A Glimpse Into Holistic Mental Health Counseling: Interview Transcripts:

Hello everyone my name is Christina Stapke, I’m a registered dietitian nutritionist so the focus in integrative and functional medicine and I’m here with Nicole O’Hare today for an interview that we’re going to do together and  it’s called a glimpse into the world of holistic health or holistic mental health counseling so I’m really excited about this interview because  Nicole and I are really aligned in kind of how we practice and how we feel that healthcare should be so I’m really excited to introduce her she is a licensed professional counselor and she’s passionate about helping her clients achieve fulfillment and satisfaction in their daily lives.

She’s completed the Gottman method couples therapy level 3 training and that allows her to provide tools on helping couples communicate effectively and transform their relationships she’s also completed advanced certification process to become a mental health integrative medicine provider and that really offers a more holistic and integrative approach to  help clients achieve optimal health and  and wellness while preventing common health problems so Nicole thanks so much for being here from you’re in sunny Arizona right now it’s now currently raining here in Seattle.

Yeah thanks so much for doing this with me I’m really excited well thanks so much for having me I think that Arizona could absolutely use some rain right now we are in our biggest longest streak of over 100 degrees and something like 147 days we broke record  but on a positive note we are cooling down this weekend and we are going to be hitting the 70s possibly 80s so we’re excited here in Arizona for cooler weather nice yeah I love how 70s and 80s is cooler yeah I love it so  I would love anyone that’s tuning in or  yeah either watching or listening if you could like or comment or share  and then if you have any questions you can go ahead and pop them in the chat and we can get to them  as soon as we can. 

Tell us a little bit about kind of what you do and what your holistic counseling practice is like

Sure thanks Christina for the introduction I am a licensed professional counselor in Arizona and I also do have a advanced certification in what is called a certified mental health integrative medicine provider sort of a mouthful but what that means is that I am really looking to help clients on a therapy side but also on a more integrative and holistic side I’ve also completed Gottman level three so I do love working with couples.

I also like working with couples where one partner might have a diagnosis of autoimmune and how that changed their relationship or how that’s changed their partnership and being able to incorporate that into  into therapy and so I kind of look at a comprehensive of what’s going on with the client what’s going on with the couple is there a diagnosis of autoimmune and what that looks like as far as their relationship goes  I do own a practice in chandler and  I’m currently doing all of my sessions even my Gottman sessions  online through telehealth and that is probably going to continue  through next year.

 Just because I work with a population that is high risk and  and so you know being able to  be available for clients through telehealth has been a great alternative especially for those who you know don’t want to leave their house or afraid of what might happen and so I’m able to do to tele health with them and really it’s been it’s been so nice being able to still be available during a global pandemic just a little bit about what you know certified integrative mental health and then also the Gottman piece and then the holistic and integrative and I love to just tie it all together  and support my client in an overall  a healthier and a better well-being.

I love that and I think it’s  so cool because  focusing on supporting people’s mental health with a chronic disease and autoimmune disease specifically is so needed like I don’t I don’t see that very often and I think it’s really awesome that you also do couples therapy with people with autoimmune disease because you know I don’t know what the percentage of people with autoimmune diseases these days I’m sure it’s you know the number out there is way lower than what is actually you know true because it’s you know becoming so common so I love that you do that.  

So tell us a little bit about kind of what got you into this field and what kind of made you decide to focus on kind of more holistic therapy

I love this question because yeah I get asked this all the time like what made you decide on doing more of a holistic approach and  about 10 years ago I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and I’m very transparent with my clients especially when it comes to autoimmune because I think it’s really important to  you know create awareness around autoimmune condition and how that affects  how that affects you mentally how that affects you physically.

I was diagnosed 10 years ago but actually I knew something was going on in my body I just know and I hear that from clients all the time like I knew something was happening  but I was not diagnosed I think it took about I would say about a year two years into my journey and so that’s two years of not feeling good.

