As verifiable "plant lady", founder and certified functional nutrition counselor at Walker's Functional Nutrition the idea of food as medicine became a mainstay of mine about ten years ago.
I developed distressing digestive symptoms after a couple courses of antibiotics for sinus infections. That was coupled with a 25 year plus struggle with autoimmunity that I had genetic predisposition for on both my maternal and paternal sides. I was in a stressful work environment, had blood sugar and nervous system dysregulation and unresolved grief issues from my childhood. I was sick.
My own health crisis, witnessing the rising epidemic of these chronic conditions and a burgeoning mental health crisis that I observed as a mental health clinician, I knew there must be better answers to healing these chronic conditions plaguing modern society.
Thankfully I had a naturopathic practitioner who helped me when I was a younger and stressed out single parent living in a moldy ground floor apartment and struggling with digestive difficulties that helped me address fungal overgrowths due to major antibiotics that I was prescribed as an infant and child. I had a poor diet with a lot of sugar and alcohol in my young adulthood. Sugar is definitely my kryptonite.
I am indebted to the field of Functional Medicine and Functional Nutrition in that I acquired knowledge that many symptoms and health conditions people experience come from gut related issues, even if no gut symptoms are present. The concepts and skills I learned within the functional nutrition context catapulted me on a new trajectory in my own healing journey and career. My longstanding passion to serve others was reignited in learning gut centric systems approach that provides results in regaining health and function. My certification through the Functional Nutrition Alliance and continuing education through The School of Applied Functional Medicine has prepared me with the tools needed to confidently coach others in a lifestyle path that I live everyday as a way to take care of my health.
My Functional Nutrition certification training has provided me with a systematic way to help clients in a process of uncovering the roots of their health problems and provide transformative results by shifting the terrain in the body that impact the three roots of disease dynamics.
Three roots, many branches is the philosophy at the core of my approach.
We all have genetic predispositions which are impacted by our environment, movement, foods we eat and our mindset.
Digestion (which includes our eating hygiene, whether we have sufficient digestive enzymes and stomach acid, infections, nutrient deficiencies, microbial issues and any structural issues at play.
And lastly, the ubiquitous inflammation we all hear about causing chronic health conditions. We aim to calm, clear, and modulate inflammation to enhance immune function.
I aspire to empower, educate and inspire my clients to take back charge of their health. I work in a therapeutic partnership along side clients to shift the terrain in their body's to make symptoms inhospitable while educating on the importance of learning to trust their intuition. It's important to listen to what our body is telling us in a non-violent way. (Our inner dialogues can be very critical and we must take a long hard look at how what we say to ourselves profoundly impacts our health and use reframes to bring compassion to ourselves.)
Please contact me for a strategy call to see if my functional nutrition personalized approach may be a good fit for you. You deserve to feel good and the road ahead begins with a first step. It is not a quick fix approach to wellness that many are accustomed to. Quick fixes don't garner results when working to actually heal chronic health conditions, they just manage them. It's a process of self discovery where you are listened to, have a supportive person to guide you to make changes and learn your mediators for health and illness in order to bring your body, mind and spirit back into a state of homeostasis.
