Alumni Spotlight: Michelle Papanicolaou

FMCA alumni are bringing health coaching into collaborative, clinical care models—and Michelle Papanicolaou is a standout example of how this training can unlock meaningful career reinvention. With a decades-long career as a licensed clinical social worker, Michelle has worked in adolescent psychiatry, outpatient counseling, faith-based care, and medical practice management. But a growing interest in nutrition, lifestyle change, and integrative health sparked a new chapter—and led her to FMCA.

Michelle’s early career was centered around mental health and family systems. Whether supporting teens in inpatient facilities or serving communities on the Navajo reservation, her work was always grounded in connection, compassion, and a belief in people’s ability to grow. Later, she shifted into practice operations, managing her husband’s family medicine clinic and eventually stepping into a project management role at a college during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the pull toward more holistic, empowering work persisted.

“FMCA taught me how to really partner with my client—to facilitate acceptance, evoke change from within, and help them arrive at their own solutions because you understand ultimately, they can do that.”

Michelle Papanicolaou, FMCA Graduate

When Michelle’s husband transitioned to functional medicine and joined Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraWellness Center, she was inspired to reimagine her own path. Conversations with staff there—many of whom had gone through FMCA—sparked a realization that coaching could bring together her clinical background, her faith-centered values, and her passion for health. She enrolled in FMCA during the pandemic and found the program’s rigor, support, and structure to be exactly what she needed to make a powerful shift.

Today, Michelle is the lead health coach at the UltraWellness Center, working alongside a team of physicians, nutritionists, and nurses to support clients in implementing their personalized care plans. Her role brings her back to the collaborative model she valued early in her career, but with a new lens—one that emphasizes empowerment, habit change, and client partnership. FMCA’s focus on motivational interviewing and client-centered coaching gave her the tools to make that mindset shift and thrive in this new role.

Michelle stays closely connected to the FMCA community through an ongoing coaching group and continues to evolve as a practitioner. Her career story shows what’s possible when you lean into purpose, embrace change, and follow a calling to help others live healthier lives.

Watch the Interview

Watch the full FMCA Alumni interview with Michelle to learn more about her inspiring journey:

Transcript

Natalie: Hi, I am Natalie Maxam. I am here on the marketing team at FMCA, and I am very excited today to be talking with Michelle Papanicolaou. She is a FMCA graduate. She graduated from FMCA in March 2021 and now she is working with Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraWellness Center. Michelle, it is so great to speak with you today. How are you doing?

Michelle: I am doing great. I am delighted to be here, and I was so excited to have this opportunity just to reflect on my time at FMCA and where everything has evolved since then. So, thank you so much for having me, and I’m really excited about this chat.

Natalie: Thank you. I know that your story will inspire so many of our current students and future graduates. So, my first question for you is tell me what you were doing before you became a student at FMCA.

Michelle: Absolutely. So, I’m going to keep this brief because I like to think of my career in three acts, and currently I am in the third act. But we have to go back a little bit. I’m going to keep this as brief as possible, but we’re going to go back to the beginning of my career. So, I started my career as a licensed independent clinical social worker, and I graduated from Temple University with an MSW and then went on to get certified as an LICSW within the profession of social work. My primary 10 years of my career, I worked primarily inpatient psychiatric, and I worked within the context of an adolescent unit in a dual diagnosis psychiatric facility. And I worked with teens and their families. So, that was a really rich period of time. There was a lot of collaboration. I worked with psychiatrists and psychologists, other social workers and psych techs. And we really had a team approach where we were working on behalf of the patient.

From there, I always had a really deep interest in how one’s faith informs how they live. So, the habits they developed, the lifestyle, the choices they make, their destiny, sort of the way they journey through life. And that led me to a second master’s in arts and religion from a seminary in Laverock, Pennsylvania, which was very close to where I was working at the time. So, that early part of my career kind of Act 1, I did a lot of inpatient work, some outpatient. I also traveled to the Southwest, and I worked on the Navajo reservation, which is the largest reservation in the United States. I worked north of Flagstaff, Arizona with my husband, and he’s a physician and I worked as a social worker in the hospital. So, that was for the public health service, and it was a fascinating time. Again, teamwork, collaboration on behalf of our patients. And that was a very rich experience because I was working with a completely different culture. And I would say that period of time, I learned just a great deal about not only myself but how I was informed by the culture I grew up in and how that really needed to shift and change in order for me to really be effective working with my clients. So, I would say that was Act 1.

Part of that also, my husband and I then moved back east. He opened up a practice in a local community, and I began doing outpatient individual counseling. So, I was actually… I shifted my focus from sort of working in a more team collaborative approach to doing individual work with clients. And I worked primarily… I did a lot of work with families and teenagers. I did a lot of marriage work, but it was a very… The model was very much… It was very much a model where the therapist was seen as the expert. They were coming to me to fix them, to provide insight and help. And while I really enjoyed that period of time, it was really focused on what had gone wrong.

