The Person Behind the Practice
My path to creating Balanced Integrative Medicine has been shaped by more than 20 years in healthcare, but also by the many roles I’ve held outside of being a healthcare provider. I’m a mother, a wife, and a daughter to aging parents. I understand what it feels like to move through different seasons of life, to care for the people you love, and sometimes to put your own needs somewhere further down the list. These experiences have given me an even deeper appreciation for how personal health really is—and how different each person’s journey can be.
I earned my Master’s in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and my Bachelor’s in Nursing from Loyola University Chicago. Over the course of my career, I’ve continued to seek out ways to expand how I understand health and wellness. I’ve completed more than 200 hours of yoga teacher training and am a certified yoga teacher. My own experiences with yoga, meditation, movement, and mindfulness have taught me that our health is about so much more than what happens inside a medical office. How we move, eat, sleep, manage stress, connect with others, and experience our lives all matter.
I also believe strongly in continuing to learn, grow, and challenge ourselves—at every age. I love yoga, meditation, being in nature, traveling, attending retreats, and spending time with family and friends. At 48, I decided to learn how to surf, proving to myself that there is no expiration date on trying something new. I’ve also been dancing hip hop with a group of adults for almost 10 years. It’s something that brings me joy, keeps me moving, and reminds me that wellness should include having fun.
These parts of my life are not separate from the way I practice medicine. They are part of what shapes my perspective. I know that life can be messy, busy, beautiful, challenging, and constantly changing. I know that our health needs change as we move through different stages of life. And I know how important it is to have someone in your corner who will listen, ask questions, and take the time to see the whole picture.
Creating Balanced Integrative Medicine has allowed me to bring together the knowledge and experience I’ve gained throughout my career with the things I’ve learned through my own life. My hope is that when you work with me, you feel that you are being cared for not simply as a patient, but as a whole person—with a unique history, unique needs, and a life that matters beyond your medical chart.
Because ultimately, my goal isn't simply to help you feel better. It’s to help you understand your health, feel more connected to your body, and have the knowledge and support to live your life with greater energy, confidence, and balance.
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Why I Created Balanced Integrative Medicine
My decision to create Balanced Integrative Medicine was influenced by what I witnessed professionally as well as my own personal health journey. Over the past several years, I experienced meaningful physical and emotional healing through a combination of conventional medicine, therapy, improved nutrition, yoga, meditation, and intentional lifestyle changes.
That experience reinforced something I was already seeing in my patients: when people understand their bodies and are given the right tools, education, and support, they can become active participants in improving their health.
For me, that is what integrative healthcare should be about.
My Healthcare Philosophy
As a certified functional medicine practitioner, I partner with you to uncover and treat the true root causes of your health struggles, rather than just masking your symptoms with a temporary fix.
I believe healthcare should be about more than a quick appointment and a prescription. It should be about taking the time to truly understand you—your story, your symptoms, and what your body is trying to tell you.
At Balanced Integrative Medicine, I combine the best of conventional medicine with an integrative and functional medicine approach. This means looking beyond symptoms and asking deeper questions: Why are you feeling this way? What factors may be contributing to your health concerns? And what can we do to help you feel your best?
Optimal health is about more than simply having lab results that fall within a "normal" range. It’s about helping your body function at its best and creating the foundation for long-term wellness.
Every person is unique, and your healthcare should be too. Our visits are designed to give us the time to look at the full picture—including your medical history, nutrition, hormones, stress levels, sleep, lifestyle, and overall well-being. Together, we’ll work to better understand what may be contributing to your symptoms and create a personalized plan to help you move forward.
Looking Beyond the Symptoms
Too often, healthcare is built around 15- to 20-minute appointments. While that model can work well for many routine medical needs, it can be challenging when symptoms are complex, interconnected, or have been developing for years. Fatigue, hormonal changes, difficulty sleeping, weight or metabolic concerns, digestive symptoms, stress, and changes associated with perimenopause and midlife don't always have one simple explanation. I wanted to practice medicine differently.
Functional Medicine gives me the opportunity to look beyond an individual symptom and consider the bigger picture—including nutrition, lifestyle, sleep, stress, hormones, metabolic health, medical history, and other factors that may be affecting how you feel. The goal isn't to choose between conventional and Functional Medicine. It's to use both
thoughtfully, based on what each patient needs.
A Special Interest in Perimenopausal Care & Midlife
I especially enjoy caring for women navigating perimenopause and midlife, a stage of life that is often misunderstood or overlooked. Changes in hormones can coincide with changes in sleep, mood, energy, weight, metabolism, cognition, and overall well-being. These concerns deserve more than being dismissed as simply part of getting older. Women deserve the opportunity to understand what is changing in their bodies and to have a thoughtful, evidence- based plan for navigating this next stage of life.
Healthcare Should Be a Partnership
I believe healthcare works best as a partnership. I bring my clinical experience, medical knowledge, and guidance. You bring something equally important—your experiences, your goals, and your willingness to participate in your health. Together, we create a personalized plan designed to address your immediate concerns while building a foundation for long-term wellness. Some of the most rewarding moments of my career have been watching patients become empowered to take control of their own health. My goal isn't simply to treat disease or provide another prescription. It is to help you understand your body, make informed decisions, and develop sustainable habits that allow you to feel your best for years to come.
At Balanced Integrative Medicine, my mission is to provide thoughtful, evidence-based, personalized care that gives you the time, education, and partnership you deserve. I want you to leave feeling heard, understood, and confident that you have a plan for moving forward.
Functional and integrative medicine, like conventional medicine, is evidence-based. It’s about expanding your options. I believe in using evidence-based medicine while also considering the many factors that influence health, including nutrition, lifestyle, environment, and individual biology.
My goal is not for you to depend on healthcare forever—it’s to help you become more confident, informed, and empowered in caring for yourself.
Because this type of personalized care requires more time than traditional insurance-based visits typically allow, many functional medicine services are provided outside of insurance. However, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) can often be used toward functional medicine evaluations and services.