I was sleepy all the time I was experiencing rapid weight gain and I had I had a bouts of like anxiety and bouts of depression which was not something I had experienced ever in my life  and at that point I was going into grad school so I knew I wanted to be a therapist but I also knew that something was happening and I really needed to get my symptoms under control so I had gone the traditional route with being an endocrinologist said you are absolutely fine you just need to work out you just need to lose weight and you will be absolutely fine you’re too young to have any issues at all so I left there and thought okay well you know maybe I do need to work out at that point I was working out about five or six days a week so I thought maybe I need to work out two times a day six days a week and I need to hit cardio and I need to decrease my  food intake and so it really created this unhealthy relationship with food and exercise and I was really at a at a boiling point.

I would say to where somebody had suggested why don’t you try working with a functional medicine provider as well as a naturopathic doctor and I thought cool okay I need to really try this because I’m in grad school I’ve got to get things under control I cannot continue at this rate I then work very closely with a naturopathic provider here in Arizona I believe she has an office in Tempe and it was through extensive blood work that we found Hashimoto’s and then later on found some other things that were going on as well and those in the autoimmune community know that you get stacking diagnosis  and so it took it was a very long journey.

I also would say that I felt very gaslighted by my doctors who said you know might be psychosomatic it’s you just need to lose weight  and so during my grad school program I started to feel a little bit better but I was still very much struggling with fatigue  and it was it was just it was really unhealthy and so I ended up looking into going into therapy and especially as a grad student I wanted to know what I wanted to know what therapy was about and I had a great therapist but they had no idea about autoimmune condition it was cognitive behavioral therapy and we’re just going to breathe and you know your symptoms will be fine which works but if your hormones are significantly off you are in this constant state of fight, flight or freeze so your body is  yeah you may be able to breathe and meditate but if the body and the hormones are off and they’re not balanced.

Appropriately breathing is going to be great it’s just not going to be enough  and so that really  got me interested in how can I as a therapist support somebody with an autoimmune condition and what can I do to continue my education to combine both worlds  and be able to do therapy but also be able to integrate okay I want to know what’s happening within their body and want to know biologically what are we looking at that could prevent a client from such as myself being able to really utilize you utilize the tools and they may not be working because there’s actually health barriers that we need to take into consideration so that is sort of a long-winded version of my journey into why I decided to first continue on in my graduate program and become independently licensed but also really be able to incorporate a more natural approach a more integrative approach where I’m looking at supplements and diet and nutrition how that is all going to affect an individual who may be experiencing depress depression and anxiety but we need to look at everything that’s going on in their internal systems to be able to  provide a treatment plan that’s going to work exclusively for autoimmune conditions and more so even like thyroid issue is a big focus for me yeah no thanks for thanks for sharing that history.

I mean I think we  yeah we share a lot of common history there I actually have Hashimoto’s as well and yeah I kind of got the same thing from doctors is like oh you’re probably just stressed or you’re probably depressed you know like all these all these kind of bs answers that I wasn’t happy with so but the fact that you persisted because I mean you weren’t feeling well and so you advocated for yourself and then yeah finally found this field that’s like oh my gosh it’s about actually understanding root causes and it’s such it’s such a game changer.

I think it’s awesome that you also saw later on that it was you know from a mental health standpoint doing the basic strategies were not enough because yeah if your biochemistry is off then it’s going to be hard to feel better just at least in the long term with those kinds of strategies so yeah thanks so much for sharing that so I mean through your experience kind of seeing patients over the years what have you noticed the biggest struggles people face with autoimmune conditions in particular so I would say like the biggest struggles  that I see clients face is really being able to find  find a doctor that  is willing to do the extensive blood work willing to do allergy testing willing to willing to look at  you know a lot of their blood work like over a course of time not just at one sitting right and not just that one time oh your blood work looks fine and so I think you know the biggest challenge for clients is they know something is wrong they know something’s not right in their body and they go and go see a doctor go see an endocrinologist and endocrinologist says no you’re fine you just you need to you know change your diet and so what happens then is the client starts to feel super defeated they start to feel like they’re being gaslit.

