Twenty years ago, functional medicine changed everything for me. My IBS cleared. My skin cleared. My depression lifted. And for the first time, I understood food as medicine instead of just calories. But somewhere in the last five years, functional medicine started looking a lot like what it was railing against. A supplement for every lab marker. A protocol for every person. A business model that profits from making you feel more broken than when you walked in.

So I stopped talking about it much here. But I still believe in root cause resolution. And I wanted to bring on someone who practices it the way it was meant to be practiced. That's why I brought Erin Holt on the show. Erin is a seasoned clinician, clinic founder, and trainer of other practitioners who has been vocal about what's gone wrong in this industry while still believing fiercely in what it can be. She practices what she calls intuitive functional medicine, a framework that starts with the physical body and refuses to stop there.

In this episode of Truce with Food, Erin and I get into what's actually broken in functional medicine right now, why data can never replace discernment or lived experience, and how her five-phase formula bridges the physical, mental, emotional, and energetic aspects of healing. We also talk about why you can't rewire an inflamed brain with mindset work, and what it really means to self-source your health instead of outsourcing it to someone in a white coat.

2:48 – Introduction to Erin and how she and her trainees help one-on-one clients

7:56 – The shift in functional medicine over the last five years that’s recreating the exact problem it was designed to solve

11:25 – Defining functional medicine and comparing it to more conventional medicine

16:46 – What intuitive functional medicine is and what it looks like in Erin’s practice (and her training of other practitioners)

24:08 – Self-sourcing vs. outsourcing your health and the long, underexamined history of the loss of self-trust in so many people

34:09 – A basic example of how Erin helps her clients rebuild their self-trust (without forcing it)

39:55 – Why too many choices in the name of empowerment can actually cause someone to freeze in response (and what skilled practitioners do differently)

44:11 – The real point of fear-based marketing and how to spot it before it sells you something you don't need

47:00 – Why the nocebo effect, medical hexing, and the labels a practitioner puts on you can quietly become the ceiling on your healing

49:15 – Functional labs that are actually worth it and the very contextual, individualized way Erin administers them as a practitioner

51:43 – Erin’s framework for whole-person healing, why the starting point doesn’t matter, and what needs to happen before you can rewire your brain using mindset work

1:00:42 – The importance and meaning of self-compassion and why you must only work with those who see your potential to heal

Mentioned In Why Intuitive Functional Medicine Works When Protocols Don't with Erin Holt

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