There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
At some point, those of us who become chronically ill begin to fear we’ve been
irreparably broken by our illness.
Before we begin to improve, we are no longer the same, and others — may see us differently, too. Over time, we come to realize we aren’t irreparably shattered; we’re just cracked and bruised.
I know — it’s awful to be in that state. But let me tell you: You are not ready for the dustbin yet. When you allow change in, those cracks can open to new ways of thinking, coping, prioritizing, and being — and that’s what brings improvement.
Healing doesn’t mean returning to who you were. It means discovering who you can still become.
Roots & Wings Assessment Phase 1 & 2
PHASE I
The R&W Assessment is extra- ordinarily comprehensive. It blends an in-depth health history, detailed questionnaires, and a series of focused screeners that help identify factors frequently missed or underestimated, yet deeply influential to physical health.
When appropriate, it can also include functional lab testing that conventional medicine often overlooks.
Through a combination of my lived experience, compassion, and FDN training, you’ll gain clarity about what’s happening in your body and a clearer sense of possible steps moving forward.
PHASE 2
In the functional wellness world, we say, “Test, don’t guess”.
Many people with chronic illness or persistent symptoms have been told that everything looks normal — even when they don’t feel well. Thoughtful testing can bring long-overdue validation and insight.
Optional functional testing is highly recommended when it’s financially feasible. In addition to providing valuable data that helps guide our work together, testing creates a documented record over time — something many clients would find helpful if they later chose to work with additional practitioners or need to escalate care.
Phase 1 & 2 Results & Recommendations
Your Roots & Wings Assessment — and any optional lab testing — come together in a clear written summary of findings.
This overview will reflect what your history and responses suggest about how your body is currently functioning, and where patterns or imbalances may be showing up.
Once you have this information, you’ll have a clearer sense of your potential next steps — whether that means seeking further evaluation with a medical specialist, beginning a self-directed path of your own choosing, or continuing with me through the Roots & Wings Mystery Illness Solution, a six-month program designed to support stability first, followed by restoration, stability, and a gradual transition toward long-term recovery from complex or chronic illness.
Because healing isn’t a one-size-fits all, The Mystery Illness Solution offers flexible ways to work together —so you can choose the pace, structure, and level of support that fit your needs right now.
Mystery Illness Solution by Program
For those ready to move forward without delay, this structured 18-week program provides a clear, start-to-clearly-improving roadmap.
We begin with your Roots & Wings Assessment and any functional testing, then move through the personalized protocols that address nutrition, lifestyle, and targeted support.
You’ll receive bi-weekly sessions, education, and accountability designed to help you make consistent progress week by week.
Mystery Illness Solution by Appointment on Your Timeline
If you prefer to move at your own pace or need flexibility, you can complete the same program content through individual appointments scheduled around your timeline.
This approach gives you space between sessions to integrate what you’ve learned and return for guidance when you’re ready for the next step. It’s ideal for those balancing ongoing health challenges or other life responsibilities.
Roots & Wings Customized Program
The customized program is meant to focus on a clearly defined concern, such as improving digestive function after a specific disruption (for example, travel or extended antibiotics for Lyme treatment) or restoring physiological regulation after illness, injury, or a significant life event.
Together, we’ll design a shorter, personalized plan that’s flexible and geared toward restoring functional resilience — while reflecting the same care and clarity that define Roots & Wings.
What is the Mystery Illness Solution?
The Mystery Illness Solution is my Signature Program. Not all I do for sure. This program is the purest and most complete support for certain people. I developed it drawing on deep personal experience with chronic illness which initiated with pregnancy and tickborne disease.
Because of the sheer number of factors involved in my recovery, it took 27 years for me to be pain free. That involved no less than thirty or forty different practitioners and physicians along the way to gather the pieces I needed to recover. Fortunately, I am able to take what I learned along the way to help you and others in a remarkably more timely way.
This program was structured with great intentionality for a very specific type of client: people who live with significant daily pain, debilitating exhaustion and weakness, and as a result — overall misery. They also struggle with the inability to sleep and marked brain fog. Their lives have been adversely impacted to the extent they may no longer be able, or at least struggle — to go to work, maintain a home, manage their families, or participate in social or community life. The impacts are personal, physical and financial. These clients may or may not have a known cause or diagnosis, hence the inclusion in the name — “mystery illness”.
The Mystery Illness Solution is structured as a roadmap with particular activities and named milestones and mini-milestones along the way to improved health status. We start assuming it will be a six-month program, understanding that because each client’s case is bio-individual in nature, the timeframe could take more or less time.
What does this mean? No two people are sick in exactly the same way, or will respond or function in the exact same way to the same protocols, inputs or changes; thus, the time it takes to heal will differ for each person. I am trauma aware and no client will be expected to move along the roadmap any faster than their body and decision-making ability will allow.
Comprehensive functional assessments to uncover hidden stressors and imbalances that affect the body’s operating systems and affect your ability to function adequately during your day.
The Roots & Wings Assessment, includes a very detailed health history, questionnaires, and focused screeners. This is our starting place, and after your completion, I will spend several hours reviewing your information before our first appointment to know as much about you as I can.
If you are unable to perform this assessment easily (dyslexia or unable to sit at a computer, read and easily comprehend because of brain fog), I will interview you in as many short sessions as are necessary to fill out the assessment so that I can obtain the information and develop a working plan for your healing path.
