Functional Medicine Practitioner’s role is often described and defined as an approach to optimising health and wellbeing, by looking beyond diagnosing and managing disease conditions and focussing on the whole person.

The emphasis is on assessing and understanding how the body and its system of systems is functioning and creating changes and strategies from there. Rather than treating the condition itself.

If we can understand how these systems, tissues, organs and glands of the body are working and enhance their performance then the vitality of the whole body can be impacted greatly.

The “Root Cause” is often cited in Functional Medicine. But it is more effective and powerful to focus on the ‘drivers’ as making claims of identifying actual ‘root causes’ is actually quite misleading. Yes we are absolutely looking for the drivers, the mechanisms and the reasons ‘why’ we are experiencing the health challenges, but it is important to not portray a modality like this as mystical or a miracle-cure.

At the Functional Health Clinic we value being a Functional Medicine Practitioner as one of our most pioneering and important modalities. We have been utilising Functional Medicine with our clients since 2012, so we have been privileged to observe it’s rise to prominence within health care and wellbeing.

As a Functional Medicine Practitioner we will work with you to help you understand why you feel the way you feel and what you can do about it!

And that can certainly be a process. Hopefully one that is as smooth and simple as it can be. But we are here to guide you through.

The remarkable role of a functional medicine practitioner in this process is the ability to leverage the insight and assessment into how the body is working. The capacity to go beyond the guesswork and find out how we are digesting food, what is causing inflammation, the balance of our hormones, function of the liver and kidneys, nutrient status, toxic burden and more is quite phenomenal.

So our job first and foremost is to guide you in leveraging and deciding what and how to assess the body and it’s various systems and functions.

1 – Understanding Functional Health – A Functional Medicine Practitioner appreciates that you are a system of systems.  Getting a basic understanding as to how these are all linked is a powerful step towards empowering your own health:

As a Functional Medicine Practitioner, the principles of FM are an integral part of my approach.

At the Functional Health Clinic we coach a Health Restoration process.  A system that brings the modalities of Functional Medicine together with Nutrition, Movement and Bodywork.

It’s not just what you do, it’s HOW and WHY you do it!

As with every profession and methodology – you won’t actually find any two functional medicine practitioners the same.  Consequently, I know some who run many diagnostics and then recommend many supplements to fix the dysfunctions.  In contrast, I know others who run minimal testing and work only on the basics of nutrition and lifestyle to get results.

Each to their own and in my opinion, as all these approaches have value.  This emphasises that it is not about what methodology you are using but how you are interpreting and applying it to the individual.

Remember – keep the focus on the individual [You] – not just the method, test report, or practitioner. At the Functional Health Clinic we work hard to maintain the person and their health goals as the priority!