Adapted from episode 129 of The Perfect Stool podcast with Brooke Herbert, a Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, entrepreneur, cofounder of Gold Ivy Health Co., podcast host and fitness instructor and Lindsey Parsons, EdD, and edited for readability.
Lindsey:
So why don’t we start with your health story that led you into the work that you currently do?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah. Let’s go back. It feels like years ago now, and it was, it was back in 2017. I was a junior in college at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and I had landed my dream internship down in Florida. I was working at an agency and I started developing all of these health issues. So we’re talking a lot of gut health symptoms, with fatigue, acne, I was severely constipated and it really came on all of a sudden. And so I thought, “What is going on?” I was in Florida, so I didn’t have a primary care doctor, so I went into a Planned Parenthood. They decided I had an infection, gave me some medication, sent me on my way. Okay, great.
Weeks passed, and I had finished my internship, moved back to Minnesota to finish college, and these symptoms just kept going: severe bloating and constipation, feeling like I wasn’t absorbing anything. I was eating. I was super tired. I mean, I could go on and on with symptoms, and I’m sure a lot of people listening can relate with all these gut health symptoms. And I just couldn’t figure it out. It took me five years, over 50 different doctors to really nail down, really what the root cause was. And throughout those five years, I explored many different types of medicine. I have tried many, many different things, and now I’m really here to share what I’ve learned in hopes that other people suffering don’t have to go through what I went through.
Lindsey:
Yeah. And so when you say 50 doctors, are these like Western medical doctors, or are these also alternative practitioners?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, great question. All of the above. So I saw a lot of Western starting off in my journey, I saw a lot of OBs, gastroenterologists. I had the colonoscopy, endoscopy, all of the workup done and then continuing to search, because they couldn’t help me, couldn’t really find the answers. Then, I went the alternative route, from chiropractic care to acupuncture, looking into Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Indian medicine. Finding, okay, if I can’t get the help I need, I have to take matters into my own hands and do the research. And through podcasts like yours and all of these awesome naturopathic doctors that were sharing things that regular doctors, quote-unquote regular doctors, weren’t telling me, I’m like, “Hmm, there’s more to this.” The body is brilliant, and when something’s off, it’s going to present itself as symptoms, those signs that, hey, listen, something’s going on.
Lindsey:
Yeah. And so what was your diagnosis, ultimately?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah. So through starting my own podcast, I had on a nutritionist. She was a functional nutritionist, and she was connected to another woman who I’d worked with, and we did a GI MAP test. So for anyone listening who isn’t familiar with that, it’s a stool test that tests your colon and your large intestines to really see what’s going on in there. And through doing that, it had come back, I had giardia and H. pylori, high levels of staph and strep, and then doing more digging, I had mold toxicity, so a lot of havoc was had. And through doing this one simple stool test, years later, it came back of, “Oh, you’re not crazy. You were really just infested with a lot of bad bugs.”
Lindsey:
Yeah. And so after working with these people, did you get a sense of why that might have happened for you?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, good question. So I believe I had picked up something in Florida, whether it was from the water, who knows right where it really started. But the symptoms started when I was living in Florida, and I believe that during that time, it was going into my senior of college, I wasn’t eating the best. I was drinking alcohol. I was running on E, with studying and working multiple jobs, that my toxic overload, which I now know about, was to the max. So when I finally got to Florida and maybe my body felt safe enough to relax and say, hey, these symptoms came on. Maybe I picked up something in the water. I’m really not sure, but that’s what led me down the path of, hey, let’s learn way more about your health than you ever thought you’d have to.
Lindsey:
Yeah, when I see people with those sort of overgrowths, like something like giardia, normally, I would think your body should clear that naturally over time. But when it’s not clearing, typically, I also see Low Secretory IgA. So was that the case with you?
Brooke Herbert:
Absolutely, yep.
Lindsey:
Yeah. And stress can bring that on.
Brooke Herbert:
Exactly, yeah. So through that, I really learned about the link between our mind and our body, of what does stress do, and even when we don’t necessarily feel stress, or I felt like I was high on top of the world, I nailed my dream internship. But really, my body was traveling, I was out of a routine. I wasn’t taking care of myself the way that I really should have been.
Lindsey:
And so was your experience with the Western medical doctors negative, or were they just unable to help you?
