One Body One World: Better stewardship for the only two things we all have in common.
ABOUT
Board-certified health coach · Applied functional medicine practitioner · Asheville + Virtual
Vanden-Pilar
Built for the long game of lifestyle change — and the targeted interventions that move what's stuck.
Health support shouldn't close when the program ends.
WHY THIS PRACTICE EXISTS
Most health support is designed to be temporary. You get the information, the plan, the protocol — and then the container closes, real life comes back, and the progress quietly unravels. The people who struggle most aren't the ones who don't try. They're the ones who change inside a structure that was never built to see them through. That unraveling isn't a personal failure. It's a societal gap — and an expensive one.
But the stakes are larger than whether the changes hold. When we feel genuinely well — and genuinely good about ourselves — we show up differently in the world. Not the way wellness culture sells it: a punishing standard, an endless gap between where we are and where we're supposed to be.
The other kind of well.
The kind where health becomes a wellspring of compounding joy — because of everything it makes possible. The patience and presence to show up for our kids, or the energy to pursue our passions with fervor. Lying in the grass to soak up the sun — and getting back up without a second thought. The adventures and the travel that make life worth living. More years of independent living. These are the reasons our health matters, and the reasons to invest our attention and diligence in it. Heavily.
When we build this kind of health, we have more to give. Our presence often nudges someone close to us — a partner, a sibling, a friend — to take their own health more seriously. Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler found that obesity and smoking spread through social networks. So does quitting.
A fully empowered person is a force. One Body One World was built on that premise: seed enough health in enough people, and communities change. That work starts here — with you.
Healthy lifestyles establish an internal ecology that nurtures vibrance and repels disease. That resilience means a longer, higher-quality life.
This makes informed, intentional self-care the most effective healthcare available.
Insurance doesn’t cover it. No clinic can deliver it. It’s a way of living each person gets to design for themselves.
Self-Care as Primary Care.
I know this work from the inside.
People meet me today and assume health has always come easily. It hasn't. I started this journey after 30 — and the most important thing I've learned along the way isn't a protocol or even a pillar. It's how to be gentle with myself. That lesson came slowly, the hard way.
That journey sent me back to school. At NYU's Gallatin School, I designed a concentration I called Self-Care as Primary Care, around one disconnect: the United States spends more on healthcare per capita than any other wealthy nation, and ranks last in health outcomes among its peers. The longer I looked, the more layers I saw — the social architecture that keeps it that way, and my own struggle for health inside it.
The short answer: we're not spending on healthcare. We're spending on sick care. A system built to diagnose and treat disease isn't designed to keep people well — and that's fine, as long as we stop looking to it for health.
Meanwhile, the practices that actually keep us well get filed as out-of-pocket expenses at best, luxuries at worst. The simple, actionable knowledge is buried under marketing and "conflicting" information. And there's no real place to turn for support that helps people build their health steadily, over time.
So if it feels like too much to manage alone — you're right. That's a design flaw, not a discipline problem.
The basics — nervous system regulation, real food, enough sleep, meaningful connection, a body that moves — are simple in a vacuum. But they don't happen by accident. Our culture profits from our stress and confusion, and unchecked capitalism makes even the essentials something we have to earn. Doing the basics well takes real know-how, strong systems, and enough self-compassion to keep going when we fall short.
Every doctor I spoke with during my studies believed two things: that health is a basic human right, and that modern medicine — for all its achievements — is far better at delaying death than at nurturing health. Functional and longevity medicine have grown to fill that gap, but this boutique-style care remains out of reach for many. The good news: the biggest gains in a person's health don't come from sophisticated clinical intervention. They come from strong fundamentals. My work is to make support for those fundamentals accessible, so that right reaches more people.
In ecosystems thinking, a society is only as healthy as the majority of its people.
I'm a board-certified health coach and applied functional medicine practitioner, born and raised in NYC. I now live on unceded lands of the Anikituwahgi (an Eastern Cherokee people) called Togiyasdi, now known as Asheville, in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I serve clients locally in-person and virtually throughout the Americas. I live with my partner and two large rescue dogs, and have recently decided that goslings are cute enough to make geese tolerable.
THE WORK AND THE LONG ROAD HERE
Self-Care as Primary Care is the belief.
Foundation First Health is how we practice it.
The preparation behind the practice.
TRAINING & CREDENTIALS
Applied Functional Medicine Practitioner — School of Applied Functional Medicine, June 2026.
Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) — the most rigorous credential available in the field, May 2020.
Certified Personal Trainer — National Council on Strength & Fitness (NCSF), 2008.
B.A. — NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Concentration: Self-Care as Primary Care, May 2015.
Peri/Menopause Certificate: Confidence in Complexity — in progress (expected 2027).
Competitive background — Equestrian show jumping (first career); track, Olympic lifting, and triathlons.
Nearly two decades working with bodies — human and otherwise — toward demanding goals. What I've learned: building a solid health foundation in a society that drives sickness requires the same dedication an athlete brings to their performance.
You don't have to be an athlete.
You just have to know what you love enough to train for.
"Vanden guided me through a time when I was struggling and needed to make changes in my life. They have innate brilliance and empathy. They did not offer simple solutions. Instead, they steered me down the path to face my pivotal issues. Their powerful listening enabled me to discover my resiliency and take concrete actions."
Mitchie Takeuchi, Filmmaker and President, Arc Media
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
READY TO BEGIN?
The work is yours. Let's do it together.
There are a few ways to work together — from the $50 Foundational Health Assessment to a six-month 1:1 program. Find the right fit on the [Work With Me] page. If you're tired of navigating it alone, let's talk.