According to the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC):

Health and wellness coaches work with individuals in a client-centered process to facilitate and empower the client to develop and achieve self-determined goals related to health and wellness. Coaches support clients in mobilizing internal strengths and external resources, and in developing self-management strategies for making sustainable, healthy lifestyle behavior changes.

While health and wellness coaches do not diagnose conditions, prescribe treatments, or provide psychological therapeutic interventions, they may provide expert guidance in areas in which they hold active credentials, and may offer resources from nationally recognized authorities. As partners and facilitators, health and wellness coaches support their clients in achieving health goals and behavioral change based on their clients’ own goals and consistent with treatment plans as prescribed by individual clients’ professional health care providers.

Coaches assist clients to use their insight, personal strengths and resources, goal setting, action steps and accountability toward healthy lifestyle change.

According to the Nutritional Therapy Association (NTA):

The fundamental goal of Nutritional Therapy is to encourage people to become knowledgeable about—and responsible for—their own health. A Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) helps individuals reach their optimal level of overall wellness by supporting and bringing balance to the five foundations of health: Digestion, Blood Sugar Regulation, Fatty Acids, Mineral Balance, and Hydration. All five are built upon a single, solid base: a properly prepared, nutrient-dense diet. By supporting each of these foundations and helping clients adopt a more nutrient-dense diet, the body's chemistry can be brought back into natural balance, setting the stage for optimal health.

Nutritional Therapy is not designed, however, to treat any specific disease or medical condition. An NTP is trained to evaluate your nutritional needs and make recommendations of dietary change and nutritional supplements, not medical diagnoses or prescriptions. No comment or recommendation from your NTP should be construed as a medical diagnosis or prescription.

Reaching optimal health requires sincere commitment, possible lifestyle changes, and a positive attitude. If you are not willing to change how you eat and live, Nutritional Therapy is not the right approach for you. Since every human being is unique on a biochemical level, we cannot guarantee any specific result from our programs.

Focused Changework utilizes hypnosis, which is a natural mental state of focused concentration that can produce extraordinary levels of relaxation of mind, body, and emotions by accessing and utilizing the power of one’s inner resources. Hypnosis can transcend the critical, analytical level of mind, and facilitate the acceptance of suggestions, directions, and instructions desired by the client. Therapeutic use of hypnosis can also elicit insights and creative solutions from the inner mind.

Focused Changework sessions make use of hypnotherapeutic techniques such as hypnotic induction, deepening, neuro-linguistics/NLP, and dialoguing methods to help clients discover their inner creative abilities to develop positive thinking and feelings and to transform outdated habits and behavior patterns for vocational or avocational purposes. Therapeutic goals are to achieve freedom from restrictive thought and belief systems, to assist in solving personal problems, developing motivation, and achieving goals.

Somatic Resilience sessions utilize an integrative body-mind-spirit approach to improving overall sense of well-being, resilience, vitality, and level of rapport with one’s body and somatic systems (nervous system, digestive system, endocrine system, muscles/fascia/joints, immune system, etc.).

Several possible applications of this type of work include stress reduction and improving self-regulation of the stress response, supporting lifestyle- and health-related behavioral changes at a somatic level, improving posture or other somatically-held functional patterns, and digestive system support. Sessions make use of guided somatic practices such as movement explorations, self-bodywork, self-touch, somatic meditations, somatic dialoguing, breathwork, co-regulation, and self-regulation skill building.

Alternately, if you are based in the Bay Area and would prefer to meet in-person for Somatic Resilience sessions, you can visit forestpathSF.com for more information about somatic bodywork offerings at our office in San Francisco.

Integrative sessions may incorporate elements from any or all of the modalities and appointment types described above.

By including aspects of coaching, nutritional therapy, focused changework, and guided somatic work in each session, this appointment type provides a flexible and adaptive approach to addressing complexity across multiple levels of change (nutrition, lifestyle, habits, behaviors, beliefs, felt-sense/somatic elements, etc.) during each session, while emphasizing conversationally-based methods of change work and deep levels of exploration, discovery, learning, and personal transformation.

