Siouxland Magazine - Volume 3 Issue 2

Siouxland Magazine | strength / 10
Erin
Dr. Bennett
Conversation About Strength
This issue, our Conversation participants are Erin
Bahrenfus and Dr. Paula Bennett, M.D.. Each woman
will respond to the same five questions, providing you an
opportunity to hear different perspectives and continue
the conversation with your circle of friends.
Erin owns a healthy lifestyle business, STRIVE Health +
Wellness and operates it with her husband, Jeff. She is
certified by OPTAVIA in partnership with The MacDonald
Center for Obesity Prevention and Education (C.O.P.E.) in
the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova
University.
Dr. Bennett has recently been working on the frontlines
of the Covid-19 pandemic in several states and has
witnessed the devastation of the disease. She attended
York College in the City University of New York (CUNY)
where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a major in
Chemistry while minoring in Spanish. She obtained her
Medical Degree from the State University of New York’s
School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Buffalo—
now known as the Jacobs School of Medicine. She is
one of the founding members of the American Board of
Holistic Medicine.
Siouxland Magazine (SM): When you hear the
word “strength” what comes to mind?
Erin Bahrenfuss (EB): Strength to me is an inner grit
and discipline to do the hard and heart work to break
through barriers and embrace obstacles. It is identifying
areas of weakness and pursuing the tools, people, or
programs necessary to improve. Strength is the ability to
move forward after a setback.
We grow stronger by showing up every day and keeping
the promises we make to ourselves.
Dr. Paula Bennett (PB): My favorite definition of
strength is ‘the capacity of an object, substance, or
person to withstand great force or pressure, and with it,
possessing the emotional and mental qualities necessary
in dealing with situations or events that are distressing or
difficult’ —like those we’ve just been through and continue
to experience as a nation. It is the ability to adapt to both the
brutal and the gentle situations in which we find ourselves,
emerging transformed and improved because of it on the
other side!
Strength is flexibility. If the reed will not bend, it will break.
It is the ability to fight for what we perceive to be right—
yet having the courage to realize we might be wrong,
and the humility and strength of character to accept what
is finally revealed to be truth. To understand that on our
singular planet of 7.4-billion souls, we must learn to share,
to compromise, and to appreciate the differences that
surround us.
Strength is asking for help when our pride would dictate
otherwise, to endure with grace and dignity even whilst
homeless and on the streets, or while transitioning on
one’s deathbed with no family by your side. Strength is
recognizing where we can make a difference with our
unique gifts bequeathed to us by the Creator, and using
them to make our cooperative lives better and more joy
filled.
SM: Why have you dedicated your life to the health
profession?
PB: I have known that I would become a physician since I
was 8 years old, when my mother died. Perhaps this desire
emerged out of not understanding why my mother left my
sisters and I when we were so young. I had to be able to
figure out why, and stop it from happening to anyone else.
Even back then, I felt a strong tug within me to attend to
those ill and suffering.
In those days, growing up as a girl in Jamaica, the obvious
career choice for a girl with my conviction was to become
a nurse. However, some force compelled me to do more,
to be more. Not even my father believed I could become
a physician-healer, but I persevered, and I believed it was
my destiny.