For people on their own search

Independent medical consultation, with a physician who will think alongside you.

For people thinking carefully about long-term pharmaceutical drugs, a diagnosis, a decision for an aging parent, or a plant medicine experience.

Dr. Elisabeth (Lisa) J.C. Bennink, MD, MA — Dutch elderly care physician and deprescribing specialist. I stepped away from clinical practice in December 2020. Since then, I have been studying plant medicines — especially ayahuasca — inside the living spiritual traditions of Brazil. I write at Brownstone Institute and offer independent online video consultations.

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Who this is for

You are likely here because something is no longer sitting right.

A pharmaceutical drug you have been taking for years that no one has ever proposed reviewing. Side effects that feel worse than what the drug was meant to address. A diagnosis given quickly that you have been turning over since.

A decision you are making for an aging parent, where the people around them seem to be on a different track than you are.

A plant medicine experience that opened something — and your therapist or your physician is the wrong person to bring it to.

This is the kind of question I work with.

The work I bring

Three sources, one conversation.

One

Clinical experience

Dutch MD, specialist in elderly care, with a Master's in Philosophy of Medicine from Groningen (with honours). Nearly a decade in nursing homes, hospitals, and patients' homes. Hundreds of patients carefully tapered off long-term psychiatric drugs, pain medication, cardiovascular agents, and sleep medication.

Two

The decision to leave

In December 2020, I stepped away from a flourishing career — including a directorship I had been offered — when I could no longer reconcile my work with the direction of public-health policy, or practice medicine while honouring the Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm.

Three

Studying ayahuasca in Brazil

Since April 2021 I have lived in Brazil, studying ayahuasca and the broader landscape of plant medicine and traditional healing. Five years of close attention to a frame of healing that medical school does not teach — and that has reshaped how I think about my own profession.

Stay close to the writing

When something new is ready.

I write at Brownstone, on my Substack, and occasionally here. If you would like to know when a new piece appears, leave your email below.

No fixed schedule, no newsletter format. Just a note when something new is ready to share.

Working together

Two ways to begin a conversation.

I think alongside you — drawing on my clinical training, my clinical experience, and what I have learned outside the medical system since 2020. I do not replace your physician. I do not prescribe.

I work with a small number of clients at a time, on purpose. Long conversations need time between them.

60 minutes · $250

Consultation

The right place to begin when there is real reasoning to work through — a medication review, a diagnosis question, a decision for an aging parent, a plant medicine preparation or integration.

Intake form sent to you in advance, so I can prepare carefully
Focused 60-minute video session
Written summary you can keep, or share with anyone you would like to involve

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30 minutes · $95

Short Consultation

One question, given full attention, with no expectation of continuation. The right place to begin when your situation is more contained, or if you would like to test whether this work fits before scheduling the longer Consultation.

Book a 30-minute Consultation

Essays and conversations

What I write about.

Medicine, freedom, deprescribing, plant teachers, and the history of how we came to understand health the way we do. New essays appear at Brownstone Institute and on my Substack.

Brownstone · April 2026

Medicalization of Our Spiritual Life

On the growing push to place psychedelics under medical authority — and why these sacred plants belong to all of humanity, not to the "church of medicine."

→ Read on Brownstone

Brownstone · 2025

The Path to Reclaiming Your Health

A review of Laura Delano's Unshrunk — and why deprescribing deserves more attention than it gets.

→ Read on Brownstone

Substack

Essays from the Serra Gaúcha

Reflections on healing, deprescribing, plant medicine, and what I have learned since leaving the system.

→ Read on Substack

About

Who I am.

Dr. Elisabeth (Lisa) J.C. Bennink, MD, MA, is a Dutch physician. She trained as an elderly care specialist in the Netherlands and holds a Master's degree in Philosophy of Medicine, with honours, from the University of Groningen.

For nearly a decade she worked in nursing homes, hospitals, and patients' homes, providing consultations and geriatric assessments. She developed a particular expertise in deprescribing — safely reducing long-term medications in elderly patients — and helped hundreds of people find relief from polypharmacy. She advised the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport on behalf of Verenso, the association of elderly care physicians, and was commissioned by the healthcare insurer Menzis to develop care models for vulnerable elderly living at home.

In December 2020, she stepped away from the medical system. She could no longer reconcile her professional integrity with the direction of public-health policy, and could no longer practice medicine while honouring the Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm.

In April 2021 she moved with her husband to Brazil, where she has been studying ayahuasca and the broader landscape of plant medicine and traditional healing. She has lived close to nature, learned Portuguese, and slowly come to a different perspective on health than the one she was taught in medical school. Her writing comes out of that ongoing inquiry.

She writes at Brownstone Institute and at strelitziahealth.substack.com.

Often, by the time someone reaches out, they already know something is not quite right.

What has been missing is not information — but a place where their reasoning can be met, rather than dismissed.

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