About

The journey that brought me here…

When my second child was 6 months old I was diagnosed with depression. I’m sure my story starts far before then – perhaps with the severe calorie restriction my freshman year in high school, followed by anxiety and panic attacks that lasted throughout my college years… but the depression diagnosis feels like the defining moment where my story begins because I did not FEEL depressed.

I felt overwhelmed, anxious - unable to handle my life. I felt like I needed help. I felt frantic at times. Like I needed less on my to-do list or more time. And more sleep – but the only way I could gain more time was to sleep less. The struggle was REAL. Apparently, those are signs of depression. The diagnosis was the start of a long journey of going on and off of antidepressants.

Fast forward to 2012. My fourth child was 3 years old and I was on my ninth antidepressant in 10 years. I was having various health issues and though I didn’t know it at the time, they all linked back to my antidepressant. Once the connection had been made, I had to immediately discontinue my medication. This is generally not advised due to withdrawal symptoms, but the severity of my reactions made my doctor nervous and he had me quit cold turkey.

Have you ever immediately discontinued a psych drug?? It is NOT pretty!

While I was still waiting for the reaction to wear off, I ran into a friend and she asked about the rash on my arms. I explained what had happened and she asked if I had ever heard of a functional practitioner. I had not, but I was intrigued – nothing had helped to this point, so I was open to trying something different. That conversation began my journey of rebuilding my health.

I met with the practitioner. Changes needed to be made. I had to go gluten-free and dairy-free. I had to quit drinking diet coke {gasp}. Over the next couple of years, I learned that FOOD (gluten, specifically) was what gave me symptoms of depression.

I was gluten-free at home, but I would cheat if we went out to eat. If we went out on a Friday, by Sunday I was huddled up at the end of my bed, in a deep cloud of depression, convinced my family would be better off without me, certain that I HAD always and WOULD always feel this way.

My husband noticed the pattern (go out to eat, 2 days later I’m in a bad place) and pointed it out to me. This was the first time I saw how powerfully food affected my mood. (Safe to say, I STAY AWAY from gluten 100% of the time now!)

I FINALLY knew how to get my symptoms of depression under control.

Life was just moving along normally for a few years, until 2017. Maddox’s (our 3rd child) health crashed. After seeing several specialists, we still didn’t have answers. Except for the neurologist who recommended a wheelchair for his bad days (which was NOT a solution in my book).

This lead us back to the same practitioner who had helped me. Through functional lab work, we found out that our son had been chronically exposed to mold. And then with further testing, we discovered that he also had Lyme disease.

It took several months to remediate the mold, and it took time for our son to heal (22 months to be exact), but we made it with our sanity intact. (Had I not made the changes that I had made for my health, I would not have had the physical or mental capacity to go through that.)

Then, as he was feeling better, his younger brother started to have symptoms that made us seek medical care. And again, we saw the specialists & ran the tests. But they couldn’t find anything to diagnose. They said he was fine.

So back to a functional practitioner we went.

They ran a variety of labs, including labs for Lyme disease and mold toxicity. And sure enough. His body was struggling with both of these and he needed to do the work too. (And I haven’t even mentioned my youngest child yet, but that’s another story for another day).

Given what we had been through, I set out to find a program that would allow ME to be that practitioner – to run the labs and recommend the protocols.

That’s when I found Functional Diagnostic Nutrition®️. I knew this was the missing piece – this would give me access to lab testing so I could work with women (and their children) on a deeper level to see what was going on inside of their bodies.

And now I have these tools at my fingertips. When we combine data from the lab tests with the rest of the program, the body balances itself out beautifully.

How I work…

I am not a medical professional so I don’t diagnose or treat. Instead, utilizing functional lab tests, we find hidden stressors in your body. Then, I teach you how to leverage diet, rest, exercise, stress reduction, and supplements to heal your body. And a healed body allows you to be a better wife, a better mom, a better friend, a better employee, a better you.

Life will throw hard things at us. It may temporarily shake us, but when we are physically and emotionally resilient, we can dust off our shoulders and get back in the arena. Whether it’s you or your child who isn’t feeling well, dealing with chronic “unwellness” (is that a word??) is draining. Wouldn’t it be nice to roll with punches without feeling like you got punched? (and without wanting to punch someone else!?) And wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take a breath, trust that you’ll figure it out, and not fall apart?

I can show you how to maintain a sense of normalcy regardless of what life throws at you, so you can BE all the things, and DO all the things. If you’re ready to take back your sanity, let’s chat. Click the button below to schedule a call with me.