Michelle Papanicolaou

As youMichelle Papanicolaou NBC-HWC, MSW,MAR, FMCAMichelle has over 20 years experience  working in the field of Mental Health within both an inpatient setting where she facilitated adolescent and family wellness and in Private Practice where she specialized in Marriage & Adolescent Issues. Her interest in Coaching began while managing and transitioning her husband’s traditional medical practice to a Functional Medicine Model where she developed an expertise in Coaching and was certified through the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. Michelle’s style is straightforward, and direct, with an incredible relatability. She has broad based experience working alongside and with others and that translates to honest, compassionate coaching that encourages your own personal exploration and growth.of that integrity. The hard work has been totally worth it! I bring my experiences as a licensed social worker, health systems manager, and wife of a functional medicine physician to the coaching table–but most of all, I bring unflagging enthusiasm for wellness!Health has always been a top priority of mine, but I was not always equipped with great information: I came of age with my eating in the’ 90s, when low fat was the rage. Through my twenties, I remember feeling famished after working out, as my diet consisted of salads with low-fat dressing, lots of fruit, and egg whites… cooked in minimal oil!In my thirties and forties, I became aware of the benefits of locally sourced and low-processed foods. My children roll their eyes remembering the times I piled them into our minivan and drove three hours to Vermont to pick-up non-pasteurized, grass-fed milk!As I raised my kids, I was also deep in my career as a marriage and family therapist (having earned my master’s in social work from Temple University and my Master of Arts in religion from Westminster Seminary, both in Philadelphia). When my husband was in his medical residency, we lived on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, working within a traditional Indigenous culture. As a counselor, I found that running and hiking amongst the brilliant reds and oranges of the mesas at sunset provided a way to restore myself as I grappled with working cross-culturally.I’ve always gotten my best thinking done while moving my body, so I’ve made exercise a priority–whether that meant hunting down the best jogging stroller when I had young children or joining a women’s running group in my fifties that keeps pushing me to sign up for new races. I believe that movement is critical to how humans manage the stress of living. Daily exercise and nutrition didn’t come easily, though. There were food fights at the table with my kids and strategy sessions about eating in social settings. I have to force myself to go to bed instead of staying up late chatting, because I know that dawn alarm will hurt.But simply put, I have been motivated by the way health feels great: waking up with energy instead of sluggishness after a protein- and fiber-rich meal. Seeing the first rays of light hitting the edge of the Merrimac River and gulping in frigid New England air as I break a sweat on an early-morning run. A diet of steady energy mixed with endorphin highs simply can’t be beat!As my husband was shifting his practice toward functional medicine around 2015, I became excited by the functional approach to wellness: finding root causes of illness and using food as medicine. The research suggesting that eating, exercise and meditation could change your genetic expression and reverse-engineer disease resonated with my lifelong intuitions. I was delighted to discover that the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy was an established curriculum equipping coaches in both the tenets of functional medicine and motivational interviewing, along with techniques of positive psychology. In 2019 I completed a certification in Coaching from FMCA and began my coaching practice. My favorite part about being a coach is seeing my clients live closer to their own core health values and enjoy the way they feel!