Episode 131 | May 22, 2025

The Healing Power of Faith-Led Coaching, With Dr. Tabatha Barber

What happens when a physician reclaims her health—and purpose—through functional medicine and faith? This week on Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi sits down with Dr. Tabatha Barber, a triple board-certified OB-GYN turned functional medicine doctor and coach, to discuss the powerful connection between gut health, hormone balance, spirituality, and soul healing.

“You’re never going to change your body and heal until you change your mind. Coaching helps you break up with those old beliefs and finally see the strength that’s been inside you all along.”

Dr. Tabatha Barber

After leaving a conventional medical career that was harming her health, Dr. Tabatha created a virtual practice and later launched a transformational coaching academy and best-selling book, Fast to Faith. In this deeply personal conversation, she shares how reconnecting with her faith and honoring her body’s needs helped her overcome burnout, autoimmune illness, and emotional pain. Now, she teaches other women to do the same.

Dr. Tabatha’s story begins with early adversity—becoming a teenage mother, dropping out of high school, and navigating a medical system that often fails both patients and providers. Her journey led her to functional medicine, and later, to a spiritual reconnection that transformed how she cares for herself and others. Rooted in her own healing, she now helps thousands of women make peace with their bodies, break free from limiting beliefs, and reclaim their health and purpose.

In this episode, Dr. Sandi and Dr. Tabatha explore how true healing involves more than lab tests and protocols—it requires deep soul work, habit change, and often, spiritual alignment. For health coaches, this conversation is a reminder of the powerful role they play in helping clients build self-efficacy, rewire their thoughts, and feel seen and supported through lasting transformation. Dr. Tabatha highlights how coaching complements functional care by offering accountability, compassion, and the space clients need to heal not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

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Transcript

Dr. Sandi: Welcome to “Health Coach Talk.” We cover a lot of diverse topics, and today we talk about something that I think needs to be discussed more. And that has to do with spirituality with beliefs that are guiding you and helping you have a purpose-driven life. And my guest today shares her personal story, which is really very moving because it is all about overcoming adversity and really reaching a level that she may not have thought possible and being able to help thousands of people from very humble, often challenging beginnings.

So, let me tell you about our guest. She’s a good friend. Her name is Dr. Tabatha Barber. She is a highly sought-after physician, speaker, and two-time bestselling author who has dedicated her life to empowering women in their health journey. Overcoming early life challenges, including being a teenage mother and a high school dropout, she rose to success through faith and perseverance. Dr. Tabatha holds triple board certifications in obstetrics and gynecology, menopause, and functional medicine. Her virtual medical practice offers compassionate care to women across the nation. Through her international bestselling book, “Fast to Faith,” podcast, program, certified coaching academy, and supplement line, Dr. Tabatha inspires thousands to heal from within by focusing on gut health, hormone balance, and soul nourishment. She is a beacon of light in a sea of medical darkness. I know you will enjoy hearing Dr. Tabatha’s story. You will be inspired by her as much as I am.

Tabatha, welcome to the show.

Dr. Tabatha: Oh, my goodness. Thank you for having me. I am really excited to be here. And you were on my podcast a few years ago, and you just gave so much value for my viewers. And I just love that we keep connecting. We keep running to each other at the conferences and the summits. And your work is so important and I’m excited to share that I’ve dived into the coaching world and I’m just absolutely loving it.

Dr. Sandi: Well, let’s start there. Tell us about that dive into the coaching world and what exactly you love about it. Because I feel that way. I love coaching. I think it’s the best. But I’d love to hear your experiences.

Dr. Tabatha: Yeah, so I left the world of conventional medicine about six years ago. My OB-GYN job was physically killing me. I had to find a new way to function. I found myself bedridden for five days. And after a failed back surgery, I found the world of functional medicine. That was the first time I saw you at one of those conferences talking about coaching. And I started a virtual practice, and I brought a health coach in because I knew that there were some skill sets that first of all, I didn’t have time to learn because I was a physician trying to see patients and starting a new practice. And it was part of the patient’s journey to success was having that accountability and that check-in and that support.

