What Sets Us Apart?

At Whole Health Integrative Medicine, we believe in patient centered, holistic, evidence based and integrated care. That means that we pride ourselves on listening to –AND BELIEVING our patients about symptoms. YOU know your body best. We approach each patient as a single body & mind “unit” rather than a single organ system, illness or set of symptoms. We take meaningful time to interview patients and investigate the root cause, and will work with our patients to develop patient driven best practice treatment plans, as well as connect them to our large network of outside resources, practitioners and information.

Our medical director has battled lifelong chronic autoimmune illness clusters as well as trauma related mental health issues, ADHD and Autism. None of these conditions were properly diagnosed until well into adulthood, and she herself was the one who had to research her symptoms and ultimately ask her own physicians to test for what proved to be the correct diagnoses. Even as a medical provider herself, Anna felt continuously frustrated at the fragmented and fractured healthcare system and often dismissive doctors. 

True Story: Anna once went to the ER during college having an active asthma attack (something that happened frequently and Anna was extremely familiar with). When the resident physician asked “what seems to be the problem today”, Anna stated she was having an asthma attack. The resident looked up from his clipboard and winked and said “well why don’t we let the doctors do the diagnosing, sweetie.” (That resident is lucky Anna did not have the lung capacity to argue much that day.) 

We know from first hand experience that it can be almost impossible to get a provider to listen to you, take your symptoms seriously, or invest enough time in your care to figure out a diagnosis and individually tailored treatment plan, whether your personal preference includes medications or not. Unfortunately, though many physicians would like to do everything in their power to help their patients, they are limited by the constraints of corporate policy, insurance reimbursement and more. 

Our provider and Medical Director has been a nurse practitioner for a decade, and has board certifications in primary care, critical care, and psychiatry. Over the years it has become glaringly apparent that our physical bodies and mental health are inexorably entwined. We are uniquely positioned in our tailored areas of expertise to navigate that complex relationship. 

We believe that primary prevention of disease is the cornerstone of a well structured health care system, and we are frustrated by insurance companies who are only willing to shell out when a patient is seriously ill. Our medical director is also certified in obesity medicine, athlete nutrition and medical weight loss. She is a retired professional bodybuilder and understands the power of food and exercise to keep us healthy. We believe that diet and movement are in and of themselves a form of medicine, but we also wholeheartedly believe in evidence based medicine, and the power of the right pharmaceutical drug to improve quality of life where warranted. 

Health needs to be built from the ground up. If you are experiencing health or mental health issues, we do not believe in tossing a couple prescriptions to “mask” or cover up symptoms. We want to do a thorough investigation into medical history, lab work, lifestyle, etc to ultimately identify the root cause of the problem (if there is one). Sometimes, depression is not depression, it is an underactive thyroid, for example. Why give that patient an antidepressant medication if thyroid medication will resolve their symptoms with fewer side effects? 

Medicine is not something that can be taken over by AI, despite the number of doctors you may see using chatGPT as a resource. Many modern physicians are struggling to connect with patients because getting into an MD program is now about as hard as getting out of the Gulag. Medical programs self-select brilliant people who unfortunately often have no interpersonal skills. Medicine is just as much of an art as it is a science. Experience, knowing what questions to ask, establishing a therapeutic relationship, pattern recognition, and clinical intuition are equally important as understanding acid/base balance or pharmacology inside and out. You could change the ‘Integrative’ to ‘Investigative’ in our name, because what we are truly phenomenal at is “solving” the case.

At WHIM, we offer a variety of appointment types to best suit your individual needs and budget. We understand that primary care, and mental health care can be difficult or expensive to access and we seek to help close that gap. If you are a student, on medicare/medicaid, government assistance, or otherwise unable to afford mental health care, please consider working with our team on an income-based, sliding scale pay system.