What Happens in a Functional Medicine Consultation?
Traditional Healthcare Appointments
When it comes to your health and going to the doctor, you might be used to an appointment that lasts about 5-10 minutes. Maybe 15 minutes. You make an appointment weeks in advance, sit in the waiting room past your appointment time, your name is called, and you’re taken back to be left sitting in another room…. waiting. You’re left to wonder if the provider is running on time and just how long you might be sitting there.
The provider comes in, you chat briefly, you feel rushed, a prescription might be written, you might be told all your labs look good, and off you go. Still not feeling well wondering what is wrong and who is going to help you.
Sound familiar?
Functional Medicine Consultations
Functional medicine consultations are very different. In a functional wellness consultation, there are 2 key differences:
The goal of a functional medicine consultation is to dive into your particular situation, figure out the underlying cause(s) of your health issues, and create a truly customized plan to get you moving on a more positive path with your health and wellness.
You have TIME! Time to discuss what you’re struggling with, what you’ve tried, your particular goals, and so much more.
It might look different at another facility, but this is what a functional medicine consultation looks like at Shore Integrative Health.
Every functional medicine consultation is 45 minutes long.
You have plenty of time to dive into what it is that you’re dealing with and what your goals are moving forward. There’s time for lots of questions to be asked and answers to be given. Your medication and supplement lists are discussed, labs are reviewed, and your lifestyle is discussed. There is time to talk at length about what your life looks like from day to day in order to understand what may or may not be contributing to your health issues. By the end of every consultation, you leave with a plan moving forward.
We hope you can see that a major part of a consultation is dialog. It’s a partnership not a dictatorship.
You have so much control over your health and wellness, and we aim to help give you that power back! If you’ve somehow lost it along the way, don’t feel discouraged. Many patients have…. but one of the unmentioned goals of our consultations is to help you realize that you truly are in control and that you are not broken. Let’s repeat that - YOU ARE NOT BROKEN!
FREE Consultations!
Let’s discuss some of the symptoms and problems you are having and how we can help in this FREE 15 minute discovery call.
By the end of the consultation, you will:
Have more clarity. The waters might still be a bit murky. Your brain might be swirling with information, but you will definitely have a better understanding of why you might be feeling the way that you are feeling.
Hopefully, you’re feeling like you came to the right place. That you weren’t just a number and that our specialists took the time to listen to your health journey.
Frequently, you leave with some supplement recommendations and lifestyle tweaks that will set you on the path to some positive change. We are happy to move as slowly or as quickly as you desire.
You will never hear us tell you that you are “fine”.
Why is that the case? Because it is rare that we are fine! You wouldn’t be sitting across from us virtually or in-person if you felt fine, so why would we tell you that you’re fine?
It’s important for us to emphasize that point. One of the most important things that are done in a functional medicine consultation is listening. You’re probably thinking, “Of course, I would be listening to what you would have to say.”
That’s actually not what we meant. We meant that we would be listening to YOU. During consultations with us, you are in a non-judgemental space where you can freely speak your truth!!!
Even as providers ourselves, we have been in situations where we didn’t feel like our doctors were listening to what it was that we were trying to tell them. It’s not a good feeling. We will never make you feel like that in a consultation, and if we do, you HAVE to let us know! Promise?
In health and a whole bunch of happiness,
We’d love to be a part of your wellness journey!
The Shore Integrative Health Team
(443) 339-9713
kristin@shoreintegrativehealth.com
508 Idlewild Avenue, Unit 5
Easton, MD 21601
Written by Virginia Conner, PA-C