Brianna Ladapo: The Energy Healer Beside Florida’s Surgeon General
She says she speaks with angels, reads auras and can heal trauma by “unblocking energetic flow.” She calls herself a certified naturopath in a state that has licensed none since 1959. And on stage and on air, she keeps company with the leading figures of the anti-vaccine movement.
Brianna Ladapo is married to Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s Surgeon General. That alone would not put her on this site. She is here because she is a public figure in her own right: an author with a published memoir, a paid practitioner who advertises healing services, a speaker who has appeared on more than twenty shows and podcasts, and a campaigner who rallied supporters for her husband’s October 2026 school vaccine hearing. According to a speaker who was there, her husband has credited her on stage with a role in his career.
This page covers what she says in public about health and healing, and where she has said it. Her memoir also describes abuse she suffered and her family life. We have left that out deliberately. It is hers to tell, and it is not the subject here.
What she offers, in her own words
Her website, viewed 2 November 2026
“Unblocking energetic flow”
Her site presents her as an energetic healer, coach, author and speaker. It lists four services: herbal medicine, energetic healing, life coaching and health coaching. A photo caption mentions Reiki. No prices or credentials are shown.
“Restore vibrant health and experience profound healing by unblocking energetic flow.”briannaladapo.com, energetic healing service
The site says energetic healing can transmute physical, spiritual and emotional trauma, and that health coaching gives clients tools to “activate your body’s ability to heal itself.”
Source: briannaladapo.com, viewed 2 November 2026.
15 February 2024 · CanvasRebel interview
“Transmutation,” and walking away from her doctors
She described her services as “energetic counseling and healing, health coaching, life coaching, and channeling,” with a specialty in “transmuting” trauma, which she defined as “an energetic healing practice that transforms low-functioning vibrations, energy, and behaviors.” Her training, she said, was a naturopathic and holistic health education, plus lessons from “a divinely gifted healer named Christopher Maher.” She named no school or certifying body.
Of her own illness, she said she “immediately fired all of my doctors, got off all medications, and walked away from all of it.” She also said that trauma “alters how their body reads their DNA,” and that after her healing work her hair and nails grew faster and her cuts and bruises healed sooner. She offered no evidence for these claims.
Source: “Meet Brianna Ladapo,” CanvasRebel, 15 February 2024 (a promotional interview series).
Professional profile
“Intuitive Energetic Healer” and “Certified Naturopath”
Her member profile at the American Institute of Stress describes her as a “Certified Naturopath, Health and Wellness Coach, Intuitive Energetic Healer, and Author” with a private practice in Florida, specializing in “trauma-induced stress.” It lists memberships in the American Naturopathic Medical Association, the American Hypnosis Association and the American Sports and Fitness Association. It also says she works with non-profit organizations “to heal trafficked and exploited children.” Mother Jones reported that her Instagram bio used a similar list: “Energetic Healer, Certified Naturopath, Movement Therapist, and Integrative Health and Wellness Coach.”
As of October 2026 the We The People Health and Wellness Center in Venice listed her among its practitioners as an “Integrative Health Coach,” in an educational and supportive role.
Sources: American Institute of Stress member profile, viewed 2 November 2026 (self-reported); Mother Jones, 10 October 2025; wtphealthcare.com, viewed 18 October 2026.
“Certified naturopath” in Florida
Florida stopped licensing naturopaths in 1959. According to Fresh Take Florida, no licensed naturopathic physician is left in the state; the last one died in 2010. Practising naturopathy without a licence is a third-degree felony under Florida law. In 2026 the Legislature passed a bill to license naturopaths again and to cut that penalty to a misdemeanour. Governor DeSantis vetoed it on 26 June 2026.
“Certified” is not “licensed.” Her profiles do not say who certified her, and the American Naturopathic Medical Association is a membership group, not a licensing body. Whether her coaching and energy work amounts to practising naturopathy under Florida law is a question for the Department of Health, and we have not found that it does. The Department that would decide it is the one her husband runs.
Sources: Elizabeth Maguire, Fresh Take Florida, via WUSF, 3 May 2026; American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, statement on the veto, 27 June 2026.
What she believes, as reported
10 October 2025 · Mother Jones
Angels, auras and levitation
Kiera Butler and Julianne McShane’s profile of the couple, drawn largely from her memoir, reports that she claims “the abilities to speak to angels and historical figures and read people’s auras.” She describes communicating with “Archangel Michael, Mary Magdalene, and many other beings of light,” and treats number sequences she has noticed since childhood as “angelic messages.” She says a treatment from Christopher Maher made her levitate.
Two beliefs reported there bear directly on her work with trauma survivors. She believes people who were sexually abused “give off energy from their wounds that invites more abuse,” and, as Mother Jones puts it, “even children, she writes, choose the harm that they experience.” She also writes that humanity has “been controlled for ages by an elite, concealed group of dark actors.” Mother Jones noted the echo of QAnon but found no evidence that she follows it.
Source: Kiera Butler and Julianne McShane, “From Medicine to Mysticism: The Radicalization of Florida’s Top Doc,” Mother Jones, 10 October 2025.
