I became a nurse practitioner in 2008, and for years I practiced conventional primary care the way I was trained to. What changed my path was watching someone close to me go through the system as a patient. He saw his doctor with symptoms that were affecting his daily life, and he walked out with prescriptions. No one asked why this was happening, what his diet, sleep, stress, or activity looked like, or what could be changed before reaching for medication. That experience stayed with me and made me want to understand more.

Earning my Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Massachusetts Lowell allowed me to dig deeper into the research, and it was during that work that I came across functional medicine. It was exactly the approach I had been looking for: one that looks at the whole person and starts with the root cause.

I went on to complete my certification through the Institute for Functional Medicine. Today, as a Board Certified Adult Nurse Practitioner and the founder of A Healthier You, I blend conventional primary care with a root-cause, whole-person approach, looking at nutrition, hormones, gut health, stress, sleep, and lifestyle together. Medication still has its place, but it should be part of a thoughtful plan, not the first and only answer. My goal is to listen closely, ask the questions that often go unasked, and help you feel truly well.