So, interestingly enough, as an LICSW, you’re constantly needing to update your professional training and your continuing education. So, I found myself always focusing on health, helping people really make changes to live better. I did a lot of coaching courses and my interests were really in the area of, “How do I really help people think about bringing health into their marriage, into their relationships with their children, their husbands, their wives?” I was always interested in that facet. I was also interested in nutrition, and I always exercised. So, there was some interesting elements that were coming together that would eventually lead me to coaching through FMCA. So, that was kind of Act 1.

Act 2 started when my husband asked me to actually manage his practice. And I said to him, “I’ll come in, I’ll help you for a month or so, and then I will exit.” And that was a 10-year process. I spent 10 years in medical practice management and then from there, I went on to work at a college where I eventually was a project manager for the COVID response in 2019, 2020, 2021. So, during that period, I sort of transitioned out of direct clinical care, and I was working more in business and medical management.

And then Act 3 comes in when my husband, who was a family practitioner, always had a focus as well toward health and nutrition working with his patients. He literally found functional medicine because he was at a transition point in his own career. He found functional medicine and through his entryway into functional medicine, I found coaching through that vehicle. So, he was transitioning out of primary care, and he actually closed his practice. He went to work for the UltraWellness Center, Dr. Mark Hyman, and through that process, I basically was out of a job because I had been working very directly with him. And now I was on to Act 3 in that inter-functional medicine.

Natalie: Okay. Wow, what a really incredible and unique journey. Super inspiring. I can tell that all throughout that path, there was really that health focus. So, it sounds like your husband is what really brought you to functional medicine and then…

Michelle: Absolutely.

Natalie: Okay.

Michelle: And through that process, I began talking to folks at the UltraWellness Center because the gears were already turning in my head and I was like, okay, I really wanted to pursue something a little bit different in the area of health, nutrition, but I wasn’t sure quite what that would be. And I started to reflect on the fact I had always done these courses in continuing ed that had a lot to do with coaching. So, I started to ask people at the UltraWellness Center and lo and behold, there were several people there who had actually went through the FMCA program, and they were nutritionists and nurses. And it was really that process of talking to them that I was led to FMCA. And I started actually at FMCA in the height of the pandemic. So, that was an interesting process in and of itself.

Natalie: Yeah. So many of our health coaches here at FMCA, they come because of that passion and that drive for health and wellness that comes from within. And I can tell that the way you described your interest in health and your entire upbringing and experience, that you have that passion for health. And so now how are you using your health coaching certification from FMCA and how are you making an impact on the health and wellness of your clients and community today working at the UltraWellness Center with Dr. Mark Hyman?

Michelle: So, yes, I ultimately work at the UltraWellness Center, and it is a wonderful model. I work alongside functional medicine physicians, nurses, and a wonderful nutritional staff. And I am the coach for the UltraWellness Center. So, I see clients that are referred by either the nurse, the physician, or the nutritionists. Also, honestly, my clients are my inspiration. They are incredible. Every week I understand why I’m doing this because the feedback, the changes they so courageously make and the way in which they are pursuing health themselves is an inspiration to me. So, I coach exclusively currently at the UltraWellness Center, and it is just… Again, it sort of harkens back to my days initially when I worked in that collaborative care model. It is definitely… Even this morning, I was discussing one of my clients with one of the nutritionists, and it’s a very collaborative approach where you are working alongside colleagues that are also getting to the root cause. But as the coach, you’re coming in and you’re really supporting them in that effort. You are the one that is getting really granular, really deep, and you’re doing the work that the physicians and the nutritionists, they’re just not able to spend that amount of time with the patient. So, it is absolutely necessary and critical. And it’s really inspiring.

Natalie: That is and that health coach role is what we really preach here at FMCA and how important that is. So, backtracking a little bit to your time, actually, before working at UltraWellness and being an FMCA student, what did you enjoy most about the program?

Michelle: I think one of the things that I really enjoyed and really took away from the program was the… Well, there were a few things. The way in which the methodology helped myself as a coach understand where to begin with a client. What do I mean by that? FMCA did an awesome job of really illustrating the finer points of motivational interviewing and client-centered coaching. I came from a very different perspective. I came from more of an expert cognitive behavioral model where correctly and rightly you were trying to help people resolve trauma in their past family history, which is all good and necessary. Motivational interviewing and a client-centered approach was not something that I had learned. And so this was completely new, enlightening and kind of earth-shattering in some ways because I was partnering now with my client, with my patient. We were working hand in hand. It’s a model of where you really facilitate acceptance of the client. You’re trying to evoke from them what they want to change, but you’re not telling them what to change. You’re not giving them the solutions. You’re helping them arrive at their own solutions because you understand ultimately they can do that. They have the giftedness. They have the ability. It’s a very positive approach. And I would say that was one of the things I really loved the most and took away from the program.

