Gary Merel discusses his functional nutrition practice


Interviewer: I have with me Gary Merel who is a licensed acupuncturist and functional nutrition practitioner based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Gary, I wonder if you could explain for the folks a little bit about your practice?

Gary: A simple question. I would say my practice is focused on primarily three components. I’m an acupuncturist. I went to acupuncture school in New York, I don’t know, many years ago, and am licensed in the state of Pennsylvania. But I found over the course of my first years in practice that I was unprepared to deal with the complexity of patients’ presentations that came into my office.

I’m also an inpatient practitioner, an inpatient clinician, I like results. Also, people pay out of pocket, so, it’s not like I have an infinite amount of time. There’s usually a personal investment clients make in coming to see me. So, I started studying functional medicine, and I would say, functional medicine uses the tools of medical science, but unlike most allopathic practitioners, functional medicine, well, let me say this differently.

Allopathic medicine, for the most part, not exclusively, is really based on symptom management. You have symptoms, they have drugs or procedures to manage them. Functional medicine is really rooted in finding out the underlying cause. Symptoms don’t live in a vacuum, our bodies don’t live in a vacuum. The knee bone is connected to the shin bone.

So functional medicine uses the tools of science, which is blood work and some other diagnostic tools – saliva testing, urine testing – to help figure out why the symptoms are appearing and using that knowledge to empower my clients to own their health, and, as often as possible, resolve that underlying condition, and in most cases, the symptoms just take care of themselves.

I also use nutrition as a big part of my practice. I have a very Paleocentric practice. I use food as a primary source of healing. I do use supplements, but food always comes first. Seventy percent of our immune system is in our gut, so you need to deal with that first. I find between using the tools of acupuncture and Oriental medicine and functional medicine, I can bring the best of both worlds to help a client in the process of healing and ultimately making health a choice.

Interviewer: That’s great. It sounds like you use a wide variety of methods to really empower your clients to help themselves with their health. What are some of the techniques that you use to help you get new clients for your practice? Continue reading

Lore Earley Talks About Her Holistic Health Coaching Practice

Lore Earley talks about her Holistic Health Coaching Practice.

Jeffrey:            I’m with Lore Earley, a holistic health coach and licensed counselor. Lore, welcome.

Lore:    Hi, thank you for having me.

Jeffrey:            Lore, I wonder if you could explain a little bit about your practice.

Lore:                Yes. My practice has two different divisions to it. In my therapy practice, I work with people who have experienced some kind of trauma or difficult life event, and it’s seriously impacting their daily life. I have a small practice in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and I usually see my therapy clients face to face. I use some techniques that are best suited for in-person treatment.

On the health coaching side of my practice, though, I work with people that have anxiety, stress, a lot of overwhelmed feelings, but is also paired with physical somatic symptoms. For example, unexplained physical pain. They might have a lot of tension in their body. A lot of people feel nauseous all the time. It can even manifest itself as chronic disease. So my health coaching practice I can do through Skype, I can do through other distance web based modalities, unlike the actual therapy part.

Jeffrey:            It sounds like you have quite a varied practice. What are some of the techniques you use to get new clients?

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Jeannie Oliver, Certified Health Coach Talks About Her Practice

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Jeffery:           I’m here with Jeannie Oliver, certified health coach of Jeannie Oliver Wellness. Welcome.

Jeannie:          Hi Jeffery. Thank you.

Jeffery:           Jeannie, I wonder if you could explain a little bit about your practice.

Jeannie:          Yeah, absolutely. I am a certified health coach, and I’m also a NASM certified personal trainer. I work with clients to help them improve their overall health, and I specialize in fat loss, hormone balancing, and sport’s nutrition.

Jeffery:           What are some of the techniques that you use to get new clients?

Jeannie:          You know, mostly so far, it’s been word of mouth and referrals from people that I know. But I also use social networking, and workshops, and online programs.

Jeffery:           Great. Now, how do you market your business?

Jeannie:          The workshops are definitely a big deal for me. Those are helpful. This is a pretty personal process for someone to go through. So with the workshop, they get to know me a little bit, build up some trust, and it gives me credibility, and they learn something they get to take away. So those are a big deal. I have some partnerships with local gyms and natural practice doctors that send me referrals. Then, social media is definitely a part of it. And then I have a monthly newsletter. The main ways I do it. So, networking.

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Carla Hernandez, Certified Nutritional Therapist

Carla Hernandez, Certified Nutritional Therapist. Wise Roots Nutrition offers individual nutrition consulting, online classes, and an abundance of resources and information to help you feel and look beautiful from the inside out!

