The complexity of long-term chronic illness calls for both a broad and in-depth investigation.
Our assessments do both.
The Angel Oak,
John's Island, Charleston, SC
Welcome to Roots & Wings for Renewed Health.
We exist for one reason, and only one reason.
To help people with complex and chronic health problems get from their old life, through this current stage, and toward what we call renewed health.
Renewed health will not look exactly the same for everyone.
But we know one thing: You won’t get there without starting at the beginning.
At Roots & Wings, we call that either the Emerging Symptoms Assessment OR the Systems & Symptom Assessment.
Why Are You Here?
You have an astonishing number or combination of symptoms you want gone — or at least substantially better.
I don't think there's much chance you arrived here randomly.
It’s possible it was serendipity. More likely, you were doing what you — and anyone else — would do when they find themselves in a situation they know next to nothing about.
Googling, or scrolling through social media or Pinterest, with the thought that maybe you could figure out what to do next. And then you kept clicking from one link to the next.
No judgement. Because, honestly? Where do you even start when it feels like your whole life has been upended?
However you got here, for just a few moments, trust that you may have come to the right place.
Without knowing it, you've probably already begun moving through the first milestones on our Roadmap to Renewed Health.
You are trying to get from here — where your health is today — to there.
Better health. Less symptoms. Less pain. Less exhaustion. Less brain fog. Less fear.
More sleep. More energy. More ability to do things like work, spend time with family and friends, or maybe get back to the gym or traveling.
You’ve already taken stock of the ways your health is impacting your life — and by extension, the lives of your family, friends, and your co-workers or employees. Not to mention the things that no longer fit into your life because of reduced energy and stamina.
You’ve decided you don't like what you see, and it’s time to figure this situation out and at least try to fix it.
Now you're looking to recruit someone to help you figure out what to do about it. To make a plan. Not just any plan, but a strategic, coherent and effective plan.
And to do that, you need to start at the beginning — with a comprehensive assessment that provides the information necessary to create that plan.
Orienting Yourself to our Work:
A Map for the Roots & Wings Journey
Where are you? Where do you want to be?
Given: You Have Multiple Persistent Symptoms.
Also Given: You want them gone — or at least reduced.
To accomplish that, you need to know what is causing or driving your symptoms — and what may be allowing them to persist, or even flourish.
This is the work I do: Identifying potential causal, contributing, and perpetuating factors in complex chronic illness — and determining which may be relevant to each person’s particular health puzzle.
Sometimes symptoms are associated with nutrient deficiencies, hormonal or metabolic changes, disrupted sleep, digestive dysfunction, past injuries, or structural problems.
Sometimes there is a history of Lyme disease or other tick-borne infections, mold exposure, viral illness, chemical or toxic exposures, or other environmental factors.
Sometimes medications, diet, inadequate recovery, chronic stress physiology, or previous treatments are part of the picture.
And sometimes several factors are operating at the same time.
That is why we investigate broadly.
Roots & Wings offers two assessments, designed for people at different stages of declining health and loss of function.
Two Assessments. Two Different Starting Points.
The Roots & Wings Emerging Symptoms Assessment
The Emerging Symptoms Assessment is designed for people whose health has changed relatively recently — generally over the past four to eight months, although less than a year still fits. Long enough that you’ve finally noticed.
You don’t feel like the self you identify with: confident and able to do whatever you choose. It is entirely new to you to even think about whether you can still do it all.
You’re starting to wonder: Is this aging? Or something else? Your doctor is not concerned. But you are.
Your energy and stamina are reduced. You’re not recovering as quickly from workouts or a long day. You’ve noticed you have pain in places you’ve never had it before. Maybe you haven’t recovered from an illness. And it’s also possible you have absolutely no idea what is wrong.
For the most part, you are still managing your life — working, taking care of your family — but doing those things has become more difficult.
You’re not the type to sit around and wonder, so proactive it is.
When these changes are relatively new, it is important to investigate what may be contributing to them — before declining health and loss of function become more established.
That is what an Emerging Symptoms Assessment is designed to do.
The Roots & Wings Systems & Symptoms Assessment
The Systems & Symptoms Assessment is designed for people with longer-standing, more complex health problems that are substantially affecting your health, function, and quality of life.
Usually this is for people who have been sick more than a year — sometimes for decades. I started doing the kind of discovery and work I do now for others, on myself, 22 years into my own complex health journey.
