The Seeds of Vitality Medicine- My Story

Foreward:

I write this book within and in acknowledgment of the feminist theoretical framework of standpoint theory, which recognizes that our lived experiences shape how we see the world, what we believe, and how we create and share knowledge. My understanding of health, vitality, and the human experience is shaped by my personal experiences, my clinical work, and my deep engagement with the body. I also recognize the privilege of writing from my perspective as a white woman in Northern California with access to resources, stability, and opportunity. This lens informs my work, but it is not the only perspective. I invite you, the reader, to engage with these ideas through your own lived experience, seeing how you can adapt my experiences to your own, knowing that your standpoint will shape how this book resonates with you. I write in the framework of wanting to be of service. Be of service to others in their own journey with vitality, be of service to the brokenness of our world, and be in service to holding a high ideal and dream that vitality is possible, not just in our own bodies, but in our world. 

The Seeds of Vitality Medicine- My Story

Vitality Medicine is the natural result of my life’s experiences and gifts. I was fortunate to have been born to parents with strong convictions and a consciousness centered around health and wholeness. Their convictions were not limited to our little selves or our personal lives. To this day, my dad, now in his seventies, aims for radical global change. My mom is the embodiment of the matriarch of family, and community. Everyone thinks she is their best friend and my son says, “Gram? She is solid gold”. My parents created an environment based in connection and wholeness, always with the purpose that our family as the microcosm of what could be true in the macrocosm.

My parents met in their early twenties at a yoga class, each already practicing transcendental meditation daily. Once together, they made conscious choices on what reality they wanted to create and what beliefs would be the foundation of our family culture. Our “family as a catalyst for change” was the intention that shaped every part of our upbringing—being born at home, eating organic and whole foods, living close to nature, attending Waldorf schools, buying 20 acres that would become a community hub with everything from barn square dances and yoga classes to hosting traveling Tibetan monks yearly since the late 1990s.

As the eldest of four, my parents taught us that our bodies were our temples, wise beyond measure. The message was basically, don’t crap in your temple. Don’t pollute our bodies with bad food and substances, as our bodies an the innate intelligence to know how to be healthy and when you pollute them they can lose that balance. To this day my dad will still not even take an Advil! It was the pedagogy of my family, and I listened. I never really drank alcohol, partied, pulled all-nighters, did any drugs, ate fast food, drank soda, ate much refined sugars/packaged foods, drank coffee, etc. etc. I didn’t even want to. Once I knew my body in a vital way, I realized I didn’t feel good engaging with any of these substances/ways of living, so I stayed clear. 

If there was discord in our family, the explanation was simple: “Oh, don’t take it personally, so-and-so is just tired.” In other words, we were never at fault, others were never at fault—if we were off it was not a deficiency in self, we just needed to rest and re-balance. My dad always told us, “When you are rested, you can move mountains.” The message was also clear, “you are good, you are worthy, you are whole. Even when we acted out or made bad choices or were rude, it was passed off as, “you must be tired, did you eat bad food? Why don’t you go and get some good rest”. It created a safe and trusting environment where we did not take things too personally, we did not feel blamed, and we did not hold grudges. This messaging fostered deep trust and love.

My mom is a rare breed in herself. Born in the caul (which is supposed to be auspicious), she always trusted her own version of reality more so than any imposed upon her. In her childhood Catholic school where she was taught by nuns in habit who hit kids with rulers, she always sat on only one half of her chair so her guardian angel could sit on the the other half. Also, when they started teaching her about hell and the devil, she thought, “God wouldn’t allow that” and she completely disregarded all the negative teachings. Her dominant mantra was, and remains still, “everything always works out for the best!” Even when she was lying on the recovery table after the colonoscopy showed a huge colon tumor in 2011, she leaned over to me and said, “Don’t worry, everything will be ok. It is ok.” Inside my head I am screaming, “how could it be OK? The doctor just told us that you have cancer?!!!!” But my mom kept her calm, kept her positivity. And indeed she was right. Not only did everything work out ok, but more miracles happened because she had to go through cancer than any of us could have imagined.

The high intentions of my parents and the resulting cohesion within myself is likely the most incredible gift of my life as it has strongly determined where I am today. It allowed me the wholeness to end up with an incredible husband and life partner of my own, and to develop my own cohesive loving intentional family with him and our three sons.

Thanks mom and dad.

