I’m a certified functional practitioner who just 10 years ago was very sick with a chronic digestive health condition and severe hormone imbalances. What started out as general IBS quickly turned into an ulcerative colitis diagnosis, and just two years afterwards, I found myself staring in shock as my gastroenterologist told me that if the next round of steroids didn’t make my symptoms go away, we needed to explore surgically removing my colon. Simultaneously, I had become entangled with anxiety, depression, and severe hormone and adrenal imbalance as a result of losing my father and grandmother, a major life change, as well as because of what was going on in my digestive tract. At one point, I think I became a guinea pig for my doctors because I was put on just about every brand name anxiety and depression medication you can think of. As I counted how many doctors I had seen, the number of times I walked out of their office with no answer other than, “you’ll have this for the rest of your life”, and the appalling number of medications I had been put on, I could no longer hold back my tears and anger about what was going on, but it was at this point that I decided to take things into my own hands. I spent endless nights researching natural ways to heal my body and I eagerly hired an acupuncturist, functional nutrition practitioner, and started a meditation and yoga practice to help me through all of this. During this time, I learned how to use food as medicine. I ran advanced lab tests to find the root cause of my conditions. I traded in my medications for natural supplements. And I began healing my mind. WITHIN JUST SIX MONTHS, I WAS OFF EVERY SINGLE PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION AND FEELING BETTER THAN I HAD IN NEARLY 10 YEARS. WITHIN A YEAR I WAS IN COMPLETE REMISSION FROM ULCERATIVE COLITIS AND HAVE BEEN EVER SINCE. By taking a root-cause approach to my chronic and complex health conditions, I was able to unravel symptoms and outcomes that stumped conventional practitioners. After working with several incredible coaches and practitioners that provided me with the support I needed to find the right path to enable MY healing, I felt a deep calling to become a functional health practitioner to help others just like me — because I wanted everyone to know that this level of healing is possible and that they can recover like I and so many of my clients have.