Brooke Herbert:
I would say a little bit of both. I really made the switch to alternative medicine, and what I believe, really took matters into my own hands, of okay, let’s try a different route, when I had seen an OB and presented all my symptoms. And you know, for anyone listening who’s gone down a similar path, there’s a lot of anxiety when you go into the doctor’s office. Doctor after doctor, and you’re reciting your story again, and you don’t want to be gaslit and you’re nervous. And she had looked at me and said, I think you need to go to a pain management clinic. And I thought, “Hmm, okay, well, thank you, but no, thank you. I’m going to try something else.”
And from there, I had seen an acupuncturist, and she taught me all about the meridians and Chinese medicine, and really talked to me about stress. A lot of the Western medicine doctors had said, you know, “I think it’s just stress. I think it’s just, you’re a woman, your hormones, you’ve been traveling a lot, you’re in college.” And when someone tells you, I think it’s just stress when you’re sick, it is like the worst thing you could possibly say. But now, looking back, yes, stress was a huge piece of that. But no one sat me down and said, “This is why.” It’s because of the role our nervous system plays in healing and all the things I now know about. Oh, okay, so maybe I shouldn’t be go, go, go, go, go, and expect my body to feel safe enough to heal like it’s meant to be.
Lindsey:
Yeah. We talked a bit, in our pre-interview, about the nervous system and the gut and childhood trauma. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the many routes I went down was therapy. I hired a therapist because if stress was really something that was blocking my ability to heal, it’s like, I’m going to do it. And I learned that “The Body Keeps the Score“. It’s an awesome book. Definitely recommend it.
Lindsey:
Yep, I’ve read it.
Brooke Herbert:
Yes, right? So trauma is stored in our fascia and in our body, and even though, consciously, we know we’re okay, we’re doing okay, but if something happened way back in our childhood, the body remembers that, the nervous system remembers that. It says, “I’m not safe. I can’t.” And what had happened to me when I was younger, was that my dad left, and I didn’t have a relationship with him, and that is trauma in itself So going throughout college, working my butt off, paying my way through school, I’ll figure this out on my own. I’ll do it all on my own. I don’t need anyone else. That attitude really ramped up my nervous system. And when we’re in that sympathetic nervous system, that state of fight or flight that many of you listening, I’m sure, have heard of the body, it can’t heal. It’s pumping oxygen and blood to our muscles to run faster. It’s this part of our brain that’s activated, this million year old brain that doesn’t know the difference between running away from a saber-toothed tiger or we’re getting constantly buzzed on our phone.
That nervous system, so it’s got to find a way to relax, to feel safe. And for me, that’s what therapy started to do, was started to process all of this unprocessed emotion that I had stored deep in me and gave me an outlet of what do I need to feel safe, to feel calm. I got into meditation and breath work. And these are things that I’m sure everyone has heard of, but until you actually start to practice it on your own, you don’t really know how powerful it is. Or simply walking around barefoot in the grass; grounding is an awesome technique to help calm your nervous system. All these little tools we can use that I learned. If doctors can’t help me, can’t give me the magic pill I was so hoping for, there are things within our control that can help calm the nervous system that are very unique to us, right? What calms my nervous system, Lindsey, isn’t going to be what calms your nervous system. There are similarities, like breath work, yes, meditation, but really, you as an individual, what makes you feel relaxed and calm, full of joy? And those are things that I wasn’t thinking of when I was trying to get answers and I was searching and, you know, go, go, go, trying to find those answers from doctor to doctor.
