Who I Am & Who I Work With

I’m a small-town midwestern girl, the youngest of a large catholic-raised family, a tomboy, and an animal lover. I’m a former high school teacher as well as a chronic illness and complex PTSD warrior who turned my pain into purpose by becoming a trauma-informed functional health practitioner, transformational coach, and practitioner trainer.

The clients who come my way are most often highly driven adults who’ve been sidelined in their lives by stress-related disorders, complex trauma, chronic fatigue, digestive conditions, and frequently a host of other issues. They want to take back control of their health but have already tried many different things with little to no success, realize they need a different approach, are overwhelmed, and don't know where to begin.

I help them determine what is keeping them stuck and guide them through a trauma-informed and truly holistic process of creating a personalized, step-by-step self-healing plan for restoring their physical and emotional well-being and reclaiming their lives.

Here’s my story to show you that deep healing IS possible, no matter how far out of balance you’ve fallen.

The Perfect Storm: From Lyme, CFS, and Mold Illness Hell to Deep Healing & Transformation

As a young bride of three months and embroiled in a stressful student-teaching experience, I began experiencing crushing fatigue, widespread muscle pain, and migraine headaches.

One November morning of that same year, I woke up with swelling in my lips, tongue, and throat. Giant, wheel-shaped hives made tracks across my body. I collapsed in the shower and went into full-blown anaphylactic shock—the first of many episodes that required hospitalization and an arsenal of daily prescription drugs.

Little did I know that this was only the beginning of a long and hellish life-altering journey. I had fallen into a rabbit hole, and it would take decades to find my way out.

For the next seven years or so, I consulted with countless medical specialists and followed a barrage of prescription drug protocols. With each passing year, I continued to spiral downward, and the list of debilitating symptoms grew longer. The names alone of these dire diagnoses made me feel completely helpless and hopeless: Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria/Angioedema Swelling with Anaphylaxis, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and more.

Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts

To add fuel to the fire, I developed a bladder condition known as interstitial cystitis. The all-encompassing and incapacitating pain of this condition sent me spiraling into the depths of depression and anxiety. I thought to myself, “I am in living hell! What’s next? How will I ever escape from this nightmare?””

The list of symptoms and severity grew exponentially despite trying many different protocols and consulting with myriads of practitioners across all specialties.

I often felt alone, unsupported, and invalidated by doctors, family, friends, and work colleagues. Hopelessness and despair took over. I had periods of time when I wanted to die not because I didn't want to live but because I had lost hope and thought it was my only way to end the pain and suffering. I spent nights crying myself to sleep and praying to God to take me in my sleep.

Lyme, Parasites, and More Oh MY!

After realizing conventional medicine could not help me, I consulted with an integrative medical doctor who diagnosed me with Chronic Neurological Lyme Disease and Company and (CIRS) Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. The treatments for this condition, which I endured on and off for approximately four years, led to random bouts of improvement but never fully restored my health.

At roughly the 15-year mark into my journey, I underwent liver resection surgery to remove a melon-sized, complicated cyst. This cyst was first discovered on a CT Scan many years earlier when it was only 2 cm and deemed “simple and benign.” It turned out to be a calcified infestation due to a Central American parasite I was exposed to while living abroad.

The Nightmare Continues!

While the removal of the parasitic cyst resolved some of my health challenges—most notably the recurring hives and anaphylactic episodes—I still suffered severe chronic fatigue, immune deficiency, chronic inflammation, and the resulting life challenges. The physical, emotional, and mental stress of the years leading up to the surgery had drained me. I was operating on sheer will to survive each day.

After nearly two decades of high stress as a high school teacher while managing ongoing, serious health challenges, my mind and body delivered a profound message: I had a nervous breakdown and collapsed into severe burnout syndrome that forced me to walk away from my career.

My inner critic screamed, “Don’t be weak! You’re crazy if you walk away! What will people think?

But…I had reached my threshold! This profesora de Español and varsity soccer coach had no más to give to anything or anybody. My body was sick, broken, and in horrific pain 24/7.

The part of my mind that had supplied me with endless creativity throughout my years in the classroom went offline. Meanwhile, my stress response system remained online and engaged at all times. Additionally, I developed severe anhedonia, which is a subset of depression that causes one to lose the ability to feel or anticipate any pleasure or joy. I was emotionally flatlined!

Hidden Attic Mold Was Sabotaging My Health!

I also need to mention that during this time, my husband and I discovered a significant, hidden mold issue in our attic caused by faulty construction. While this mold did not seem to affect my husband outwardly, it had been sabotaging my health for many years, unbeknownst to me.

This was evident by increasing blood inflammatory markers commonly seen with mold illness, particularly C4a levels. C4a is part of the complement immune system, and while high values can correlate with other conditions, it is often highly associated with mold illness.

So, not only had I worked in a water-damaged school building for over 20 years, but I also had toxic mold in my home! Ay!

As painful and scary as my crash into burnout syndrome was, I feel it was a necessary wake-up call from the Universe. It was my catalyst for deep healing and transformation.

