What is a Functional Nutrition Counselor anyway?

After being a massage therapist for over 20 years you would think I would be used to explaining what it is that I do. When I graduated in 1998, being a massage therapist was a new and novel thing. I worked in a clinical setting doing massage and bodywork for most of my career. Working with how our bodies are effected by the choices we make everyday. Adding functional nutrition training to my current knowledge seemed natural to move towards. So lets get back to the original question. What is a Functional Nutrition Counselor anyway?

I have come to use an analogy to describe what it is I do. Imagine your body is a tree. You have branches, leaves, a trunk and roots. The way our body, the tree, gets its nourishment is through the soil it grows in. Our soil is the terrain in which bacteria flourishes also known as our microbiome. Generally, our soil starts off pretty full of nutrients. But environmental factors (aka lifestyle choices) come into play. Something as simple as the amount of water we drink can effect the overall health of our tree. If we don't get adequate hydration our soil will begin to dry up and our leaves will begin to wither. Instead of just focusing on the health of the leaves a Functional Nutrition Counselor would look at the leaves as a symptom of an imbalance in the soil. Hydrate the soil and the symptom goes away. Water intake is not the only thing that impacts the health of our soil. Our soil can be nourished in so many ways. The choices we make everyday either nourish or deplete the soil of our beautiful tree bodies.

These lifestyle choices include:

-the food we eat and what our bodies can do with that food

-sleep patterns

-exercise and bodywork

-what and how much we drink

-the thoughts and emotions we experience (or choose not to)

-how and what we breath

-the relationships we have with ourselves, with others and with what we consider our source

These choices all impact the health of our soil which in turn impacts the health of our tree. My mission is to educate you to understand how your current choices are directly connected to your symptoms. Two people with the same symptoms, or even the same diagnosis, do not need the same remedies, because they arrived at their illness in different ways. Functional Nutrition is about understanding the function of each system in the body. In knowing what healthy function looks like, we can pinpoint where the dysfunction lies and work backwards toward resolving it. We won't be chasing symptoms, we will be working with root cause resolutions. Finding out what your roots need from the soil to replenish the rest of your tree. Uncovering where the dysfunctions are we can work together to restore your soil back into balance and harmony. So your tree is fully nourished and your journey to health is not only achieved but maintained! This means that everything from your leaves to your roots are flourishing with health and vibrancy.