Frequently Asked Questions

Functional Medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease, asking the question, Why?, not What? It’s a patient centered approach enriched by an interactive partnership between the patient and practitioner. Observing the timeline of a patient’s life, FM looks at genetics, environment, nutritional status, emotions, stress, lifetime events, and other lifestyle factors to identify antecedents, triggers, and mediators that have caused imbalances and influenced their long term health. It views the body as one whole integrated system, including the mind and spirit, rather than compartmentalizing into organs and specialties independent of each other.

A Certified Gluten Practitioner has successfully completed the Certified Gluten Practitioner Program created by Dr. Tom O’Bryan, an internationally recognized authority in Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, Celiac Disease, and Autoimmune Disorders and also is the creator of The Gluten Summit and Betrayal. The Certified Gluten Practitioner Program is the most comprehensive research-based education available for practitioners who want a more comprehensive in depth understanding of Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, Celiac Disease, Gluten Related Disorders, Autoimmune Disorders, as well as clinically proven approaches supporting patients/clients with these conditions.

Whether you eat gluten or not is your choice. I do not have an agenda. You are the one who makes the choices in our partnership. If I think eliminating gluten will help you, I will explain my reasoning, provide you with my resources, ask you to do your homework and make your own decision based on facts. It’s that simple. No coercing or manipulating. I promise!

A Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach empowers clients to take charge of their health. I do this, first by listening to your story, picking up on what you’re doing right, what your strengths are, and what matters most to you. After reviewing your Functional Medicine Timeline and Matrix which is populated by HIPAA compliant Living Matrix software, based on your responses to a Medical Symptoms Questionnaire, I work in partnership with you to co-create a plan that will achieve your desired outcome. We may make diet and lifestyle changes, or use mind-body medicine or new real time behavior modification tools. And, with your help, we can do it in such a way that it fits into your daily routine and complements your personality and core values. I will certainly offer cutting edge research on anything where it’s available. We will talk about how your character strengths can propel you. Sometimes a doctor may ask us to work with their patient to achieve improved outcome because it’s just not practical for doctors to spend that kind of time with their patients.

HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was passed by Congress in 1996.

The only time you would be asked to sign a HIPAA release is if you were a participant in a Group Session. HIPAA does the following:

• Provides the ability to transfer and continue health insurance coverage for millions of American workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs;
• Reduces health care fraud and abuse;
• Mandates industry-wide standards for health care information on electronic billing and other processes; and
• Requires the protection and confidential handling of protected health information

It’s similar to Skype if you’ve ever used that. It’s so easy. You’ll love it. It’s just like being in a room together. You don’t have to have an account. No extra fees for you. Before our session you’ll receive an email from me and you just click on the link and it will open up with instructions for how to continue. Very easy.

I am not a Registered Dietician and do not promote any particular eating plan. I believe in a personalized approach to nutrition based on your unique needs. I have access to all the Institute for Functional Medicine food plans, including cardiometabolic food plans, mito food plans, phytonutrient food plans, elimination diets, detox plans, vegetarian or vegan food plans, methylation food plans, autoimmunity food plans, and many more. Everyone’s needs are unique so we can talk about what would be best for you. I do not have the extensive training in nutrition that a Registered Dietician of Nutritionist has.

Emerging research reveals a gut-brain connection. It’s startling that 95% of the mood controlling hormone, serotonin, is in our gut! Who knew our gut and our brain are texting each other! So with that in mind, it is possible that fixing the gut would fix the brain and fix the anxiety. There are many possible root causes but certainly the gut is a start. The same holds true for hives, depending on the root cause, starting with the gut is first and yes, I’ve seen success with clients going from daily hives outbreak to hardly ever, weaning totally off of medication.

Your first session is totally FREE. You are under no obligation to continue and you still walk away with this AMAZING gift that’s priceless! See My FREE Gift to You. Before we start our sessions, I will provide a form for you to express to me how I might help you best. This would be your first opportunity to express how you prefer to work with your coach. It can be used at any time as a way to give feedback and make positive tweaks to our sessions so that it’s uniquely tailored to YOU. But you’re never obligated to continue if you feel it’s not working.

After each session, I will ask you if you are satisfied with how our session went. If for any reason, you are not satisfied, there is a 100% Money Back Guarantee. The only exception to this is with Groups. Your acceptance of this full refund constitutes a mutual termination of our coaching relationship, which is only reasonable if you are not finding satisfaction.

No. I may talk about something, for example, magnesium, a mineral essential to optimal health. There are many reasons I’ll explain why almost all of us are deficient in magnesium and why it’s near impossible for us to get enough in our diet. But it’s always your choice whether or not to supplement. If you decide to, I can help you understand the differences in the various forms of magnesium or whatever mineral or vitamin we may be discussing and how to know you’re getting the highest quality.

First of all, please ask me. Sometimes you may not even think your challenge is health related. Emotional traumas, chronic depression, chronic stress, memory recall, brain fog, insomnia, excessive shyness, being fearful, experiencing inner tension since childhood but hiding these feelings from others. Just ask. If it’s something I feel I cannot help you with, I can certainly help you find another reputable Health Coach who might be very specialized in that area and I’ll be glad to do that at no charge to you.