At 25, I met a holistic provider who practiced naturopathic medicine and I quickly started seeing resolve of symptoms I had struggled with my whole life. The experience inspired me so much it prompted the pursuit of a naturopathic medical degree. Little did I know, this was just the beginning of a much deeper healing path that would generate more awakening, humility, and growth than I could have ever imagined.

As I worked on my naturopathic degree, I suddenly found myself on a medical leave of absence limited mostly to my home due to debilitating panic attacks, insomnia, and depression. I questioned whether I would ever be “functional” again and, although I had some medical knowledge, I was still very confused and frankly terrified at what was happening to me. After 2 years of searching for answers and solutions with the help of many alternative practitioners, therapeutic modalities, and spiritual guides, I had regained stability. Functional lab analysis and other alternative diagnostics discovered that my symptoms were associated with a severe hormone imbalance, mold toxicity, and complex trauma. Certainly, there were physiological explanations for what I was experiencing that needed physical treatment, but I see now that my symptoms acted as a catalyst for deepening self-love and a refining of many behaviors and beliefs that were keeping me ill.

The journey back to myself was not linear nor straight forward and did not end there, but thanks to natural medicine and its orientation towards finding root cause answers, curative treatments, and its integration of the spirit and its Creator, I came out of the experience healthier and more alive and aligned than ever before.

Many years later I have found myself medication and hormone free thriving and more at peace than ever before, living in a small mountain town as an Orthodox Christian, wife, mother and naturopathic doctor, a life I once feared I’d never be capable of having.

It was all worth it.