Kaeri Schaefer brings us “collaborative understory medicine”—a root-cause, relational approach that treats symptoms as body communication. Today we cover Kaeri’s path from family medicine residency to functional medicine, bodywork, and somatic practice, and how this reshaped the way she supports “chatty” bodies (often highly sensitive nervous systems).

Throughout the episode we discuss how money and medicine intertwine—including the role of financial privilege, the tension with insurance, and what it took for Kaeri to launch a nonprofit clinic and later step away to practice more freely. We discuss practical somatic cues around money stress (chest, jaw, pelvic floor), how space and environment affect care (natural light and color matter), and why relationship—not hierarchy—creates safety and better outcomes. I’m grateful for Kaeri’s grounded wisdom and the gentle pace she models for truly listening to our bodies.

Kaeri Schaefer, MD is a healing provider integrating functional medicine, bodywork, and somatic practice. Trained at the University of Wisconsin and board-certified in Family Medicine, she blends clinical rigor with deep listening, describing her approach as “collaborative understory medicine.” Her additional training includes functional medicine through the Institute of Functional Medicine, craniosacral and osteopathic studies with Carol Gray and Christopher Frothingham, DO, and decolonial medicine coursework with Dra. Rocio Rosales Meza.

Kaeri’s work centers relational, consent-forward care and longer visits that allow the body’s communications—not just “symptoms”—to be heard. A mother of two, magical queer cis-womyn, and intuitive healer, she honors inner knowing and self-honoring action as pathways for personal and collective healing. She has led accessible care initiatives, including a nonprofit model committed to not turning anyone away, and now practices in a way that supports her clients—and herself—to feel grounded and radiant.

• Introducing “collaborative understory medicine”
• From “loud bodies” to “chatty” nervous systems
• Naming financial privilege and its impact on career choices
• Why 20 minutes isn’t enough: pace, safety, and trust
• Ditching “non-compliant” medical approaches to center consent and collaboration
• Moving beyond labels in medical care
• Somatics of finance: locating money stress in the body
• Reframing shame as systemic grief and longing for equity

#Somatics #FunctionalMedicine #IntegrativeMedicine #BodyCommunication #TraumaHealing #NervousSystem #MedicalBurnout #AccessibleCare #MindBodyConnection #FinancialWellness

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Embodied Anatomy course

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté

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