From Passion to Practice: How a Critical Care Physician Embraced Lifestyle and Wellness Medicine

Lifestyle factors, such as sleep, nutrition, stress, physical activity, and connection, are important building blocks to a healthy life, alongside traditional medical treatment and diagnostics. And yet, this category of wellness is often shifted to the background or outskirts of health care, even as the science behind lifestyle medicine continues to strengthen. 

It was in this context that pulmonologist and critical-care physician Elisabeth Willers, MD, enrolled in the Lifestyle Medicine and Wellness Coaching Immersion. This experience connected the momentum of her 25-year career in medicine with her personal interest in wellness.

Incorporating a Wider Lens to Health Care

As a physician and former ICU director, Willers says her formal training “largely focused on diagnosing and treating advanced disease.” Lifestyle and prevention, by comparison, “often felt more like a personal passion than a professional norm.”

During the last few years, Willers’ interest in lifestyle medicine grew as the body of research supporting wellness has continued to develop. In late 2024, after unexpectedly losing her son at age 18, she channeled decades of medical experience into founding a nonprofit to teach resilience before crisis occurs. The Nashville-based organization, The Goldfinch Foundation, aims to advance youth and community mental wellness through research-backed practices. “Our mission is to shine a light on the importance of mental health and social connection as essential to overall wellness, and to empower young people to lead that change,” she says.

In the midst of running the nonprofit and her exploration of the wellness space, Willers encountered The Good Life by Robert Waldinger and his work on the Harvard Study of Adult Development.

“I was struck by how clearly the data shows that social connection impacts not only mental health, but also longevity,” says Willers. “I enrolled in the immersion, quite honestly, to hear and meet Dr. Waldinger. When I reviewed the program, I was excited to see that so many topics planned to be covered were in line with my personal interests, and I was excited to hear from the other experts!”

The Lifestyle Medicine and Wellness Coaching two-day, in-person curriculum is organized around the six core domains of lifestyle medicine: nourishing nutrition, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management and resilience, positive social connection, and the reduction of high-risk behaviors. The program is led by Elizabeth Frates, MD, FACLM, DipABLM, and features a range of expert faculty and guest presenters.

“This program bridges the gap between science and real-world application in a way that is both credible and deeply inspiring,” Willers says.

When Academic Rigor Meets Lifestyle Medicine

Seeing lifestyle medicine embraced within a highly credible, academic medical setting was impactful for Willers. Among the variety of speakers, she describes how many of the sessions brought her work into focus.

“I was incredibly inspired by the way Dr. Frates presented the six pillars of lifestyle medicine with both scientific rigor and genuine enthusiasm,” says Willers. “I am someone who often feels a similar excitement when discussing this work or anything I am passionate about. I felt connected with her just simply by watching her energy and authenticity, even though we did not know each other.”

Another session led by Robert Brooks deeply resonated with Willers. “His perspective on resilience and human connection aligned so closely with what she is building through Goldfinch that it felt both validating and clarifying,” she says. She also admired his speaking style: “a powerful blend of storytelling along with decades of clinical insight treating patients, that made the science feel deeply human and actionable.”

In addition to the faculty and experts, Willers reflected on how the cohort of learners both impressed and inspired her.

Willers shares, “Despite coming from different backgrounds, there was a clear alignment around the importance of prevention, connection, and lifestyle as foundational to health. That level of cohesion and optimism within a traditionally disease-focused field was both unexpected and incredibly encouraging.”

Building a New Future with Lifestyle Medicine

As more health care practitioners embrace lifestyle medicine, Willers sees the culture shifting away from “two lanes” (traditional medicine vs. holistic medicine) and toward a future where well-trained physicians incorporate more wellness into their learning and practice. 

“In my experience, ‘wellness’ is often fragmented—either overly commercialized, not founded in science, and/or disconnected from comprehensive medical care,” she says. “This program demonstrated that lifestyle medicine can be both evidence-based and deeply human, and that it belongs squarely within the future of mainstream medicine.”
Willers came away with something decisive: renewed confidence that she can return to medicine in a way that fits who she is now. 

“[The Lifestyle and Wellness Immersion] reinforces that lifestyle medicine is not an alternative to traditional care—it is an essential foundation for it.”

She adds, “I felt really inspired that I could go back to medicine, and I'm going to try to sit for the boards this year for lifestyle medicine.”