31 October 2025 · KFF Health News
Chemtrails “shaped like a pentagram”
Arthur Allen of KFF Health News described her as “a self-proclaimed ‘spiritual healer’ who says she speaks with angels.” He reported that she has written that the pandemic was planned by “sinister forces,” and that on a podcast she said chemtrails were “shaped like a pentagram” and that the chemtrails “they are dumping on us” had made her and her sons ill.
Source: Arthur Allen, “At the Hollow in Florida, the ‘medical freedom’ movement finds its base camp,” KFF Health News, 31 October 2025, republished by WUSF.
What the evidence says about energy healing
Energy healing, Reiki included, rests on the idea that a life energy, or biofield, flows through the body and can be unblocked or redirected by a practitioner. The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the federal agency that funds research on these methods, says “there’s no scientific evidence supporting the existence of the energy field thought to play a role in Reiki,” and that Reiki “hasn’t been clearly shown to be effective for any health-related purpose.” People may feel calmer after a session, but a quiet hour of kind attention would do that with no energy involved.
Trauma deserves proven treatment. Trauma-focused psychotherapies have solid evidence behind them. The harm in energy healing is less the session itself than what it can replace, and a practitioner who teaches that abused people attract their abuse adds a harm of her own.
Source: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, “Reiki: What You Need To Know.”
2023 · The memoir
Emerging From Darkness, with a foreword by Christiane Northrup
Her 2023 book, Emerging From Darkness: A Spiritual Memoir and Guide Back to the Light, is the main source for most of what has been written about her. Christiane Northrup wrote on her own Substack that she wrote its foreword. Northrup, a physician turned wellness author, was one of the twelve people the Center for Countering Digital Hate named in 2021 as its “Disinformation Dozen,” the accounts it found responsible for most anti-vaccine content on Facebook. Media Matters has documented her sharing of antisemitic material, including the Holocaust-denial film Europa: The Last Battle. Northrup’s lawyers disputed some of Media Matters’ wording, and it revised the article. The book also carries an endorsement from Tony Robbins.
Sources: Christiane Northrup, True North (Substack), 25 October 2024; Center for Countering Digital Hate, “The Disinformation Dozen,” 2021, as reported by the Genetic Literacy Project, 30 July 2021; Media Matters for America, on the 2024 Back to Basics Conference; briannaladapo.com.
Where she has appeared, and who else was there
Most of the entries below come from her own website’s media and events pages, which list the shows and dates but rarely the content. Where an outlet’s host or another speaker is a known figure in the anti-vaccine movement, the table says so and gives the source. Rows shaded red mark the events tied directly to her husband or to Viliam Makis.
Date
Venue or show
Who else was there, and why it matters
15 Jun 2023
The Dr. Love Show (Jamie Turndorf)
Interview, “How to Return to the Light When All You See is Darkness.”
10 Jul 2023
The Robert Scott Bell Show
Listed on her media page.
10 Aug 2023
Diamond and Silk
Listed on her media page.
5 Sep 2023
Designed to Heal podcast
Episode on Emerging From Darkness.
8 Oct 2023
Health Nut News Show
Health Nut News was founded by Erin Elizabeth, another of the CCDH’s “Disinformation Dozen.”
14 Oct 2023
Red Pill News
Listed on her media page.
21 Oct 2023
“Experience to Wholeness,” Hippocrates Institute
Her events page gives no city. Florida’s Hippocrates Health Institute, in West Palm Beach, is the raw-food spa where two First Nations girls from Ontario went after stopping chemotherapy for leukemia; one of them, Makayla Sault, died in January 2015. Florida’s Department of Health issued cease-and-desist letters to its directors, Brian and Anna Maria Clement, for practising medicine without a licence, then withdrew them for “lack of evidence.”
2023
American Academy of Environmental Medicine annual conference
Her events page lists her as a featured speaker and panelist.
15 Nov 2023
Dr. Tenpenny Morning Coffee
Sherri Tenpenny is on the “Disinformation Dozen” list. In 2021 she told an Ohio House hearing that COVID-19 vaccines made people magnetic. Her husband had appeared on Tenpenny’s podcast a year earlier, when she spoke of a “Nuremberg 2.0” (see his record).
18 Nov 2023
The Mel K Show
“Emerging from the Darkness & Into the Light.”
6 Dec 2023
The Dr. Drew Podcast
On her book, trauma “blockages” in the body, and the healer who changed her life.
30 Jan 2024
A Fine Time for Healing podcast
Listed on her media page.
6 Mar 2024
The Ohio Brett Show
Shared the episode with Dr. Richard Bartlett and Domenic Porcari.
11 Mar 2024
Patriot Nightcap (Tresha Rodriguez)
Listed on her media page.
16 Mar 2024
Book signing, Centner Wellness, Miami
Centner Wellness was created by Leila Centner, co-founder of Miami’s Centner Academy. In April 2021 the school said it would not employ anyone who had received a COVID-19 vaccine, and told vaccinated staff to keep away from students. Centner told the Associated Press that unvaccinated women had miscarried from being near vaccinated people, which the AP called biologically impossible.
