Student Spotlight: Tiago Ferreira

Earlier this year, we celebrated the September 2025 FMCA Community Impact Scholarship recipient—individuals committed to transforming the health of their communities through functional medicine health coaching. Thanks to the partnership between the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, the Institute for Functional Medicine, and generous support from VoLo Foundation, these scholarships provide full tuition for our Health Coach Certification Program. Today, we’re excited to spotlight Tiago Ferreira, a neuroscience-informed strategist and proud LGBTQIA+ community member who is on a mission to blend data, empathy, and coaching to uplift underserved populations.

“It’s really hard to be yourself and feel like you’re seen, loved, and cared for. I want to be that person—someone who listens, uplifts, and helps transform lives in whatever way I can, big or small.”

Tiago Ferreira, incoming FMCA student

Tiago’s professional background is wide-ranging—he’s worked in federal agencies and tech startups, earned a master’s in cyberpsychology, and built a career around helping people thrive through people analytics, behavior science, and emotional intelligence. But it was burnout that brought him to a crossroads. After being laid off from his federal position, he took stock of his health and priorities, committing to daily habits that supported his well-being and reigniting a long-standing interest in mind-body medicine. That’s when FMCA came across his screen.

A self-described researcher at heart, Tiago was drawn to FMCA’s evidence-based curriculum and the opportunity to learn frameworks grounded in science. He also resonated deeply with FMCA’s emphasis on positive psychology, which had been a personal tool for navigating anxiety and depression.

As he looks ahead to graduation, Tiago plans to serve LGBTQIA+ individuals and other marginalized communities who may struggle to feel seen, safe, and supported. His goal? To be a steady voice of encouragement, a compassionate guide, and a coach who helps others find strength in who they are.

Watch the Interview

Watch Tiago’s Student Spotlight interview with Dr. Sandi here.

Transcript

Dr. Sandi: Be the first to congratulate one of our scholarship recipients. His name is Tiago Ferreira. And I’m so excited to be here with you, and I want to hear all about your journey, how this started for you, how you got interested in functional medicine and found FMCA. I would love to just explore that and see what motivated you to apply for scholarship.

Tiago: Yeah, for sure. Thank you so much for having me and this opportunity. I can’t say how much I appreciate this, and this opportunity to learn more and then apply it. I found FMCA on LinkedIn. I was just scouring and reading LinkedIn more recently because I’m a displaced federal employee so I had to try to find something to kind of pivot. My previous experience was… My job was to make people happy, the government as a whole, using data, employee engagement, consulting with folks, and I knew in my previous that I wanted to do something that involved people, and I was always very much about functional medicine, medicine as a whole, mind-body connection, all of that. So, I started looking for it and I guess the algorithm really knows me. So, that just popped on my screen, and I decided to just, you know, why not? I’m just going to apply. I’m going to write a little bit about myself and see if I’m lucky enough to get it and luckily I did.

Yeah, I’m really excited to continue learning. Like I said, my background is in the federal government, but also I have a master’s in cyberpsychology. So, my background is also in mental health, tech in general. So, I saw a lot of what burnout can do to people, what stress can do to people. I personally went through it working in startups. You do six jobs, you get paid for one and you start working 12-hour days and you get to the point where burnout is right there, where stress is really unimaginable. It’s very hard to deal with.

So, when I got to the point where, one, they let me go because they didn’t need me anymore and two, I found that, okay, I need to prioritize myself. So, that was really what somewhat kick-started my… You know, looking more closely to, okay, I’m going to work out every day. I’m going to do that, but 30 minutes, 40 minutes, and now wherever it is, that’s the first thing I do every day. Also trying to understand what I’m putting in my body. How does that affect me, the diet? So, you know, to the point of now I count calories, I make sure that everything I eat, I read. So, you know, all those things that really connected me to The Functional Medicine Coaching Academy.

And also, I actually love positive psychology. I use it a lot in my own… That’s what helped me a lot in the past and dealing with depression and anxiety and dealing with that, it’s that positive outlook and absolutely love it. So, knowing that we’re going to be, you know, talking about it and learning more about it and everything we’re going to be learning about it too, the coaching and all that, it really resonated with me. And like I said, I took a gamble. I set myself in and luckily enough, here I am talking to you, which is great. So, I really appreciate it.