They start to you know question them themselves and question what’s happening in their body and so become the challenge on knowing something is wrong and not having a roadmap to figure out how like how to even start how to even heal if you don’t have any answers  and so is really a big challenge for clients who have insurance and they want to use their insurance and I want them to use their insurance that’s what it’s there for and however endocrinologist is going to typically say the same thing and so we need to do like naturopathic care where there’s going to be a bigger focus on not just the symptom but how the client is actually feeling right.

So I hear a lot of times the challenge for our clients is my doctor said my numbers are perfectly fine right where they need to be right your numbers are great how do you feel right so you’re falling within range this beautiful you’re falling within range we love that we love when you fall in range how do you feel and so that’s a challenge for clients for clients for patients to be able to say you know where do I start where do I go what do I do because I know I need help and you know I’ve seen multiple doctors and I keep getting the same thing my suggestion is always to let’s find a naturopathic doctor that’s going to take the time to get you to a point where your numbers are great but you feel better like you feel like you are not  sleeping 20 hours a day  and you feel maybe a better version of yourself with a diagnosis because sometimes there’s that confusion of I just want to feel like I did before.

I hear that and it’s so hard to hear that because you know a big part of that is there you might not feel like you did before but you can definitely feel a lot better than you do now  and I think that’s a really important piece when working with clients from that sort of that mental health aspect is like the acceptance piece on what their diagnosis  so the biggest challenge is really fine like helping a client or a patient guide them in where to start where do we start first and what do we do first right yeah so really finding a practitioner that will you know dive into things you know assess lab work critically also kind of correlating it with how they’re feeling  you know for those of you watching.

I mean in a standard doctor’s office typically for example let’s use thyroid as an example since we’re we’ve been talking about that I mean the one indicator that they use to assess your thyroid health doesn’t really tell us a whole lot it’s I always tell my clients it’s like you know one piece of a maybe six to seven piece puzzle so you know you could be feeling really badly and your thyroid could be really off and again just one example but your numbers could look totally fine so yeah finding someone that will look at that those labs critically and kind of  yeah understand where you’re as far as the biggest myths go about autoimmune conditions.

A Glimpse Into Holistic Mental Health Counseling: Interview Transcripts: Tell us a little bit about that and kind of what you’ve seen in practice

I think that’s always evolving like what is the biggest myth if we’re talking like don’t know if we’re talking  you know if we’re going to stick to maybe even that would it the biggest myth that I would see is that  and this you know this self-report right so this what clients are sharing is that they are not doing enough they’re not doing enough they’re not working out enough they’re not eating well enough there’s always that enough right so if so now if I switch which roles what I’m thinking as a therapist that word enough is going to is going to cause shame for a client it’s going to cause like guilt for a client I’m not doing enough perhaps I might not be good enough right so if we’re taking that therapy that therapy piece in when that when they may be doing everything in their power everything that they can possibly do to feel better and it’s not working because their numbers might be off so the biggest myth is well you need to  do intermittent fasting or you need to do a calorie deficit and only eat 500 calories or you need to work out.

You know six days a week for you know an hour every day and the client’s doing that the clients like I’m doing that and I’m not just sitting on the couch you know not doing anything eating junk food and filling my body with crap I’m doing everything I can you go back again to their numbers look their numbers are within range but what else is happening in the body we need to look comprehensively  is there inflammation is there an infection in the body are they experiencing you know multiple diagnosis that’s not being tested so if we look you know if we look at from like a myth perspective is there’s usually clients coming in saying I’ve really tried everything I’m at a breaking point I’m trying everything it’s not working and my doctor says I’m not doing enough and it’s so hard to hear because you know they’re real it really is one of those things where if and if then if the numbers are in range that’s what the doctor is looking at like all that they’re really caring about but if we are looking at it from a holistic perspective if we’re looking at everything that’s going on internally we’re looking at everything that’s going on physiologically then then there may be more to that story than really what’s happening.