You will receive a written Summary of Findings based on the R&W Assessment highlighting patterns, priorities, and areas of concern
Personalized recovery protocols that address both rebuilding your functional wellness foundations and the findings of your Roots & Wings Assessment and your functional lab test results. These will be reviewed monthly.
Protocols as used by me means a deliberately sequenced set of supportive actions, introduced in a specific order and adjusted over time, based on how the body responds.
There will be recovery-oriented protocols regarding nutrition, lifestyle interventions, nervous system support, and supplementation as appropriate. Do not be intimidated. It sounds like a lot — but that is the point: to get you as many actions in place as it requires to get you largely functioning again. We will go at a pace that works for you, no matter or fast or slow that may be.
You will receive guidance on which functional tests I recommend given the assessment results and your symptoms. When finances interfere, I will default to recommending which tests would likely yield the most useful information regarding your physiology and functioning. You will receive a written report of results. Updated protocols will be created to integrate the lab testing results if required. As we gather information over the six months, I will continue to advise you if you would benefit from additional testing.
Skills-based support for operating daily life with depleted or fragile health. This includes practical, compassionate guidance for navigating daily tasks, decision-making, pacing, communication, and self-care when energy, cognition, or physical capacity are limited. We will work together on strategies for conserving energy, reducing overwhelm, setting realistic expectations, and adapting daily life so that healing can occur without constant crisis or collapse. This support meets you where you are, while gently helping you build the skills needed to move forward as your situation and capacity change over time.
A full schedule of appointments spanning the six months including weekly appointments the first months, and no less than two appointments per month thereafter.
Anyone needing more contact will have increased access in short appointment form as requested by you or me. The goal is to create familiarity and comfort with both me and our process so you can best understand and internalize the changes necessary to get you to improved health. Social isolation is the enemy. I plan to be there.
Monthly review of all ongoing actions and supports to be on top of what is working, what is not, what needs to be removed, and what needs to be added in as your pacing improves, and noting milestones as wins.
Ongoing reinforcement of our program’s key concepts, protocols, and lifestyle interventions so the information we convey is understood and retained long-term. I want you to get the value of your investment. Think of it like a bit of an owner’s manual. What you learn will be key to a more functional and enjoyable life not just now, but always — which is why we’ll repeat things as often as we can.
Curated educational resources and self-care tools tailored to your individual needs. This includes access to my FullScript apothecary with a 15% discount so you never pay full price again.
Clear written summaries and updates over time, so clients have a coherent, portable record of what’s been explored, what’s helping, and why certain decisions were made — useful for personal reference or future care.
Facebook Group support of varying types:
My belief around Facebook Groups is that for my client population, I want a protected space curated entirely by me. My experience in groups is that I have usually left because they are often full of others in despair, angry, or a free-for-all of well meant but often inappropriate advice when left to the group members. This group will function to offer the following:
Monday morning check-ins. I want to know who needs help or support of any type. An answer to a question. Encouragement. Clarification on your protocol. Etc.
Twice weekly office hours: Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons for an hour or so. You will be able to ask questions. If privacy is required, we default to a quick phone call right then
Educational posts - Reinforcement and repetition of key concepts. Few people retain information they hear only once, so I accept responsibility to help you retain it.
Educational posts - Things I find interesting and you may too.
Motivational posts - I seek things every day that reinforce my motivation and I will share these with you from time to time.
Cooking posts from me personally - Chronically ill people can often use all the encouragement and motivation they can get to eat sufficiently and well. I aim to be a gentle model. I always try to focus on things being beautiful and on nutrient density.
That said, what is included in the Mystery Illness Solution?
Deciding What Comes Next…
Decision-making can be difficult, especially when you don’t feel well and you’re always exhausted. In this case, the potential rewards — while not guaranteed — can be both obvious and significant: — a reduction in your uncomfortable symptoms and an incremental increase in your ability to function — to do more and more over the next six months to a year, and beyond. So the first question is whether you want improvement enough to take the next step. That’s decision #1.
Having been where you are, I can tell you that improved health is worth having… I have enough confidence in my process to say that if you do the work, complete the R&W Assessment, do the lab work, follow the recommended protocols, stay consistent with the recommendations — improved health will follow. If you don’t do the work, and you’ve been ill a long time, there will likely be no change. So decision #2 is this: Do you want change badly enough, are you motivated enough — to both reach out and commit to doing the work.
Some people begin with the Roots & Wings Assessment to specifically gain clarity and direction.
Others choose the Mystery Illness Solution right from the start because they value the continuity of a complete, start-to-finish program that:
Takes them seamlessly from the initial discussion or appointment regarding their main complaints,
Progresses through the Roots & Wings Assessment
Phases 1 & 2,Moves into Results and Recommendations based on discovery,
Continues through the integrated six-month program, including targeted nutrition, assessment and lab-guided supplementation, and lifestyle guidance and support.
Provides ongoing coaching and protocol monitoring and revision as necessary.
Includes optional Facebook Group support and office hours for questions, a sense of personal connection, and encouragement.
When you’ve been living with ongoing symptoms for a long time, uncertainty itself can keep your nervous system on high alert — making rest, sleep, and recovery feel out of reach. Choosing a thoughtful path forward can be the first thing that allows your body to exhale — and begin resting again.
Are you ready to begin your Roots & Wings journey?
A compassionate, guided process for discovering root causes, finding solution, restoring balance, and awakening your body’s capacity to heal and thrive?
Click below to schedule your complimentary 20-minute Discovery Call. We’ll talk about your main concerns and decide together if this program is the right fit for you.