And so from the get go, I saw how transformational the coaching piece really was when it came to my patients getting their results. So, we’re seeing patients, we’re balancing hormones, healing guts, doing all the functional pieces, and then I got a download from God and he said, “You need to teach women how to not only fast their bodies,” because I was running fasting programs, “but to nourish their souls.”

That is the missing piece happening is that so often we focus on all of the functional tests, and all of the physical ailments, and the symptoms, and the complaints. And some people are stuck, and they’re really not getting unstuck because they have deeper soul work that needs to be done. They need to really reconnect that body, mind, and soul.

And so I started adding that piece in of helping women do that reconnection, and find their worth, and understand why their body is doing what it’s doing. But the piece that kept coming back was the coaching. They needed continual encouragement, redirection while they were reprogramming their mind, and breaking up with those limiting beliefs, and figuring out their true identity, because you know this. The world tells us a lot of stuff, and a lot of it’s not true. And then we just have it on repeat in our minds. Subconsciously, we don’t even realize it’s all being said in our brain, and we’re just going along believing it. And that is determining our actions throughout the day, our decisions throughout the day with what food we’re eating, whether we’re moving our body, or doing all of these things. And those neural pathways in our brain are really hard to break. So that’s why it takes a while to create new habits and to break up with limiting beliefs.

And I found that coaching really is a game changer for helping that neuroplasticity, and creating those new beliefs and those new habits so much quicker than someone trying to do it on their own, right? And so then we just ended up realizing we needed to teach women how to help other women. And I think that’s where you started, right?

Dr. Sandi: Yes, exactly. It’s women helping other women. And I love what you said about that neuroplasticity, because every time you try a new habit, you start to initiate a change. It’s going to be hard at first because you don’t have that neural pathway and then it gets easier and easier. And coaches are there to believe in you, to support you.

And it is client-led. What’s so magical about health coaching is that, unlike seeing an expert who’s going to say, “This is what’s wrong with you. This is what I think you need to do,” it is, “Okay, where do you want to start?” And it’s developing this self-efficacy—a sense that, yes, I’m in control, and I can make these changes, and I can be successful at making these changes. It has to start there. And coaches guide people to have that aha moment, where that true sense of self-efficacy shines through. And that is really important.

And it is not just doing a particular intervention like, “Okay, I’m going to fast, and then everything is going to be changed.” But it is focusing on, as you described it, having faith that you can heal. So, I’d love to hear you talk about what that’s been like for you, because many practitioners find that when they have coaches working with them, everything changes. And they’re not stressed and burned out anymore because the coach is part of their team and can help lighten the load and can really help them feel that sense of, “I matter, and my self-care is really important, and I’m not going to get burned out.”

Dr. Tabatha: Absolutely. And as providers, we need to be practicing what we’re preaching. I need to be doing what I’m asking other women to show up and do. And nobody understands that better than the coach. So, I really started to embody this idea that our bodies were created to heal and thrive. They’re not actually supposed to be struggling and suffering. And I just kept going back to scripture. God just kept pushing me back like, “Read your Bible. Learn what I say about you and your body and actually how you’re supposed to be using your body.”

And I had this hateful relationship with my body because it didn’t want to function sleep-deprived. It didn’t want to function on the SAD diet. It didn’t want to function when my personal life was falling apart and I was trying to just work, work, work. So, I hated it. And I would talk so mean to my body in ways that I would never talk to any other human being. And what I realized was my patients often were doing the same thing. They were like, “I’m so fat. I am never going to lose weight. I am never going to be out of pain. I deserve this pain.” Just things that we would never say to people that we love, yet we do it to ourselves all day long. And I really had to break up with all of that.