There’s more to a person than your number is within range there’s more going on to a person than that and every single person presents differently every single person presents differently  and I and I hear often times where clients will say well my friend has a thyroid issue and they just take their medication and they’re perfectly fine and here I am struggling to get out of bed and brush my teeth every morning but my friend is you know perfectly fine she takes her medication every day she eats whatever she wants and she is great you know that’s a fantastic thing and that’s a beautiful thing but everybody’s different and we cannot look at one person exactly the same as the other person experiences tell a whole lot and  you know what’s happening within their body in what’s happening in  you know like mentally physically emotionally is all very important when trying to figure out what is really happening within the client’s world.

So the myth is that a client’s not doing enough that they may be doing everything that they possibly could to heal yeah well and it’s I think the not doing enough peace really comes from you know how much time have they figured out or have they taken to figure out what they’re doing right unfortunately in our current health care model you know that most doctors have like 15 minutes if that there was a doctor that my family used to go to that a long appointment was 10 minutes and a regular appointment was five and so yeah in and out right yeah so it’s like how  much can you really figure out from that amount of time it’s just it’s not conducive to developing a relationship a trusting relationship with your patient to really understand you know what they are doing and what they are going through and I think that’s  such an interesting connection because yeah like not doing enough can really equate to not feeling enough and that can you know that’s a whole other story as you of course know like that’s a huge thing.

A huge problem that that people can have so yeah thanks so much for sharing that  I’m curious as far as like you know if you had someone with autoimmune a disease come into you  what  oh I’m sorry yeah so what kind of what’s why is it important to seek out a holistic practitioner because I guess we kind of talked about that a little bit just now but why do you feel like it’s important so excuse me I think it’s important because you know it goes back to it goes back to having you know a therapist understand that there is like the therapy piece right so obviously I am a licensed therapist that’s  what I went to grad school for so I also you know want to make sure I stay within my scope of practice but I also have a personal experience with it and then the advanced certification in the certified mental health integrated medicine provider and they actually work with so many individuals around Phoenix that are naturopathic doctors and functional medicine doctors and close relationships with  you know acupuncture  lymphatic massage.

Like many individuals in Phoenix where I can refer to and we all  we all communicate we work as a team so I use this word or I use the saying of the cam approach  and the cam approach is a complimentary and alternative medicine approach to healing right so there’s that therapy piece but I’m also looking at okay is the client is the patient going to see their naturopathic doctor and what is their blood work looking like are they also meeting with maybe a holistic nutritionist and so what is their nutrition like maybe their adrenal fatigue is really off so if I’m giving them you know practice work that might actually exhaust them more because they have adrenal fatigue I want to know about that I want to know what their autoimmune limitations are before I really create a treatment plan  that is going to maybe be not in line with where they are holistically  and so it’s really important to understand it’s really important to know what is going on  with their blood work and I don’t want to just know one month’s worth of blood work.

I want to know like three six months like that a longer period of time because then I also that might also affect their motivation if they’re coming in and they’ve already seen so many doctors and they’ve been gaslit and they’ve been told everything is fine there’s nothing wrong their motivation might be pretty low and so I want to know what you know where are their numbers if they are not converting their thyroid stimulating hormone properly that is not going to  that’s not going to be helpful in creating change in therapeutic model like when you’re bringing therapy in so I want to know if they’re you know if they’re not converting I want to know if they are maybe hyper thyroid and so then they’re then that’s causing them major anxiety so I want to be able to incorporate that then into their treatment plan like okay let’s figure out what we can do for your body to decrease that that feeling of you know fight flight or freeze that that’s going on because your thyroid is like wonky at that point  and so I want to be able to work you know I want to be able to work with a team of clinicians that are supporting the client and also be able to do some body work right so bodywork is kind of  what that means as a mind body practitioner is being able to sit with what’s happening and to not judge what’s happening to not judge their body that they have an autoimmune condition they are not broken and sometimes I hear that is that you know my body’s broken.

