Areas of Expertise

Body Image and Maladaptive Eating Patterns

If you have battled with body image issues and want to be able to lose weight and keep it off for the rest of your life, I can help you achieve this goal.

Many people struggle with their relationship with food, and I lived that struggle for many years until I finally resolved what was at the emotional root of this issue. When we are infants, we learn to associate food with comfort. When we cry, we are held close to be nursed or given a warm bottle, which makes us feel safe, loved, and comforted. These early associations with food and comfort imprint upon our psyche, and as we age, we learn to use food to self-nurture. When we don’t get all of our emotional needs met through our developmental years, our dependence on food for comfort can become problematic, leading to unconscious eating patterns that may lead to binge eating and, for some people, a form of purging to attempt to undo the “damage" from the binge. Some people binge through exercise, others through use of laxatives or self-induced vomiting, all of which have a significant impact on health and hormone balance. This can be a difficult pattern to break and requires some in-depth exploration into the emotions that underly it.

I can help you explore the root cause of your maladaptive unconscious eating patterns and help you find more adaptive ways of self-soothing so you can be at peace with food and your body image. Once you develop an understanding of these issues, you can adopt more effective coping mechanisms and win the battle you’ve been fighting with yourself for years. Having worked through this issue, When I was dealing with this issue, I had a love-hate relationship with food and, once I worked through this, I found it liberating to be able to control my food cravings and have a “normal” relationship with food.

Having an intimate understanding of this struggle drove me to pursue education and training in the treatment of eating disorders so I could help clients normalize their relationship with food and make peace with their bodies. As a psychotherapist with education and training in nutrition and functional medicine, I am uniquely qualified to help you resolve this issue by addressing the physiological as well as the psychological issues involved in this complex problem. I would love to support you in your efforts to resolve your unhealthy relationship with food, free yourself of maladaptive eating patterns, and be at peace with your image in the mirror.

Improving Brain Health

If you have read my story on this website, you know that, In the past,I struggled with brain impairment caused by toxic mold.

This caused dramatically slowed cognitive processing, significant brain fatigue, and affected my executive functioning, which involves being able to attend and focus, reason and make sound judgements, manage time, and plan and organize or multitask. I struggled with depression and anxiety as a result of this mold illness and genetic factors that impacted my immune system’s inability to produce antibodies against the mold and my body’s inability to detoxify the mold. As with all of life’s challenges, there are always lessons to be learned. What I have learned about the science of neuroplasticity has been invaluable, because I’ve been able to recover from my brain dysfunction and know how to manage the “dirty genes” I was born with by ensuring I am consuming the nutritional cofactors that allow me to support the function of those genes. I also possess the APO4 gene that predisposes me to dementia and I have learned what I have to do to turn off the expression of this gene.

You can be a beneficiary of what I’ve learned from this experience. If you are struggling with brain function, whether it expresses in the form of ADD, anxiety, mood issues, or you are struggling with cognitive deficits related to head injuries or the aging process, I can teach you what you need to do to keep it functioning optimally. If you have noticed that your brain isn’t working as well as it once did, you may be struggling with neuroinflammation that is contributing to neurodegeneration from age-related cognitive decline or a hidden toxin that is affecting your neurological system and brain function. Take heart in knowing that there is something that can be done to improve your brain function. Be aware that if there is “a point of no return” with neurodegeneration. If you allow yourself to pass that point of no return,” you will not find your way back, and your brain will continue down the path of neurodegeneration to the point of receiving a diagnosis of dementia or Parkinson’s disease. These cognitive decrements will not show up on an MRI until your brain is so debilitated that you have passed the "point of no return.” So early intervention is key to keeping neurodegeneration at bay. Remember that brain deterioration is NOT a normal part of the aging process despite what some health care practitioners may tell you. You can keep your brain functioning well if you are willing to commit to protecting it with adequate nutrition and a brain-healthy lifestyle.

