Allison Samon, FNLP, CHHC

When I first came to Allison, I had already been through the gambit of nutritionists, naturopaths, functional medicine doctors and holistic practitioners of every stripe. I had suffered chronic back pain for about 12 years, and digestive issues for about 20. While each practitioner I saw shared some valuable wisdom and insights, it seemed no one could crack the code as to why I was suffering so much. I had been on elimination diet after elimination diet (I've been on so many, I can't even remember which ones), and still, despite living on an overly-complicated diet, the bloating and stomach pain that came with eating just wouldn't go away. I already had some awareness that both the pain and digestion issues were rooted in emotional pain and trauma, but even that awareness didn't resolve the problem. My frustration was further compounded by having to maintain a hypervigilance about every. single. thing. I ate. It was exhausting and inconvenient to eat out with friends because I had to "that person" with all the amendments to my meal, otherwise if I ate something that set me off, I risked stomach pain that would keep me up for the next 3 nights. Just a few of the things I couldn't eat (diary and wheat were already off the table): garlic, onion, watermelon, peaches, cauliflower, cashews, blackberries, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, and the list goes on...No garlic and no onion?! If high maintenance isn't your jam, let me tell you, you don't want to be the person who can't eat garlic and onion. The beauty of working will Allison was that she was able to meet me where I was. She knew I had already jumped through all the hoops, and she was able to find a new hoop that I hadn't already tried. She worked with me on the emotional component of my issues, but also took very practical steps that included testing so that we had definitive information on what was going on with my body. With that information she could help me map an effective path forward. And it WORKED! Within the 3 months we worked together, the bloating and pain subsided. Some of the visible signs of malabsorption I was experiencing improved. And best of all, I was able to reintroduce watermelon, peaches, apples, pears, blackberries, cashews and cauliflower -- foods I had avoided for years. I would recommend Allison to anyone who is struggling with nagging health issues, especially if you have already been around the block a few times and feel you're just not getting answers. Allison is a knowledgeable, caring and energetic coach, and if she could help me, I know she can help you too.

A few years ago, I started experiencing, seemingly out of the blue, pain when swallowing. It felt like my throat was closing up, and it hurt to eat, even soft foods. I was an otherwise healthy and relatively fit 30-something and had NO idea what was going on or what could be causing this. I tried to manage it myself for a few months until I basically was crying through meals, at which point I started consulting various doctors and taking medications for acid reflux. While the medications helped my symptoms, they weren’t doing anything to address the underlying cause, and I kept needing higher and higher dosages to deal with the pain. I underwent various tests, including an upper endoscopy, to try to figure out the problem, all to no avail. And when my situation turned out to be hard to solve, or perhaps didn’t fit what my doctors were expecting, they essentially stopped listening and threw up their hands (or at least it seemed so to me). Enter Allison. From day one, she began developing a comprehensive understanding of all the various aspects of my life that might be contributing to the problem—from diet to exercise to sleep to stress at work and at home, recent life changes, etc. And perhaps even better than that, at least for me, she conveyed such certainty that, working together, we’d figure it out. Working with someone who actually cared whether we got to the root of the problem and who was so optimistic and positive was an immense relief to me after over a year of feeling scared and like my doctors weren’t really listening. She helped me work through some dietary changes until we found the main culprit. It turned out to be gluten, which was surprising to me since I’d never had—or never knew I had—an issue with it before. With some adjustments in my diet, in a few weeks I was essentially back to my old self. And I’ve been able to manage it with diet ever since. If you’re struggling with any health issues that you just can’t get to bottom of, I highly recommend working with Allison. She’s an amazingly caring, dedicated professional with a true passion for helping people improve their health and well-being, as opposed to just managing symptoms. Her positivity is infectious, and you’ll learn a lot from her about general health and nutrition along the way!