Here's How We Work Together

A step-by-step guide to understanding how we will work together for your customized nutrition program.

Step 1: Finding the BEST Program for YOU

Not sure if my program is right for you? I offer a free 20-minute phone consultation to all prospective clients.

During this informative call, I will listen to your story, and based on your needs and goals, help explain how my services can support you on your journey.

Schedule the free 20-minute phone consultation.

The following is a general description of the process I use for meeting with each of my clients, and is here to help you get a sense of what it is like when you embark upon your own nutritional therapy program.

Please note that each client case is special and may sometimes veer from this process, but for the most part, this is how we work together.

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Step 2: Registration, Fees & New Client Forms

Introducing the Practice Better Client Portal

Once we have had the free phone consultation and agree to work together, you will register for and pay for your program via the Practice Better Client Portal.

Payment plans are available after a registration deposit is made.

Please note, a single payment in-full is often preferred by managed care agencies if you are planning to submit a claim to your insurance company.

Do you have other questions about insurance?

I cannot submit a claim on your behalf, but you can find out more about your ability to do so in this handy guide.

Using the Practice Better Client Portal, you will be able to schedule your appointments - I suggest we start with a 60-minute appointment for the first visit.

Once you are signed up for your first appointment, you will need to please complete and submit all forms via the client portal. These forms are due before we begin the program.

You are also encouraged to gather upload to the client portal any and all relevant, recent lab work from other practitioners.

NOTE: all lab review/recommendations are performed for a fee of $175.00.

For all of your program sessions, we will meet by phone or Zoom. Even for Denver-area locals, meeting “virtually” facilitates convenience and eliminates your travel time in cross-town traffic.

In each session, we will talk about any combination of the following:

• food, recipes, meal plans, shopping lists
• lifestyle and exercise
• your energy levels
• stress
• emotional blockages
• your living environment
• supplements
• water consumption
• anything else that is needed to help support you in your goals

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Step 3: Functional Nutrition Tests

Depending on which program you are signed up for, additional laboratory tests are important - and sometimes required - to assess your unique situation.

You will pay for all labs associated with your program directly with the lab. 

Lab tests are necessary for your success - "test, don't guess”!

We will determine together which labs make the most sense for your circumstances. I can order any of the following for you if needed:

Standard Labs (requires phlebotomy)

• CBC (includes Differential and Platelets)
• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP-14)
• Ferritin
• Hemoglobin A1c with eAG
• Iron, Total and Total Iron Binding Capacity
• Lipid Panel
• QuestAssureD™ 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (D2, D3), LC/MS/MS
• T3, Free (FT3)
• T4, Free (FT4)
• THYROID PANEL & TSH
• Thyroid Peroxidase and Thyroglobulin Antibodies
• Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) and Folate Panel

Specialty & Functional Nutrition Labs

• GI MAP (stool sample)
• Spectracell micronutrient test (whole blood, requires phlebotomy)
• Metabolomix micronutrient test (urine sample)
• Comprehensive hormones, sex and adrenal (saliva sample)

NOTE: all lab review/recommendations are performed for a fee of $175.00.
Test fees and results turn-around time vary by test.

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Step 4: Food & Lifestyle Journal

During our first session, I will invite you to record your food and lifestyle journal via the Practice Better Client Portal.

This is the most convenient way to help establish accountability for you with your nutrition program, and for me to receive the information I need, as well as provide feedback in real-time.

The ongoing food journal will help me get to know you better, and meet you where you’re at, so I can provide the best guidance possible.

The time we spend together in sessions helps me to strategically implement your specific nutrition goals - based on a number of criteria - but which may ultimately lead us to track more closely your caloric intake, macronutrient ratios, food quality, home-cooking skills, hydration and more.

There is no judgement in the food and lifestyle journal process. I have seen just about every food and food habit. So, please just do your best to keep your food and lifestyle journal in the most thorough, accurate and honest way possible.

Also, I tend to not label foods as “good” or “bad” - there are only the foods which either help or harm you and the achievement of your individual goals.

By you being open to this process, we will discover so much. Most of my clients tell me the food and lifestyle journal piece of the program is the most eye-opening experience they have ever had in learning about themselves!

So, using the food and lifestyle journal, together we assess whether or not you are going in the right direction.

Sometimes, it’s not the food you are eating but rather ‘how much and when.’ Lifestyle habits play a considerable role in your program - we will look at those details together.

The information you record in the food and lifestyle journal helps me get to know you under normal, everyday circumstances.

There is never a perfect time to keep a food and lifestyle journal because life continually throws us curveballs - vacations, big work events, holidays, birthdays, illnesses and more!

That is exactly why I want you to just dive in and start the work.

