In additon to being a bodyworker utilizing Rolfing and Craniosacral Therapy, and a Nationally Certified Classical Homeopath, I am excited to announce that I am a
Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (N.T.P.)

What is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner?

A Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) is trained and certified through the Nutritional Therapy Association (NTA). NTPs do not diagnose or treat disease. Instead, NTPs help clients improve health and vitality by addressing six foundations:

Diet
Digestion
Blood sugar balance
Mineral balance
Fatty acid balance
Hydration

N.T.P.s focus on the biochemical individuality of each client.

N.T.P.s use a variety of tools to create a personalized nutrition program unique to each client.

Nutritional Therapy Gives Your Body What It Needs to Thrive

Food is not just something delicious we eat every day. Food is the basic building block of health. Our bodies must get important nutrients from the things we eat in order to be healthy. If what we eat does not contain enough of these nutrients, our bodies will have to do without something they need, and eventually our health will suffer.

This can take the form of decreased energy, health problems, and even weight gain as the body tries to get enough nutrition by over-eating nutrient-poor foods. Getting a solid nutrition program in place will help you be successful with a new eating plan.

A Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, or N.T.P., is a specialist within the holistic nutrition health field. An N.T.P. uses functional nutrition, which looks for the root cause of a dysfuntion and not just its symptoms.

We advise whole foods, traditional cooking and preparation techniques for meals, and offer supplements when needed. We are trained in anatomy and physiology, and use a hands-on physical evaluation called a Functional Evaluation, along with lingual-neuro testing. These combined techniques allow us to make a customized nutrition plan to address your specific needs.

I chose this modality because of the functional component ~ not just the hands-on assessment tool (Functional Evaluation) but also the lingual-neuro testing. This is not applied kinesiology.

Let me explain a bit more…

Functional Evaluation (FE)

Nutritional Therapy Practitioners (NTP) have many tools that they use to assess overall balance and nutritional status within the body. One of these tools is the Functional Evaluation.

The Functional Evaluation involves a series of palpations and other clinical assessment tests (such as pulse, blood pressure, pH of saliva, etc) that help NTPs identify specific areas of functional deficiencies.

The tests were selected by the founders of the Nutritional Therapy Association following the research of a variety of functional medicine practitioners including Dr. Frank Chapman, Dr. George Goodheart, Dr. Robert Ridler, and Dr. Terrance Bennett, to name just a few.

The FE is not invasive and not painful, however we do look for a tenderness rating for each reflex and palpation point.

The Functional Evaluation is not used therapeutically. Rather, it is a tool used for assessment, to gather information. It allows the practitioner to use the innate wisdom of the body to show where it is experiencing distress/imbalance and what it needs to be in balance. It allows the client’s body to convey these needs to the practitioner.

In summary, the Functional Evaluation technique allows me to address the nutritional needs of you, my client, as we assess your biochemical individuality and make tailored diet and lifestyle recommendations.

Lingual-Neuro Testing (LNT)

The second part of the Functional Evaluation involves Lingual-Neuro Testing (LNT)

Lingual-Neuro Testing (LNT) is a valuable biofeedback tool that enables the health care provider to determine the usefulness of a nutritional supplement before it is dispensed to the client. LNT accesses the body’s innate ability to discriminate between what it needs, and what it does not need, in order to correct a specific problem–a weak organ or a nutritional deficiency, for example. This simple and effective technique makes the difference between a generic nutritional therapy plan and a personalized one.

The phenomenon that is observed with LNT represents:

The existence of physiologic indicators, like the heart rate, that reflect specific body functions and their relative health.
The powerful connection between the sensory function of the mouth and the brain, or central nervous system (CNS).
The ability of the CNS to recognize the value of what is in the mouth (i.e. a nutritional supplement).
The tendency of the CNS to immediately change a physiologic indicator in response and proportional to the recognized value of a particular nutrient.

There are three fundamental questions the practitioner needs to address with each client to provide effective nutritional therapy:

Is there a functional deficiency?
What particular nutrient will work for that client?
When is the client sufficient?

LNT enables the practitioner, once an assessment is complete, to address these questions by measuring the client’s response to therapy options that other people with a similar condition have benefited from. By personalizing an otherwise generic “cookie cutter” approach to healthcare, LNT can improve client outcomes and reduce the possibility of uncomfortable side effects.

There are two types of physiologic indicators, those that respond to LNT, and those that change only gradually over time in response to improvement in health.

The latter indicators are dependable milestones that mark a client’s position on their road to recovery. Although the presence of uncomfortable symptoms is useful in determining how and to what degree a client’s health is compromised, and was the motivation for the client to come in for care in the first place, a lack of symptoms does not mean good health.

In fact, the resolution of symptoms is an indication that the client is only half way to complete health recovery. Beyond that, physiologic indicators are necessary to determine client status, and should be checked regularly to confirm progress.

The LNT goes hand-in-hand with the Functional Evaluation. It is a special feedback mechanism based on the neurological response of how the tastebuds communicate with the brain and through the central nervous system.

All together, the Functional Evaluation and Lingual-Neuro Testing, along with the Food Journal review, Nutritional Health Assessment analysis and detailed health history allow the N.T.P. to provide you with well-guided recommendations for diet, nutrition and lifestyle based on your biochemically individual needs.