You have many symptoms, often including chronic pain, exhaustion, inability to sleep, and brain fog. Plus digestive or gut issues you don’t want to talk about. Possibly anxiety or depression. And any number of other symptoms that come with complex chronic illness.
You have seen multiple doctors and practitioners. For some people — including me — that number reaches into the dozens. Yet you still have not reached the improvement you were seeking.
Whether you are still working and managing most aspects of your life, or working less, leaving home less, or spending much of your time at home or in bed, your health now requires a significant share of your attention and capacity.
My role is different. I look for physiological factors contributing to your symptoms that have not yet been identified, then provide initial recommendations to help you decide what to do next.
When this many things are going on, it becomes even more important to investigate both broadly and deeply to identify which causal, contributing, and perpetuating factors may be relevant to your particular health puzzle.
That is what the Systems & Symptoms Assessment is designed to do.
The Roots & Wings Approach to Investigating Complex Health When Lots of
Symptoms are in Play.
Whenever we are in the investigative process, we operate from our Restorative Health Framework™.
So where do we start?
At the beginning.
At Roots & Wings, that means we start with one of our assessments. Gathering the information we need to determine what is going on in your body. We accomplish that through one of the two assessments we offer.
For both assessments, we systematically investigate approximately 50 areas that may be affecting your health and physiology.
We do that for every client because we want to make sure we've covered the bases.
Some areas will prove relevant. Some won't. Some will raise questions that deserve a closer look.
We investigate broadly. We investigate in depth. And where the findings warrant it, we go even deeper—or recommend appropriate ways for you to investigate further.
Roots & Wings is a functional health and wellness practice, not a medical practice. Our work focuses on physiology, function and capacity. We do not diagnose, treat, or manage disease or provide medical care.
When information uncovered during an assessment indicates that medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment may be needed, we will recommend that you seek appropriate care from a licensed medical provider. Some health conditions or circumstances may also be outside the scope of our practice and require medical or other specialized care.
So, What Do We Actually Look At?
Quite a lot.
Naturally, when we're patients or clients dealing with complex chronic illness, we focus on the symptoms causing us the most trouble—chronic pain, exhaustion, inability to sleep, brain fog. They're so obvious and intrusive.
But there may be literally dozens of other symptoms, changes, and seemingly unrelated problems that have slipped under the radar, that we learned to live with, and that we never imagined were relevant to the bigger problems we were trying to solve.
After a long 27 years of complex chronic illness, I learned that feeling better required looking beyond the obvious. That requires a new lens when reviewing information.
Things that eventually mattered to my own health—in pretty important ways—were things I had never even heard of. Four years ago, a practitioner I had only recently begun working with, brought forward findings of two conditions that came out of her investigation into my health. With the newfound knowledge and new strategies, they were profoundly life-changing.
And I'm still learning. Because I never stop looking.
More recently, a different practitioner helped me recognize that an underlying connective-tissue disorder explains physical problems I've experienced since elementary school —and gave me a new way to understand much of my health history. And be more proactive and self-protective.
So, What Do We Actually Look At?
Round 2: The Expanded Explanation
We don’t limit our investigation based on your existing diagnoses, a few of your most troublesome symptoms, or what someone else has already found.
We’re not here just to confirm what is already known. If you haven’t gotten better with the knowledge you have, I believe there are other factors affecting your health that neither you nor your practitioners have discovered yet. We try to find them.
Every assessment I perform looks across the full range of things I know to consider in complex chronic illness. Much of that came from my personal, lived experience. Some comes from my being in constant research mode. Some comes from training.
Some things will apply to you. Some won't. Some will confirm what you already know. And some may be things no one has thought to look for yet.
Nothing we find is too small to matter. It may stand alone, or it may lead us somewhere we didn't know to look. We won't know until we investigate.
Think about finding one mouse in your basement. One mouse isn't a catastrophe. But you don't ignore it because it's only one mouse. You look for how it got there. What you find may be nothing more than an open door—or it may reveal other entry points you didn't know were there.
We approach your health the same way. We look thoroughly enough to find what might otherwise be missed.
We gather the information first. Then we analyze what we find.
Where the information warrants it, we go deeper. And when what we find there warrants it, we go deeper still.
We don't decide what's relevant before we look.
There is no magic bullet. If you've been chronically ill for a long time, we're unlikely to find one thing that explains everything or one intervention that fixes everything. We’re more likely to find several things to focus on.