From Chiropractic to a New Model of Medicine

My decision to become a chiropractor was a direct result of watching my dad. He graduated from chiropractic college in 1977, when I was three months old. Chiropractic philosophy inundated our household with its focus on aligning the innate intelligence of the body with the universal intelligence our beyond us. As I grew up, I watched him be able to help seemingly everybody we came across with his chiropractic skills. He would treat anyone in need—Huichol Indians in Mexico, Tibetan nuns in Nepal, cousins in Minnesota, patients at the office, my siblings and me, and even our friends at home. He was on call 24/7 and never said no. His energy was and remains boundless when it comes to his passion for chiropractic and helping others. With my embedded ideal of changing the world, I realized that if I wanted to see tangible changes daily, see the positive impact of my efforts (I am not patient in general, I want immediate change), what better way to do this than working with my hands (the meaning of chiropractic) in healthcare?

Since graduating from chiropractic college in 2008, I have felt blessed every day to do what I do. My search for making a better world through helping individuals and families led me to branch out beyond chiropractic and include other healing modalities like craniosacral therapy, myofascial release, nutritional therapies, and Functional Medicine. I have many tools to help people and I love having a broad toolkit.

From my upbringing—where constant focus and tending to the gift of our bodies and their innate intelligence/wisdom was practically our religion—I have been continually shocked at the dominant framework around health in the United States. From the “food” available in stores, the allowed chemicals in products, the plastics, and the waste, we are in a dismal state here in the USA. 

Our systems are breaking, medicine is now run by insurance companies with the doctors and nurses hands tied behind their backs and their own professional judgments questioned and denied by the insurance mandates. While there are so many compassionate and caring medical professionals, and my in-laws are examples of this, and yet they will be the first to say that the system itself is broken. Pharmaceutical companies have too much power also in both medicine and in being allowed to advertise to the public to make their drugs look like the miracle cure needed for our many health woes.

The Limits of Modern Medicine and Functional Medicine

Beyond the profit-driven structure of modern medicine, another aspect of its foundation presents a deep challenge for me. From my perspective—one rooted in connection, trust in the body, and an understanding of wholeness—I find myself at odds with some of the dominant ideologies that shape mainstream healthcare. These ideologies did not emerge overnight but have been embedded in Western thought for centuries. Some trace their origins to the Age of Enlightenment in the 1600s, when René Descartes’ philosophy of dualism played a pivotal role in reshaping how we view the body.

Descartes proposed that the human body was fundamentally separate from the mind and soul, reducing it to a mechanistic system of individuated parts—much like a clock or a machine. This perspective, though revolutionary at the time, laid the groundwork for a fragmented approach to medicine, one that continues to dominate today. The body came to be seen as a collection of distinct components rather than a unified, intelligent whole. Physicians became specialists in separate organs and systems, treating symptoms in isolation rather than recognizing the complex interplay of mind, body, and environment.

This mechanistic worldview is not just a medical model—it is a reflection of the dominant paradigm of reality we live in, one that is fundamentally based on separation. It is the same ideology that fuels disconnection in society, treating individuals as isolated beings rather than interwoven parts of a greater whole. While this reductionist approach has led to incredible advancements in medical science, it has also distanced us from the understanding that the body is not simply a machine; it is an intricate, self-regulating, and deeply interconnected system. We miss the magic.

We will explore this shift in cultural ideology more deeply in a later chapter. For now, it is important to recognize that our current medical model is trapped in the larger worldview of separation—one that often overlooks the profound intelligence of the body, the necessity of connection in healing, and the inherent wholeness of the human experience.

Functional Medicine, which emerged in the 1990s to bridge the gap between mainstream and alternative medicine, was an invaluable step in the right direction. It aimed to assess the body as a whole system and include all aspects of physical health—gut function, liver health, adrenal balance, etc.—before an emergency or disease state emerged. However, even within Functional Medicine, I noticed a persistent focus on deficiencies. Patients can be overly diagnosed, receive testing from Functional Medicine labs that create their own reference ranges with no governmental/institutional oversight, and put on restrictive protocols and tons of supplements, often leading to stress, fear, and dependence rather than empowerment. That being said, I am greatly thankful for Functional Medicine and consider myself a practitioner of it.

While Functional Medicine viewed the body as a whole system, I still could not help but deduce that the dominant message is still, “the body is deficient". With its focus on finding the “root cause”” of disease, it still missed something fundamental: the recognition that the body itself has an innate intelligence—a deep wisdom that knows how to heal when given the right conditions. And there was something else it was missing…. 

