Functional Medicine is widely regarded as a gold standard framework of holistic ‘root cause’ medicine in Western nations. The Functional Medicine model is an incredible premise for achieving lasting health and healing. Functional Medicine practitioners have frequent success helping people get answers and find relief from their ailments. It is also true that any type of Healthcare Practitioner can only offer another what they themselves have experienced, just as any Coach, Guide, or Healer can only lead a client where they themselves have gone.

There is no one person who is capable of helping all people. Being one of many trained to help ‘most people’ isn’t very helpful to the people outside that majority. I am one of those people way outside the majority, where targeting low hanging fruits simply didn’t improve my own health, no matter how detailed the plan ever was. No amount of large fancy words can have a lasting impact on one’s condition if they are all aimed in ignorance of a bigger picture. Once someone gives you a plan filled with more pill bottles than practical action and education, they are no longer treating you holistically as a person. Despite offering labels and claiming a root cause, they are only paying attention to symptoms. Many only address minor details of a story they’ve never heard, a larger picture they can’t see, whether they are aware of it or not. It’s what they are taught to do.

Looking closely at the functional medicine tree, according to the IFM (Institute of Functional Medicine), the roots of all expression of health that factor into a predisposition for events leading to disease include as many as 14 distinct factors depending how it’s broken down. As many as 11 of these 14 factors are of an emotional, mental, spiritual, or sociological nature. That means collectively 78.5% of all cause for disease is comprised of intangible influences. I call these psychospiritual influences, as a most holistically inclusive term. Is 80% of our education focused on psychospiritual influence? No. For my Masters which was designed in partnership with IFM, required coursework involving the emotional, sociological, or spiritual realms was around 1% (a brief mention cast in here or there).

Education in the health sciences for nutritionists, naturopaths, dietitians, and even medical doctors makes it well known that emotional stressors - both past and present - act as an inflammatory contributing factor in the development of various states of disease. When it comes to treatment, these influences are largely ignored. The focus often turns entirely to other physiological influences. By losing sight of the holistic nature of Man, we lose out on opportunities for actual healing to take place. When treatment focus is solely on the physical influences of diet, supplements, and medications, we are only masking symptoms that are sprung from deeper foundational wounds.

Don’t get me wrong, the influence of diet and lifestyle on health and disease is tremendous. It’s a huge aspect of the work I do with people. It’s either part of what makes us feel lousy, anxious, lost, helpless, and confused or energetic, positive, confident, proactive, enthusiastic, and vital. It’s one of the ways we need to change. But again… Look at where physiology and biochemistry are on the tree. Without going deeper we are pruning branches and picking yellow leaves while the roots continue to rot.

The tree needs rich, clean, diverse soil with plenty of water, space, and time for the roots to become well again. Many of us are raised today without a helping hand in understanding our place in the world. Where there should have been only unconditional loving kindness and guidance - not to mention plenty of healthy home cooked meals - for many there is a lot of uncertainty, tons of expectation, maybe even abandonment. We are left to parent ourselves, to learn to live on our own, with no practical guidebook or instruction manual in sight. It’s OKAY if it ends up taking us a long time to figure it out. It’s also okay to ask for help, and to expect more from those who offer it. I had to learn all this through experience over the course of a decade. My own journey through dis-ease was incredibly complex. I’ve been let down by more helpers than I can count, many of which promised more than they could give. Now I try my best to offer a space for healing that has everything I wish I didn’t have to learn on my own. It’s also why I label my own model of care as Vitalistic Health Coaching. I believe what I do is unique. most importantly, it comes from my Heart, not just from my education, formal or otherwise.

In all my years learning to heal, one constant Truth has emerged: The only way to fully move forward is to acknowledge that the nature of our relationships makes up the vast majority of our basis for manifesting dis-ease in our bodies. How we relate with Self, with others, with our environment, and with our pasts all dictates how we feel on a daily basis. Trying to start a new chapter without doing the work required to leave behind what aspects of our past no longer serve us is bound for failure. Does nutrient status, toxicity, and inflammation all play a role? Yes! But it’s our working relationship between Self, body, and world that ultimately needs to change. To achieve health and live joyfully in today’s world, we actually need to go back to Foundations. We need to learn how to live as humans, embrace who we are as individuals, and learn to love and let go of our fears. Only then does full personal expression come with Ease. At such a time, no room for dis-ease remains.