Hi, I’m Holly. I was a health counselor and social worker before I learned about Environmental Illness first hand.
Like for many people, there was a certain point when it became obvious that my conventionally-trained doctors did not understand enough to help me. I travelled around the world for 6 years in my twenties. I picked up one tick-borne illness in Nepal, another one in Australia. I got sick so many times in China and Nepal that I lost count. Every time I got sick, I recovered, but not quite all the way.
When I moved back to the United States in 1999, I had a few years of relative vitality in Maine before I started having regular bouts of unexplained illness in 2002. In hindsight, I can now see that my immune system faltered when my genetic vulnerability to mold became activated by tick-borne illness. I managed until 2015, when I crashed completely.
My car was moldy, so was the school I went to for my MSW, so was my house, my boyfriend’s house and the agency where I was hired. Eventually I couldn’t even tolerate the outdoor air in Maine and had to move to the desert. I could not heal until I understood the mechanism of action. Now I know.
Since the brain is an exquisitely sensitive reflection of your overall health, it becomes the perfect tool for “biohacking.” For me, this has meant using functional medicine to understand the mechanisms that create sensations or symptoms.
Insomnia can have many causes, for example. Is it hormonal? Histaminergic? Parasympathetic Nervous System dysregulation? (In my case, it was all three.) I needed to understand each of the actions and pull apart the layers, one by one, in order to heal.
I became certified as a health coach specifically in the Bredesen Program because this functional medicine approach is what worked for me. Only by understanding the mechanisms of action can we change the expression.
The challenges in the Type 3 Toxic profile are the same challenges in Environmental Medicine.
Understanding how to heal through these challenges is my unique skill set. It combines an understanding of the functional medicine lens (systems thinking) with behavioral-change science, as well as a deeper dive into the transcendental realm of what makes your life meaningful. The more you are aligned with your essential nature, the deeper the well you have to draw from in order to heal. And real healing involves more than just restoration the physical body. Complex illness are like going on a Hero’s Journey.
Here is more about my journey.
2007– Graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition a Health Counselor.
2007-2015– Worked as a Holistic Health and Nutrition Counselor with individuals, groups and businesses in Maine.
2011– Certification as an Empowerment Life Coach by the Empowerment Institute
2015– Graduated cum laude with a Masters in Social Work
2016–2018– attended “Mold Avoidance University,” a euphemism for learning the ropes of avoiding mold in order to heal.
2018– Joined the International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illnesses ISEAI.org
February 2019– Became certified through the Institute for Functional Medicine in Dr. Bredesen’s first Reversal of Cognitive Decline (ReCoDe) Training for clinicians.
March 2021– Became certified in Dr. Bredesen’s Apollo Health’s ReCoDe 2.0 training for clinicians.
What’s it like to work with Holly? This is what they said.
Contact me to learn more about whether I can be of service to you.
