No Mud, No Lotus with Dr Melissa Raymond | Ep. 13
My guest on the first episode of Season 2 of The True North Show is Dr Melissa Raymond, PhD who is a returning guest to the show. In today’s episode Melissa shares with us how and why she moved into working with clients who suffer with eczema and how she finds balance when it comes to approaching this work with a non-medical lens. We also explore her experience of having to embrace the flow when her career needed to pivot in a new direction. You won’t want to miss our conversation!
Bio:
Dr Melissa Raymond is a physiotherapist with a PhD, researcher, university lecturer and Eczema and Quantum coach. She’s worked with thousands of patients over her 20+ year career in health and countless families with eczema, topical steroid withdrawal, and other health conditions over the last 9 years.
After searching for answers for her son’s eczema and fighting against the ‘steroids for life, antibiotics for a year, wet dressings, and bleach baths’ lifetime sentence from doctors, she sought the advice of over a dozen health professionals to help heal her son’s skin at the root – and he now lives a life completely eczema-free!
Melissa works with clients all over the world with eczema, topical steroid withdrawal, and other health conditions do the same for themselves and their children – only faster and with less guesswork and overwhelm. Using a quantum approach to identify and clear root causes, along with epigenetics, she loves seeing her clients finally living the lives that they could only dream of.
Her new book “The Itch Switch” has just been released and is available to purchase here: https://health.yourjourneytohealing.net/the-itch-switch/
Social Media:
- Website: www.yourjourneytohealing.net
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourjourneytohealingwithmelissa
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yourjourneytohealingeczema/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yourjourneytohealing
Transcript:
Dr Melissa Raymond (01:40)
Thanks, Megan. It’s lovely to be back.
Megan North (01:44)
What have you been up to since we last spoke?
Dr Melissa Raymond (01:50)
Plenty! I’ve leaned into Human Design (I’m a Manifesting Generator — multiple projects suit me). I’ve released a new eczema book that builds on my first, Stop Scratching the Surface. The new book focuses on the energetics of eczema — the nervous system, stored stress, and how inflammation from unresolved stress fuels chronic conditions like eczema. The “itch switch” is often the missing piece for eczema, allergies, and asthma.
Megan North (02:47)
Is this your second book?
Dr Melissa Raymond (02:56)
Yes. The first centred on epigenetics: lifestyle, low-tox choices, gut health, diet, movement — practical ways to reduce inflammatory load. It helped many, including my son. But some families plateaued at ~50% improvement. That’s where the quantum/nervous-system work comes in — not just generic vagus-nerve exercises, but finding and clearing the specific root event that locked the nervous system into a stress state.
Megan North (04:12)
Can that root be in the child, the parents — or both?
Dr Melissa Raymond (04:22)
Both. Sometimes it’s a series of stressful/traumatic events; sometimes very early events around conception, pregnancy, or birth. We’re conscious in utero; experiences imprint the subconscious even if we don’t remember them. Research also shows generational effects — stressors from grandparents can echo forward, as we’re present as an egg in our mother while she’s in our grandmother’s womb.
Megan North (06:03)
I teach that healing our own patterns impacts seven generations back and forward. I feel my late mum cheering me on — that I’m doing the healing she couldn’t.
Dr Melissa Raymond (07:05)
I see this constantly. One mentor says, “heal the mother, heal the child.” I work with mums; when we clear their stress around specific events, the child’s eczema often resolves. A physio friend I supported noticed her 10-year-old’s eczema completely disappeared without extra creams — it integrated over time and will ripple to her other children.
Megan North (08:36)
With your PhD and physio background, did you always believe in energy work?
Dr Melissa Raymond (09:09)
Not at all. My training and family model were very medical: identify a deficit, prescribe an exercise (or pill in hospital). I value that, and I studied strength training in older adults, but humans are complex. Step by step, through my son’s allergies and eczema journey, I met people who opened me to energy work. My scientific brain learned I don’t need to fully understand something for it to work.
Megan North (10:54)
Was there a defining moment that set you on this path?
Dr Melissa Raymond (11:17)
It was gradual. At four months, my son developed severe eczema and reacted to almost everything tested. I researched relentlessly — elimination diets, then gut health. A friend connected me to bioresonance; another to Reiki. I stayed open. I sensed diet/low-tox/gut health weren’t the full answer — the nervous system and stored stress were missing pieces.
