Meet Leslie Koenig

We were lucky to catch up with Leslie Koenig recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Leslie, thank you so much for joining us today. There are so many topics we could discuss, but perhaps one of the most relevant is empathy because it’s at the core of great leadership and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your empathy?

As any physician can tell you, we start medical school “to help people.” While in school, I did several mission trips with this in mind to Dominican Republic, rural Bolivia, and even inner city Chicago at a low income/uninsured clinic. My ability to speak spanish has been invaluable in understanding with compassion while in these areas of poverty. Going into emergency medicine, I saw firsthand the suffering of not only the homeless and their health challenges, but all patients in the ER- including trauma and end of life. Sitting at the bedside with patients going through their worst days taught me the values of sitting in silence, listening. Just a compassionate presence, and how that can be just as healing.

Then again- any ER doctor will tell you burnout can kill your career. The amount of suffering we treat, and the toll it takes on us, is a balance that is difficult to walk. For me personally, realizing how important it is to value my own needs as a human, a mother, and a doctor, and having empathy for myself was just as life saving. Taking time for myself to sleep, to eat healthy, to meditate and develop spiritually helped me be available for when a patient came in with a heart attack, or broken bone, or suicidal thoughts.

Being a healer, it’s an honor to serve people in their darkest hour. Doing this for over 15 years and now specializing in mental health through IV ketamine, my experience with developing empathy and compassion has enabled me to live out my purpose with greater fullness. Sitting with patients undergoing ketamine treatments, hearing their stories with understanding and support has shown exactly why I became a doctor in the first place. While I’ve had friends commit suicide, fellow combat veterans struggle with PTSD, friends suffer from depression, all of that is experience I’ve had as a friend and doctor to continue to be of serve in the most compassionate way possible. Compassion and empathy feel like it flows easier for others when aligned with that deep sense of purpose.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m Leslie Koenig, MD, board certified Emergency Physician, Navy combat veteran, and medical director of Waybridge Clinics. I founded Waybridge with the goal of offering IV ketamine treatments in a safe, integrative, and evidence based clinic that helps not just patients with treatment resistant depression, but helps educate therapists and physicians about the transformative effects of this medicine.

Ketamine is an old medicine with a new purpose. While I used it in the Navy as an ER doc and member of a Shock Trauma Platoon in Afghanistan for sedation and pain control, we’re now finding that at lower doses in a clinic setting it treats mental health in a way no other medication does. This is so incredibly exciting to me that I go around to various clinics, give presentations, and educate patients and providers how it works. It’s special in that it doesn’t even work on the same parts of the brain that pills do- and it’s fast.

Any ER doctor can tell you that we like to help patients feel better STAT, get them out the door, and hope they don’t come back. Well…. ketamine kind of works that way too. It is the only rapid acting anti depressant (RAAD) and reduces suicidal thoughts within hours. Also, many patients have such rapid improvements and their brains literally grow new connections due to this medicine- their depression goes into remission and they may only need to come back for a booster every few months. Very different than taking a pill every day for the rest of their lives!! I’m so excited about how I can see patients in 3 weeks, 6 sessions total in the clinic, and watch them blossom. Literally. The people who walk into my clinic are not the same people who walk out. They are lighter, liberated, and happier.

I got into ketamine from the ER world not only because I used it as sedation, but also because I’ve always had an affinity for self improvement, mental health, and a curiosity for what’s to come. Meditation showed me how important mental well being is and I offer that integrative approach daily in the clinic. I knew there was more to healing than what western medicine taught me, so I sought out teachers like at the University of Arizona Andrew Weil, MD where I did an Integrative Fellowship to learn other healing modalities and bring them into my clinic. This is why we also offer essential oils, herbal teas, and music as part of what we do.

The future of mental health has ketamine at the tip of the spear. There’s more to come in the psychotropic space, and as I love to stay on top of data and research I’m so excited about what’s possible. For right now though, I hope to make ketamine even more accessible and available, in a safe set and setting with a deep respect for the human spirit and a whole-person approach to healing. My dream is to have a Waybridge Clinic in every state with no barriers in access to care.

