A New Paradigm for Health & Disease

Let’s talk about real health.

Real health is shaped by countless relationships: how molecules and proteins fold, how cells communicate with each other, how organs coordinate. And then there’s how we’re relating to ourselves, each other, and the broader healthcare landscape. We are objectively whole, but we're often disconnected from the experience of that.

Most of us have gone looking for our health in one of two places. There is conventional Western medicine, which is very good at keeping us alive and stabilizing symptoms, but not much else. Minimal time with your doctor, lab test ‘normals’ drawn from a population that is not well, overreliance on drugs and surgery, and doctors who are often as overwhelmed as their patients.

Then there is functional, integrative, and natural medicine. Here we get to take our health into our own hands, look for root causes, and support the body more naturally. But there’s overwhelm here as well: too many supplements, too many labs, the urge to optimize endlessly. “I’m not complete until I fix X.”

There is a new way.

Relateful Health. A space to be with the state of our health, however it is, and the tools, practices, and structure to do that. This is the third paradigm of healthcare; the art and science of being a whole human.

Relatefulness is a present-moment relating practice that shows us that no matter how sick we might be – no matter what is happening in our bodies, minds, experience, and relationships – we can be with it, and we can be with other humans doing the same. Relatefulness is a practice container that invites us to notice, get curious, speak about, explore, and bring relational contact to the parts of ourselves and our healthcare experience that we haven’t been taught how to relate with.

Dr. Brian Plante, an integrative medicine physician and certified Relatefulness facilitator, has learned in 7 years of clinical practice that this type of relational contact is what accelerates a remembering of wholeness and a more graceful return to health. The treatment plan, the information, the lifestyle changes, are secondary to this.

Relateful Health is a synthesis of inspired health education and group Relatefulness practice, helping you to navigate your personal healthcare experience with more grace, trust, and power.

It's a wholeness-first paradigm, a completely different way that we're relating to the journey of living fully alive.

Then, from this place, where are we craving more information, and what’s that like? What happens when we can bring nutrition, sleep, heart health, hormones, gut health, or immune function into the exploration?

We cannot promise you health. No doctor, healer, or healthcare provider can truthfully promise anyone that. What we can promise is a new way of relating to all of it, the beginning of a new healthcare experience.

What we will actually do

Three days of guided Relatefulness practice centered on how we relate to
health, sickness, healing, our bodies, each other, and the whole healthcare landscape. Includes a variety of Relateful practice formats and exercises. Health education will be shaped by what the room is hungry for in the moment.

Educational topics could include:

• Organ systems – hormones, digestion, cardio-metabolic, immune, liver/detox, brain/nervous system, etc.
• Lifestyle – nutrition, sleep, movement, stress, environment.
• Modality-specific – herbs, nutrients, diagnostic testing & labs, conventional medicine, psychology and nervous system regulation.
• Open Q&A’s with two integrative physicians

Our collective aim is toward more vitality and thrival – the full power of who we are, felt in the present moment, so that we can think, choose, speak, act, and relate from that place. We call it being a fully alive human.

Who This is For

Come if you are aiming at being a fully alive human, not just good enough – if you want to better understand wholeness as the foundation for health.

• Come if you have been eager for a new approach to relating to your health and your healthcare experience.
• Come if you have practiced Relatefulness for years and have been curious about what’s possible if you could bring more of your health into it.
• Come if you have never even heard of Relatefulness but know that healing could be something more than what you’ve been doing or getting.
• You do not need a diagnosis. You do not need to be sick, and you do not need to be well.

What This is Not

This is education and relational practice, not medical care. Dr. Plante and Dr. Smith are doctors, but they are not your doctors (unless an official doctor-patient relationship has been established in a clinical setting). Nothing offered at this immersion replaces individualized diagnostic testing or a personalized treatment plan.

This is not psychotherapy. While real human emotions commonly surface, the goal of this practice is to relate to experiences as they are, not change ourselves or each other or facilitate therapeutic insight. Interestingly, the non-goal approach of Relatefulness often supports a perspective shift that is not typically seen in standard clinical healthcare settings, and why Dr. Plante and Dr. Smith love it so much as part of rediscovering wholeness.

We cannot guarantee a “safe space”, as everyone’s needs for safety differ, and meeting these for everyone would be impossible. This is a “brave space,” where we lean into the uncertainty, vulnerability, and aliveness of being fully human together. There are no guarantees about how you’ll be received. If you want a certain kind of reception, you are empowered to help create it. That said, if your behavior disrupts the immersion repeatedly, or is beyond our ability to facilitate Relatefulness or teach about health, the natural consequence may be that you are asked to leave. Be prepared to take agency – to say yes, no, pause, or change your mind. While guided, this practice requires personal responsibility.

Who is Leading This Event

Dr. Brian Plante, ND – Naturopathic Doctor, Relateful Facilitator, Founder of Relateful Health

Brian Plante is a multi-disciplinary thought leader in integrative healthcare, bridging natural and conventional medicine, psychology, health education, and embodied relating practices to create a truly unique and comprehensive approach to human healthcare. As a naturopathic doctor, he has advanced training in diagnosing and treating complex chronic illnesses, including chronic infections, mold toxicity, autoimmune disease, and hormonal & digestive disorders. He also works extensively with trauma and neurodivergent conditions (autism, ADHD, high sensitivity). Dr. Plante is the first certified Relatefulness facilitator who is also a physician. He is passionate about collaboratively investigating root-cause imbalances that keep people from embodying their full vitality. Brian can’t wait to see you become more of who you are meant to be, and who you already are. The world needs you.

Annabeth Novitzki – Relateful Facilitator

Annabeth Novitzki is Senior Staff at The Relateful Company and one of only six people in the world who can certify Relateful Facilitators. She was the first Head Facilitator of the Relateful Studio in Austin, the very room where this immersion takes place, and led it from 2019 to 2026. She has also been a Voice Coach for over 20 years, with an Honors BFA in Vocal Performance from Carnegie Mellon and a Master's from the University of Memphis. She calls herself a "midwife of the voice": her work rests on the belief that the body already knows how to express itself, and she has helped birth voices ranging from a scientist pursuing a dream to sing opera to CEOs and a Fortune 500 co-founder. She brings deep listening, steady presence, and a good dose of humor to every room she holds; she takes being present seriously and herself much less so. She's about to trade the studio for an RV and take this work on the road, but first, she gets to share this room with you. Annabeth can't wait to meet you, exactly as you are.

Dr. Node Smith, ND, SEP – Guest Expert

Node Smith is a naturopathic doctor who specializes in the art of self-healing. He is a trained somatic practitioner, adept counselor and group facilitator. Most of his private practice emphasizes nervous system regulation, where he has found profound value from integrating somatic, psychological and embodied relational methodology to guide an orientation to health in terms of relationship rather than pathology. He has been practicing medicine in a manner that resonates strongly with Relatefulness for nearly 10 years, and is giddy in his excitement for this Relateful Health Immersion.

Where & When?

Relateful Austin Studio, 1205 W 42nd ST, Austin Tx, 78756.

Friday Dec 11, 6-9pm, Sat and Sun Dec 12 & 13, 10am to 6pm. 90 minute lunch break each day.