19 Oct 2024
Back to Basics Conference, Waltham, Massachusetts
She and her husband both appeared. Christiane Northrup wrote that he stood on stage and honoured her role in his personal healing and in his career as Surgeon General. Media Matters listed the other speakers as including Mary Holland, chief executive of Children’s Health Defense, Ryan Cole, Meryl Nass and Leah Wilson, as well as Northrup herself. The New England chapter of Children’s Health Defense promoted the event.
Oct 2025
“The 3 Big C’s: Courage, Censorship & Cancer,” Venice Community Center, Florida
Sponsored by the We The People Health and Wellness Center. The evening honoured her and her husband. Viliam Makis, struck off in Alberta and since licensed in Florida, gave the keynote, and she chaired a panel. Several hundred people attended. KFF reported that Joseph Ladapo has said he hopes to support Makis’s work through Florida’s cancer research fund. See the Makis file.
6 Oct 2026
Her post promoting the school vaccine hearing
A campaign-style poster urging supporters to “fill the room” at her husband’s 8 October hearing on dropping four school vaccine requirements. Full story.
Undated
The Absolute Truth (Emerald Robinson); The Golden Thread
Listed on her media page without dates.
Sources: briannaladapo.com media and events pages, viewed 2 November 2026; Apple Podcasts listing for The Dr. Drew Podcast, 6 December 2023; askdrlove.com; IMDb listing for The Mel K Show, 18 November 2023; CTV News, 2015, on the Hippocrates Health Institute orders; Associated Press, 27 April 2021, on Centner Academy; Haute Living, 7 July 2025, on Centner Wellness; Christiane Northrup, True North, 25 October 2024; Media Matters for America, on the 2024 Back to Basics Conference; Mother Jones, 10 October 2025; Arthur Allen, KFF Health News, 31 October 2025.
Why a Canadian site keeps this file
Two Canadian threads run through it. The first is Viliam Makis, struck off in Alberta and now licensed in Florida, who gave the keynote at the evening honouring the Ladapos. The second is the Hippocrates Health Institute, where Makayla Sault of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation went after she stopped chemotherapy. Brianna Ladapo’s beliefs are her own business. They become everyone’s business when the Surgeon General says she shapes his work, and when she sells healing to the public.
As an Amazon Associate, QuackeryWatch earns from qualifying purchases. It costs you nothing extra and never affects what we write.
Sources
Brianna Ladapo, official website: home, events and media pages, viewed 2 November 2026. briannaladapo.com · events · media
“Meet Brianna Ladapo,” CanvasRebel, 15 February 2024. canvasrebel.com
American Institute of Stress, member profile: Brianna Ladapo, viewed 2 November 2026 (self-reported). stress.org
Kiera Butler and Julianne McShane, “From Medicine to Mysticism: The Radicalization of Florida’s Top Doc,” Mother Jones, 10 October 2025. motherjones.com
Arthur Allen, “At the Hollow in Florida, the ‘medical freedom’ movement finds its base camp,” KFF Health News, 31 October 2025, republished by WUSF. wusf.org
We The People Health and Wellness Center, practitioner listing, viewed 18 October 2026. wtphealthcare.com
Elizabeth Maguire, “Florida lawmakers move to license an alternative medicine abolished decades ago,” Fresh Take Florida, via WUSF, 3 May 2026. wusf.org
American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, “Governor DeSantis Vetoes Naturopathy Legalization Bill, Keeps Naturopathy A Felony In The State,” 27 June 2026. naturopathic.org
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, “Reiki: What You Need To Know.” nccih.nih.gov
Christiane Northrup, “Watch Brianna Ladapo and her husband, Dr. Joe Ladapo,” True North (Substack), 25 October 2024. substack.com
“Update: Florida’s surgeon general speaks at a conference with a doctor who has promoted pro-Hitler propaganda,” Media Matters for America, 2024. mediamatters.org
“Viewpoint: Just 12 people are responsible for 76% of Facebook vaccine misinformation,” Genetic Literacy Project, 30 July 2021, on the CCDH “Disinformation Dozen.” geneticliteracyproject.org
Wikipedia, “Erin Elizabeth” (founder of Health Nut News). wikipedia.org
The Dr. Drew Podcast, “Brianna Ladapo,” 6 December 2023. Apple Podcasts
“How to Return to the Light When All You See is Darkness with Brianna Ladapo,” Ask Dr Love. askdrlove.com
“Emerging From Darkness: One Woman’s Journey Back To The Light (ft. Brianna Ladapo),” Designed To Heal Podcast. iheart.com
“The Mel K Show: Mel K & Brianna Ladapo, Emerging from the Darkness & Into the Light,” 18 November 2023, IMDb listing. imdb.com
CTV News (Canadian Press), “Cease-and-desist orders dropped against Florida’s Hippocrates Health Institute,” 2015. ctvnews.ca
Associated Press, “Private Florida school won’t employ vaccinated teachers,” 27 April 2021, via News4JAX. news4jax.com
Grace Sarkisian, “Thrive from the Inside Out: Your Guide to Centner Wellness & Spa in Miami,” Haute Living, 7 July 2025. hauteliving.com