What we are looking for, within the limits of my knowledge and scope, is everything we can reasonably identify that may be affecting your health, capacity, and function.
And yes, we look at the fundamentals too— blood sugar, insulin resistance, sleep, nutrition, movement.
We just don't stop there.
What Does Our Structured Assessment
Take Into Consideration?
Every Assessment systematically looks across approximately 50 areas that may be affecting your health and physiology.
Why so many? Because a single area alone can be associated with many different symptoms. When multiple areas are involved, the picture becomes complicated very quickly.
We won’t list all of them here, but they include the following:
Digestive and gastrointestinal function
Hormonal and metabolic function
Energy production and regulation
Immune and inflammatory patterns
Nervous-system and stress physiology
Sleep and recovery
Nutrition and dietary patterns
Movement, activity, and current functional capacity
Infection history
Environmental and toxic exposures
Structural and connective-tissue considerations
Current medications and supplementation
Previous treatments, interventions, and health history
If you already have a practitioner or medical doctor who is investigating your health this broadly, you do not need this assessment.
What’s Included in Your Assessment?
This is a complete, standalone assessment.
You are not required to enter an ongoing Roots & Wings program.
Comprehensive health history intake and structured assessment materials, including review of up to seven pre-existing laboratory and diagnostic reports
Initial Assessment appointment of up to 75 minutes with Ellen Nicholas
Telephone calls initiated by Ellen Nicholas, as needed, to clarify information you provide while completing the assessment process
Recommendations will be provided for additional laboratory testing, medical evaluation, or deeper investigation when the findings indicate that more information would be useful. Testing costs and any required medical review fees are additional to the Assessment and will be discussed with you in advance.
Independent case analysis and synthesis by Ellen Nicholas
A preliminary written Assessment report, when we are awaiting functional laboratory test results
Review & Recommendations Appointment of up to 75 minutes with Ellen Nicholas to receive report, review findings, recommendations, and next steps.
Amended Assessment Report incorporating any functional lab testing results not yet available when initial report was written
What Can You Expect to Gain
From This Assessment?
Information. Lots of it. Some — perhaps much of it new to you.
The purpose of this Assessment is to investigate broadly and deeply. And when something turns up, we dig more deeply.
All of that information helps us see the bigger picture of what may be going on in your body.
Think of your health as a puzzle. When we begin, we don't know whether yours has 24 pieces, 100 pieces, 500 pieces, or even 1,000. We don't know which pieces we'll find, which will turn out to be particularly important, or which will lead us to still more pieces.
By the time we're finished, you should have a much better understanding of the size and complexity of your puzzle.
Not every piece of information we uncover will be significant.
Some things we discover will be only mildly significant. Individually, the findings may not seem like much. But when multiple findings are acted on, their combined effect may add up to a meaningful improvement in symptoms, function and capacity.
Some pieces may be somewhat significant and lead to deeper investigation or functional lab testing. Celiac disease is one example. It is one of the conditions you will be screened for as part of this Assessment. Years ago, I recognized the possibility of celiac disease in my husband when neither his internist nor his endocrinologist had. Medical testing took it from there.
And some pieces can be life-changing. That’s exactly what happened to me four years ago, when a new-to-me practitioner discovered something that ultimately made it so I am no longer a chronic pain patient.
The information itself didn’t change my health. It gave me something I could act on.
The outcome of this Assessment is information. What ultimately happens to your health depends upon what that information reveals, what is done with it afterward, and how your individual body responds.
Will Everyone Find This Assessment
Equally Worthwhile?
I never forget that people are all bio-individuals, with different genetic predispositions; different exposures to infections, microbes, heavy metals, chemicals, and molds; and different capacities to respond to those factors for a variety of reasons.
Also, we must remember we are not working with a random cross-section of people. Everyone who takes this Assessment is already dealing with complex chronic health problems. When those problems are investigated through a systems-thinking lens, I expect the significance of what we uncover to vary considerably from person to person.
For those reasons, and based on intuition and experience, I project that I will not find anything really valuable for 10–15% of the people who take the Assessment. After years of searching, they may already have much of the information I might uncover. What they need may lie outside my knowledge and scope. They may require highly specialized medical investigation at a place like the Mayo Clinic. Or answers may remain elusive despite my best efforts.
At the other end of the range, I project that there will be 15–30% of people for whom we uncover very significant—perhaps even life-changing—information.