Lindsey:
Yeah. I have, at various points in my life meditated, and I really love the feeling. But I have to say, it’s one of those things that, you know, I might get in a habit of doing it. Maybe it lasts for a few months, and then I always fall out. And I’m not sure why. I mean, I think perhaps because it is something that takes, like for me, a good 30 minutes to get in the zone. I mean, while I’m in it, I’m just like, “Oh, I know I got other things I;ve got be doing, but I am loving this, and I am so happy right now. And I could just sit here for another hour.” But again, it always falls away. How do you maintain that? Do you maintain the meditation?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, great question. I’m like you. I’m human, right? We go in and out of waves. And I find, and with my clients too, as a health coach, that you realize how powerful it is when you don’t do it. When you take a break and you’re like, “Oh, I miss that.” That’s how you know it works for you, is when you miss something. I’ll go weeks without doing yoga, and I’ll be like, “I need to get my butt back in the studio, because that feels so good for me.” So leaning into that curiosity of, “Why can’t I stick with it?” and swapping that to, “Maybe I need to make some more time for that,” because life is going to happen. Summer’s here. It’s busy. We’re on vacation. Your kid gets sick. You get sick, right? To have this structure of, I meditate every single day, 20 minutes a day, first thing in the morning, for me, I’ve learned that just doesn’t work. It’s got to be a gentle approach. And that’s still something that I am working on, because I’m very regimented. I want to know exactly what works. I want to know when best, right? Is it morning? Is it night? When do I do this? But really, it’s when is it going to work for you that you can stick to it and then setting those reminders, right? If this is something you’re really, really passionate – I don’t want to say passionate about – but something that you know works for you, and you want to make time for it. Let’s set some time aside in that schedule. Let’s be proactive about it.
Lindsey:
Yeah, if I could sort of summarize why it’s so challenging for me, maybe this might help somebody else. There’s so many things that I want to include in my health routine, right? I get up and I do hormone yoga in the morning. I, of course, cook and eat healthy meals. That takes time. I have time with friends and with my husband, you know, quality time with people, that means a lot to me. I do breath work before bed every night. That’s 11 minutes, I can handle that. It’s like, what am I going to cut to get that 30 minutes for meditation? That’s my dilemma. That’s why I started doing breath work, actually, because I thought bang for buck, that’s going to put me into parasympathetic state a lot more quickly than the meditation. That’s why I’ve been doing that. Do you do breath work regularly?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, I do. I have it a part of my yoga routine, I would say. And I have dabbled in and out of specific times. But echoing what you just said, I am so structured, and that’s just the way my brain works, I’m type A. And I have found that when I’m too structured, it does the opposite. I can have everything planned out to a T, but having to be so structured, and if I don’t stick to it, or I miss one thing, then it’s the end of the world. And then it’s having the opposite effect. I have all these things in my schedule to make me healthy, but because it’s so regimented and I’m stressed about, how am I going to find time to do it, or, “Oh gosh, this went over, and I don’t have the time to do it this way,” it’s going to have the opposite effect, or at least it has for me. So that meditation, 30 minutes, might be ideal because of a book you read, but for me personally, I just need five minutes.
Lindsey:
Oh really, wow!
Brooke Herbert:
Or I’m just saying, for example, right? This is where I can get it in. I can listen to a guided meditation. There’s a great five-minute energy reset that I love. It’s five minutes, and I can get it in, and it doesn’t make me stressed thinking about, how am I going to fit this in? And maybe I do that for a bit, and then I realize, okay, I want to dedicate a little more time, and now I have the 10 minutes.
Lindsey:
And is that energy reset something other people could access, or is it within a paid app?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah! It’s from my dear friend, Christina Deering. She is amazing. She’s a shaman healer, and so I can definitely share that with you, and we can get everyone access to her. She’s amazing. Just five minutes.
Lindsey:
Yeah, that’s awesome. In fact, that’s one of the things I’ve been thinking the most about recently. Not how do you, in the course of a day, get into parasympathetic mode, but how do you, in the heat of the stressful moment, snap out of it? I know the physiological sighs are a good tool that are pretty quick, breathe in, breathe in more, and then long exhale out of the mouth, right? What else do you use for that kind of thing?
Brooke Herbert:
Great question. What’s most important, I believe, in that situation, is the awareness that it’s happening, right? And that I have the control to let it go, to get in a different state. So for me, a really great cue is I put one hand on my heart, one hand on my stomach. I take a deep breath. I say, “What do I need? What do I need right here?” I think about my feet underneath the ground. Because really what you need is you need to come back into your body. You come back in this present moment. Because when we’re in this present moment, the nervous system is calm. We’re not worried about our next move. We’re not ruminating on the past, right? We’re in the here and the now, and that’s when the magic happens. And so whatever you need to snap out of it, to bring you back in your body. And for some people, it is, you snap your fingers, or you make a fist, some sort of physical cue that can trigger to your brain, “Hey. Don’t go there. I’m safe. Come back in your body.” And for me, it’s a hand on the heart, it’s a hand on the stomach. It’s: how can I be gentle with myself in this moment? Not have any shame, any guilt around why am I feeling this way, acknowledging I am feeling this way and getting to a neutral spot is huge.
