My Story
“When thinking about my story, there are few defining moments that led to my passion of helping others and becoming the clinician I am today. ”
At the ripe age of 9 years old, I started modeling. The glitz and glam was so very exciting! But as time went on, I realized I was surprisingly uncomfortable when it came time to being in the spotlight and much rather preferred sitting back and analyzing situations before jumping into them. On top of that, being in an industry that placed a high importance on external beauty and physicality shifted my awareness and perception of myself (I was 8…tear).
In another important area of my life, I spent a great deal of time in the gym training and conditioning as a competitive gymnast. I absolutely adored the sport and particularly excelled on the beam. Training for 10 years helped me learn some of my most valuable life skills to date. Mainly about hard work, how not to give up and how to juggle a busy life (I was in the gym 16 hours a week). Both modeling and gymnastics taught me how to be a perfectionist, how to people-please, hypervigilance and how to self criticize.
As the years went by, my internal relationship snowballed and I developed an eating disorder. As with most eating disorders, I had comorbid conditions such as depression and ADHD. To say that my hormones, gut and mental health were struggling is a vast understatement.
“It was an extremely dark and isolating time in my life. ”
As time went on I prepared for college and had my heart set on San Diego. The stress I felt with this transition, matched with my poor coping skills began to manifest physically, emotionally, mentally and hormonally. I felt the signs and symptoms but like most young adults, I was far from ready to listen. So I carried on, and to no one’s surprise, my health continued to deteriorate at an astonishing rate.
When I could no longer keep up external appearances, I reached out for help and entered a holistic eating disorder outpatient program. This program quite literally saved my life. It was the first time I was addressed as an entire being. They looked at my past, present, mental health, nutrition, relationships, lifestyle, you name it. It wasn’t until I was ready to take responsibility, slow down my life, build new habits and stop asking “why me?”, that I began to heal.
But the road doesn’t stop there, that would be too easy! I took my skills in perfection, control, and working harder (not smarter;), in order to get raises, promotions and other accolades that made me feel worthy. Being good at my job and climbing the corporate ladder became the center of life. It didn’t matter than I had hormonal night sweats, painful periods, brain fog, exhaustion, and inflammation so bad that it affected my joints and made it hard to walk. I would have kept pushing if it weren’t for my family helping me to see things clearly and pull away long enough to know that I needed to make a change.
It’s been nearly 20 years since I started to heal my hormones and I’ve learned life changing lessons along the way. This journey made me who I am today, gave me the compassion and understanding I hold for others, the knowledge and skills to help them, and a burning passion to make sure they don’t suffer the way I did.
“this is my calling.”
Credentials
I come from a diverse background in education
Education
• Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS)
• Master of Science in Human Nutrition, University of Bridgeport
• Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing, SDSU
• Minor in Psychology, SDSU
Continuing education
• DUTCH Hormone Panel for the Cycling Woman 3/23
• NICABM How to work with patterns that sustain depression, 1/20
• AZCIM’s Integrative Mental Health Conference, 4/19
• GPL’s Organic Acids and Environmental Toxins, 4/19
• IBS Summit, 5/19
• Fatigue Super Conference, 6/19
• Anxiety Summit, 11/19
• IHH-UCSF Symposium on Nutrition and Functional Medicine, 3/18
• ACN’s Personalized Nutrition and Nutrigenomics, 11/18
Are you ready?
Let’s Get Started
Book a free 15 minute online consultation!