Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Clear skin and aging beautifully conversations, trainings and challenges by Dr. Stacey Shillington ND.
Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Nellie's Clear Skin Journey
Your body doesn't make mistakes—your acne is trying to tell you something. Former acne sufferer turned holistic skin coach Nellie Labovitz shares her remarkable journey from years of failed conventional treatments to discovering true healing.
Nellie's story begins at age 11 when her first breakouts emerged alongside puberty. What followed was a decade-plus odyssey through the conventional medical system—antibiotics, harsh topicals, spironolactone, birth control pills, and eventually Accutane. Like so many before her, Nellie experienced the temporary euphoria of clear skin while on these medications, only to face devastating rebounds when her acne returned "with a vengeance" after treatment.
The most surprising twist? Throughout much of this struggle, Nellie was actually studying nutrition at university. Yet the connection between internal health and skin was completely absent from her education. It wasn't until a serendipitous trip to Southeast Asia where she encountered naturopathic medicine that everything changed.
This episode reveals the unexpected intervention that finally moved the needle in Nellie's healing journey—and it wasn't diet or supplements. Her powerful insights into the nervous system's role in skin health offer a missing piece many acne sufferers never consider. As both a patient success story and now a coach in Dr. Shillington's program, Nellie brings a uniquely valuable perspective on what truly works for lasting skin transformation.
Whether you're currently struggling with acne, contemplating Accutane, or feeling trapped in an endless cycle of topicals and prescriptions, this conversation illuminates the path toward sustainable healing. The body wants to heal—sometimes it just needs the right support to remember how.
Ready to transform your relationship with your skin? Check the show notes for links to our masterclass and the Clear Skin Transformation program that changed everything for Nellie and thousands of others.
Check out my new FREE Training: Clear Skin Mastery, where I share the different types of acne and how to treat each one. Click here to watch it now.
To get immediate access to the first module of my Clear Skin Group Program, leave a podcast review! Take a screen shot of your review and email it to customersupport@naturopathicbeauty.com and you will be sent your login information!
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Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello, beauties, and welcome to the Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr Stacey Shillington, and this podcast is for you, is to help you on your clear skin journey, and I'm so excited today because I have a guest that's going to be joining us, and this is my dear friend and long-term colleague, nellie Labovitz. She is a coach in the program, but she was also one of my very first patients in my online program when I launched it way back in 2017. So Nellie has a great story to share with us today. Welcome, nellie.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:I'm very excited to be here and excited to chat all about the journey. Yeah, because it really is. It's a journey. I mean, if you're suffering with acne right now and I know most of you are it's a journey. It's not something that you can magically overcome in a day or a week, because there's some deep healing that has to happen. And so you know why don't we get started by talking to Nellie and getting Nellie to tell us her experience with acne, how her acne started, what it was like and how she found her way to clearing her skin. So over to you, nellie, yeah.
Speaker 2:so I was one of those. I was one of those clients, those people who started experiencing acne from a very young age, I want to say probably when I started menstruating, which was around 11 years old, and that's you know, we hear that a lot hormones are changing, that things are changing in the body and and we do experience breakouts, and that can be, that can be normal. But mine persisted for a period of time and it got to the point where I it really started affecting my self-confidence and that I was. I was very, very young at that age, but I was still very aware of how that was affecting me mentally and how I felt as though I was being perceived by others. But I was still very aware of how that was affecting me mentally and how I felt as though I was being perceived by others and how I was perceiving myself.
Speaker 2:And so I remember begging my parents to take me to to find some solutions.
Speaker 2:Let's go to the doctor, go to a dermatologist. And so we did and of course, the first, the first line of action was antibiotics and topicals. So I mean, we hear this all the time this is really what we start with when, when we go to the dermatologist to to really find any sort of an initial solution is really the antibiotics and the topicals, the antibiotics and and the topicals. And so I did that for a period of time and I just remember, like I have this vivid memory of being in my kitchen and my mom slathering on probably benzoyl peroxide on on my back before bed and um, and then just added the benzoyl peroxide face washes and then eventually I was doing retin-a and that added a whole other layer of discomfort and, you know, barrier dysfunction, because then my skin was peeling and it was really not healing, it was just very inflamed, and so that was a whole other layer of insecurity of my skin just feeling so uncomfortable with the acne. But then it was also the additional inflammation from the peeling and the dysfunction of the barrier.