The Birth of Vitality Medicine- n of 1

Because of my critical mind, it is hard for me to accept something as "true" without experiencing it directly or having some kind of tangible relationship with it. I filter what I learn through my own body. I call it my “n of 1”—a sample size of me. For years, I have tested everything I believe and teach against my own experience. If a theory does not hold up in real life, in my own lived body, then I cannot fully accept it. And on the flip side, when I experience something that I have not yet learned, I am relentless in figuring out what is happening. This is how I came to understand that current models of medicine, including Functional Medicine, do not always have the full picture.

In 2015, seemingly out of nowhere, I began having panic attacks and overwhelming anxiety. My third son was about eight months old at the time. My third pregnancy had been my best, the birth was great, and he was an easy baby. The outer world was a stressor for me. The politics of the US and the state of our world was a trigger, but my constantly raised cortisol was an exaggerated and inappropriate response to the state of the world. It made no sense. My life was good—I had a loving marriage, three healthy children, and work that I was passionate about. By all measures, I should have felt happy and at ease. But my body told a different story.

The anxiety came in waves, unpredictable and consuming. For the first time, my body was telling me that something was terribly wrong and that I was likely dying. I felt deep dread and tightness in my diaphragm and my gut. It felt as if something terrible was about to happen, that the ball was about to drop at any moment. I had never experienced anything like it before. It felt as if I were dying, and I could not mind over the matter I was feeling, so I figured it was due to a physiological (body-based) imbalance. 

As a Functional Medicine practitioner, I approached it the way I would for any patient—I searched for the physiological cause. I ran extensive blood panels, digestive health tests, and even had an abdominal and pelvic ultrasound. I cleaned up my already healthy diet, ensuring I was supporting my body in every possible way. But the results were frustratingly normal. My thyroid and adrenals were functioning well, my liver was healthy, and my inflammation markers were within range. The only abnormalities were elevated cortisol levels (the main stress hormone) and slightly high fasting morning glucose (blood sugar). My body was responding as though it were under constant stress, but there was no identifiable reason for it.

I deepened my research, attending every Functional Medicine seminar I could on stress and the endocrine (hormonal) system. At one seminar in 2016, the instructor outlined the primary physiological causes of high cortisol: cortisol dysregulation, blood sugar imbalances, marijuana use, inflammation, liver biotransformation issues, and diet. As I listened, and realized, I do not fit into this model. What I was experiencing did not fit neatly into this framework. But what was I missing?

One day, my 71 year old  mystic friend Tantra Maat made a seemingly offhand comment about empaths, casually asking, “Don’t you think all your patients are empaths?” I responded with an immediate yes, then paused, realizing that I wasn’t entirely sure what that word meant. I went home and looked it up. That single moment sent me down a path of discovery that would alter my understanding of medicine, health, and the human experience itself. 

After almost two years of running lab high cortisol and feeling like I was dying, I found answers in 2017 when I read The Empath’s Survival Guide by Dr. Judith Orloff, MD (Sounds True, Boulder CO, 2017). Like Susan Cain’s book did for introverts, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking (Crown Publishing, 2013), Dr. Orloff’s book opened a whole new world of understanding on the design of an empath. Her book opened up and helped me to understand myself in a new way that I had not before. It made sense of me. It validated what I had intuitively known but hadn’t been able to articulate—being an empath shapes our physiology and how we feel in our bodies in ways that medicine has not yet fully recognized. Empathy is the missing piece. The fundamental root cause of dis-ease for many of us.

Ironically, When I started writing about ‘empath’ in 2017, my computer’s spell check did not even recognize the word, it kept marking it as mis-spelled.

Dr. Orloff explains:

Though there is a spectrum of sensitivity that exists in human beings, empaths are emotional sponges who absorb the stress and joy of the world. We feel everything, often to an extreme, and have little guard up between others and ourselves (page 1).”

She further explains that there are different types of empaths:

Physical Empaths: You are attuned to other people’s physical symptoms and tend to absorb them into your body. You can also be energized by someone’s sense of well-being.

Emotional Empaths: You mainly pick up on other people’s emotions and can become a sponge for their feelings, both happy and sad.

Earth Empaths: are attuned to changes in our planet, our solar system, and the weather.

Animal Empaths: can tune in to animals and communicate with them. (Page 6/7) 

This list has been expanded as more attention is put to this subject matter. Just as the word ‘empath’ is now recognized by spell check.  

When I learned about what an empath was and the different types, I understood why I felt pain at throwing plastic in the “recycling.” I literally could trace that plastic into a landfill with its chemicals seeping into the soil and I could trace it ending up in the ocean, suffocating some turtle. I realized that I am an earth empath. I feel a deep connection to our planet and feel sadness and emotional pain when I toss something into the “recycling” and upon the way we disregard our earth’s health. But I also realized I was every type of empath.

