About Alexa

Originally from Green Bay, WI, I completed my Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation Psychology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Shortly after, I moved across the country and completed my Masters in Physician Assistant Studies at the University of Touro Nevada.

About a year into PA school, I started to really struggle with my own health problems — severe anxiety, cystic acne, gut issues, bloating, constant fatigue & brain fog, PMS symptoms, and irregular periods. At the time, I chalked most of it up to stress from school and thought to myself, “it will go away eventually.”

Months and months passed as I dealt with these symptoms as best as I could until I decided to make an appointment with my doctor to see what was going on. After pushing this off for so long, I had hoped they would be able to give me an answer to what was causing all of this. Unfortunately, my appointment lasted less than 5 minutes and I left the office with no answers and two prescriptions; an SSRI for my anxiety, and the birth control pill for pretty much everything else.

I left the office thinking, “Yeah, okay great. These medications might help me, but what caused all of this in the first place?” Deep down I knew these prescriptions weren’t the answer. I tossed them in the trash and I took my health into my own hands, and that’s when I found functional medicine.

I instantly resonated with the root-cause approach and I started seeing a functional medicine provider in my area. I changed the way I ate, did functional lab testing, took all of the right supplements — and I started to see my symptoms lifting. Functional medicine gave me the answers and explanations I was looking for and I was able to identify the root-causes of my symptoms. I was back on track. I thought I had cracked the code… until my symptoms slowly started to come back. Although I had made significant progress with nutrition, supplements and lifestyle, I still didn’t feel 100%. I went on to relying on supplements for symptom relief and trying to do everything “the right way” to fix my body for years. On paper, all of the adjustments I had made should have done the trick. So, what was the hold up?

It wasn’t until I looked inward at my own thought patterns, the way I talked to myself, the impossible expectations I set, at how dysregulated my nervous system was, that I started to see real progress in my health. Until I addressed what was going on in my mind, there was no way my body was going to feel safe enough start to heal itself. By digging deep to identify root-causes, we are able to reverse disease where it starts. But by digging even deeper, we are able to identify where these root-causes originated from and then, take steps to make sure that the root-causes of the root causes don’t recreate an environment for imbalance to resurface.

I have seen first-hand how beneficial and necessary conventional medicine is in handling emergencies, trauma, addiction and acute illnesses. But I’ve also seen first-hand how conventional medicine masks and suppresses symptoms, only taking action when disease has already developed. Medications have a time and a place, but conventional medicine is creating “patients for life” who are dependent on these medications. Medications that are not even attempting to reverse chronic disease — they are only attempting to manage it, keep it in check, and essentially override the body’s way of telling you that something more is going on. Our bodies are so smart, and it’s time to give them some credit. We need to stop looking at symptoms as “things to fix” and start viewing them as clues to a bigger puzzle.

My experience working in Psychiatry and Functional Medicine as a PA-C, as well as my personal health journey, has helped to push me to pursue my passion and create a career dedicated to helping others navigate their own health journeys. Functional medicine has brought so much clarity, resiliency, and transformation to my own life and I cannot wait for it to do the same in yours!