In the fall of 2017, I sold my Indiana practice as I relocated to Portland, Oregon. In the Summer of 2013, I started my own Nurse Practitioner-owned and operated Integrative Medicine clinic in Bloomington, Indiana, where I grew my practice and became known as the natural medicine expert in the area.ĭuring this time, I also received additional training in healing the female pelvic floor using a technique called Holistic Pelvic Care™. Since Functional Medicine is not a substitute for primary care, I would love to collaborate with every patient’s primary care provider to develop a comprehensive treatment strategy to enhance their medical care.Having witnessed the suffering that patients have experienced with their illnesses, I am motivated to dig deeper to help patients learn more about their conditions and partner with them on their journey to wellness and improved health.During and after my masters program, I received extensive mentoring, education, and work experience in the field of functional medicine. With the current concern of COVID-19 on most people’s minds, and the growing number of Americans with at least one chronic medical condition, it has never been a better time to address root causes of illness. I feel that my background in traditional medicine combined with additional training in Functional Medicine helps me to approach patients and their medical conditions and symptoms with an expanded lens. I have spent the past four years obtaining advanced training in Functional Medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine, the Kalish Institute of Functional Medicine, and the Institute for Hormonal Health. I felt recharged and energized to learn and apply this evidence based, scientifically backed method of patient care. I was fascinated to learn that this was such a successful model that the Cleveland Clinic had opened a Center for Functional Medicine. This discipline of medicine uses a full body, systems based approach to each patient, no matter what their medical condition manifests as. I learned that Functional Medicine can help uncover the multiple underlying causes of many chronic health conditions. I felt that my patients deserved answers for their conditions and a plan to actually heal their conditions, not just manage them.Īs I searched for additional resources to help my patients, I came across Functional Medicine. Why were they gaining weight despite following a pretty healthy diet? Why couldn’t they sleep without a sleeping pill? Why did their labs look normal yet they had a long list of symptoms? I longed for more tools, both in my own toolbox and to place in my patients’ toolbox - tools to dig deeper into their symptoms, root causes of illness, and treatments outside of medications or surgery. I was often puzzled when it came to the “whys” for their common maladies. I was tired of placing a diagnosis on my patients and giving them a corresponding prescription. As I watched the toll that chronic diseases took on my patients, I grew weary and frustrated with not having adequate explanations for them despite all of my medical training. During this time, I have learned how to identify and manage a whole host of both acute and chronic illnesses. I have been a family doctor for over 21 years. Thank you so much for visiting Bloom Functional Medicine’s site.
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