I have struggled with digestive issues my entire adult life. Constipation, diarrhea, bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, acid reflux.. you name it, I’ve had it.

But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, it wasn’t until my freshman year of college that my health really took a turn for the worse.

What started out as intermittent abdominal pain quickly transpired into full-blown bloating, constipation, chronic fatigue, brain fog, menstrual irregularities, skin rashes and much more. Hardly a day went by where I didn’t find myself curled up in a fetal position, waiting for the pain to subside. Within a matter of months, I had lost more than 30 pounds off my already small frame – not to mention a good chunk of my quality of life.

I spent the next few years being passed from one doctor to the next. I saw gastroenterologists, neurologists, dermatologists, rheumatologists, gynecologists, ophthalmologists – basically, all the “ologists”. Each ran a series of tests to assess, what they considered to be, “unrelated issues”. And each came back insisting that I was “totally fine” & that my test results were “normal”. Meanwhile, it felt as though my body was being held together by a series of poorly adhered bandaids, threatening to fall apart at any given moment.

This pattern went on for many years, during which time my symptoms only continued to broaden and worsen. And still, no answers. That is, unless you count the Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) “diagnosis” that several gastroenterologists slapped on my medical records as they quickly shuffled me out the door. But even that felt like insult to injury, especially given that the only “treatment” strategies offered were prescription anti-depressants, laxatives, and the recommendation to “learn to live with it”.

Over the next decade, I did everything that I could to try to manage and alleviate my debilitating GI symptoms – including switching my field of study from Civil Engineering to Nutrition. After all, I already spent the majority of my days reading up on the link between food and gut health, so I figured.. hey, why not make a career out of it? And perhaps, I hoped, maybe even “fix” my own health issues along the way. But two degrees, one internship, and an unsettling amount of debt later, and I still did not have any more answers than when I started. And as a lifelong perfectionist, this filled me with even more frustration, confusion, anger, and shame. Not only had the conventional healthcare system failed me, but now I had failed myself.

Feeling as though I had exhausted all of my options (and quite honestly, just exhausted myself), I was left with no choice but to accept my previous doctor’s recommendation to “learn to live with it”. And for several years, that’s exactly what I did.

I spent the entirety of my twenties believing that my body was broken, that it had lost its capacity to function correctly. I lived in constant discomfort, forcing myself to push through the pain. I shut down my body’s communication signals and forged on, accepting these debilitating symptoms as a “normal” part of life.

It wasn’t until I discovered functional medicine that I began to believe that healing was even an option for me.

Through my own research and work with functional medicine providers, I slowly began to piece together my own health puzzle. With each new discovery came a renewed sense of hope – the possibility of a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Another reason to keep going, keep digging, and keep advocating for my health. Finally, after more than a decade of living with debilitating symptoms, I began to get some answers.

And while this may sound like the end of my story, in many ways it was just the beginning. These new diagnoses, though overwhelming and scary at times, were the catalysts I needed to make some much needed changes in my life. They forced me to reevaluate how my seemingly “healthy” lifestyle (fueled by high-intensity exercise, under-eating, over-achieving, and perfectionism) may actually be holding me back from achieving optimal health. And they gave me the motivation I needed to make the changes that my body had (no so subtly) been screaming at me to make for over a decade.

It didn’t happen overnight – in fact, it was a slow and often grueling process. And truthfully, it is a journey that is still very much ongoing. But slowly, I’m learning to heal myself from the inside out. And that is exactly what I want for you.

Like many other practitioners, my own experiences as a patient in conventional and functional medicine dramatically influences the work that I do with clients. I’ve seen firsthand the way our modern healthcare system “treats” patients with IBS. And I refuse to participate in a system that is predicated upon shame, blame, and band-aid “solutions”.

I built my practice to help people like me to get the answers and relief that they deserve.

Because at the end of the day, my story is unique – but it is unfortunately not that uncommon. I know from my own experience working in the healthcare field that there are literally hundreds of thousands of women out there just like me – women who are being forced to dramatically alter their lives due to unrelenting symptoms. Women who are being told that their labs are “normal”, despite feeling anything but.

So if you happen to be one of those women, please know that you’re not alone And healing is possible.

If any of my story resonated with you, then I encourage you to reach out to schedule a free 20-minute discovery call to learn more about the services I offer and determine whether or not we may be a good fit for one another.