We can work with a variety of topics around relationship to food such as food cravings, dieting, eating habits, or eating anxieties (e.g., a dislike for a particular food or worries about saturated fat or dietary cholesterol even when you know they are healthful in appropriate amounts). Focused changework techniques (based on NLP and hypnotherapy) help to unwind restrictive thought patterns, limiting beliefs, or subconscious “loops” that happen around these topics. When combined with coaching and additional support for mindful eating, developing intuitive eating practices, and truly listening to your body’s needs, this helps to transform old habits and patterns into a more positive relationship with food.

One of my favorite areas to work with in this realm is food craving issues—these can be addressed holistically using a blend of wellness coaching, focused changework, and nutrition. Symbolic food cravings that tend to be related to a deeper need or desire for comfort/soothing (i.e., emotional eating patterns) can be readily addressed with focused changework. There are also many possible perpetuating factors for long-standing food cravings that can be addressed with nutritional therapy. For example, food sensitivities can cause you to crave a food that you react to, due to the spike in blood sugar and hormone/neurotransmitter production that can happen as the body responds to the stress of consuming a reactive food. This can create a temporary “sugar high” or “rush” type of feeling, that is quickly replaced by feeling worse afterwards. Wheat and milk proteins also contain opioid-like components (gluten exomorphins, milk casomorphins) that some people may respond strongly to, reinforcing cravings.

Certain nutrient deficiencies can also cause you to reach for specific foods. For example, craving chocolate may be related to a need for additional magnesium in your diet. Craving sugary foods that are also high in saturated fat (like ice cream or Skippy/Jif peanut butter) can signal a need for more healthy fats in your daily eating pattern—foods like salmon, avocado, eggs, butter, and ghee. Finally, imbalances in your gut microbiome may be a hidden factor as well. Yeast or candida overgrowth can lead to cravings specifically for sugar, soda, alcohol, or refined carbohydrates—basically any “junk food”—and other types of pathogens such as bacteria or parasites can also contribute to cravings based on their preferred fuel source. Together, we can do a deep dive into all the different layers involved, getting to the bottom of your most stubborn food cravings, and addressing any underlying imbalances that may have been perpetuating the problem.

In terms of relationship to body, there are two paths we can take: one that focuses on support for what are generally food- and weight-related thought patterns and behaviors, and another that focuses more on somatic resilience, nervous system regulation, and one’s relationship with certain body systems (e.g., one’s immune system in autoimmune conditions).

For the first category, we can use focused changework techniques to work with topics like judgments about body (“JABs”), negative self-talk tendencies (e.g., when looking in the mirror or reaching for a snack), weight and size wishes, movement blocks, “type A” over-exercise tendencies, or even refining how we deal internally with hearing others’ comments and commentaries about food and body. We’ll generally devote a whole session to a single topic, and delve deeply into the subconscious patterns that keep us stuck responding in a certain way. By illuminating these hidden factors, disentangling them from our belief system, and re-imprinting healthier subconscious strategies and beliefs about ourselves and the world around us, we can find new ways to feel about these issues that may have been more troubling in the past.

The second path focuses on cultivating somatic resilience and rapport with one’s various body systems (immune, digestive, nervous system, etc.) or specific areas where one is experiencing a chronic health concern (spine, knee, thyroid, kidney, lungs, etc.). By allowing one’s nervous system to down-regulate and relax into a state that is more conducive to healing, this can support other body systems in coming down out of “high alert” as well. It also creates more energy-efficiency in one’s system by reducing chronic engagement of the stress response and improving nervous system self-regulation, further enhancing wellbeing.

For clients experiencing weight gain and puffiness related to chronic inflammation or autoimmune issues, we might blend both of these pathways together to address the frustration and emotional component of the weight gain along with the somatic elements of building rapport with the immune system (digestive wellness and gut healing are also a primary focus area with this issue). A key part of this process would be shifting from an adversarial standpoint to one of appreciation for what the immune system is attempting to do (keep us safe), even though it’s wires have gotten crossed and it’s making some pretty big mistakes at the moment (mistaking self for non-self). Once we can get even a little bit of the emotional charge cleared out, it becomes much easier to move forward, opening up many avenues for shifting our outlook, somatic resourcing, resilience-building, and positive change.

