I hold a Master’s Degree (MS) in Nutrition, a CNS (Certified Nutrition Specialist) credential, and am a board-certified health and wellness coach (NBC-HWC). I am licensed to practice nutrition in WA State (CN), MD (LDN), and Connecticut (LN), and am legal to practice Medical Nutrition Therapy in most states. I trained in functional medicine utlizing state-of-the-art functional testing both through my masters program with Richard Lord, Ph.D. at the University of Bridgeport, as well as part of my supervisory internship with Clinician’s Incubator and many other training programs including the Institute for Functional Medicine. I have been studying food as medicine my entire adult life and am passionate about personalized, evidence-based nutrition and functional medicine and hope to see more of this approach integrated into our western medical model, with increased access to the broader population.

Currently, my practice is limited to video telehealth (or phone telehealth by request), using a secure HIPAA compliant video conferencing platform.

I specialize in working with those experiencing metabolic disorders (elevated blood sugar, prediabtes, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, hypertension), digestive disorders, women’s hormonal issues, and chronic fatigue. I also work with building and maintaining optimal health and wellbeing.

Please fill out all of the intake forms and sign medical releases 48 hours prior to our first appointment.

If wishing to use PPO insurance benefits for coverage, please send a copy of the front and back of your insurance card and ID. A physicians referral will be needed if you are located in California.

We will thoroughly review your intake forms, health and medical history, challenges and obstacles, and your health goals. A healing protocol including targeted dietary and lifestyle recommendations will be provided following our initial appointment. If Functional Testing is included, tests will be ordered for shipment to your home and reading at a Follow-Up appointment. 

We will review what is working well with the protocols and what needs to be adjusted. If included, functional test reading will be provided, along with an amended protocol based on laboratory results. In some cases, health and wellness coaching will be offered when encountering challenges with implementation of healing protocols.

The answer to this question depends on the patient/client and the amount of support that person needs. The minimum number of sessions needed will be two—an Initial Consultation/Intake and one Follow-Up appointment will be necessary to get set-up with a healing program. For more complex and long-standing health issues, more Follow-Up appointments will be needed for more in-depth support, especially with multiple overlapping health issues and longstanding lifestyle habits needing change for ultimate health improvements.

Often times when transitioning to a whole food plant-based diet from a standard processed foods diet, as patient/clients are experiencing improvements in their health and metabolism, weight loss can naturally occur. In my practice, I help patients/clients address lifestyle habits that may also influence weight and body composition, but I cannot guarantee weight loss. I do not administer severe calorie-restricted diets with the sole aim of weight loss in my practice. I have seen more harm come from that approach, with outcomes that damage lean muscle mass, body composition, and ultimately the metabolism and overall vitality and wellbeing. I aim to assist patient/clients to focus on nourishment and supporting the body to function with optimal health, rather than focusing on deprivation and restriction. The evidence simply does not support the use of calorie-restricted weight-loss programs for long-term success and wellbeing.

Yes and no. I will always provide guidance on foods to emphasize in the diet that are very personalized for you, based on the current evidence and your typical diet, along with your health goals, health or medical issues, and recent lab values. I find that detailed food plans are rarely implemented, as they are not always practical. I can and will, however, put together a weekly food plan with recipes and shopping lists from a database of close to 6000 recipes, if that will ultimately be useful to the patient/client.

Medical Nutrition Therapy, or MNT, is a specific term that refers to the prescribing of specific diets to help manage or address medical illnesses or conditions. Practice law is different from state-to-state, but in California, only Registered Dieticians and those with Masters Degrees in Nutrition are legally allowed to practice MNT. Other states may require licensure to practice nutrition as an MNT law requirement.

According to California law, patient/clients in CA must obtain a referral for MNT from a licensed physician. For insurance reimbursement purposes, whether direct billing or with a superbill, the referral with an ICD-10 diagnosis code is necessary for reimbursement. Typically, a visit to your physician is not necessary for a referral, as a message request will often suffice. Physicians are usually happy to provide referrals for Medical Nutrition Therapy. Requesting unlimited visits in the referral is best to provide the most flexibility for the nutrition therapy plan you require. Ultimately, insurance payers determine the number of visits covered based on your plan

Insurance coverage varies by plan. Some health plans cover nutrition services more broadly, and some may only cover a certain number of visits per year or only for specific ICD-10 codes (diagnosis codes that come from your physician). Marin Functional Nutrition is currently in-network with Aetna, United Healthcare, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, First Health, ASH, and Medicare. A superbill can be provided to the patient/client for possible reimbursement with other (out-of-network) plans.

Functional Medicine is clinical application of addressing underlying causes, or metabolic dysfunction, with a personalized approach, using food and other key lifestyle factors as medicine, as well as utilizing functional laboratory testing to best understand patient/client imbalances, and nutritional supplements for targeted therapy. Functional medicine can be used in conjunction with conventional medical treatment. Examples of metabolic considerations in the context of Functional Medicine are:

• Nutrient Status

• Mitochondrial Function and Energy Production Pathways

• Detoxification Capacity

• Systemic Inflammation

• Hormonal Function

• Gut Health and Microbial Populations

• Externally Generated Toxicities (metals, molds, pollutants)

• Oxidative Stress

• Neurotransmitter Function

• Methylation Capacity

Functional Medicine can be applied in the context of Nutrition Therapy and is extremely applicable in most cases, particularly when addressing underlying metabolic dysfunction in common disorders (which can vary from individual to individual). These services are defined and offered separately primarily for insurance-reimbursement purposes (currently, insurance does not reimburse for Functional Medicine services, but in most cases will reimburse for Medical Nutrition Therapy). Nutrition is a key component of Functional Medicine, and so will be included and addressed in all consultations.

Everyone. Not only can Functional Medicine address chronic health concerns by addressing underlying causes of dysfunction, but it is also used for understanding your unique physiology with applications of prevention and optimization of health and wellbeing. There is a tremendous amount of valuable information we can learn about our health status and unique physiology—and how best to target lifestyle and supplemental therapies—from functional testing.