Photo while visiting great grandmother’s home village in 2025, hill top church Inovce, Slovakia

The Full Story: From Village Wisdom to Functional Medicine

I didn't grow up thinking I'd become a healthcare provider. I grew up watching my immigrant family treat our kitchen like a pharmacy.

Colds were met with herbal teas. Digestive issues had their remedies. Exhaustion meant specific foods appeared on the table. This wasn't "alternative medicine"—it was just how we lived. My great-grandmother had been a village healer, herbalist, and midwife in the mountains of Slovakia, where doctors were scarce and survival meant understanding how to keep people well. That knowledge traveled across the ocean with my family, woven so deeply into our daily life that I didn't realize until much later how rare it was.

The Education of Many Paths

My journey into healthcare wasn't linear. I started as a nutritionist, fascinated by how food could transform health. Then I became a mother—the most humbling teacher of all. Birth called to me next, and I trained as a doula, witnessing the power and vulnerability of bringing life into the world. I became a registered nurse, then deepened my plant medicine knowledge as an herbalist, always seeking to understand healing from every angle.

Eventually I became a family nurse practitioner, then pursued my doctorate in nursing. On paper, I had arrived. I was working in large healthcare systems, seeing patients, writing prescriptions, ordering tests. I was doing everything I'd been trained to do. And yet something was missing.

The Gap I Couldn't Ignore

Many patients were struggling. They'd come in with complex, chronic conditions—fatigue, diabetes, heart disease, pain, digestive issues, hormonal imbalances, autoimmune symptoms. I'd order the standard tests. Make the diagnosis. Prescribe the medication. Sometimes they improved with standard treatments.

The question they asked most often asked me: "But why is this happening to me? How can I get better"

Our system wasn't designed to answer that question. We treated symptoms, managed disease, but rarely dug into root causes. I watched people slip through the cracks—not because their providers didn't care, but because the model itself was incomplete.

Meanwhile, I'd go home and use the remedies my mother taught me. Food as medicine. Herbs for support. Sleep, stress management, movement—the foundations my family never questioned. Why wasn't this part of healthcare?

Building Something Different

I began studying with the Institute for Functional Medicine, the leading science-based organization exploring root-cause medicine. I became an IFMCP (Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner), learning to investigate the "why" behind illness—genetics, environment, gut health, inflammation, hormones, toxins, stress. Finally, I had a framework that married what I knew in my bones with rigorous clinical science.

But working within conventional systems, I kept hitting walls. Short appointments. Insurance constraints. So I founded Synergy Integrative Wellness—a practice where time, listening, and root-cause investigation aren't luxuries. They're the foundation.

What This Means for You

When you work with me, you're not getting just conventional medicine or just natural approaches. You're getting both, intelligently integrated and personalized to your unique story. You're getting someone who understands pharmaceuticals and lab work, and someone who knows how food, herbs, lifestyle, and ancestral wisdom fit into the bigger picture. Most importantly, you're getting someone who will listen—really listen—and help you understand not just what is happening in your body, but why, and what we can do about it together.

After 30 years and countless roles, I've learned this: healing isn't about choosing between old ways and new science. It's about honoring both.

Let's find your path to thriving.