About Me…

My desire to become a naturopathic doctor began  sometime in my 20’s. I had wanted to be a doctor since 6th grade and had a vision of practicing medicine similar to my father’s style. He was an internal medicine doctor who worked in a small town in Vermont, where I grew up. He was known for being thorough and taking too much time with each patient and therefore he was always behind schedule.  But his patients often didn’t mind. He was smart, perceptive and had a gentle, kind and friendly bedside manner. I loved and respected how he built relationships with his patients that spanned generations. But I wasn’t particularly excited to only prescribe pharmaceutical medicine for my career. I believed that there were more natural options available, so I looked for alternative healing approaches on my own.

Also, I was a sick kid. In my first year of life I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA). JRA causes the immune system to act like it’s mounting an attack on ones own tissue. In my case it caused pain, stiffness and inflammation in my knees, ankles and sometimes even my eyes. I spent much of my early childhood and adolescence in doctors offices, having regular blood draws, eye exams and taking lots of anti-inflammatory medicine.

Fortunately this childhood condition often goes into remission by one’s late teens and mine did just that. So in my early 20’s, with JRA in my rearview mirror, I moved from Vermont to Colorado and set my sights on playing in nature and learning as many natural healing alternatives as I could. I studied botanical medicine and later became a certified herbalist. I studied nutrition, secured a job in a health food store, experimented with my own diet, and became known by my friends as “The Cleansing Queen.” I read as much as I could, was mentored by my chiropractor, learned about Bach Flower Remedies, essential oils and later became a certified yoga teacher for both adults and kids.  I traveled internationally and lived abroad for many years in Israel. During my time abroad I noted the ways that other cultures practiced natural, traditional medicine and I was fascinated.  

Eventually I surmised that my first career, working in social services, for non-profit organizations and teaching in foreign countries, was satisfying because I was helping people, but it was not feeding my soul. I wanted to take all of my passion for natural medicine and my appetite for learning and apply it to a new career, instead of to my forever hobby. So in my early 40s I returned to school and earned my Doctorate of Natural Medicine from the Southwest College of Natural Medicine in Tempe, Arizona. This is why I can say with a smile, while I am a blossoming doctor; I’m a life-long healer and student of natural healing.