Like you, I strived to be the quintessential modern-day Superwoman. However, major health issues that started in my 20's and continued throughout my 30's gave me a reality check.
My health crisis wake-up call came when I could no longer function normally. I thought my body was betraying me...
I was frustrated, terrified, and confused. I had been doing everything "right"...yet I was incredibly sick. Going through a slew of doctors, specialists, procedures, tests, misdiagnoses, and terrifying trips to the ER, I refused to accept that I was "fine" (or that the only solution was pharmaceutical band-aids). I was a shell of myself. My brain wouldn’t work, I was exhausted, and I felt disconnected, depressed, and inadequate as a mother, citizen, and wife. I was ready to give up.
Instead, I advocated for myself and became my own health detective.
Slowly, I uncovered many underlying factors compromising my physical, mental, and emotional well-being. I realized that my health began deteriorating with my first incidence of Lyme Disease at age 20, and only got worse when I was exposed to toxic mold in my home and workplace, coupled with massive stress.
Even more, my illness was not only from what I was eating but what was eating me. To heal, I had to address all of the toxic factors and hidden stressors making me sick on ALL levels (physical and metaphysical): food allergies, lifestyle habits, environmental influences, genetic variants, environmental toxicities (like chemical exposures and mold), heavy metals, hidden infections and pathogens, chronic Lyme and co-infections, gut dysbiosis, leaky gut, and even factors like past and ancestral traumas, trapped emotions, limited mindsets, parasitic relationships, and more.
As an Integrative Health Practitioner, I’ve uncovered the root causes of my health challenges—because it’s never just one thing. Through my SAGE Approach, which integrates both physical and metaphysical factors, I’ve embraced the concept of natural healing. This holistic method honors our innate ability to heal when multifactorial/multidimensional stressors are removed, and essential needs are met.
As a Functional Nutritionist, I’ve come to embody the profound truth that food is medicine. Yet, "food" encompasses more than what we eat—it includes every aspect of life that nourishes and sustains us on all levels. By slowing down, simplifying, and focusing on fundamental food and lifestyle adjustments, I’ve cultivated a vitality I never thought possible. Now in my 40s, I feel healthier, more energized, and more alive than ever.
I am the poster child for Hippocrates' words of wisdom that "all health begins in the gut".
This means two things to me:
1- trusting your gut; intuitively determining what is beneficial to your wellbeing
2 - cultivating gut and microbiome health
Both are the fundamental starting points for creating the life you are meant (and deserve) to live.
Health is a Journey: Through a relentless passion for learning, a deep dive into the fundamentals of health and well-being, and recent mentorships in tickborne disease and multidimensional/quantum healing, I’ve finally connected the dots in my own health journey.
I’ve overcome debilitating depression, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, joint pain, neurological issues, heart problems, and countless other physical ailments that once held me back from fully living. My mental and physical health have been restored, and I’ve reclaimed my life.
From completing a rigorous graduate program to opening multiple businesses, learning to surf, and even welcoming a third child in my mid-forties (!), I’ve achieved milestones I once thought impossible. This transformation fuels my passion to guide others on their own path to renewed health and vibrancy.
Through a multifactorial, multidimensional approach that integrates holistic, functional, and integrative practices, I believe we can prevent or halt disease progression and even slow down—or reverse—the aging process, regardless of our “genetics.” I am living proof.