As an AIP Certified Coach, I can help support you on your path towards autoimmune wellness using a variety of coaching- and nutrition-based tools such as the Autoimmune Protocol. The AIP is a specialized elimination diet originally designed by Dr. Sarah Ballantyne to help reduce inflammation in the body. This is accomplished by temporarily removing certain potentially inflammatory food categories as well as foods containing substances that can negatively impact an already compromised gut barrier (such as gluten, egg whites, sugar alcohols, nightshades, and a variety of other potential culprits). We do this while also increasing key nutrient-dense foods known to positively affect the gut lining, microbiome, immune regulation, and digestive function. Another important component of the AIP is addressing the various lifestyle factors that can contribute to inflammatory processes in the body (perhaps even more so than what we eat!).

With any elimination diet or protocol, the goal is never to stay on it forever. Rather, we temporarily remove potential food culprits that may be contributing to inflammation and immune dysregulation so that we can, through a process of careful reintroductions, eventually determine which foods are actually contributing most heavily to those concerns. This can vary greatly from person to person. Often, we can determine just how much of a certain food you can tolerate before it causes issues, which foods are totally fine, and which ones we need to keep avoiding altogether to maintain our desired level of wellness. During this process of eliminations and reintroductions, we can also utilize targeted supplements to support improvements in digestive function, gut lining integrity, and microbiome balance, in conjunction with a nutrient-dense whole foods diet, to help avoid developing more sensitivities in the future.

Whether you are interested because of a recent autoimmune diagnosis, or because you suffer from another chronic condition that may be helped by a comprehensive elimination diet focused on lowering inflammation in the body, the overall structure of our initial implementation process is the same:

First, we start with a pair of initial sessions that include an in-depth information-gathering interview followed by a recommendations session where we go over everything you need to get started with your initial implementation. Depending on your personality (type A? decidedly not?) and preferences, we may opt for a slow-and-steady elimination style, removing a few possible inflammatory food categories at a time while you get used to the process (this usually this takes about 6 weeks), or you could go “cold turkey” and dive into the full protocol if you are ready to make a big change all at once.

Every person is different, and we can customize your transition into the AIP elimination phase in a variety of ways. Information gleaned from food sensitivity testing can also potentially reduce the number of eliminations in the initial phase (allowing for inclusion of specific nutrient-dense foods like egg yolks if they are shown to be non-reactive). We’ll also address areas such as nutrient density, supplementation, and key lifestyle factors that are supportive of autoimmune wellness. This can include things like improving sleep quality, stress reduction/management, movement/exercise, increasing time spent in nature, and various other health-supporting activities.

During follow-up sessions, we’ll work through any challenges or troubleshooting tasks that come up around implementation and adjusting to temporarily being on an elimination diet (food cravings, substitutions, meal planning strategies, batch-cooking methods, considerations when traveling/eating away from home, etc.). If you are following the slow-and-steady transition method, we’ll spend a bit of time working through various gradual eliminations until we get to the full protocol. From there, it’s usually 30 to 90 days on the full elimination phase of the AIP before we start carefully reintroducing foods one at a time, watching for immune reactions and finding the best ways to optimize your eating pattern going forward on your journey toward health.

Depending on the underlying subconscious factors perpetuating a habit, it can sometimes be challenging to address long-standing patterns with coaching alone. We've probably all experienced the frustration that goes along with wanting to do something, but falling into the "groove" of a well-ingrained habit instead. Thankfully, this is an area in which focused changework excels, by utilizing highly effective NLP and hypnotherapy techniques that work with the subconscious thought processes that are contributing to or perpetuating the pattern. Often, these subconscious beliefs and thought patterns were originally well-intended, and served a helpful purpose at some point earlier in our lives. By gaining conscious insight into the purpose the habit has been attempting to serve, and unwinding any limiting beliefs that act as a kind of support structure for the old pattern, we can rework it into something new, updating it so that it serves a purpose more in line with your current wellness goals. After a bit of focused changework, a previously subconsciously-ingrained “roadblock” becomes much easier to move past consciously, helping to clear a path toward your goals.