The other thing that I really enjoyed was working with the cohort. And our cohort was led by Lucrecia Asmus. She was outside. She was out of Guatemala City. And she was a master at really executing this kind of methodology within the context of our cohort. She did such a fantastic job, and she really pulled us all together. And it was incredible just to behold. And also this was during the pandemic. So, during the pandemic, everybody was feeling very isolated, complete opposite experience, complete opposite experience as a result of just being in this program. So, that’s what I really loved and enjoyed the most.

Natalie: Yeah. So, you spoke a lot about the motivational interviewing, the cohorts. How did FMCA prepare you to be a successful health coach? What would you say are the top tools or top takeaways?

Michelle: I would just have to go back to I really learned client-centered coaching, motivational interviewing, asking great open-ended questions, using your OARS, that acronym that we all learned, executing that and also understanding the different nutritional diets and plans, the cardio metabolic diet, the low histamine diet, the keto genic diet, like really mastering those concepts, because I had no background in health. That was not…. I just had never… I didn’t have any coursework or background in that area. So, having expert physicians do the lectures through Canvas, listening to those, the materials, the reading materials that really cemented the knowledge. So, that was super helpful.

Natalie: Yeah, you articulate so beautifully what that role of a health coach is, but I know that a lot of FMCA health coaches come to our program and they are a little bit fearful or hesitant about what their health coaching career will look like. You having now a very successful career in health coaching at UltraWellness Center. How did you overcome any of those barriers or fears that came about throughout your health coaching certification program or you finding your way to ultimately where you are now?

Michelle: Well, I think that there were a few things. I think the alumni program is one of… It’s a really good way to… It’s a transitional point where you graduate from your program and yet you have this support that extends beyond the end point of graduation. So, that program was one. Secondly, I just really believed in the model. I believed that having come from the history that I came from, I just believed in the model. And I knew that in order to have that kind of successful career, you have to begin to just sort of dig in. You have to do the work. You have to put yourself in situations that may not feel very comfortable. Even though I had been within the context of I’ve done clinical work, this was definitely a new kind of work within a new context. So, I actually called some of my husband’s colleagues at the UltraWellness Center and I said, “Hey, look, I have to get these 50 hours in to sit for my national boards. And could I just begin to coach?” And they said yes. So, it wasn’t as though I was interviewing for a position or there was one available. I just sort of stepped into the role of, “I’m going to create this. I’m going to believe in the process and I’m going to move forward step by step.”

Natalie: That is so wonderful. That’s such a perfect attitude to just take it by the reins and go for it. So, here at FMCA, we like to say that you’re an FMCA graduate for life. You spoke a little bit about the alumni program, but what does the ongoing alumni connection and support look like for you?

Michelle: So, I think everyone needs a team behind them. You need other people in the journey. There’s a proverb that says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” It comes out of the book of Proverbs, actually, which is wisdom literature. And that proverb is really true. We need one another. I’m part of a ongoing coaching group where others…we sort of meet and we all talk about where we’re currently at in our careers with coaching. We talk about other concepts and models. So, I firmly believe that you absolutely have to continue to be engaged in a process where you’re always advancing your learning and you’re being encouraged by others in that process. We all need each other. We can’t do this alone. It’s not possible and it’s not even fun.

Natalie: Yeah, totally. I mean, that’s the whole point of a health coach. You can’t do it alone. You need the health coaches. Health coaches need each other. That’s beautiful. So, Michelle, what would you say to someone who is considering embarking on the journey to becoming a functional medicine certified health coach?

Michelle: Okay. This is going to sound incredibly, maybe trite and maybe not the most… I don’t know. Well, but I’m going to say it’s that old adage that Nike says, “Just do it.” The reason why I say that is because I would say in my own career path, it’s been very circuitous. It hasn’t been a straight line. Now, I wouldn’t say just do it without thoughtfulness and inquiry, but oftentimes you get to the point where you have looked at it. You’ve evaluated. You’ve talked to others. You’ve looked at what your goals are. You’re aware of what you’re doing. But then there does come a point where sometimes you just have to step forward and you don’t really know what’s on the other side of it. So, I would say I didn’t really know what was going to be on the other side of coaching. But what I did know was it was the next right career shift for me. And so I just stepped into it. I didn’t have all the answers on the other side, but I knew I had enough of the answers and I had enough of the history of my current situation that I was really looking for something different.

Natalie: That’s so great. It’s sometimes really just that simple. Just go for it and do it and your passion will take you and carry you through.

Michelle: Absolutely.

Natalie: Well, Michelle, thank you so much for chatting with me today. All of your wisdom, your story, I know will be so inspiring for all of our graduates. And is there anything else that you would like to add?

Michelle: I just want to say thank you to FMCA for the leadership team that exists there, for Dr. Scheinbaum, for all the leaders that have paved the way before us. It has really been a privilege, and I’m just excited to be in this career.

Natalie: Thank you, Michelle.

Michelle: Thank you, Natalie.