I want to be able to you know sit with the client and just have them be able to feel what’s going on in their body and not judge it and not make assumptions about it just be able to really sit with it so we can reduce maybe some of those symptoms that are going on in the body that is you know fight flight or freeze  and really be able to  work with work with the client with whatever complexity that they’re experiencing and so that holistic piece that holistic model is looking at everything that’s going on with a client maybe their environment is not safe for them maybe their job is super stressful and that’s causing their  anxiety to increase but also because their thyroid is off so they’re under stress and that’s going to impact their ability to  you know participate at 100 so that holistic piece is really including you know so many different aspects when we’re you know when we’re looking at a client and what they’re experiencing I want to know exactly you know where they are in their healing journey too and I think that’s really important when we’re looking holistically at a client.

Yeah, I love that and I love that I mean you get different opinions from different practitioners as well and working in a team is just is so important because yeah like everyone is also going to bring a different perspective on you know someone’s case so and I did want to talk about something you said earlier on when you were talking about adrenal fatigue  essentially you know for those listening and watching I mean it has to do with  you know your glands in your body that help you deal with stress and so  just kind of a juicy tidbit for people watching intermittent fasting is not good for people that are highly stressed already you know it’s so popular right now intermittent fasting for like 16 hours every day totally that can work for some people but for a lot of people that are already under a lot of stress that can actually do more harm than good

So I just wanted touch on that  yeah because it’s so popular these days like so many clients come in and they’re doing that I’m like ah you might you have like you know two jobs and four kids and like you know you’re not getting enough sleep like that’s not the thing for you to do right now so yeah I know I love I love everything you said there  so what do you feel like the biggest mistakes people make  are with autoimmune conditions in particular  intermittent fasting like it’s funny like we’re going to dive that in because I think I hear that a lot okay.

If I’m being very honest that’s something that I toyed around with and then I was like  okay so I did my more research on it and you know autoimmune and Hashimoto’s go hand in hand with  adrenal fatigue and cortisol disruption in those kinds of things and if you are doing high-end like high-intensity workouts if you’re doing cardio based workouts you are already depleting your adrenals and you are already depleting your cortisol  your cortisol  systems and so that is already something that those with autoimmune and specifically Hashimoto’s or hypothyroid have to be really aware of.

So when clients are coming in saying oh my doctor said maybe I really should try keto and or intermittent fasting and you know I’m like okay let’s talk about what why that that’s happening let’s talk about you know where that is you know in relationship to what you’re hoping to achieve  and It is interesting because it sounds so cool where you can like go all this time without eating and then you have a window where you can eat whatever you want at least that’s like how it’s been explained to me  but I that’s actually not how it works and so it’s funny because I’m like wait a minute you go all the time without eating and then you can have whatever you want in this this window and you’re like you’re going to be good you’re going to be healthy and you’re going to achieve your goals and there’s like this misconception because the doctor did not go into detail about what that means the doctor did not look at their cortisol saliva test for a 24 hour collection the doctor did not look if they were experiencing adrenal fatigue and why that might actually be counterproductive to their ceiling  and so you know.

If a client wants to do that I want to be able to support them in what they want you know sometimes we have to go through things to learn things right and  and so I want to support them in that but I also want to encourage them to do their own research on that because if you’re we’re already fasting when you sleep if you’re sleeping technically you know eight hours the recommended average sleep if you’re sleeping eight hours you’re already fasting eight hours so your body is already in in fasting mode and metabolizing mode when you sleep for eight hours so then you know at that point if you wait an hour to eat because if you don’t have an appetite in the morning that would be okay but to go 23 hours sometimes I hear 24 hours and then eat  that’s really scary to me.

I also will encourage a client to or all might ask them like what’s their relationship with food then at that point because that is a very slippery slope to  and this very common with autoimmune specifically hypothyroid or Hashimoto’s that’s a very slippery slope to disordered eating and possibly  could trigger an eating disorder or an unhealthy relationship an unhealthy view on food and so I think there’s like you know this this misconception about  certain diets that that will work  for those with  autoimmune  but it’s individualized right so keto might be great and I and I do see that there is actually a lot of evidence to support keto  but I think it’s how it’s done I think that’s really important on how it’s done and I think being under supervision that somebody that is you know a nutritionist or a certified nutritionist to be able to really  guide them in.

