Where do you even start?
Roots & Wings for Renewed Health —
A Holistic/Functional Medicine Practice for Complex Chronic Illness
Please allow me to introduce Roots & Wings for Renewed Health, a small holistic and functional medicine practice with a sole practitioner and where you are assured of being seen, heard and believed.
Roots & Wings exists for one reason and only one reason: To help people get from where they are health-wise today — to a better quality of life with decreased symptoms, increased capacity, and a greater ability to participate in life.
The primary characteristic of complex chronic illness is that there is so much going on. Not only multiple symptoms, but many — sometimes dozens. Often many diagnoses, but not enough answers or guidance to get things reversed. The overwhelm and barriers to help can be staggering.
The medical system as we know it simply is not built to deal with chronic illness. To get help, you may have to go outside of the medical system, and opt in to radical self-care under the guidance of an experienced non-medical practitioner.
That’s where I come in.
Decision Making With a Map
Everything feels difficult when you have chronic illness. For many, just when it’s time to make serious decisions they are handicapped by chronic pain, exhaustion, insomnia, gut issues and because they feel so bad, they are really concerned that something has been missed by their doctors.
I’ve made this map of the decision making process related to specifically chronic illness.
In-person and remote options
Our office is conveniently located in Manhattan. A place to gather, grow, and reconnect.
Our Services
Explore our range of services designed to help you move forward with confidence, wherever you're headed next.
Meet the Founder and Some Composite Clients
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![Photo of Ellen Nicholas]()
Ellen Kennedy Nicholas
FOUNDER - ROOTS & WINGS FOR RENEWED HEALTH
After taking 27 years to “mostly” recover from what after the fact turned out to be the very definition of Complex Chronic Illness, Ellen created a small practice designed to respond solely to clients with complex chronic illness. Her goal is to help clients -
![A picture of a confident restauranteur]()
Tomas, 64
RESTAURANT AND BUSINESS OWNER
Tomas has spent most of his adult life in the restaurant business. Long days have always been part of the deal. So have early mornings, late nights, time on his feet, lifting, rushing, problem-solving, and handling whatever the day throws at him. Fourteen- and sixteen-hour days never felt unusual to him. Now he’s thinking he’s not as tough as he used to be and he may have to sell the restaurant.
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![An exhausted mother sitting on park bench waiting for her children to finish their Little League game]()
Claire, 45
WOMAN - MEMBER OF THE SANDWICH GENERATION
Claire builds websites for clients while raising two active children and keeping an increasingly close eye on her aging parents. Lately, she looks for shortcuts she never used to need. Their dinner comes from takeout more often than not. She hasn’t had time to get a haircut in months, so her hair is always pulled back in a ponytail. She describes herself as not knowing what to do to help herself and too exhausted to figure it out. Chronic pain, migraines and insomnia are taking her out. -
![A beautiful, serene woman artfully posed]()
Maya, 34
COLLEGE PROFESSOR
Maya completed her doctorate and found her dream job in the Hudson Valley several years ago. She teaches at a well-regarded college in the Hudson Valley. She hikes often with friends, goes into the city, travels, works long days when she needs to.Over the past six months she hasn’t been able to sleep well and she has bad headaches several times a week. It’s affecting her work. Her feet hurt enough that she has stopped hiking and going into the city, and she skips the gym more than she goes because her body hurts. She’s been to the doctor who ruled out Lyme. Now what?