Each approach has its value for the right person at the right time, as well as a different focus, set of goals, and scope of practice. Psychotherapy focuses on the diagnosis of mental health disorders, treatment of clinical symptoms, and resolution of trauma, with an emphasis on movement from a state of dysfunction to function.

Coaching and focused changework instead guide a person along the path of moving from function toward a more optimized state of wellbeing and vitality, or from a state of imbalance to balance. Coaches work with client concerns related to implementing healthy nutrition and lifestyle changes, working past unwanted habits and limiting beliefs, increasing resilience, devising stress management strategies, working through movement “blocks”, improving sleep quality, and other practical issues related to daily living. Sessions emphasize self-exploration and inner transformation to support the restoration of the body’s natural self-healing capacities and overall wellness of mind, body, and spirit. Although sessions are trauma-informed, coaching and focused changework are not a substitute for psychotherapy or counseling, and are not intended for the diagnosis or treatment of any mental health disorder.

Some common client concerns that I work with in my nutrition practice are the various sub-clinical issues that tend to be dismissed or overlooked in mainstream medicine, because they are related to sub-optimal function rather than an illness, disease, or medical condition. This includes things like “brain fog”, fatigue, digestive issues, joint discomfort, headaches, bloating, weight gain, PMS, afternoon energy “dips”, and various other concerns that are commonly associated with aging or being “too sensitive”. These are all real problems, you are not just “getting old” in your 20s/30s/40s/50s, you are not “too sensitive”, and there are real solutions available that often involve addressing hidden nutritional/functional imbalances to restore homeostasis.

I also work well with clients who have more clearly-defined health challenges like autoimmune issues, chronic pain (including chronic pelvic pain and endometriosis), and chronic fatigue, in collaboration with your other practitioners. In these cases, we can work together to support the day-to-day practical things that may be overlooked by your various treatments (medical, physical therapy, etc.), like improving energy levels, optimizing digestive function, utilizing food-based supports that can aid in inflammation management, or customizing/implementing/troubleshooting an elimination diet like the Autoimmune Protocol to address any hidden food sensitivities that may be contributing to chronic inflammation.

Yes, we can certainly use your lab results to inform our work together! Having access to additional information and scientific data is always helpful, and can benefit your nutritional therapy series in a variety of ways by uncovering hidden imbalances and other perpetuating factors that may be contributing to your wellness concerns. Direct-access testing options are currently available in most states, including California.

As a starting point, we can work together to select one or more direct-access test kits (along with an initial food sensitivity test to discover any hidden inflammation-promoting factors) to use to inform and measure our progress over the course of a series. Depending on your primary area of focus and the results of your NAQ, testing recommendations may be for one or two of the following 3 test kit categories below:

(1) either BiomeFx or the GI-MAP — both of these are comprehensive stool tests offering information about the balance of beneficial and undesirable bacteria in one’s gut microbiome, but each has a different area of focus. BiomeFx emphasizes enhancing overall wellness and nutrition, while the GI-MAP helps us refine and troubleshoot foundational support recommendations around various digestive concerns.

(2) an Organic Acids Test — this includes information about overall wellness in a variety of areas, from nutrients to methylation to detoxification.

(3) the DUTCH Test — this offers information about hormonal balance, adrenal balance, and the body’s response to stress.

These generally cost about $300-500 per test, depending on where you purchase them. We also utilize information gleaned from either the MRT or KBMO FIT test, which measure food sensitivities, either via lab-based blood draw or a simple fingerstick home test, respectively. These can be especially useful if you have amorphous or variable symptoms that you haven’t been able to successfully “pin down” or address through other means, or if you are interested in narrowing down a list of potential foods to work with during an upcoming elimination trial (for example, if you test non-reactive to egg yolks, you can skip eliminating them when implementing the Autoimmune Protocol/AIP). Even if you don’t have digestive symptoms, many common concerns related to weight, mood, energy levels, aches and pains, sinus congestion, skin issues, inflammation, and a variety of other seemingly unrelated symptoms can also involve hidden food sensitivities. Note that food testing results are most useful when combined with the in-depth information provided by the GI-MAP or BiomeFx gut health tests described above.