Speaker 1:And that's what happens. I mean, we're prescribed these medications to deal with acne, but there's always side effects that come with it and you know, when we're on these topicals long enough, it really damages the moisture barrier and this is going to make the skin more vulnerable to scarring, more vulnerable to hyperpigmentation and more vulnerable to more breakout. So we're kind of like on a you know a hamster wheel, you know, of healing our skin when we get started on these medications.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Absolutely so that I mean that lasted for a period of time and then fast forward numerous years, I think I was. I was going off to university and I was put on spironolactone at that time. But then, right away, within a couple cycles, I believe, I started experiencing significant hormonal disruption and how the spironolactone was affecting my menstrual cycles, and previously my periods had been great. Actually, up until that point they had been very regular, no real side effects. But I was noticing with the medication that this was something new that I was starting to experience, and so, instead of taking me off the spironolactone, I was then prescribed hormonal birth control. And, yeah, so I think I was about 18. At that time I was going off to university and I was then on birth control for probably seven, eight years after that.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, along with the spironolactone, so were you on the birth control pill and the spiro for that period of time.
Speaker 2:No, so I was on the spironolactone for about, I want to say, a couple of years maybe, and then I came off of it and then I was put on Accutane. So I shouldn't say I was put on Accutane, so I shouldn't say I was put on Accutane. I voluntarily went to the dermatologist and I said nothing has worked up until this point. And this is me expecting solutions, like I'm going to, I'm coming to you, trusting in you to provide me with solutions, and nothing has worked and not having really any idea of the side effects or how it would affect my body, I was like I don't, I don't care, I just need to have this relief mentally and physically and I will do anything and I want to go on Accu, like I want to be prescribed Accutane. And of course, there was the birth control pill that you need to be on while you're on acutane.
Speaker 2:So that remained for for that period of time and I was so excited while I was on acutane, my skin was amazing. So for the six months and then the six months following, when I, when I came off, I was like like wow, I, I guess I'm done, we're done here. I was jumping for joy and I was so excited. I was like, wow, this is what it's like to have clear skin, this is what I've been missing my whole life. I was so excited and my, my confidence, like I really noticed that that change in my energy. And little did did I know. Six months later, things just got as they do. They just came back, even worse, with a vengeance, and that's when I started experiencing cystic breakouts and and it was just so much more inflammation than than ever before and I want to just interject for a moment and say that that's a pattern that we see so often, especially with women that have hormonal acne and they go on Accutane.
Speaker 1:It's a very short term solution and research is now saying that acne comes back in about 70% of women that go on Accutane. It's not a solution and it's also very damaging to the body. I mean, accutane is actually a chemotherapeutic drug. You know it's a very strong medication. It really has some serious effects on the liver and it's not even you know, it's not even the solution that we think it is.
Speaker 2:No, and I truly believe that I'm still dealing with with the side effects of that. Years later. I'm now. I'm now 31. I think I was on Accutane when I was in my early twenties and and it's still. I think that potentially, this is something that now I have to I mean, as someone who has dealt with acne and we talk about this as well with patients is that we are notoriously for detoxifiers and and this is just something that I now have to just be aware of and be accepting of, and and of and support throughout the course of my life and I know that's something that you still do with your own body and health journey as well, and that's okay.
Speaker 2:We always say how sensitivity is a superpower, and it truly is so. I mean is a superpower and it truly is so. I mean that's a whole other conversation, but I will say that during that time as well. So I had gone off to university to study health, health science, and then I switched into nutrition, so that's what I was studying throughout all those years when I was on all these medications, and it's wild to me, thinking back on that time, that not once did it cross my mind that this information could be applied to my own body and my own journey and have that affect my skin. There was no discussion ever I was studying it was a very different, it's very conventional, like I was studying to become a dietician, but not once did it.
Speaker 2:Was there ever the discussion or ever the thought of, oh, maybe my skin is a reflection of what's going on internally and maybe by switching things up, lifestyle wise and nutrition wise, that that this could really shift things in a profound way. And, of course, I mean during university I was drinking multiple times a week and partying and staying up late, studying and doing all the things, so that was definitely not helping. But, yes, the the culmination of all these medications that I was on, of all these medications that I was on, that I really do believe, just kind of contributed to this explosion, this final explosion of overburdened detox pathways and setting the stage for the terrain that's now susceptible to infection. And these are all things that I, yeah, and it's just been, it's been been a crazy journey.
Speaker 1:So how did? How did you finally find my program? Yes, so.
Speaker 2:So after I graduated from school, I I came off all the medications. I had been on Accutane, I was on birth control, as I said, and it was just kind of the the point of being completely fed up and I started asking. I just really started digging deeper and I was like what am I doing? What are we doing in this, in this field of just continuing to pump women and pump us with medications that we really don't need? And so I came off everything and and that's. I then went away to Southeast Asia, actually.