Dr. Sandi: Well, what a heartwarming story that is so inspirational. And what really struck me is that, you know, it is possible to make a career change to now pursue your passion, and you are going to impact so many lives. And I wonder what you plan to do after you are now a functional medicine and a certified health coach. So, when you graduate with that recognition, what do you hope to do? Who do you help to serve? Who do you hope to serve?

Tiago: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for asking that. I’m part of the LGBTQIA+ community. I’m a gay, married man originally from Portugal, now living in the U.S. I’ve been here for 13 years and throughout my entire life, it has been a trying to find yourself, one, be okay with yourself, two, and everything that comes with the pressures, the societal pressures. And now more than ever, we’re seeing that it’s really, really hard to be yourself. It’s really, really hard to feel like you’re seen, feel like your loved, feel like that people really care for you. And that’s really what I want to do. I want to work within the community, obviously, and help others trying, help others have what I didn’t have growing up. I was lucky enough I had great teachers, great, great teachers in Portugal. I had great, not necessarily mentors, but I had people around me that helped and friends that helped me staying away, staying okay with who I am and what I wanted to be and who I wanted to love. But I know that a lot of people don’t have that. And I know that I can be that person. I can be that coach. I can be that mentor. I can be just that ear that will be there to listen, will be there to help uplift and hopefully transform their lives in a way, in a very small, very big way, help in a very big way.

So, that’s really what I want to work. I want to work with that community and just minority communities in general. I think that, like I said, right now is such different times that sometimes it’s really hard. I talk for myself, too, to have that hope still to continue living our lives and feel like, “Okay, I can be myself here. I can live. I can accomplish. I can succeed. So, I want to be that little voice in people’s ear and in their head and say, “Yeah, you can do it. Keep going. It’s going to be hard. Life is hard. But it’s somewhat cliched to say, but it is true. You can just succeed and be happy at the end of the day.

Dr. Sandi: Well, I can already hear the coach and you coming out inspiring people and helping them to see the connection between mind, body, and spirit and looking at how really health is possible. And so whether it’s leading groups, whether it’s giving talks, whether it’s working one-on-one with clients, working for companies, in corporate wellness, there’s so many areas where the health coaching profession is desperately needed and is growing. There’s a lot more recognition these days. We have so much evidence out there that health coaching works. Now all we need is more passionate, dedicated people like you to become health coaches.

Tiago: Thank you. Yeah, yeah. And one thing that I forgot to say about the coaching academy here is that the research space, the science space, variables that we’re going to be learning everything. They’re going to be learning. As a research person, I always try to bring that into anything that I’m doing, frameworks that I’m creating, whatever I’m trying to do, research and science space, because we have to rely on something and that’s validated and proven. So, that really also spoke to me because it’s extremely important to have that too.

Dr. Sandi:: Well, we definitely have an evidence-based curriculum.

Tiago: Yes.

Dr. Sandi: And as new evidence comes out, we add to that, we have monthly Ask the Experts series, we have other offerings that you will be able to take part of, including my office hours where you can ask me anything. And I’m excited to welcome you to our community. So, the class formally begins September 1st, but you will be hearing from us way before that. We have orientation. We have a lot of meet and greets that are scheduled. And so our new enrolled students love to take advantage of those opportunities.

So, I can’t wait for you to begin your journey so I can support you and continue to support you after your graduation. We have an alumni program where you can continue to be part of our community. And so when you join this community, it is for life. You are not only a part of our Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, but also our partner, our collaboration with the Institute for Functional Medicine means connecting with their faculty and their member community of practitioners who will be referring to you and hiring you or helping you at whatever you want to do post-graduation.

Tiago: Yeah, super excited. That’s so awesome. I can’t wait. I really can’t wait to just join and meet new people and continue learning and helping others together. Helping others together. That community sense of it is really super important for me. So, super, super excited.

Dr. Sandi: Well, this has been wonderful to talk to you and get to know you and to be continued. Yes, to be continued.

Tiago: Yes, to be continued.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah, as well. Thank you so much for talking to me.

Tiago: Sure. Thank you. Have a good one.