And that overhaul is what led me to “Fast to Faith” and the Coaching Academy because I realized that you’re just never going to change your body and heal until you change your mind. And so for me, coaching is now just this natural extension of showing up and teaching women how to create that neuroplasticity, those new beliefs. And when you get those new beliefs through consistent action, of making better choices most of the time, and moving your body even though you don’t want to, and relying on God because you can’t do it alone, I say willpower lasts until the cookie shows up.

But if you realize you are way stronger than you’re giving yourself credit for because God actually is giving you the power, if you ask for Him, if you pray for it, if you invite Him into this journey, you’ll find so much strength. Women in my programs do things they never believed they could do, including fasting. And fasting is just one example of we are constantly listening to our flesh. We want to give in to our flesh. We want to eat because it feels good. We want to sit on the couch and watch Netflix because it’s a dopamine hit. We want to scroll through social media. But on the other side of that is loneliness and sadness and more pain and more misery, because it’s just a fake feeling. It’s not actually filling what we need to be filled.

So, we’re trying to fill this void that only God can fill. And when we start filling it with God and looking to Him for our strength, we can start to do so much more. And I didn’t realize that all the things I was doing to my body, that I could change what I was doing and get a different outcome. I just thought this was my lot in life. I’m just going to be in pain. I’m just going to struggle. I’m just going to have chronic back pain and need multiple surgeries and have Hashimoto’s that’s uncontrolled, and irritable bowel syndrome, and depression. I was on multiple medications my whole adult life, but that was not the truth of how God created me to be.

So, once I got into alignment with that and started listening and realizing I’m called to honor my body, I’m called to nourish it and love it and speak nice to it and breathe life into it and trust that God has got me, then everything started to shift. I’m not on all those medications. I’m not struggling with irritable bowel syndrome anymore. I’ve been at my stable weight for a decade now that I’m happy with, and it’s all because I’m working with my body, and I’m trusting the vessel that God gave me and honoring it.

Dr. Sandi: That is just so, so profound. What would you say if somebody is listening and they say, “Well, I don’t believe in organized religion. I don’t believe in God,” is it still possible to have a sense of spiritual connection or to find what you’re describing?

Dr. Tabatha: Oh, I love that question so much. Yeah, I will be truthfully honest. I was raised Catholic. And when I was 17 years old, I was a new mom. I was a teen mom, dropped out of high school. That’s a whole other story, but a girl I knew in town who was just a little bit older than me, she committed suicide. And the priest did not acknowledge her death at church the following Sunday, despite 15 or 20 of her family members sitting in the pews, crying and mourning her. And that left me with a very sour taste in my mouth, and I was done with church and religion.

So, I was really distant from God for a good decade. Even though I had been called to become a doctor, I knew he had a purpose for me, I was angry at religion. How could you turn your back on these people who are still here and mourning this poor girl who was obviously in need of God more than anyone? So, I went on this journey, but what I came back to… And God kind of hunted me down and was like, “You need me. You’re not doing this well on your own. You’re messing up your life.” Two failed marriages later, a broken back, not being able to function, “You need me.” Like, okay.

So, it’s really not about organized religion. It’s not about being a part of a church. It’s about this relationship that you have, your soul being connected to your Creator and having a conversation with Him throughout the day. I call him “Him” because that’s easy in my language. And I am Christian. I do believe that Jesus died for my sins and he saved me. And that piece of it is my truth and my reality. But I truly believe that we all have to agree that somebody created us. We didn’t create ourselves. There is something bigger than us. And if you don’t feel that, I would invite you just to get curious and to consider what are you doing it all for then. If this is the end all, be all, why not just go for the money and all the fancy stuff?

There is a deeper reason that we’re here, especially as health coaches doing this work. Your purpose on this earth is really important, and you are leaving a legacy. You’re making the world a better place. And so I have to believe that God is driving that. And I promise that if you invite him into your day-to-day life and don’t just leave him in church on Sunday, life gets so much easier. You still have the trials and the tribulations, but he equips you. You have this perseverance and this ability to get through because you know he’s got you.