Speaker 2:So I was traveling for a period of time and that was I was doing a ton of my own research. I was getting really excited about the possibility of of oh, there's this whole other world of holistic medicine and just doing all this research. And when I was in Southeast Asia, I had my first encounter with a naturopathic doctor and that was really cool. It was a bit of a eat, pray, love experience of doing this, starting to uncover this whole other world, do this inner work and learn about holistic medicine. And so I saw her for one session. I was in Bali and I just found her and I saw her. I remember her saying do you know what ashwagandha is and at the time, I had no idea what she was talking about.
Speaker 2:I then realized after that she said ashwagandha, but which is funny, because we don't actually recommend ashwagandha for our clients.
Speaker 2:But but that was really the beginning of of my discovery and and doing doing a deep dive into this field. And so when I came back from southeast asia, that's that's when I found you, I think that I I think there was a Facebook ad or something that I saw and I did a masterclass and immediately joined the program. Right after watching the masterclass, and let me tell you, that program was very eye-opening for me. That was, and I think, and I actually, right before that, I had actually seen another naturopath when I was back in Toronto and I remember, I remember actually telling you at the time that his solution for me was to go back on Accutane, and I was very upset. I was really upset. And so when I found your program, yeah, oh, my gosh Nellie.
Speaker 1:I do not remember that. I probably blocked that out because I'm just like my my jaw is dropping right now because I'm like what that was their advice to you.
Speaker 2:yeah, I think we did some liver support and and some basic nutrition recommendations and then after a few sessions of seeing this particular person, he said I think maybe going back on a low dose of Accutane is a good idea, and I completely boycotted his practice Good.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you knew. You knew within your heart that there was another way to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so, and that's that's really when I found you and it was, yeah, again, it was. So it was very eye-opening. I started immediately implementing all the dietary changes and and the the program was. It's very similar to what it is. To what it is now I mean, it has gotten a facelift no, no pun intended, but but it is very similar and I love that.
Speaker 2:That's something like you've been. You have your method and you've been consistent with, with the recommendations and these are it's because it works. This is these are truly the foundations of healing and I loved the program because I'm someone who just loves to learn and I don't want to just do things for the sake of doing them. I want to know why I'm doing them. So that's why I really loved the program, because it was such a deep dive and there was so much information, but really in a digestible way, and I loved the community support. That was really fun and I love that we're. We're still doing that now, yeah, so so that's really that's when I found the program. So that was 2017, that was. I remember.
Speaker 1:That was your first, I think the first time that you yeah, I think I just launched it and I I mean before I launched that program, I'd been working in one of the busiest dermatology clinics for about 12 years and you know the dermatologists. Of course they would send me the most difficult cases, like I was not getting the easy cases in that practice. So I really had to understand acne deeply, like I had to understand the pathogenesis, I had to understand the foundation, and you know it was. I was able to translate it into a group program really well, which was exciting because you know, I know a lot of people out there think that they have to do one-on-one, and that's true. There's definitely a subset of the population that we need to work with closely. You know, when there's deep chronic infections, when there's mold, when there's, you know, some really severe detox pathway dysfunction, we need to work with people one on one.
Speaker 1:But I would say 80% of people with acne can heal with the group program which is now called the Clear Skin Transformation. And you know it's really exciting to know this because even you I mean you have been struggling for years and you've been on all the medications, trying everything, with even a nutrition background, but yet you're still able to heal in a group program setting. So you know, I just want to throw that out there for all the people that are listening and thinking that you have to save up thousands of dollars to hire an acne coach to help you clear your skin. You don't necessarily have to do that unless you know it's been longstanding, you have other health symptoms that are, you know, happening at the same time. You know, give give the clear skin transformation a try, because both my coaches, both Holly and Nellie, will found tremendous success with these programs, as have thousands of other women around the world, like it's been. It's been pretty life changing for so many people.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and especially if you are new to the field and are new to this information and new to this, this way of healing, there there is so much information that you can apply to your journey and and you definitely will find find success within the group program and it's it's amazing having all the other women in there and being able to bounce ideas off of each other and just there to support one another.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, no, it's really a positive healing place to be. So I have a question for Nellie. So when you were going through the program, what's the one thing you did that really moved the needle for you, that really made a big shift? Was there one thing, or do you think it was everything altogether?