Megan North (12:53)
Did you have to work on yourself to help him heal?
Dr Melissa Raymond (13:06)
Yes. I overdid elimination diets while breastfeeding — not healthy. We were stuck between “no change” and “add foods back and flare.” The conventional plan was steroids for life, long antibiotics, bleach baths, wet dressings. I chose a different route — gut healing — because doing the same thing wasn’t working. I didn’t want him trapped by five “safe” foods forever.
Megan North (14:49)
Did relationships shift as you explored beyond conventional care?
Dr Melissa Raymond (15:16)
We saw many professionals; some only once. My husband, Rob, was incredibly supportive: “You’re the health person; if you think this will help, let’s try. We can go back to steroids if needed.” Family supported me too, though my dad worried (rightly) about my weight loss. Strict avoidance diets can harm mental and physical health if prolonged.
Megan North (17:25)
How do you balance mental health now, especially with new projects and the book launch?
Dr Melissa Raymond (17:59)
I used to hate early mornings, but 5 a.m. starts with a friend’s accountability changed my life. Three mornings a week I meditate/visualise, enjoy the quiet, then gym. I’m present for the family afterward, and mornings are calmer. We actually moved me there gradually (7:00 → 6:50 → … → 5:59!). I also scaled from five mornings to three — listening to my body.
Megan North (21:56)
Has your sense of purpose evolved?
Dr Melissa Raymond (22:21)
Yes. I thought I’d be a physio forever. Over time the path didn’t “zigzag” — it widened. Major “rocks” (like my son’s eczema) redirected the stream. Without that, I wouldn’t be here.
Megan North (23:59)
Has our idea of a conventional career changed?
Dr Melissa Raymond (24:08)
Absolutely. I left a 20-year hospital role after COVID. The medical model can be broken — e.g., prescribing Milo three times daily for a 200-kg in-patient “for protein.” Hospital food wasn’t supportive of healing, and polypharmacy snowballs. I felt misaligned. I’m grateful I could step away and pursue work that creates joy and real change.
Megan North (27:01)
Some people need to start small — a side hustle — and build.
Dr Melissa Raymond (29:07)
That’s what I did post-PhD. I had night hours free (8 p.m.-midnight had been thesis time). I sensed a need and began helping eczema families for free in the evenings. It grew from there.
Megan North (31:15)
Great advice about pivoting quietly, testing, and adjusting.
Dr Melissa Raymond (33:00)
People think others are watching, but most are focused on themselves. It’s your life — choose what brings joy within your realities.
Megan North (33:14)
Any grounding practices you love?
Dr Melissa Raymond (33:30)
Sunlight on the face morning and evening is wildly underrated. Gardening puts me in flow; so does creativity — painting, clay with the kids. And hydration — simple, powerful.
Megan North (37:09)
Advice for someone exploring their passion/purpose?
Dr Melissa Raymond (37:28)
Sit with it. Imagine one and five years out. You don’t need every “how.” Hold the feeling of the life you want; opportunities will align. I use Quantum Field Tapping (QFT) with clients — we clear blocks, expand capacity to receive, and suddenly new pathways (even revenue) appear.
Megan North (41:49)
I love focusing on the feeling, not just the visual.
Dr Melissa Raymond (43:43)
My first book took ~18 months. A great tip: transcribe a talk or challenge and shape chapters from your own words. My second book started with a burst, then took six months — harder to avoid repetition when you go deep on one topic. It’s intentionally a short, streamlined read: explains the nervous system as upstream, with eczema as downstream. Readers say it finally makes sense of why nothing else worked.
Megan North (46:48)
Self-published?
Dr Melissa Raymond (46:52)
Yes. The first went to Amazon and hit #1 in Australia; this one is an e-book on my website — faster to release.
Megan North (47:31)
Final question: one lesson you wish you’d known earlier?
Dr Melissa Raymond (47:44)
“No mud, no lotus.” Challenges brought me here. I’m sorry my son endured eczema, but I’m grateful for the clarity and priorities it created.
Megan North (48:42)
Thank you for your honesty and wisdom. I know listeners will want your book.
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