There’s never been a better time to feel healthy and happy, especially heading into a new year. According to three local providers, we maintain our overall well-being by addressing the root causes of illnesses. When traditional approaches fall short, individualized, life-changing healing can be achieved through novel approaches to healthcare.
Dr. Tiffany Kristensen, Acupuncturist, Herbalist, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practitioner
“When an illness, disease, or symptom arises, ask yourself, ‘What is my body trying to tell me?’” says Dr. Tiffany Kristensen of Vibe Acupuncture and Holistic Healing Center. She specializes in integrative medicine and has served at Houston Methodist Hospital as the lead acupuncturist.
Mind, body, soul, and science merge to help her patients achieve optimum health. They often see her as a last resort or last option, and her personalized protocols are usually the only things that work. Her holistic, individualized approach utilizes acupuncture, herbs, and stress regulation and might integrate other healing modalities, such as cupping and electric stimulation.
Dr. Kristensen customizes herbal medicines (adaptogens) that have antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antihypertensive, and cardiotonic qualities. Combined with acupuncture, an immune response is stimulated, and the body is able to balance itself.
Health issues such as anxiety, asthma, sinus infections, headaches, back pain, and infertility — especially in severe cases — correlate with strong emotional charges. Dr. Kristensen gets to the underlying causes by working with patients and identifying psychological aspects that lead to disease. “Regulating the stress response puts the body in a different state,” she says. “I also offer pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) Therapy and Red Light Therapy (RLT) and teach classes about thought patterns, breathing exercises, and visualization techniques for long-term health.” Learn more at facebook.com/acupuncturewellnessinstitute.
Erin Thole, Certified Natural Healthcare Practitioner (CNHP)
"Only a deep into the body’s chemistry can determine illnesses and address a client’s unique health concerns," says Erin Thole, a functional medicine practitioner. She focuses on whole health wellness and nutrition and works extensively in the realms of autoimmune, inflammatory, digestive, hormonal, cancer, children’s health concerns, and other disorders.
“I've been in practice for fifteen years with a mission of helping clients take back control of their health,” she says. “Functional medicine practitioners are involved in a lot of sleuthing and searching to determine the ‘why.’ If someone has colitis, I want to know what’s going on in the colon.”
Thole has utilized distance appointments for nine years, well before COVID made telehealth consultations commonplace. Her distance practice serves clients nationwide. “There is no one-size-fits-all program. I work with each client’s unique biochemistry to determine what dietary, supplementation, and lifestyle changes are best suited,” she explains. “They experience such relief after other treatments simply didn’t work.”
Health panels are key in identifying issues and determining what treatments and pharmaceutical-grade supplements are needed. Food sensitivity, hormonal, micronutrient, microbiome, and essential fatty acids panels, as well as an EnviroTOX panel, are available. After a phone consultation, kits are mailed to clients’ homes and then sent to specialty labs to ensure accuracy and help determine a wellness plan. Learn more at erinthole.com.
Amy Reynolds, Certified Grief Recovery Specialist (CGCS), PSYCH-K Facilitator, Nutritionist, Owner of biome Super Cell Products™
“As humans, we are microbiomes. When we take care of our microbiome, we can be healthy,” says Amy Reynolds, whose services have helped clients worldwide for more than 30 years.
She earned a BS degree in human nutrition and food science and is a PSYCH-K Facilitator specializing in helping clients change subconscious beliefs (patterns, habits, addictions, and aversions). Her services as a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist include a seven-week series, The Grief Recovery Method, which is an evidence-based grief recovery program.
“I came to these specialties from a place of needing personal healing, change, and improved health,” says Reynolds. Her gut microbiome support services lead to more vibrancy, energy, and well-being, especially for autoimmune clients.
Another significant service, the PSYCH-K program, identifies and clarifies long-held patterns that no longer serve her clients’ higher good. “PSYCH-K principals help delete the old and reprogram the new,” she explains.
The Grief Recovery Method educates through topics of grief, loss, and forgiveness. This powerful and very intense series can relieve depression, anxiety, fear, and sadness. The most common feedback from clients is that they feel as if a giant weight has been lifted from them.
Reynolds also offers biome Super Cell Products™ made of essential oils that detoxify, uplift moods, and boost immune systems. “I think of my products as a healthy step in self-care and self-love,” she says. Learn more at theupcorp.com/book-online and biomesupercell.com.