And it really just makes life so much more rewarding and makes the work more rewarding. And it helps patients get through all of their pain, all of their struggles and make sense of their health journeys when they realize that God is on their side and he’s trying to bring them to the other side and glorify him and give them a better life. It’s just there’s so much power in that. And it makes me sad that we don’t tap into that because it’s free to us. But unfortunately, he gave us free will, so we can choose it or not. That’s the dichotomy moment.

Dr. Sandi: In positive psychology, one of the character strengths at the highest level would be spirituality. And that is part of the cluster of strengths known as transcendence. And it’s not necessarily organized religion. It is a belief in a higher purpose. And so many of our students come to us to become health coaches because they have a calling. And they’ll say, “I’m done with the job that was about money,” for example or, “External values are not important. But I have a sense that I have a calling to really serve others.” And they do at the highest level when you are with somebody. And the beauty of a coach approach is that you’re not there to tell them what to do, to tell them what to eat or how to exercise. You’re there to just be with them on this journey that is led by those individuals, those clients.

Dr. Tabatha: Absolutely. And I know it can feel scary. I mentioned I was a high school dropout. I was a teen mom. I was on Medicaid and food stamps. But God was calling me to give women a voice and a choice when I didn’t have one. And I went through all of that. And so I just trusted that he was going to make a way and figure it out.

And so I went through undergrad and med school and residency and did all of these things. And when I got to the point of such burnout that I couldn’t get out of bed for a week, he was calling me to do a new thing. And that was really scary because I had a very nice salary, a 401(k), all of the stability that I didn’t grow up having, that my family looked at me and said, “That’s success. You did it.” And God was like, “Now I want you to give it all up. Now I want you to just go on your own and have no way of knowing if you’re going to make money or not. You’re just going to do this new thing.” And my gosh, it was so scary, but I trusted him, and he brought me through.

And I would just encourage anybody who’s listening that if you are feeling that calling, if you’re feeling pulled, you have to believe before you receive. You have to have 100% faith. And of course it waxes and wanes. We’re human, that happens. But if by and large you keep creating action in a forward movement of faith like, “I believe you, God. I’m going to do this next step. All I can see is the next step. I can’t see two steps ahead of me,” you’re going to get there, and it’s going to be so worth it and so incredible. I would encourage anybody listening, don’t play it safe. That’s not what we’re here to do.

Dr. Sandi: So well said. Tell us more about your book, about “Fast to Faith.”

Dr. Tabatha: Oh, my gosh. So, I love functional medicine. You know, when I went to my first course as an OB-GYN, I think it was the intro course, and they talk a little bit about everything, right? You hear a little bit about the gut and the detox and all the stuff. And part of me was angry that I didn’t learn any of this in medical school and residency. Part of me was really excited that I was finally getting answers to what was wrong with my body. And then part of me was scared to death because I knew I couldn’t unlearn what I had just learned. I couldn’t go back to my job as a surgeon and keep cutting on patients and keep handing out birth control pills, that I was being called to shift. And so I had all of this going on in my head.

And what I came to realize after creating my virtual medical practice, seeing patients all over the country for the past few years, is women want to know what’s going on with their bodies. They don’t have an idea overall. We don’t even teach them about their menstrual cycle. We teach them to suppress anything that they’re feeling or dealing with. We hand out birth control pills like candy so that women don’t have to have a period. They don’t have to feel anything. They don’t have to feel the changes week to week. And we’re not empowering them. We’re disempowering them.