I think that’s really important not to just do that on their own and be doing it on their own being able to work with a nutritionist on how to do it properly and also be getting blood work in that time  because we don’t want to do keto for a very long time I don’t think that is like very supportive when you have an autoimmune disease and adrenal fatigue  so yeah that that I hear that a lot and you know I kind of dabbled that in in myself  and then I did more research on it and then I realized oh that’s  not going to work and  that’s not going to be favorable with adrenal fatigue at all right well and yeah like you know a ketogenic diet too is considered a stress on the body so again if you have all those other stressors mounted against you like maybe it’s not the right time..

I totally agree just in general doing any kind of therapeutic diet whether it be yeah keto or you know intermittent fasting or what have you I mean being guided by a practitioner is so important because then you don’t have to worry about whether you’re doing it right or wrong you have someone to guide you and adjust as needed yeah so yeah that’s a big one because that you know fad diets are never going to go away you know let’s be honest they’re always going to be around so yeah and I think and I think they work for I think they work for a lot of people right so if I’m you know if I’m being honest I think they work for a lot of people.

I do not think that they are something that should be highly encouraged when you do have an underlying autoimmune condition or a chronic illness I do think that that is something that is to tread lightly with and you know always seek out a professional when making those changes  yeah it can be scary absolutely yeah one other thing that I just thought of as well is  yeah I mean regardless of an autoimmune condition too like doing a really low carb burrito diet for a really long period of time can do a lot of things but one of the things that I care about a lot in my practice is it changes your gut bacteria because we actually do need some carbohydrates some like grains and things to feed are good gut bacteria so it can totally mess with that too.

Regardless it’s just good to get you know be guided by a practitioner  so I mean what kind of care planner or treatment do you feel like  people with autoimmune disease would really benefit from at least a holistic mental health perspective so you know that that’s a that’s a great question because I come from the standpoint that our gut is our guide  and then you know from a therapy standpoint  I know that diet and nutrition is going to impact  you know anxiety or depression  and those things and then from the certified mental health integrative perspective I know that when we are not really  focusing on what’s happening in the gut and so also emotions come from our gut that’s why I say the gut instinct  and if our gut is not healthy it’s sort of our guide is going to be a little off.

I really want to be able to support clients in especially if we’re if we’re sticking with autoimmune and specifically maybe even Hashimoto’s is to encourage a client to or my clients to we first need to see  if they’re taking a probiotic or a digestive enzyme we want to support the gut so that the gut can  so that the gut can heal  and also impossibly a gluten-free diet not maybe not having grains for a while maybe taking dairy out because dairy can be very can increase inflammation markers in the body so if a client has Hashimoto’s but also is experiencing maybe fibromyalgia and we want to be able to take out things that are going to increase  their like CRP markers which is an inflammation marker  and that’s  very common with autoimmune that’s very common and so we want to be able to take those things out.

A lot of times  I’ll say something you know of course like consult with your doctor or consult with your naturopathic or I can consult with them I’m possibly doing a an autoimmune protocol so we’re removing things that are going to be triggers in the body and we and then slowly we integrate them back in to see what the body can tolerate  night shades a lot of times clients don’t know what night shades are and  like tomatoes for instance I love tomatoes I think they are so good and I crave them sometimes but they are a nightshade and depending on where my gut microbiome is or my gut  and in what stage of being  in his healing stage I might not be able tolerate nightshades I might not be able tolerate those things  and what’s happening if the gut has been permeated or that god has not  is not in a healthy healing state you’re going to experience more symptoms when it comes to anxiety and depression and sort of a manic feeling or you know a longer-lasting depressive episode because the gut needs to  really needs to be in a space where it is it’s supporting your body and so  they all you know play in together and so I really want to encourage a client to hey you know maybe we can try and take this out for a little bit if not forever it’s for right now and see what’s going to happen you know let’s see if maybe your mood feels a little bit better or your brain fog decreases a little bit and then we’re on the right path and we are headed in on the right path that there’s something going on internally that your body is like it’s not liking it’s not  it doesn’t want and  and so maybe we need to remove it for a while and see how it does and so I really encourage clients to also look at maybe even so a lot of clients will come [Music] to do more of a holistic approach because they don’t want to go on medication.

