Student Spotlight: Julie Kenney

The Functional Medicine movement is continuing to grow, and The Institute for Functional Medicine trains more practitioners as we at The Functional Medicine Coaching Academy continue to train Health Coaches to partner with them.

Across the spectrum-practitioners, coaches, patients-many people find their way to Functional Medicine when the conventional system doesn’t provide them the healing they need.

This was the case for FMCA alumna Julie Kenney. In her struggles with mold-related illness, asthma, and hypothyroidism,  she says her doctors let her down. “I realized that they were never going to really find the root cause of my illness. At my lowest point, I wanted to give up,” Julie says. When a friend suggested Julie look up a few helpful books on “alternative” medicine, Julie began a research and learning journey that would eventually lead her to improve her health and change her life.

Like so many others, it was her own health challenges that sparked Julie’s interest in wellness, and eventually, in health coaching. “At some point, I realized that this had become a passion for me and that people were starting to ask me for advice. That’s when I first thought about becoming a Health Coach,” Julie says. As a believer in Functional Medicine, Julie was drawn to FMCA because of our affiliation with IFM. Our well-balanced program, and the fact that she could fit our flexible pacing into her schedule, made it a natural choice.

What sticks out about Julie’s time at FMCA? From the fellow students in her cohort and class to her supportive cohort leader, it’s the people here who made the experience such a positive one. Her hands-on coaching practicum was also invaluable. “There is nothing like actually applying coaching to a client on the spot. And it was great that I could go and get advice from my course facilitator on different situations I faced [in practicum], and not feel alone,” says Julie. This is precisely why practicum is such an essential part of our program: the applied learning and support you get ensures you’re absorbing what you learn and are ready to work with your own clients as soon as you graduate.

Julie is already putting her skills to work in her newly-established private practice, Chameleon Wellness. With a focus on areas like thyroid, hormones, sleep, and stress, she’s currently reaching out to practitioners to start building collaborative relationships. Julie also plans to further her knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease by taking FMCA’s upcoming specialty course, Reversing Cognitive Decline with Dr. Dale Bredesen.

What’s Julie’s advice to people thinking about enrolling at FMCA? Get ready to learn-a lot! “It may seem overwhelming for a moment as you begin, but there is plenty of support here.” For her, making the most of each opportunity, from learning to coaching to being coached and knowing she is supported, have made her time at FMCA a more than worthwhile growth experience.

To learn more about Julie and her work, visit ChameleonWellness.com, or follow Chameleon Wellness on Facebook and Twitter (@ChamWellness).