prison. Many struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction. Mental illness and personality disorders litter my lineage. And I have experienced firsthand what this can do to a family. I know how destructive dyslexia can be to a child’s self-esteem and ability to succeed in life. I see what biochemical imbalances can do to ravage someone with so much depression they feel unable to do anything but hurt themselves or someone else. And I wanted to learn to stop that suffering somehow.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Where do we start?!
Life will always throw you curveballs. I had no money, no mentors, no one to ask for help. But, I am a big of “Providence moves too” when I commit. I have practiced jumping without a parachute so many times that now I KNOW one will be manifested for me while I free fall to what appears to be my doom. I had to take a lot of risks and just trust.
Two of the biggest impacts on what got me here helping the patients I serve today are my nephew being diagnosed with autism and my own becoming of being a mother to a high-needs son.
From pain can be birthed the greatest purpose. I still think mine is unfolding as we speak.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My practice focuses on permanent brain-based therapies for the hard-to-treat or understands patients such as Autism, Personality Disorders, severe mental health crises from anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Patients travel from across the globe to experience a healing playground of comprehensive, permanent brain therapies, brain imaging, biofeedback, functional nutrition, epigenetics, cognitive testing, nutrient therapy, psychology, chelation, detoxification, Chiropractic, and Chinese medicine. I focus on empowering people through education to take control of their physical and mental health, despite their doctor’s advice. The foundation of the practice and what sets it apart is my strong focus on blending ancestral and primal wisdom and practices with modern technology utilizing the electromagnetic spectrum including light, electricity, magnetics, and sound therapies. I aim to break apart the numerous myths, half-truths, and blatant lies in Rockefeller medicine about “what is healthy” that keep people from being their best selves and living their best lives.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Success is merely getting what you want. So knowing what you want as defined on my own terms is critical. If I let other people decide what “success” looks, I could end feeling pretty miserable despite what it might look like from the outside.
Second to that is my stubbornness. I’m just relentless. I’m self-driven. I was born that way. Or poverty built it into me. More likely, it’s a combination of both. That defiance saved my life, but my pursuit of spirituality, meditation, consciousness, and community saved my Soul.
Contact Info:
- Email: desk@drrimka.com
- Website: https://brainandbodysolutions.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_rimka/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drrimka
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/DrRimka
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cGQnzxSCNMjJ9ZGcy0AcF
Image Credits
Rupa Kapoor, Leigh Holbrook, and Karin Kovalsky