And so what “Fast to Faith” is, is essentially all the important good stuff that I learned as an OB-GYN and a trained functional medicine physician so that women can understand what their body’s trying to say, because all these symptoms they’re complaining to me are just messages from their body. Their body’s trying to talk to them. Your body is always trying to tell you something. It wants to work with you. It’s like saying, “Hey, I need more of this.” “Hey, you got to stop doing that. I don’t like that.” And once we can understand what our body’s saying and reclaim all that intuition that we’ve suppressed, then we just take back all our power. We don’t look to the white coats anymore for the answers because the healing’s actually within us. We have the ability to heal ourselves.

And so I talk about the adrenals and the thyroid and the gut and the immune system and the sex hormones and how it all interacts. And then the piece about how our soul interacts with that and the need to really reclaim our intuition. And I believe the intuition is the Holy Spirit talking to us, trying to guide us and direct us always for our good. And so if we could learn to work with that, you’re going to make so much more progress.

And then the second half of the book is my 40-day program, which is based on fasting, but it’s for women specifically. And someday I’m going to write the book for men. Well, I’m not going to write the book for men. I’m going to find a man to write it because men are different. We’re not little men, us ladies. We need to fast differently.

I talk about breaking up with sugar, regaining our metabolic flexibility so that we can go from sugar-burning mode to fat-burning mode and do that effortlessly. We shouldn’t be hangry and biting people’s heads off when we haven’t eaten. And I believe our bodies were created to go times without food. We didn’t have grocery stores on every corner thousands of years ago. Our bodies do have the ability to be in a fasted state and remove that fleshly desire.

And then we do this feast-famine carb cycle, which I think is really necessary for women, for their thyroid health, for their adrenals. And I just teach women how to listen to what their body’s saying when they’re going through these different scenarios. And it’s so empowering.

And then the game-changer piece that, like I said, I did this program for years and then God gave me a download. And he told me to add in the practice of Lectio Divina. This is how we meditate on a single scripture. So, every single day, we just meditate on one scripture and find out what God is saying to us through that scripture, because I believe the Bible is the living, nourishing word. And you can really reconnect that relationship and really learn to hear from him and to hear from your body.

So, it’s so transformative. My program has been blowing me away. Now I’m coaching women to do this as well, and they’re blowing me away. It’s like nothing I would have ever fathomed. Let me just tell you that. Nothing I would have imagined. This is all God’s work.

Dr. Sandi: Well, you are definitely thriving and you are doing so much good in the world. I think the people that have worked with you and that message that you are getting across, because we have so many people who are just lost and are not thriving and they feel broken and they don’t know where to turn for help. And they go to their provider, let’s say it’s an OBGYN, and they’re just not getting answers. Often their complaints are dismissed and they don’t feel like there’s anybody there for them.

Dr. Tabatha: Yeah, absolutely. We would love to help. We’re licensed in over half the country. So, there really is no barrier to getting help for women these days. I can’t do a pap smear virtually, but I can help you figure out why your hormones just can’t get balanced. And I’m telling you, I’m seeing this a lot now that hormone replacement therapy is back in the world of possibilities. People are like, “Oh, now I got my hormones, but I don’t feel good.” And it’s because their gut is a mess or their adrenals are shot and they really do need that functional approach. So, I love that I can help women all over the country with that. So, you’re not stuck seeing your primary doctor on the corner anymore.

Dr. Sandi: That’s fabulous. So, where can people find you?

Dr. Tabatha: Either fasttofaith.com is all about the program and the coaching academy or drtabatha.com. It’s three A’s, no I’s. That is where my medical practice lives and all of the free resources. We would just love to support anybody who’s feeling like they want to reconnect that body, mind and soul for that next level of healing.

Dr. Sandi: Wonderful. This has been such a wonderful conversation with you, Dr. Tabatha. Thank you so much for being on “Health Coach Talk.”

Dr. Tabatha: Oh, thank you. And I’m so excited to read your blog.

Dr. Sandi: Oh, thank you.

Dr. Tabatha: I can’t wait. I’m going to have to have you back on to talk about it on my podcast.

Dr. Sandi: Thank you. I would love to.