Happy Brain, Healthy Body

I specialize in helping people restore optimal health and heal brain related symptoms. I work with patients in-person at my office in Asheville, NC, USA and via telemedicine. My goal is to partner with you to create a personalized blueprint for reaching your health potential. 

My work is a combination of functional medicine, spiritual life coaching and facilitating deep inner work.

This approach helped me to heal my own brain and body after years of chronic stress, sleep deprivation and overwork left me on the verge of burnout and suffering with a myriad of health problems. Thankfully, over the last decade I have healed on many levels and now enjoy vibrant health. It brings me great joy to share what I have learned with my patients and see their health transform as well. 

My specialized training and unique practice model enables me to find and fix the root causes of blocks in my patients’ physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy. Our work together starts with listening to your story. A person’s story is vitally important and many of the root causes of dysfunction can be linked to life experiences dating back to childhood. In addition to your story, we assess your current state of health with a comprehensive, functional medicine evaluation and craft a truly personalized owner’s manual for your brain and body. This is not an overnight task. It’s a journey, a multi-layered process that must be customized to fit the individual story of each and every patient.

Here’s are the five basic steps I use to help patients heal their brain and body:

1. Assess your Current State of Health 
2. Uncover the Root Causes of Brain & Body Dysfunction
3. Connect the Dots and Deal with the Data
4. Create the Health your Desire
5. Plan for Long-Term Success

Step 1

In step one, we review your current health story in depth by looking at your life timeline with attention to antecedents, triggers, mediators, perpetuators, modifiable lifestyle factors, and mental-emotional-spiritual factors. I collect detailed information about your history through the use of health questionnaires such as the ACE test – Adverse Childhood Experiences Score, MSQ – Medical Symptoms Questionnaire, TEQ – Toxin Exposure Questionnaire, as well as various scales for anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, attention deficit, and sleep disorders etc…

I typically recommend both conventional labs (e.g. Complete Blood Count, Comprehensive Metabolic Profile) and functional medicine testing with Genetics Analysis, Advanced Cardiometabolic Markers, Inflammatory Markers, Blood Sugar, Insulin and Diabetes Risk Evaluation, Nutritional Markers, Digestive Stool Analysis, Hormone Evaluation (Thyroid, Adrenal & Sex Hormone Status), Mold & Fungal Metabolites, Heavy Metals, and Environmental Toxicity levels depending on your symptoms and risk factors. Customized On-Line Neuro Cognitive Testing can help clarify the diagnosis and in some patients neuro imaging (e.g. volumetric brain MRI) is ordered if needed.

Step 2

In step two, we use the information from your healthy story, medical history, physical exam, labs, neurocognitive testing and other diagnostic testing to help identify the root causes of illness and your risk factors for cognitive decline that typically fall into these six categories:

• Inflammatory
• Infectious
• Glycotoxic
• Atrophic
• Vascular
• Traumatic

Step 3

In step three, we connect the dots by asking “How are your patterns of eating, drinking, thinking, moving, sleeping, working, believing and relating affecting how you feel today?” and most importantly, we deal with the data and ask “What does your body need to heal?”

Step 4

Step four is where the real work begins. We take everything we’ve learned from steps 1-3 and put them into a personalized action plan to help you create the health you desire. Here’s a brief outline of the general steps to optimal health:

• Connect with your Power Source and Address – Mental-Emotional-Spiritual Factors
• Unwrap your Gifts (Fuel, Play, Beauty, Mindset, Purpose, Rest, Money, Connection, Work & Gratitude) and Upgrade your Operating System and Life
• Care for your Body: A Systems Biology Approach to Optimal Health & Brain Function
  • Add the Proper Fuel (Nutrigenomics & Blood Sugar Balance)
  • Calm Brain Waves (Soothe Anxiety and Lift the Mood)
  • Heal the Gut (Seal the Leaks and Cultivate a Healthy Microbiome)
  • Jumpstart Metabolism (Energy Production)
  • Restore Hormonal Balance (Pituitary, Thyroid, Adrenals & Sex Hormones)
  • Put Out the Fire (Optimize Body Composition & Turn Off Chronic Inflammation)
  • Take Out the Trash (Support Detoxification)