Our Process
In this section, you can read about what you can expect if you choose to work with us. Our process is not a quick fix and it is not for everyone! Functional Medicine is for the person that is willing to do the work to make KEY and SPECIFIC changes in their diet and lifestyle in order to feel better. Our role is to help you to figure out just what YOU need to do to bring your body back into balance.
Before your first appointment:
Our practitioners will work with you to develop a complete medical history. Practitioners are trained on how to unravel a complicated and intertwining story into a coherent picture. Generally, clues in the story lead to the identification of key imbalances. We ask our prospective patients to complete a 39-page online intake questionnaire and electronically send all relevant medical records before their first visit. We are a HIPAA compliant organization that utilizes electronic records. Our practitioners will carefully put that information on a timeline before they even meet you.
When we meet:
The initial consultation will be a two hour session. If you are already taking supplements, please bring the containers with you so we can look at the ingredients. Prior review of your records will have generated many questions in the mind of the practitioners. The appointment is used to gather more information to fill the gaps in the history and discover when the perfect storm(s) occurred in your life. We will create a treatment plan to reverse the conditions created by those perfect storm(s).
After our first meeting:
A few days after the first meeting, you will receive a comprehensive and personal treatment plan. This plan often recommends diet and lifestyle modifications, testing, and supplements, when indicated. We have had patients who resolved their conditions simply by adopting dietary changes. We have also had patients who required multiple rounds of testing, treatment and evaluation to get to the root cause of their complaints. This can require as little as six weeks or as long as two years, and every situation is different. Typically patients report feeling improvements in eight weeks.
Long term:
We will meet periodically to monitor your progress and make changes as we learn more about your specific situation. We recommend that we meet monthly at first, but the frequency will depend on the situation. We will send you a Pre-Appointment Form before each follow-up appointment. Complete this ahead of time to make the best use of your scheduled appointment time. We appreciate you updating your list of supplements and citing your top three concerns. Many patients feel that their problems are resolved after six months and transition to occasional consultations for maintenance. Our practitioners are committed to the long term wellbeing of our patients and will be happy to help as life derailments come your way.