Meet DR SARA BARRERA
Founder & Director of Embodied Medicine. Medical Doctor specialized in Pediatrics & Functional & Regenerative Medicine. Neurofeedback practitioner and Trauma-Oriented Yoga & Somatic Movement facilitator. Sara has over 15 years of clinical experience, being a pioneer in the development of Functional & Lifestyle Medicine in Spain.
¡Wellcome to your healing journey!
I am Sara, the founder of Embodied Medicine, a Taurus woman who is passionate about finding tools to support our Well-Being, Vitality and longevity that, at the same time, allow us to live connected with pleasure, joy and love.
I became a certified Pediatrician at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and I sub specialized in Pediatric and Neonatal Infectious Diseases, Emergencies, Intensive Care and Transport, at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Since 2020, I have been evolving into a Functional Medicine Practitioner through the Institute for Functional Medicine in the USA.
I am a certified trauma oriented Yoga and Meditation teacher and a Somatic Movement facilitator. I am passionate about Nervous System regulation, Trauma resolution and relationship dynamics; I am an eternal student of Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems and Conscious Relationships, because I am on a mission to resolve mi relational wounds. I love Nature and I need a close contact with her to survive. I love movement, especially dancing barefoot, swimming in the ocean and exploring the World. I like to go slow, enjoying the most mundane pleasures and my happy place is the kitchen, where I alchemize nature’s gifts into pleasurable medicine.
I'm also a patient who has been there, exactly where you are. At the age of 29, I was diagnosed with an "irreversible" autoimmune disease that invited me to embark on a journey of exploration of alternative forms of medicine focused on finding and addressing the root cause of symptoms. The journey gave me a profound understanding about chronic illness and a deep capacity to empathize with those who experience it.
Embodied Medicine is a therapeutic space I created to honor and celebrate my life journey and to integrate all the medicines that have shed light on my path and are contributing to my healing and liberation.
My vision is that our current state of health and vitality reflects how our life story has impacted our biology, and how our lifestyle and interaction with our environment are modulating our genetic expression. Our physiology—how our body is functioning—is a direct reflection of the state of our Nervous System, our toxic load (everything we have been unable to process and are therefore accumulating), and how connected we are to living in alignment with our human nature and life purpose. Therefore, identifying the underlying root causes of our symptoms, reconnecting with the entirety of our bodies and nature, and regulating our nervous systems are key to reactivating our innate repair systems, restoring optimal cellular and body systems function, fully resolving chronic symptoms and sustaining optimal health and well-being.
My mission is to evaluate you as a whole, help you identify what is disrupting your vitality, remind you of how capable and deserving you are of feeling vibrant and radiant, and guide you through a well-curated and personalized therapeutic and lifestyle plan that will help you connect with your fullest expression of Health and Well-being.
Currently, I lead therapeutic programs for Children and Adults, specializing in Metabolic, Digestive and Hormonal health, Autoimmunity, and Detoxification. I also create Wellness retreats in nature with a focus on Nervous System regulation and relationship dynamics and I am very passionate about Nutrition, Sports, and anything that is proving to have a positive impact on Well-Being and Longevity.
In this therapeutic space, I support you to become your best doctor by helping you reconnect and trust your body’s wisdom and by sharing with you the tools that will allow you to find the root cause of your suffering and create the necessary changes to fully resolve your symptoms.
Because there's nothing that makes me feel more alive than helping people become who they are here to Be!
CAREER
Medical Degree by the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Postgraduate/ Residency in Pediatrics by the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Fellowship in Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Fellowship in Pediatric and Neonatal Emergency Transport at the Children’s Acute Transport Services in London.
Fellowship in Pediatric and Neonatal Cardiac Intensive Care at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Degree in Functional Medicine. Certificate as a Functional Medicine Practitioner by the Institute for Functional Medicine in Washington, the US.
Clinical Training in Neurofeedback, Madrid.
500h in Yoga Trainings: Vinyasa Mandala Flow, Trauma-oriented Yoga and Somatic Movement, Yoga & Menstrual Cycle Awareness, Yoga, the Elements and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Trainings taken at the Yoga Barn in Bali.
And Life, as my greatest teacher.
My Story
From Survival Medicine to Wellness, Vitality & Longevity Medicine:
“A journey of surrendering to heal myself first, so I can support others to do the same”
What motivated the change?
Traumatic experiences from my childhood prepared me to live in a chronic survival state. From a loving place of wanting to change my story through my loving service and, also from the frustration of not having been able to save my inner child, I felt a huge “passion” for saving children that toke me to serve the medicine under very extreme conditions.
I enjoyed my job and I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had to support kids and families in the wildest dance in between Life and Death.
Unresolved wounds of abandonment and abuse, led me to abandon myself serving in a way that was abusive to me. At 35yo, while I thought I was living my professional dream, my body and Soul stopped me with a clear message: “In order to save other’s Live, you need to save your inner girl first”.
It was the most beautiful, profound, wild and terrifying experience of my Life. I gave myself 2y of intimate relationship with myself, studying different forms of medicine, experimenting with my own body, learning to be present and to listen to my body so I could meet my needs. Most importantly, I committed to create the safety within my Nervous System, that allowed me to finally land back in my body to process and integrate my Life story.
I navigated very dark nights of my Soul and I surrendered to die to many versions of myself. I removed from my body and Life everything that was no longer in alignment with my truth and I committed to my authentic expression. And, in the most uncertain and frightening emptiness, in that vulnerable surrender to allow Life to happen through me, I was reborn connected with my purpose and with a loving impulse that led me to create Embodied Medicine.
Today, I am grateful for the greatness of Life, its teachings, and my healing process. Today, I recognize that it wasn't the illness that stopped me but my Body and Soul redirecting me towards a state of alignment with my truth. What it felt like becoming sick, was actually the beginning of a deep healing process.
So here I am, back to serving medicine from a new loving place that integrates all the medicines that are serving my path, still learning by walking my healing journey but feeling more alive, vital and connected to my purpose than ever before.
In a physical level, I had crushed in Adrenal exhaustion and most of my body systems were deeply impaired. In an emotional level, I was feeling frustrated for not being able to support my chronically sick patients, including myself, and I was missing many answer that conventional medicine could not give me.
Terrified of loosing everything that I had built up, I took the courage to trust my inner voice. I no longer wanted to serve medicine from my wounds, I was ready to heal myself so I could serve from a place of abundant love.
Deep within I knew I was capable to find the answers and tools that would support my own healing and come back to support my patients serving the medicine, not only from my learned knowledge, but from my embodied experience.
I let go of everything that was giving me a sense of security to embark on a global exploration of different forms of medicine and approaches to healing, that ended up being a journey back to my body to explore the depths of my being.
"Held within the symptoms of trauma are the very energies, potential and resources necessary for their constructive transformation."
- Dr Peter Levine