Speaker 2:Of course it's the culmination of everything, but I love this question because I've been asked this before and immediately the first thing that I all that always comes to mind is meditation and the nervous system work, and the first time that I ever meditated was in the program, was with your. Yeah, and I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I told you this before, but it was the clear skin meditation. And I remember going up to my room it was like the first day of the program that I joined the program and I said to my parents I'm going to meditate First time, first time meditating, and I was so excited and it completely dropped me into this whole other space and this whole other. I mean, since then I've done so much, you know so much deep inner work and I do a lot of meditation now and that's just been a huge part of my journey. But I will say, within the program, that was probably my favorite tool that I applied and I really saw success with and, of course, all the other tools as well, with the nutrition and, of course, all the other tools as well, with the nutrition.
Speaker 2:I don't think that at the time I remember hearing you talk about parasites at the time, but there wasn't too much work around using antimicrobials at the time. I don't think the bulk of the work was really using nutrition and um, and nervous system resets and healing and shifting and um, there was some supplementation, but but it wasn't. Yeah, it wasn't. Yeah, it wasn't super extensive, but um, so I I would say the nervous system work was, was probably the most important and it's it's really cool because that's what we see now and we we talk about this all the time with with clients is that that's what will move the needle is, we need to make sure that we're in this parasympathetic state for healing and and in this rest and digest state, because when we're, when we're so highly activated and in fight or flight, it's not a safe environment for our body to heal. Yeah, and so that's something that I definitely found to be so crucial in my journey yeah, it really, it really is.
Speaker 1:And you know, when we have our most difficult patients and these are patients that we're working with one-on-one and they have a lot of stuff going on and they're doing so many different things and they're not healing, and you know, we have to work on the nervous system. And once we get the nervous system in a place where patients able to transition out of survival mode into that parasympathetic mode, that's when we see a lot of changes really start to happen quickly and it's super exciting. And you know, just, it's really interesting to note that Nellie and I are both like really serious meditators. We're both really serious students of Dr Joe Dispenza. We've studied with him personally and I mean I he's still my favorite. I don't know, is he your favorite?
Speaker 2:he's my favorite too yeah, I actually have recently started bringing him up in in sessions with with patients as well, and it's just I, I, yeah, I, I love him. His work is very profound and I think what I something that I love about him and his work is that it's really this idea of creating a new identity for yourself and who do you want to become and who do you want to step into? Because that version of yourself already exists. Experiencing a chronic condition or set of symptoms for an extensive period of time, we really become pigeonholed into that identity, and so a really good practice really for anyone listening, whether you're a client or not, is how can you just take the time and sit with yourself and ask yourself who is this person that I want to be? Do I identify with this condition of acne? And how can I now transform that and step into a new energy and into this new state of creation where I can really be and experience anything?
Speaker 2:So I think that's something that I love about his work. It's not so much about going back in time and unpacking emotional trauma. It's really just about stepping into the new version of yourself that you want to be and become.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so well said. I mean you know the meditation teaches us how powerful we are and how you know we truly can manifest what we want. And clear skin is not different. It's. You know we are very powerful beings. So you know his work really, truly teaches that. It teaches us how to get into the nervous system that you know where we're able to heal. And I mean when I go to his events and you know I see people doing this work so beautifully and I mean we're doing intense meditations for six, seven days and I see people that are blind, that are in wheelchairs, that have cancer, that literally heal themselves with this work. And I know for many people that sounds nuts but it's not. That's how powerful we are. And when we're able to tap into that power, I mean the sky's really the limit in terms of what can happen in acne. Acne's right up there with it.
Speaker 2:So it's such exciting work up there with it. So, yeah, absolutely it's exciting work, it's really, it's really cool and it's very it's different, because we don't, we can't see energy. We don't it's. It's not something, it's not a concept that we can easily grasp, but it's true, it's. All this is, this is truth, and and as I'm just thinking of a quote, an Einstein quote that frequency medicine is the medicine of the future, and I think that's, that is the truth.
Speaker 1:I think it is too. Nellie and I both live in Toronto and Nellie posted a picture of that quote on Avenue Road, the other day. That's why I was looking at it. I know where that quote is. That's on Avenue Road. You're like, yeah, it is yeah, exactly yeah. So everybody, anybody that's listening, that wants to maybe dive a little bit deeper into the work of Joe Dispenza. I think I love his book Supernatural. I think that's my favorite. I don't know what's your favorite, Nellie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love Becoming Supernatural. I think Breaking the Habit of being Yourself was one of his earlier books, so it's a bit of an easier read. Becoming Supernatural is very, very dense. It took me a long time to get through that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is dense, that's true, but it's pretty eye opening it is. Absolutely eye opening. It is Absolutely so, so continuing on with your journey. So after you went through my program, you went back to school to become a nutritionist, correct?