The next hormone seminar I went to I made sure to inquire. During a break, I approached the instructor and asked, “What if I am so empathic that my cortisol is elevated simply due to my response to the world around me?” He looked at me like I was crazy and dismissed my question. But it didn’t matter. I knew I was onto something and needed to develop something to fill an obvious void in medicine.

As I restructured my life around learning about empathy and what it meant to be an empath, I became frustrated and confused with all the societal discussion of “are you an empath or not?” Through working on people’s bodies and frmo my childhood based in connection, I recognized empathy was part of the fabric of life and that everyone was empathic. 

Functional Medicine had trained me to keep searching for the root cause within my own body. But what if the root cause wasn’t biological or mental or emotional? What if it was empathic?

The Human Body as an Empathic System

The missing piece in both mainstream and Functional Medicine was empathy—not just as an emotion, but as a fundamental aspect of human design. This realization led to the creation of Vitality Medicine, a new model of healthcare founded on the tenet: “The human design is an empathic design.”

This understanding provides a new lens through which to experience health, illness, and the body itself. It explains why so many people feel an unexplainable sense of sadness, fatigue, or stress—even when their personal lives seem fine. Their bodies are reacting to something beyond them, something in the collective. But without a framework to understand this, they assume the problem is within themselves. They are told they have anxiety, depression, or burnout. They are given medications to suppress the symptoms, encouraged to push through, or worse, made to believe they are simply too sensitive and that they way they feel is their own personal fault.

I know this struggle firsthand. There was a moment when I realized my body was not just responding to my own internal physiology—it was reacting to the world itself. My nervous system was picking up stressors that weren’t even mine: the suffering of others, the strife in our country and world, the sensitivities of my husband and children, the destruction of the environment, the phases of the moon, the emotional turbulence moving through the collective field. I was living inside an invisible current of connection, a web I had never been taught to acknowledge as something that could cause me to suffer.

But what if sensitivity is not the problem?

What if it is a sign of being deeply alive?

Vitality Medicine: A New and Necessary Model

Vitality Medicine is a framework designed for the body as an empathic system. Instead of trying to suppress sensitivity or armor ourselves against the world, it asks new questions:

• How do we restore balance within an empathic system?

• How do we develop strength, stamina, and capacity to work within our design?

• How do we navigate the collective without being consumed by it?

• How do we differentiate what is ours and what is coming from the outside world?

• How do we create an internal and external environment that nurtures connection instead of separation?

The body is not a machine, operating in isolation from the world. It is a living system, constantly attuning, adapting, and responding to everything around it. Vitality Medicine does not try to force the body into submission. It works with the body's natural intelligence, honoring its design instead of overriding it.

From Empath to Lexatron

Sensitivity has often been framed as a burden—something to manage, suppress, or escape from. But what if we could reclaim it as a superpower instead?

My son was the first person to help me recognize this shift was possible. While reading The Empath’s Survival Guide, I noticed my oldest son, Jake, watching my in-laws’ very old dog with pain in his eyes. The dog’s feet were bad, and every step it took was laced with extreme discomfort. I could see that my sensitive eight-year-old was feeling the dog’s pain as if it were his own.

I took him aside and thoroughly explained what an empath was and what it meant to be an empath—how he was sensing the emotions and suffering of another, and that he would need to learn to differeinete what was his and what was another’s. And to learn to work with the empathic overload of it alI.  told him how special it was that he was learning this at eight years old, while I was only just coming to understand it at forty. When I finished, I asked, “So, what do you think?”

He paused for a moment, then said, “Yeah, sounds good… but the word empath is just such a bad word!”

Curious, I asked him what he would call it instead. Without hesitation, he answered, “Lexatron.”

The word seemed to come out of nowhere, yet it landed perfectly—like something powerful and intentional, something that felt more like a superhero taking charge rather than someone passively absorbing the suffering of life. From that moment on, we agreed to call ourselves Lexatrons.

This moment reshaped my understanding of what it means to be empathic. We do not have to be at the mercy of the suffering we feel. We can learn to stand in our connection with strength, choice, and resilience. Sensitivity is not something to be endured—it is something to be harnessed, refined, and lived into.

A New Paradigm for an Empathic World

Vitality Medicine is not just about physical health—it is about consciously embodying the body's original intelligence. It is about honoring empathic design as a gift rather than a weakness and creating a new paradigm where sensitivity is no longer a burden, but a pathway to thriving.

We are not just physical beings.

We are empathic systems, constantly responding to the world around us.

“We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.”

–Pierre Teilhard de Chardin