About Paula

As long as I can remember I have had a keen interest in food and nutrition. As a little girl, I made notebooks with all the vitamins listed, along with their functions and best food sources.  Vitamin A was my favorite (all those wonderful immunity and healthy skin benefits intrigued me) and remained so until I grew up and became a mother.  Maybe that is why I fed my infant daughter so much baby butternut squash that she turned orange and her pediatrician told me I needed to back off!

During college I studied Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and found the nutrition classes to be my favorite. After my daughter was born, I returned to school to pursue my dream of becoming a Registered Dietitian. I began taking the necessary coursework one or two classes at a time and ultimately - after the birth of two more children - earned a master’s degree in nutrition from New York University as well as my certification as a Registered Dietitian.

For several years I taught nutrition classes as an Adjunct Professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey. I also counseled women at an OB/GYN office on issues such as weight control, pregnancy, and high cholesterol.

After moving to Virginia in 2011 I helped initiate and design a certificate program in food and nutrition at the University of Richmond’s Center for Culinary Arts, which included classes on topics such as Preventative Nutrition, the Healing Properties of Herbs, and Phytochemicals and Functional Foods. As I researched some of these topics, I was blown away by the power that food has on a person’s health, and decided to write a book called Superfoods for Women: 25 Amazing Foods that Help Women Live Healthier and Longer (order here) that was published in 2016. I then began giving book presentations to various women’s groups in the community, explaining how they could become healthier by eating more of these and other nutrient-dense foods.

In 2020 I completed a year-long training in integrative and functional medicine with the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy.  Functional nutrition offers a unique approach to health issues by identifying and addressing the underlying causes of a person’s symptoms.  It looks at each person as unique and considers how nutrition, exercise, stress, sleep, and relationships may be affecting a person’s mental and physical health. In 2021 I completed training with Oxford Biomedical Technologies to become a Certified Leap Therapist (CLT), which enables me to test patients for food sensitivities using the patented Mediator Release Test (MRT) and to counsel them regarding an initial  "safe" and healing food plan and a systematic food reintroduction plan.

Whether you are looking to resolve an ongoing health issue or simply want to optimize your health and lower your risk of disease,  let me use my experience and training to create a healing plan just for you.
 
You can begin by scheduling a 15- minute Introductory Consultation to speak with me about your health concerns and to see if working with me will be a good fit.
 
If you decide to proceed, you can then schedule an Initial Assessment and Consultation.  During this 75-minute session, I will discuss with you your main health concerns, current diet, and lifestyle to create an initial healing protocol.

If you want to dig deeper, you can then do a micronutrient deficiency test, a nutrigenetic test, or a food sensitivity test so that I can give you even more personalized diet advice.

The micronutrient deficiency test will identify vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that you may be lacking in adequate amounts for optimal health. Correcting these deficiencies will enable your body to work more efficiently.

The nutrigenetic test will show how your genes are affecting your nutrient needs (either increasing or decreasing your need) and will point to food choices (or restrictions) that will promote better health and help prevent disease.

The food sensitivity test will show which foods and food chemicals your body is reacting to, creating inflammation. Eliminating or reducing your intake of these foods can help ease a wide range of symptoms.

Yes, I’m ready to get started!

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