From Mountains to Medicine is the story of Erica Elliott's magical, mind-bending, and heart-opening journey of self-discovery in search of her life's purpose.
A courageous woman with insatiable curiosity, Elliott shares her compelling story with disarming honesty. Right from the beginning, she draws the reader into her narrative as she threads her way through the turbulent early years of her life, overcoming many daunting challenges along the way. Her guiding star is her search for meaning and purpose, which leads her to some spellbinding adventures, including perilous climbs of daunting peaks, one of which was subsequently named after her.
One reader wrote: "Elliott's writing is intimate, intoxicating, and full of wisdom. I found myself laughing out loud, holding my breath, opening my eyes wide in shock, at times exclaiming 'holy sh*t!'—and I imagine you will too. It is much more than a memoir. It is so engrossing I forgot I was reading a book, and I look forward to the day when it is made into a movie."
Ultimately, Elliott's wise heart leads her home to discover what was there all along—her destiny to be a healer.
Erica Elliott was born into a large family with a Swiss mother and an American father. Throughout her childhood, Erica moved with her family from one part of the world to another due to her father's work. Her grade schooling began in England and ended in Germany where she graduated from high school. The following summer, she pursued her interests in the arts Florence, Italy, before returning to the States to attend college.
The seeds for becoming a medical doctor were first sown when she spent a summer in Switzerland learning from her uncle, an eccentric and brilliant medical doctor. It took many years before those seeds sprouted.
Erica came to medicine later than most medical students, after pursuing other careers and interests, including teaching grade school and herding sheep on the Navajo Reservation, mountain climbing in the Andes while serving in the Peace Corps in South America, teaching Outward Bound students wilderness survival in the Rocky Mountains, and studying various spiritual practice.
After graduating from University of Colorado Medical School and completing her residency in family practice in Denver, Erica worked in Cuba, New Mexico, where she fulfilled her National Health Service obligation. From there she worked in a number of settings including a clinic for indigent care, a local emergency room, a women's clinic, and a multispecialty clinic.
In 1993, Dr. Elliott opened her own private practice in her co-housing community, called The Commons, which she helped found in the early 1990s. Dr. Elliott specializes in family practice and environmental medicine. She has been nicknamed the "Health Detective," due to her skills at finding underlying causes of mysterious illnesses.
Over the years, Erica has given radio talks, interviews, webinars, workshops at Esalen and Omega Institutes, and a TEDx talk about living in co-housing. She is the co-author of Prescriptions for a Healthy House, and the author of Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert: My Life among the Navajo People.
"From Mountains to Medicine is the story of Dr. Erica Elliott's magical journey off the beaten path. The utter exuberance she has for life is contagious. An intrepid explorer of cultures, people, mountains, and medicine, Erica's dedication to making people's lives better is the golden thread that holds her world together. A physician of expansive vision and skill, 'La Cabra Montés' (the mountain goat),as she was named after scaling the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, ultimately became 'The Health Detective.' The story of that unlikely transformation ignites the imagination and opens the heart. This is a book you'll want to share with all the people you love." - Joan Borysenko, PhD, speaker and New York Times best-selling author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind
"Erica Elliott is a natural-born storyteller. Her deeply affecting memoir is about family and the essential journey of self-discovery she went on to find her soul's purpose. This book takes you on a wild, world odyssey through the Swiss Alps, the Peace Corps in Ecuador, and mountain climbing in Argentina. Elliott's writing is honest and intoxicating; she writes about diverse Indigenous people, culture, and communities around the world in an intimate, visceral way. Ultimately, Elliott's wise heart leads her home to discover what was there all along—her destiny to be a healer." - Debra Rosenman, author/editor of the multi-award-winning book The Chimpanzee Chronicles: Stories of Heartbreak and Hope from Behind the Bars
"From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling is a truly compelling, fascinating, and engaging journey—actually many journeys of Erica Elliott's life. I found myself laughing out loud, holding my breath, opening my eyes wide in shock, at times exclaiming 'holy sh*t!'—and I imagine you will too. It is much more than a memoir. It is so engrossing I forgot I was reading a book, and I look forward to the day when it is made into a movie. Erica's writing is clear and straight forward, taking you step by step through pivotal moments in her life, as if you were traveling right along with her. Definitely a must-read!" - Alan Questel, Author of Practice Intentional Acts of Kindness
"In this mind-bending and heart-opening memoir, Erica Elliott takes us on the intimate journey of finding her ultimate purpose in life. Each of us is offered clues in our lives, at first as quiet as a tiny mountain spring, which, if we listen and follow, can become a river plunging toward the sea. The miracle of the rites of passage that Erica offers here is her listening and following, her opening awareness and courage along the way, and her remarkable ability to bring us along. In our taking this journey with her, we, too, can become more attentive and devoted to saying 'Yes!' to the opportunities that life affords us." - Heidi Sparkes Guber, co-author of A Whole Greater than Its Parts: Exploring the Role of Emergence in Complex Social Change
"In a voice that always cuts to the heart of things, Erica Elliott describes her adventures in mountaineering and the Peace Corps in the Andes in colorful, imagistic word paintings. She also looks back on her life in a large itinerant army family, and how she overcame its difficult emotional legacy. All this prepares her for a life healing others. Her inspiring story and heartfelt voice have their own curative properties." - Sally Abbott, author of Miami in Virgo
"Right from the beginning of her story, [Erica Elliott] draws the reader into her narrative as she threads her way through the turbulent early years of her life, overcoming many challenges along the way. Her guiding star is her search for meaning and purpose, which leads her to some spellbinding adventures... [You] will find this book uplifting, inspiring, and full of wisdom." - Alice K. Ladas, EdD author of the New York Times bestseller The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality
"A person's purpose in life seems to live in that sweet spot where your deepest joy intersects with your unique skill set and also with the world's endless need. It is a treat and an education to follow the young, courageous, and tenacious Erica Elliott through her extraordinary journey as she puts together all three. Full of insight as well as cultural and mountaineering adventure, From Mountains to Medicine is a great read." - Chris Hoffman, author of The Hoop and the Tree: A Compass for Finding a Deeper Relationship with All Life
"Few coming-of-age tales carry a reader so deeply into the heart and soul of the one who lived it. Dr. Erica Merriam Elliott takes us through her acutely intimate and profoundly explicit struggles to find her own unique purpose and meanings in life, work, and vocation... The reader will find breathtaking moments of sheer terror and the power of her unfathomable tenacity and courage in the midst of astonishing beauty and in the face of bone-crushing poverty. From Mountains to Medicine, the second in her memoir trilogy, is a story of resilience, giving us remarkable insight into what makes us supremely human and what drives us to finding our distinctive path in life... Erica shines a bright light on the multiple possibilities of what it means to be whole, to be human, and to be hopeful. Your time and energy in following her saga will bring you to tears and shouts of delight." - The Reverend Canon Ted Karpf, Episcopal priest and author of Acts of Forgiveness: Faith Journeys of a Gay Priest and principal editor of the World Health Organization’s Restoring Hope: Decent Care in the Midst of HIV/AIDS