I know that end of the curve exists because I sit there myself. During years 24 through 27 of my own complex-health journey — after I had already been ill for more than two decades — two practitioners uncovered three things that were, in fact, life-changing.
These were not minor additions to what I knew about my health. They changed my actual life—altering the course of long-standing illness, making it possible for me to stop living as a chronic-pain patient, restoring physical function and capacity, and allowing me to live a much fuller and more active life.
Between the two ends of the curve are people who will uncover a wide range of new-to-them information and discoveries. The significance of what we find will differ from person to person, based on their history, physiology, access to care and the differing depths of prior investigation. Even when it is not life-changing, I expect it to make a meaningful difference.
I can’t promise what we will find. But this Assessment isn’t built around the handful of things most likely to matter for the largest number of people. We are investigating you. What we look at is determined by your history, your symptoms, your records, and what we discover as we go.
I don’t have a magic wand. If I did, I’d use it. I’d make you feel better, give you back your capacity, and send you out to live the life you want to live.
But I can’t do that.
What I can do is bring everything I’ve learned through three decades of lived experience and from working with dozens of practitioners on my own health; everything I know to look for; and my systems-thinking lens to the investigation of your health—along with a commitment to bring all of it to your Assessment.
That’s what I can do for you.
And I will give it my very best.
To get to this point, you’ve taken a series of important steps.
The first was taking stock of the impact your current health is having on your life.
The second was deciding that the situation was no longer acceptable to you.
Along the way while reading this page, you’ve learned why complex health problems require the right kind of help—and why a thorough assessment provides the baseline information needed to develop a strategic, coherent, and effective plan for changing your health.
Each of our Assessments offers a real beginning—the point where searching for answers becomes a comprehensive investigation of the factors affecting your symptoms and health.
If this feels like the next natural step for you, this is where you can choose to enroll in one of the Roots & Wings Assessments.
To begin, choose the Assessment that best describes your needs below. The corresponding button will open a pre-addressed email identifying the Assessment you would like to begin. Once you send it, I will respond within 24 hours, during the business week, with availability and the next steps. Nothing will be scheduled or charged automatically.
Once payment is made, you will have three days to change your mind and receive a full refund, less any transfer fees. No documents related to the Assessment will be sent to you until after both payment is received and the recission period have passed.
Choose the Assessment That Describes Your Needs
Assessment Option 1
Roots & Wings
Systems & Symptom Assessment - $875
For people with long-standing, complex health concerns involving multiple persistent symptoms, diagnoses, or physiological systems — or significant effects on health, function, or quality of life.
The Systems & Symptom Assessment is a complete, stand-alone service. There is no requirement to continue into a Roots & Wings program.
Functional laboratory testing, when recommended and agreed upon, is additional.
Assessment Option 2
Roots & Wings
Emerging Symptoms Assessment - $875
For people experiencing declining health and symptoms over the past year, or who have not recovered from an illness, and who are struggling to maintain their usual work, family responsibilities, activities, and daily life.
The Emerging Symptoms Assessment is a complete, stand-alone service. There is no requirement to continue into a Roots & Wings program.
Functional laboratory testing, when recommended and agreed upon, is additional.
Not quite ready to choose an Assessment?
If you're not sure which Assessment fits your situation—or you'd simply prefer to talk before deciding—you can schedule a private consultation with Ellen.
45-Minute Consultation — $175
75-Minute Consultation — $225
If You Choose to Continue with Roots & Wings After Your Assessment,
How Would That Work?
The Assessment is the beginning. By the time it is complete, my expectation is that we will be sitting with a substantial amount of information about you, your health, and your physiology.
My intent is that you will come away with greater clarity and a better understanding of what may be causing or contributing to your symptoms, along with initial recommendations intended to help you decide what to do next.
You can take that information and move forward as a self-healer, or decide to continue working with Roots & Wings.
If you choose to continue working with us, that’s when assessment becomes strategy. We use the findings to develop a plan of action—sequencing what happens when, providing guidance for implementation, helping you stay the course, and monitoring and adjusting the plan as we move forward.
Depending on your situation, we would decide together whether the next step is to:
Enroll in The Roadmap to Renewed Health
Enroll in The Restorative Health and Reintegration Program
Work together on a consultation basis
Whichever ever form our work takes, our methodology remains the same: protect current capacity first. Then build from there on a timeline that works for you, your budget, and your particular physiology.