Impact of genetics on your emotional and physical health

You may understand that there is a genetic component to your mental and physical health symptoms because your family members have experienced similar symptoms, but you may not know that you can control how your genes are expressed.

There are specific genes that influence your susceptibility to heart disease and diabetes or mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, mood swings, or attention deficits. If you are willing to do a Strategene® genetic test, which involves sending in a saliva sample for lab analysis, I will show you precisely how your genetics influence your physical and emotional health. When I have this information, it eliminates guesswork based on symptoms, which allows me to develop a wellness protocol that will allow you to “clean” your genes so they will function properly to support your health and happiness.

Dr. Ben Lynch, the genetic specialist who wrote the book Dirty Genes, designed this StrateGene® test because he felt the other genetic tests on the market were lacking key information to explain how genetics influence health. He describes "dirty genes" as genes that are not functioning the way they need to for our bodies and brains to function optimally. We may be born with a "dirty genes," or our genes may become dirty as a result of poor dietary or lifestyle habits. For many, understanding that genetics plays a role in their lifetime struggle with depression, anxiety, and attentional deficits is enlightening. They can stop berating themselves for not feeling happy, calm and focused every day and learn how to manage these symptoms through nutrition and lifestyle changes. When you look at your StrateGene® genetic report, you will recognize that these symptoms are the result of “dirty genes” that are not functioning optimally because the nutritional cofactors that allow your genes to function optimally in your methylation cycle are missing. Supplying these cofactors through diet and supplementation can make a major difference in the way you feel physically, emotionally, and mentally, which results in an improved self-concept.

If you are interested in exploring your genetics further, click here for more information and to order the StrateGene® test.

Toxic Mold Illness

Toxic mold exposure can destroy health, especially in those who have the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA-DR) gene, because possessing this gene means your immune system is not able to make the antigens to respond appropriately to this toxin by binding for elimination from the body.

The mycotoxins from mold often cause chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS). Having your body inhabited by mold causes widespread inflammation in the body, affecting multiple organ systems, which can cause any of the following symptoms:

• Extreme chronic fatigue

• Brain impairment, memory and attention deficits - ranging from mild brain fog to severe cognitive impairment

• Depression, anxiety, and mood swings

• Headaches

• Muscle aches and joint pain

• Digestive issues inflammatory bowel symptoms

• Respiratory symptoms- chronic cough and sinus issues

• Light sensitivity

• Static shocks

• Vertigo

• Sugar and carb cravings

• Fungal (candida yeast) infections

• Excessive thirst and frequent urination

• Metallic taste in the mouth

• Body temperature dysregulation (feeling too hot or too cold)

• Mast cell activation causing symptoms in the following organ systems:

  • Skin: itching, flushing, hives

  • Eyes: Itchy or watery eyes

  • Nose: sneezing, or runny nose

  • Mouth and throat: itching, swelling of the tongue, lips, or throat

  • Lungs: difficulty breathing, wheezing

  • Heart and blood vessels: low blood pressure, rapid heart rate

  • Stomach and intestines: nausea, cramping, diarrhea, constipation

  • Nervous system: extreme fatigue, headache, dizziness, confusion

As a result of my own experience with a toxic mold illness, I have learned a great deal from environmental toxicologists and functional medicine specialists who specialize in mold testing and detoxification. If you have had a long-term mold exposure and have genetic variants that impede your detoxification pathways to allow for excretion of these toxins, mold has likely colonized in your body. Colonized mold will live and grow in your body’s tissues, continuing to wreak havoc with your health, until you have taken the necessary steps to support your detoxification pathways and taken substances that will effectively bind and eliminate from it from your body. Due to the fact that mold is protected from destruction in the body by biofilms, which is an extracellular matrix of polysaccharides, proteins, lipids and DNA, it is not easily eradicated. Mold detoxification is not a quick or easy process and requires a high degree of commitment on your part if you hope to rid yourself of this life-destroying toxin to fully recover your health.

Book a complimentary call today! Email: val@synergyhealthsolutions.net or Call: 239-260-1978