Speaker 2:I did, yes, so I mean, that's really your program was really what was the catalyst to going back to school and becoming a holistic nutritionist? And and through that program, I mean, I learned so much and I also did a ton more, you know, experimenting on on myself and with, with my own healing journey, and did, did a lot more, a lot more work throughout those years as well. And here here we are. That was was a little while I graduated, a little while ago, during, during the pandemic, and and started working, started working with some clients. And it's funny because at first I I knew that I wanted to see clients and I knew that I wanted to to help people one-on-one, but I was, for some reason, I was not.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to focus in on skin and and in on acne, and I'm not quite sure why.
Speaker 2:Quite sure why that is. I think maybe I just wanted to just be a bit more general. And then, over over the last little while, I I was like, no, this is why I am doing what I'm doing, this is why I'm in the field and I'm so passionate about this and I'm so passionate about helping other women feel their best, and when we get these, the messages from people, or when we see before and after photos, it's so exciting and like I want to cry every time, because I know how it feels and we all know how it feels, and it's so rewarding just seeing someone stick through their journey and because we we know that healing is possible. We know that it's possible, we know that it will happen. The body wants to heal, body wants to heal. So, yeah, that's, that's why that's why I decided to make that switch and just really stick to stick to skin. And and now it's so exciting being able to work with with you and the team and focus, not focus on acne.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, we have. We have a lot of fun doing what we do. I have to say you, me and Nellie and and Holly, we're like always talking about our patients and I love what you said about you know, we know our patients are going to heal if they stick to the program. It takes time. You know it's not going to happen. You know in just a few weeks, that's for sure. It's definitely going to take a few months, especially if there's more chronic, more cystic acne. And we know, we know they're going to heal. We know exactly what needs to happen because we see it all the time and you know it's it's so exciting to watch the transformation. You know exactly. Yeah, it's a part of my life for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's good to just something to keep in mind for anyone listening is that the body doesn't make mistakes and the body really wants to protect us. Its goal is to keep us safe and alive and protect us. So when we're experiencing these symptoms whether it's acne, digestive issues, hormonal issues, whatever you are experiencing these things are showing up for a reason, and so I think that's a really good shift in mindset for someone who's very frustrated and that's fair, like it's totally valid to be frustrated with your skin when you're experiencing chronic acne but I think it's a great shift in mindset to really deeply understand that our body is doing what it can to help us heal and sometimes it just needs the extra support, and that's why we're here.
Speaker 1:I love that you said that, because that is so true. And I mean, often we're looking at blood work and we're seeing thyroid issues, we're seeing iron issues, we're seeing deficiencies and you know, often we're seeing those things in the blood work because the body is protecting us, because the body is trying to heal. You know, because when you're seeing something like, you know, a hypothyroid picture, it's not because your thyroid is not working properly, it's because your thyroid is shifting the way it metabolizes to slow down the body so that the body to facilitate the body's healing. And there's so many different examples of that in the body. So when we do take a look at the body, we see how the body is responding and we put those clues together to understand, kind of, the real root cause of why acne is happening. So, yeah, I love that you said that, because that is just so, that's so good, that's so true.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. Thank you so much, nellie. This has been like I'm well, you know, I really love having you on this podcast. I love having holly on the podcast because, you know, I'm just excited about my team. I'm so excited that I'm able to work with such spectacular women and offer such an amazing support team, such an experienced, educated, like passionate support team, such an experienced, educated, like passionate support team for people that work with us. So this has been an absolute pleasure and we're going to do more podcasts together. You know we're going to dive into you know specific topics deeply and explore them, and I think that you know, know meditation and nervous system is going to be we should do it one where we dive into that a little bit deeper, because I know you have more to say yeah, you have more to say, I have more to say, and this is like just probably the most exciting part of healing um is the work that I really with Dr Joe, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks, nellie. All right, so everybody listening. If you want to work with us, check the show notes. There's a link to the masterclass where you can learn more about our strategy and how we do health healing. There is a link to join the Clear Skin Transformation. That's the online program. It doesn't involve one-on-one coaching, but this is the program that will heal 80% of people that have acne.
Speaker 1:You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on private coaching with us, but you know, if you want to work with us privately, we are so happy to work with you. We are ready to like help your skin and your body and your health and everything transform. So definitely check the show notes. If you could leave a review, that would be fantastic. It's really helpful. It helps us reach other people out there that are suffering with acne and let them know they do not have to deal with acne. You do not have to deal with acne. We know how to heal it. The research is out there. You know I have a strategy that really works and you don't need to suffer. So that is it for today. Have a wonderful day and thank you so much for being here. We'll see you soon.