Bradley Goss first enrolled at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, in the Associates degree program for Western Herbalism and Holistic Nutrition. He was already a Physical Trainer at a gym and a Detoxification Specialist, but he knew he wanted to continue his education. Before finding SWIHA, he was taking classes at Phoenix College where, to his dismay, he found he did not resonate with what the nutritionist teachers were teaching. “They would tell us that having a couple of cokes a day isn’t bad; there is no good fat; white bread is the same as whole wheat bread; and eating sugar won't make you fat. I didn’t want to be at a school, filling my brain full of things that I knew weren’t correct, just to have to relearn them later.”  So Bradley started looking for another school. New York Integrative and SWIHA were his top two. He wanted a campus school with online options, but he really liked that one of his favorite teachers/authors, Dee McCaffrey (The Science of Skinny) worked here. Since he was already in AZ and NY would require a move, he chose to stay local, as he connected with our mission and philosophy. He reflected on his first few months at SWIHA: “I arrived, ‘not SWIHA material’. I believed in the goodness of foods, but not like I do now. I’d hear teachers say, ‘Be aware’ and ‘this food helps with consciousness’.  I was like, ‘What am I missing? I’m not drunk, what is she talking about??’ I wasn’t aware, even though I thought I was.”  The nutrition and herbalism fit together perfectly, as he still believes that diet and herbs is the curative solution to all dis-ease, however, the education took a lot effort. His feedback to new students or those in the herbalism program was, “Stick with it and don’t get discouraged, especially with the herbal medicine. The payoff is so worth it!”

I asked him what he considered his most valuable lesson from his SWIHA education, and he said it was what he learned while working on his Associates. He responded, “The power of herbs! I had no idea that they were so powerful. Herbs are God’s gifts!” One of his favorite herbs is Hawthorn, as it supports the cardiovascular heart, as well as balances emotions. (I thought it was interesting that the herb positively affects both “hearts”, the emotional and physical.) He also talked about his curiosity as to why there are so many herbs to support the kidneys. His education made him realize that while the digestive system sends wastes through the kidneys, so does the entire lymphatic system. These two little organs do so much filtering and cleansing for the body, no wonder they need support! I even got him to share one of his favorite herbal tea formulas with you all! 

Read this amazing story about his father:

My dad had been pre-diabetic for a few years due to poor eating habits and had to go to the hospital for chest pain. He was given a large dose of steroids that raised his blood sugar levels over 600(mg/dL). After that he had diabetes.  After a few years of being a diabetic, I learned of Indian gooseberry, Amalaki aka (Emblica officinalis).  This is fruit is dried and made into a medicinal herb, great for many issues-- cardiovascular disease, anemia, colitis, and diabetes, to name just a few.  At the time, my father was injecting himself with 42 units of insulin per night, and the dose sizes were slowly increasing.  I had him mix a 1/4 teaspoon of this herb in an ounce of warm water, with a few drops of honey and drink it once every morning.  He checked his glucose levels twice a day, and after 2 weeks he was able to stop taking insulin. He has been off insulin for over three years now.  

“I gave my father amalaki aka, or Indian gooseberry, for his elevated sugar levels and got him off insulin.”

Bradley’s business is called Integrative Physical Concepts, and he is in the process of building a website and clientele. His role as a PT and Detox Specialist allows him to organically meet his clients. A lot of his business is word of mouth and is sometimes generated from conversations around fitness, without him really having the intention. He explained to me that herbs are not what every person tries first thing. Usually, by the time they’ve reached him, they’re suffering and are will to try anything. He has found that, “Not everyone will jump on board [with herbs and diet changes], especially when they realize all the steps they have to take towards wellness—the hard work discourages some people.” However, he added, “Pain is a great motivator. People will try anything to get out of pain.”

You can find this graduate working with people from their homes, online, or via the phone. A session with Bradley takes many forms, mostly dependent on the client’s need, but he said, “I don’t believe in diseases. The name [of adisease] is for doctors to look at, to label and treat the symptoms, while I look to the lymphatic system for diseases you cannot see or treat, like Fibromyalgia. I cannot stress enough how much diet and herbs heal.” This is how he approaches pain and disease: not for symptom prevention, but getting to the root of the problem, and he puts a lot of emphasis on his knowledge in herbalism.

He is on his own dietary healing journey, as he was diagnosed with a tumor in his hip. He resonates with the studies and concepts of Dr. Morse in Florida, author of The Detox Miracle Sourcebook, which conceptully covers the power of raw food and herbs to heal the body through complete cellular regneration. He is in the middle of a “grape juice fast”, which he only consumes grapes, grape juice, herbal tea, and water, with hopes of dissolving the tumor. Grapes and lemons are two of nature’s greatest lymphatic cleansers and “tumor busters”. He is used to being very active, however lifting weights and working out creates lactic acid build up, which tumors thrive on. So he’s keeping the lower body workouts to a minimum and is focused on upper body conditioning. He had this to say about protein and muscle building: “Fruit nutrition supports the mind and brain, while vegetable protein will produce the dense, hard-packed muscles. Animal protein does not create ‘superior muscles’.  I want to see how ripped I can get, just on grapes.” He is primarily vegetarian, yet does eat a little meat every now and then.

Bradley has already re-enrolled at SWIHA, and is working on his Nutrition Wellness Practitioner certification, and he picked option 1 where the focus is on becoming a Fitness Nutrition Educator which fits perfectly with his already established Holistic Nutrition courses and Physical Trainer training. When asked how it feels to apply his SWIHA education to his business, he responded, “It makes me feel confident! Take my parents for example. My dad was on about 25 prescriptions for having eight stints in his heart, plus a heart valve. Hawthorne helped support his heart for a year, after which his cardiac doctor said he’d never seen such a happy heart, so healthy and strong. My degree establishes a foundation of trust for others to take the healing journey with me.”

Consider this powerful quote by Thomas Edison, which is one of Bradley’s favorites:

"No one can overcome a health problem using the same mind-set that created the problem."

You can contact Bradley at integrativephysicalconcepts@gmail.com or 480-280-7708.