With this in mind, we’re expanding our clinic from one location, in Omaha, NE to a new space in Nashville, TN in the Green Hills area. It is my firm belief that we need to make this available to anyone who needs it. Fighting for insurance to cover it is another battle front, but it’s one I’m joining forces with to make it a reality. We’re already covered by the VA, as I also fought hard to get our services available to our veteran population. What I’ve seen ketamine do for PTSD is nothing short of miraculous. I know I’ve been given a higher purpose to use this medicine so people can be the people they were meant to be- without the weight of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and OCD. It evern works wonders for chronic pain- neuropathic pain especially. It’s one slow step at a time, but healing one person at a time is worth it.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1.) Resilience. Growing up, I’ve had many challenges and setbacks. Any one of them I could have used with a victim mindset that would only have stunted my growth as a person. As a kid, being poor. Parents divorce. Nearly being homeless. Getting bullied. Being told I wasn’t smart enough. Not feeling good enough. All of these things I had to overcome and learn resilience from. No one was going to pick me up but me. While this led to a fierce independence that I would later learn could get in the way, it was the determination to not let life get me down that kept the journey moving forwards. I also learned that resilience and “toughness” comes from rest and self understanding. While a “go go go” and “always be busy” mindset can get you far, it can also burn you out. This is the balance to walk with resilience- to be like a blade of grass, not a dead dry stick. To be like water carving the rock. To be true to yourself and the stand on a solid foundation of purpose, not pride. The key thing to develop this is that with any challenge, any struggle, think “I am overcoming this by __” and not overthinking it. Set your mind to a solution based thinking mode, where any problem is a hurdle, not a brick wall. There is a way, you just have to find it and commit to the solution.

2.) Vulnerability. Being a woman in the military, I thought I had to focus only on my masculine side to get through it. It works- but also stunted who I really am. It didn’t make me happy. It got results and I succeeded at anything I put my mind to, but “muscling through” all situations just led to a deep, simmering anger underneath. I didn’t let my true feeling shine, or even listen to my own feelings. Repressing all of that, even the sadness that comes with life, will slowly dull who you are. Pretending you aren’t upset, or pretending you don’t care, or even just throwing anger at all situations instead of being honest will hurt your relationships. You end up feeling trapped in the fake mask you’ve created. All of this led to an inner kind of pain that I realized I needed to change. That ultimately led to truly understanding being vulnerable. It’s a powerful, beautiful thing. Showing your true self. The good, the bad, the ugly. If this is a point you struggle with, my advice is to realize that at first- yes, it’s scary. Embrace that. Walk towards the fear of being Real for once. Sometimes it’s even with yourself, in the deep dark moments you’re scared to admit it in your own mind- that you have a heart. It’s aching to break loose. Let it.

3.) Surrender. There’s a knowingness inside all of us, a little voice that is hard to hear but can guide you if you let it. Sometimes it’s scary to listen to, but you know it’s right. We are only here a short time, and there is so much good we can do to help this world. If we surrender to that inner knowingness, the one who knows who you are and what you’re capable of- it’s incredible what can happen. My whole life I felt like I was in charge, I was in control, and I knew what I wanted. I’d go and get it and prove everyone wrong, anyone who underestimated me. That drive was great- until it ran me into the ground. The pain of that led me to surrender. That little knowingness inside knew better. Spending time in silence, complete retreat and meditation from the world and recalibrating to what was important helped me spiritually jump off a cliff (aka, change my entire career!) but then realize- I had wings. Take the leap. Fear is the only thing that gets smaller as you walk towards it. Sometimes it’s a small step- start there. That little thing that’s scary? Do that. Take the plunge, make the leap. You’ll see.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

I hope to be the stupidest person I surround myself with. The two books that played a huge role in this are Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” and Ryan Holiday’s “Ego Is The Enemy.” These together show how leaders inspire others to bring their best selves to the table- but to do that, I have to know where my skills end and give up my ego. By showing others my passion, but where I lack an ability to get it done- they are more empowered to fill in the gap with their strengths. To lead a business by checking my pride at the door and trying to be the biggest idiot may sound crazy- but I hire people who know far more about a topic than I do. People who have abilities in areas that I am weak. People who are passionate about things that scare me.

This even goes into daily life- I start by thinking “this person is an expert in an area I know nothing about.” This mindset helps me see each person with an invaluable quality, and to dig deep until I find out what it is. Everyone has some kind of lived experience entirely different from mine, and hearing their story has led to amazing conversations and heartfelt sharing. They may be an expert in a type of heartbreak I will never know. A deep suffering that I can only begin to understand, though it never happened to me. With this, I can take in their expertise, their story, and not only let them know how important they are to hold this experience, but their sharing has helped me and anyone I can help by knowing their story. They hold keys to certian knowlege, certain wisdom, and I am a better person for every conversation I have with this mindset.

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