If you are interested in exploring any of these options, we can discuss this during an initial consultation, in-depth wellness assessment, or during our next session. Certain test kits, such as BiomeFx + KBMO FIT, can be bundled in with the price of your series. For information about options for sourcing your own direct-access lab test kits, refer to the “Testing Options” section of our Wellness Resources Guide (in your online client portal). And of course, if you have had bloodwork or any of the above labs done recently with your doctor or naturopath, we can incorporate that information into our work together as well.

Any test recommendation or health information provided from Forest Path Wellness LLC, written or verbal, is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease or condition.

Meal plans: Yes, I do offer a 7-day custom meal plan, recipe booklet, and snack ideas as part of each new client’s introductory package, to inspire creativity and help you get started with any nutritional recommendations that are part of your wellness plan. If you have utilized food sensitivity and gut health testing as part of your in-depth wellness assessment, then your meal plan and recipes will be highly customized, offering tasty alternatives to known food sensitivities, supporting digestive function/improved energy levels where needed, and feeding the beneficial flora balance in your specific gut microbiome. Expanded custom meal planning services are available on a very limited basis for an additional fee, as this can be an extremely time-consuming process to create and adapt new recipes and combinations at this level of personalization and detail. DIY meal-planning options are included in the enhanced web features given to clients who maintain ongoing session packages.

Cooking classes: No, I do not offer any cooking classes at this time. If you are in San Francisco, 18 Reasons offers excellent in-person cooking classes on a variety of topics (and covering many different cuisines). They also offer online cooking classes a few times per month if you can’t make the trek into the city.

Pantry clean-outs: While I do not offer in-person “pantry clean-outs”, if you would like to work on this type of project during an online follow-up session, that is certainly doable! Alternatively, I can provide helpful guidelines for doing this on your own as part of the written materials included in your introductory package; simply ask me about this during your initial session. As with everything else, these pantry clean-out guidelines will be customized to your specific wellness plan, including specific ingredients, food additives, and chemicals to avoid in prepackaged convenience foods based on your food sensitivity results (if we are utilizing lab testing to inform our work together).

Yes, integrative sessions are always an option, and are generally 90 minutes instead of 50 minutes each, to ensure that there is always plenty of time and space for deep exploration, learning, and transformation.

Part of each session would still be devoted to coaching around finding more clarity on an issue or desired outcome, diving into specific lifestyle factors, habits, and choices, or working on cultivating inner resilience to the various stressors you may be encountering in day-to-day life. Using that as a starting point, next we can strategize options for bio-individualized nutritional support in those areas, aiding you in reaching your wellness goals more smoothly.

If you are seeking nutritionally-focused work in concert with a bodywork series at Forest Path SF, we can also delve into areas like fine-tuning mineral balance and connective tissue support (perhaps as an adjunct to a Structural Integration series), endocrine and nervous system/HPA-axis support (to complement craniosacral/somatic bodywork), or offering targeted digestive support that can synergize with visceral bodywork.

Online sessions can focus on primarily on nutrition, or a combination of nutrition, coaching, and our other wellness offerings. While we can utilize various somatic awareness techniques and some amount of self-bodywork during an online session, sometimes there is no replacement for in-person somatic bodywork, neurovascular mobilization, and Visceral Manipulation, especially where certain motility-related digestive issues like SIBO are concerned.

In-person integrative wellness sessions combine a structural or somatic bodywork session and a nutrition consultation into a 2-hour appointment at Marla’s office in San Francisco. If you would like to learn more about this and other in-person offerings as a possible supplement to our online work together, you can find more information on the Forest Path SF website.