Our story began after I served in AmeriCorps and decided to return to school for pre-medicine.  I became enamored with the brain, but due to health challenges of my own, I had to take a break.  I lost two loved ones to brain cancer soon after, and I wanted to find more methods of pursuing health and healing.  I began to explore Chinese and functional medicine, and it changed my life.  I began my masters work in Chinese medicine and pursued what was the only fully online functional medicine program at the time.  In 2015, we welcomed our son into the world, and unfortunately, during a very long birth, he suffered a large stroke.  Again, I found myself looking for every possible solution.  We started acupuncture at 5 months, and he has experienced incredible mobility ever since.  

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I finished the honors track for my professional doctorate in Chinese medicine focusing in the practice of integrative evidence-based medicine and completing advanced coursework in biology, chemistry, and biochemistry with the University of Texas along the way.  I traveled to Chengdu, China and followed in their teaching hospital, spending extra time in the neurology department.  What I came to find were so many new discoveries in the field of neurology.  I discovered Dr. Terry Wahls and Dr. Daniel Amen.  Dr. Wahls's work with neuroinflammation, nutrition, and lifestyle and Dr. Amen's work with SPECT imaging and brain health hold great opportunity for brain health and healing for those with autoimmune conditions and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).  What especially drew me to the Wahls protocol® aside from the amazing outcomes was the emphasis on action over expensive testing.  It echoed the angiogenesis research of Dr. William Li in the potential of diet and encompassed the lifestyle changes upheld by SPECT imaging research of Dr. Daniel Amen.  Brain Body Bold offers a blended approach to foster optimal health and support brain health and healing.

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When we don't have clear ideas of what to expect from a diagnosis, we tend look at how things "should" be, but there's an invaluable life nested in meeting ourselves and our children where they are.  People often tell parents like us that our children and we ourselves are brave, but it's not really a choice we made.  We just do what we can for health and happiness.  My mentor said you don't choose your specialty; it chooses you.  I came to this path through a series of unsubtle life events on an ongoing quest of lifelong learning.