Hi, I'm Ellena!
Ellena is a Functional Nutrition Practitioner and Gut Health Expert who helps families find and heal the root cause of their acute and chronic complex illnesses so they can thrive, not just survive. Through her bio-individual holistic health and lifestyle programs and education, she has helped people of all ages find their balance and start to enjoy life again.
Ellena has studied health & wellness for over 20 years alongside experts in the fields of mind/body modalities, functional nutrition, gut health and microbiome balancing, mood disorders, unresolved trauma in the body, and lifestyle medicine.
When she is not working with clients, you can find her in her kitchen tending to her ferments and crafting nutrient-dense foods for her family. She also loves tending to her summer garden, collecting eggs from her pet chickens, hiking the many mountain and lake trails of western Colorado, and of course, spending time with her two beautiful grandbabies!
I've learned a lot through my own health journey.........
Even though I have accomplished a great deal of self-healing, it's not easy to turn SIBO around and be done with it for good, I know what it's like to struggle with poor gut health because years ago, that struggle consumed my life!
Around my late twenties and for the next 20 years of my LIFE, I suffered terribly. I had incredible brain fog, extreme exhaustion, debilitating anxiety, and panic attacks! And what was worse, I didn't have the energy and the emotional state to be there for my daughter. As a mother, it's a terrible feeling!
Depression came knocking and stayed for quite some time. And with it, the digestive issues. Along came H-Pylori, gastritis, colitis, IBS-C, and a few years down the road I developed non-Celiac gluten sensitivity, then SIBO, and several years after that, Hashimoto's, adrenal fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome, and the list goes on.
I tried to find healing through medications as most people do, but it was just a quick fix and I knew it. Not only was it not working, but most days I felt even worse. I felt like I was fighting for my life and even my physician was not on my side.
Something had to change.
I had to take my health into my own hands.
"I've always been one to recognize that time and determination matter. I approach life and problems with the expectation that if I put in some effort, I'll eventually see results. If those results are lacking, there's likely something faulty about the approach I've adopted.
Let me be clear: I don't just mean the 'elbow-grease' kind of effort. Instead, I mean systems and frameworks that help me to see through the muck of the challenge I'm facing, so I can more clearly envision a path to sustainable resolution"
And this is the same determination and whole-body systems and frameworks approach I used to heal my own root causes and now use with all of my patients. Because it just plain works!
That’s why I do the work that I do. I know how painful it can be when you have chronic health challenges, can’t work, can’t eat, can’t enjoy your children…or life for that matter. This is why I have dedicated myself to helping LOTS of people get unstuck.
I’ve helped Moms who watch their child suffer and feel hopeless and helpless trying to figure it all out. I’ve helped busy professional men and women who often just don't eat during the day so they don’t spend their work day in the bathroom. I've helped pre and post-menopausal women who have lost the hope of feeling alive again and have the energy to keep up with their grandchildren or travel to their favorite destinations without feeling restricted by symptoms.
I LOVE to dig and find the root cause.
And what I love even more, is teaching people HOW to start the healing process by feeding your body what it needs to get well.
This means creating the right internal environment, by optimizing nutrition, and digestion, calming the nervous system, resolving trauma stored in the tissues, and using a whole body/whole system approach, your body CAN heal!
"To have solved my digestive discomfort and dysbiosis and to have a life where I wake up looking forward to my day and all I can accomplish and go to bed at night thinking about my family and how I now have the energy to care for them.
It's the best part of my life, and now I get to enjoy it!
I want this kind of life for everyone!"
My passion is to support those who have tried everything and are ready to step off their ill-health and emotional roller coaster. I want to support you as you take your life back through nutrition and lifestyle modification, and most of all, through the compassion and the follow-through so many of us need and deserve........because what could your life be without your ill health story?
"In March 2017, I was diagnosed with SIBO. My doctors told me it could take years to get rid of it! I was horrified that I would never feel normal again.
Ellena gave me recommendations for SIBO and was with me every step of the way. I am feeling better than I have in years! She is extremely knowledgeable, compassionate, and incredibly patient. I am forever grateful for her help and guidance in my wellness journey."
