About · Ishbel
For a decade, my body kept sending signals no one could translate. This is the story of how I learned to listen — and why that work became everything I do now.
my late twenties, it was starkly apparent that if I didn’t figure out how to heal my gut, my hormones, and my chronic pain, I wasn’t going to be capable of the life I dreamed of.
I looked for answers everywhere. I saw medical doctors, naturopaths, chiropractors, and acupuncturists. Each one helped me keep symptoms at bay, but the symptoms kept coming back with a vengeance. I was eventually diagnosed with PCOS (PMOS) and told I wouldn’t be able to have children without IVF — and that even IVF was a long shot.
I knew there had to be another way. I needed to get at the root.
Chapter Two
The root, it turned out, wasn’t where anyone had been looking. It was in my gut, my blood sugar, and a nervous system that had been living in survival mode. When I started supporting those systems, in the right order, my body finally had what it needed to not just manage my symptoms but to heal.
My story is, unfortunately, all too common. For ten years, I hadn’t gotten a period. I struggled with debilitating fatigue, a constant state of PMS, stubborn weight gain, and chronic pain. I went back to school in the hope I’d finally get some answers.
After one month of a gut-healing process based on test results, my period returned. Then I layered in hormonal supports based on a month-long hormone panel, and my fatigue, PMS, weight gain, and labs began to normalize.
But the biggest payoff of all was becoming a mom — the very thing I was told I would never be.
Chapter Three
I looked for answers everywhere. I saw medical doctors, naturopaths, chiropractors, and acupuncturists. Each one helped me keep symptoms at bay, but the symptoms kept coming back with a vengeance. I was eventually diagnosed with PCOS (PMOS) and told I wouldn’t be able to have children without IVF — and that even IVF was a long shot.
Credentials
Faculty at the Institute of Restorative Health, and licensed in each of the methodologies below.
Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner
Certified in Dr. Dale Bredesen’s protocol for cognitive health
Stott-trained Pilates instructor — because how you move is part of how you heal
Master of Restorative Health
Certified Life Coach
Institute of Restorative Health — training the next generation of practitioners
Why “Gutsy”
Gutsy, because hormone healing starts in the gut. That’s the science.
And gutsy, because it takes real courage to stop accepting “you’re fine” as an answer, and go looking for the truth about your own body.
The belief system
30 minutes · No pressure · Just a conversation