I would say roughly about 80 of my clients that seek me out or clients that I have do not want to use medication that is something that you know they say in the very first  session I really don’t want to use medication I want to go the natural route what do we do I want to look at that with them and so it’s not necessarily that I’m against medication but if their thyroid is off their medication might not work and if their gut is not in a good place it’s not going to be able to support the absorption of whatever they’re putting in their body.

So I want to you know encourage a client that they know their body they know their body best they know where they where they are but if they want to start doing more of a natural approach to healing their in you know their internal systems as well as their emotions let’s look at a natural approach there are some you know maybe they need some more B12 or maybe they need some magnesium to help support you know their feelings of anxiety or maybe they need if their body’s okay and can handle ashwagandha is a great supplement for  you know for anxiety and for reducing  symptoms of like panic and anxiety so being able to  you know work closely with a naturopathic doctor because I cannot prescribe but I might say hey these are some recommendations why don’t you reach out to your naturopathic doctor and see if we are on the same page  as far as our treatment protocol goes and you know what that’s going to support you and also knowing if they are having some issues with night shades.

Ashwagandha isn’t is considered a nightshade but then that wouldn’t be something that I would recommend we’d have to look at something else  that’s the beauty of doing a cam approach where everybody’s on the same page  and of course you know the client is in in the lead with their health and we’re just really there to support what it is that they’re hoping to achieve yeah awesome so I heard yeah basically focusing on gut healing or if there’s anything going on in the gut whether it be bacteria or digestive secretions and you also look at food sensitivities and you know the potential underlying causes for why they have that sensitivity you know if dairy or gluten or night shades and  and then also kind of ensuring their you know nutrient status making sure the really foundational vitamins are in good supply  yeah and a lot of people with I mean most people are low in something whether it be frankly deficient or insufficient I mean you know I see it all the time unfortunately or whole foods eating a good whole foods diet sometimes isn’t enough.

For a lot of people especially with the amount of stress that we’re all under at all times it feels like in our society  yeah and then also kind of adding supportive supplements to kind of support the stress response and the thyroid in the gut yeah that’s awesome super comprehensive so we’re definitely aligned in kind of the boxes that we check when we have someone kind of dealing with an autoimmune disease absolutely.

Tell the audience kind of how they can find you

So I can be found on Facebook and that is  facebook.com backslash Nicole O’Hare LPC  and I can also be found on Instagram I actually prefer Instagram so you’ll see me post more on Instagram than I do on Facebook and that is a beautiful underscore soul underscore counseling and you can also seek me out on my website and that is www.beautifulsoulcounseling.com and I am currently only licensed to treat in Arizona and so if somebody is looking to do holistic and integrative mental health if you can seek me out but I can only treat in the state of Arizona I do think that eventually in the next six months to a year that will change as I possibly incorporate a little bit of some health coaching and holistic health coaching but for now licensed in Arizona so if anyone is looking to do more of an integrative and holistic approach  I would absolutely love to do a consult.

Yeah everyone I put Nicole’s information in the chat so you can get in touch with her that way and yeah I’m really curious to hear your thoughts anyone that was able to tune in  yeah like comment share with people that you feel like could really use this information  and Nicole it was a pleasure thanks so much for doing this with me again it’s so exciting to find you know more people that are so aligned in our field and I know you’re really helping people so thanks so much for your time thanks for even asking me to join and I you know my whole  my whole reason for saying yes is to create awareness right is to create  support for clients who really feel alone and isolated and even through a global pandemic.

It is so scary and I want to be able to really you know really be supportive and create that awareness so clients don’t feel like they’re alone  and I that is so hard when you feel like you’re alone and no one’s listening to you and your doctor’s not hearing you and  and that is just you know that’s just what I want to do be able to support and create awareness for those who feel like they’re not being heard yeah I love that so everyone watching you’re not alone we love you take care and thanks again Nicole thank you have a good Wednesday everybody thanks bye.