 

Jeffrey Veffer: I have with me Carla Hernandez, a certified nutritional therapist from Wise Roots Nutrition. Carla, thank you for coming on the call with us.

Carla Hernandez: Thank you for having me, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Veffer: Carla, I wondered if you could explain a little bit about your practice.

Carla Hernandez: Sure. So I have currently a private practice in San Francisco, where I see individual clients, locally and also worldwide via Skype and phone, and I specialize in skin conditions. So I see clients that are struggling with chronic skin issues, whether it be acne, eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, anything along those issues. I obviously, you know, address it from an internal perspective.

So usually those types of issues are more for a dermatologist or an esthetician, but a lot of it is coming from within as well, and there’s not a lot of information out there in the conventional setting that explains the connection between the skin and the internal perspective. So that’s where I come in, and I figure out what’s going on, so that we can relieve those symptoms.

Jeffrey Veffer: Great. That’s really interesting, the way that you’re able to make those connections between what you eat and your exterior. So what are some of the techniques you use to get new clients?

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Ashley Hathaway – Certified Nutritional Therapist

Ashley Hathaway is a Certified Nutritional Therapist and Certified GAPS Practitioner with a focus on overall GI health: digestion, intestinal health, gallbladder function, blood sugar regulation, liver detoxification and GAPS diet.

[Apologies for the audio quality on this piece.]

 

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What is $1,000/hr time anyway?

As I have been talking to many healthcare practitioners, the one thing that strikes me is the common theme about trying to deal with lack of time. We are all time pressed these days, but if you work in healthcare I would wager there are a whole number of other challenges to be faced.

But based on the number of conversations I have had over the past four months to help understand how to improve their practices, it has begun to emerge that top performers in the space have developed certain methods for not only coping but thriving.

One of the key exercises that they have completed is a time inventory, which helps them understand what they do with their time and what the value of that time is. I’ve heard people say that there is $10/hr time, $100/hr time, and $1,000/hr time and delegating (or removing) the $10/hr time helps them focus more on the higher value tasks in their day.

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Jane Durst Pulkys – Holistic Nutritionist

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In this interview Holistic Nutritionist Jane talks about her practice and some of the ways she manages it efficiently for growth.

 

Interviewer: I have with me Jane Durst Pulkys who is a practitioner in Toronto. Jane, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about your practice?

Jane: Okay, that sounds great! My practice involves something called live blood cell analysis. I take a drop of client’s blood and then examine it underneath the microscope and make dietary and lifestyle changes for them.

I also do something called psychosomatic energetic medicine healing which is looking at the energy blocks in the body, which can dissolve these conflicts at a cellular level. I also do metabolic balance which is a weight loss program out of Germany that balances your insulin and your hormones and gives you a customized program designed specifically for you, based on 35 of your blood values.

I also do nutrition mentoring for students who have come out of a nutrition school so that they can get their businesses up and running. I also teach life blood cell analysis for anybody who’s interested in incorporating that into their personalized business. That’s a two day course. I also do just nutrition consultations for families, for children, for groups of people. Lastly, I do seminars for companies and corporations. Everything involving stress to fatty acids to any kind of topic that they’re interested in.

I also do self-esteem workshops for women and for men. I have been involved in the school board system where I go in and speak with some of the students about healthy nutrition. That’s basically what I do in a nutshell.

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Diane Murphy – Orthomolecular Health Practitioner

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In this interview, Diane talks about some of the things she is doing to get new clients as well as how she is improving her practice.

JEFFREY:                                   I have with me Diane Murphy, who is a Registered Orthomolecular Health Practitioner. And Diane, would you be able to tell us a little bit about your practice?

DIANE:                                                Yes. I’m self-employed. I’m the owner of HoliNutrition. I’m a Holistic Nutritionist, which means that I work with clients to improve their diet through whole foods. I work with supplementation, and we work on lifestyle changes. I typically see a client at home or at a nearby coffee shop, to conduct our consultations, and then we just go from there.

JEFFREY:                                   So, what are some of the things you are doing to attract new clients to your practice?

DIANE:                                                Well, there are a number of things that I do. I do seminars. I do workshops. I do corporate talks. I do food demos. I also do networking through clients who often recommend someone else, a family member or a friend. I have a website going. So, those are some examples.

JEFFREY:                                   Okay, great. Now, what do you find is the most effective way of gaining new clients? Is it through your website, or is it through the seminars?

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