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Step 5: Your Personalized Program & Follow Ups

Any time I create comprehensive notes with action items during a session I will publish them for you to review in the Practice Better Client Portal. 

In the Practice Better Client Portal, you have access to all the recommendations and protocols I will provide.

It is best to communicate with me via the messenger feature, rather than by email or text to ensure I have record of our correspondence and can respond to you in the most timely and efficient manner. Messages sent to me through the portal are typically answered once per week. Additionally, your package of services includes ample text messaging “sessions” for you to book with me in order to communicate in real time with urgent questions you have.

Hopefully, you will have a sense of empowerment and excitement for what lies ahead. Yes, we have work to do. But, the efforts will produce a lifetime of healthy rewards.

There is no one size fits all answer, so your recommendations are unique to you.

My suggestions will feel inspiring - and there are no surprises - because we will have already talked a good bit about what goals you want to achieve and some of the steps necessary to get there.

All of the information in each session aims to to personalize the process and help you connect more fully to the reasons you will be making important food and lifestyle changes.

Detox smoothie before running workout

Step 6: Supplementation for Added Support

Introducing FullScript

Along with a customized food plan, supplements may be recommended through the convenience of an online, discounted supplement pharmacy called FullScript. I rely only on the best information about your individual supplement needs to come from testing.

Supplements are powerful tools for helping you to feel your best, so they must be monitored and evaluated for the duration of your plan.

It’s important that we continue working together to ensure you are taking the right ones, and getting the most benefit from supplements in conjunction with your diet.

I do not carry any supplement inventory in my office. Highest quality professional grade supplements for your total optimal health are recommended only through the Practice Better Client Portal and are linked directly to FullScript.

Supplements are an additional cost.

If supplements are part of your plan, and you choose to comply with taking them, you will receive notification through the portal to sign up with FullScript and order formulas with your own secure account.

FullScript offers 2-3 day delivery, incredible customer support, and also carries a full line of natural skin care and beauty products which you can access once you sign up.

An Important Note About Supplements

One of the most common questions I get is, do I need to take supplements or can I get all of my nutrients from food?

Ideally, we would be able to get everything we need from the food we eat. Unfortunately, even with a perfect diet, food these days is not what it used to be.

Things like depleted soils, storage and transportation of food, and increased stress and nutritional demands make it hard for us to get everything we need from our modern diets.

Think about this for a moment: our great grandparents weren’t wondering if a food was organic or if it contained hormones, artificial ingredients, or pesticides.

They weren’t eating meat from animals that were cooped up, fed unnatural diets, and mistreated.

This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to eat well.

It means that as conscious consumers we have to choose the highest quality foods to nourish our bodies. And it also means that sometimes, we need to consider nutritional supplements.

Emerging scientific evidence shows the importance of nutrients as essential helpers in our biochemistry and metabolism.

They are the oil that greases the wheels of our metabolism. And large-scale deficiencies of nutrients in our population—including vitamin D, folate, zinc, magnesium, and iron—have been well documented in extensive government-sponsored research.

High-quality supplements help fill in nutritional gaps.

They are not made to replace a healthy diet, but to supplement one and to ensure that you have an optimal level of nutrients for the billions of chemical reactions happening in your body every second of every day.

When it comes to supplements, quality is key! Did you know that the supplement industry is largely unregulated?

This is a major issue because companies are getting away with putting untested and contaminated product into pills with gross fillers, additives, and allergens, and selling it to you at a discount.

It’s shameful and gives supplements and good manufacturers a bad rep.

And, I must say - Amazon is one of the most guilty parties in terms of selling low-quality, un-regulated, even tampered with products.

Please do not trust that what you are buying "at a discount" is worth your money. (You never know if what you are buying on Amazon is an expired product from "Dr. Bob's" going out of business sale!)

Whether or not you take supplements when working with me is completely up to you!

However, I can tell you that my clients who choose to take the supplements I recommend for them are ultimately more successful, feel better faster, have more lasting results with their program, and achieve their nutrition goals in the timeframe we determine is reasonable.

Fruit market with various colorful fresh fruits and vegetables

Step 7: Continue to stay in optimal health

Once you have completed a one-on-one nutrition program, you will probably be feeling pretty good. So much will change for you, and you will enjoy newfound healthy habits.

You will likely have already met some of your goals and you will begin to envision a new lifelong commitment to health through nutrition.

You might be wondering “What’s next?”

It is common to start a continuation program after completing the initial program to monitor and retain your renewed health for the long-term.

Just like any investment, you do have to work at it, and make a commitment to changing your life for good.

Step 8: Policies to Please Review

Please review these important policies prior to your appointment.

Ready to book your 20-minute free phone consultation?  

Let's go!