Time to Take Charge of My Own Health and Well-Being

Now, it was time to take charge of my healing, engage in extreme self-care, connect to my body, and learn to become my best self-healer.

I studied and applied functional and mind-body medicine principles to correctly identify and remove the multitude of stressors keeping my entire system in defense mode.

I faced and addressed long-suppressed emotions and cultivated awareness of mind stories that were continually hijacking my nervous system.

Healing from past traumas is an ever-evolving process. I worked toward creating healthier boundaries and funneled my experiences to build a Functional Health and Transformational Coaching practice.

Ultimately, I created Wellness Code Academy, where I now teach my methods to other coaches and practitioners.

No words can accurately describe the lengths I’ve gone to unravel the complex web of health challenges and life wreckage I experienced. In my quest for wellness, I’ve learned so much about the factors that prime a person for illness and what needs to happen to create the correct environment for healing to unfold.

The Winds of Change, Transformation, and Deep Healing

While medical diagnoses served a useful purpose for me at one time, I’ve since gained new perspectives. I now view illness—regardless of the diagnosis—as a state of disease. When the mind-body system falls out of balance, a person can no longer adapt to and overcome physical, physiological, emotional, mental, or spiritual stressors.

My soil scientist father, David Eames Ellis, always said, “Create the correct environment, and health will follow.”

These words of wisdom are now the backbone of how I live my life and how I help my clients heal theirs.

How Did I Create The Correct Environment For Healing? Here’s What I Did in Nutshell…

• I minimized the burden on the body-mind system by identifying and eliminating as many biological, biochemical, environmental, and emotional stressors as possible.

• I prioritized the pillars of health, such as nutrition, hydration, sleep, rest, mindset, nature connection, movement, stress reduction, self-regulation, and more.

• I harnessed the power of daily habit.

• I made supporting my mitochondria and increasing cellular energy production a top priority. Fixing my broken circadian rhythm was KEY in this process.

• I detoxed and healed my cells.

• I engaged in self-kindness and made extreme self-care a TOP priority.

• I learned to feel and process emotions rather than resist or stuff them, as I had done for so long.

• I worked very hard to break destructive mental patterns that hijacked the present moment and triggered my stress response.

• I implemented daily practices to rewire myself for wellness.

• I faced and began addressing long-buried emotional wounds and the corresponding mindstories that were contributing to emotional fragility and repeatedly spiraled me into dysregulation.

• And more!

Amidst my healing journey, I learned that magic bullet, “fast-fix” protocols do not exist.

Lastly, I need to emphasize that while addressing biochemistry and physiological imbalances was imperative to my recovery, taking back control of my health and reclaiming life from the grips of accumulated stress, trauma, and complex chronic illness transcended physical body systems.

It required 100% responsibility, radical acceptance, active participation, willingness, courage, patience, and loads of self-love to address ALL aspects of my being.

My Qualifications & Credentials

I possess an MSc in Counseling Psychology, am a Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner (FDN-P) through the Institute of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition®, and am the founder of Wellness Code Academy — where I create and teach practitioner certification programs.

To complement the above, I am also a certified GAPS Practitioner, Body Code® practitioner, Transformational Nutrition Coach through the Institute of Transformational Nutrition®, an Endorsed Anamsong Mind-Body Coach, and a Trained WellCoach with WellCoaches® School of Coaching. I continue to update my skills through seminars and various programs of study.  

Because I have extensive training in and a deep understanding of trauma, the stress-illness-pain connection, I combine mind-body principles with physiological re-balancing into a trauma-informed, truly holistic, multi-therapeutic approach that helps my clients address all aspects of healing – body, mind, and spirit.

Additional & Recent Trainings:

• Amen Clinics Brain Health Coaching Program

• Dr. Nelson’s Emotion & Bod Code Training

• HPA Axis Function and Hormone Metabolite Assessment and Correction

• Mold Illness Made Simple Intensive with Dr. Sandeep Gupta, MD

• Digestive Intensive through Holistic Nutrition Labs

• Blood Sugar & Insulin Resistance Intensive through Metabolic Healing

• MAP (Make Anything Possible) Method

Background and Prior Education

Before my career in the functional health and wellness sector, I spent nearly two decades as a high school Spanish teacher, head girls’s varsity soccer coach, and at-risk counselor. I hold a Bachelor of Science In International Business and Marketing, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Education and Spanish Language and Literature, and, as mentioned earlier, a Master of Science in Counseling and Psychology. 

In addition to my academic focus, I am a former competitive soccer player. My years in the educational, counseling, and athletic coaching arenas armed me with broad skills for helping my clients understand and apply health-building tools. 

I consider myself a lifelong learner and avid reader, particularly in the areas of healing, wellness, the mind-body connection, and neuroscience.

I stay current on the latest research, trends, and medical breakthroughs and am inspired by the works of Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Candace Pert, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Annie Hopper (founder of Dynamic Neural Retraining System), and many others.