Lindsey:
Were there healing modalities you used through therapy that were different than the usual cognitive brain training type of therapy?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, not for therapy specifically. I will say, right now I’m embarking on a new adventure of EMDR. So maybe down the road, if we want to revisit this, I can let you know. I’m very, very excited. I haven’t started that yet. The other therapy I did was really just cognitive therapy, and it was talking through my truth. Because seeing so many different doctors, anyone listening, if you can relate, you begin to lose what is my truth? I’m fighting to tell you how I feel, and I’m being gaslit. No one’s believing me, and I have to keep voicing how I feel, and it just kept getting shut down and shut down and shut down. And so over time, so did my voice.
So therapy really helped me regain my voice and my truth and find specifically for me what brought me peace, what brought me happiness. Being sick really became my identity, and I didn’t want that to be my identity, but I kept ruminating on that. That was my story that I was sharing. And so retraining the brain, and this is really where working with a coach who is trained in neuro-linguistic programming, was extremely beneficial for me, because it was, let’s speak into existence what you do want. So for journaling, for example, I would journal all my feelings. They were very depressing, and I made the switch of, “What if I started journaling of what I do want to happen? This is the practice of best case scenario journaling. Putting out in the universe of how I do want to feel, making that my truth. Because what we speak, that’s where we’re giving energy, that’s what our brain believes. That’s what’s telling the nervous system, “Hey, this is my reality. This is what I want.” Speaking that into existence, instead of just the story of, I’m sick, I’m sick, I’m sick. And that took a lot of retraining the brain.
Lindsey:
Yeah, I have a client who was intolerant to almost all foods, in every kind of category. There’s the histamine foods, there’s the oxalate foods. Then for the actual condition that she had, it was meat and fat and such that were problematic, so it kind of eliminated most foods entirely. And at some point I said, I think we need to do some brain retraining here. I referred her to the Gupta Program. And she has, since, been doing some meditations and started the program, and has said, “Yeah, I realized I was coming into every meal in sympathetic mode, afraid of what I was about to eat, expecting a reaction.” And of course, you’re going to get it. Because you think about how strong the placebo effect is. That’s essentially what you’re doing. You’re placebo-ing in your food, and basically predicting that you’re going to have a terrible reaction, especially if it’s a new one or one you haven’t done well with in the past.
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, what you said was so powerful. It’s not only what you’re eating, it’s how you’re eating. That’s what I learned. Rushing to quickly eat in between meetings instead of okay, I’m going to take a few deep breaths. I’m going actually sit down. I’m not going to multitask. And in today’s day and age, that’s not easy to do. It’s the habit we’ve built of, I’m going to quick scroll my phone, I’m going to multitask when I’m eating. I’m eating on the run. And so something I really like to teach people to talk about is going back to how people used to do things, right? Mealtime, it’s really now a luxury to be able to sit with our families, to slow down, to have time carved out, to nourish your bodies and to eat with people you love. Or if you are just with yourself, right, even the simple act of reading a book and eating, I would say, is a lot better than scrolling social media and eating.
Now something that puts you in that calm state, and if that is a luxury, one you can’t afford right now, because of the season of life you’re in, well, we all can take three deep breaths before we eat to make sure we’re actually digesting our food, so we’re not bloated after we eat. All these little tools and tricks that I learned and I picked up, that I didn’t need a doctor to tell me. It was, okay, I realize that when I am stressed and eating, it doesn’t make me feel good. And that was tapping into: how do I feel, what is my personal experience within my day to day, within my healing journey, right? Listening and collecting, step by step, following the breadcrumbs, asking yourself, “What does make me feel good?” And honoring that.
Lindsey:
Yeah, a couple stories come to mind. One was that I worked for this organization. It was actually a human trafficking organization. I was just doing temp work. It was a bunch of young people in Washington, DC. I thought it would be a real fun place to work, and everybody would probably hang out at lunch in the kitchen or whatever. Then they just had this terrible little table pushed against the wall so you couldn’t even go around it, and nobody ate in there. Like one person maybe, who sat there with earphones on, ate in the kitchen, and nobody hung out together. And I was so disappointed. I’m like, “Really? You’re doing this great work. You all seem like interesting people, but there’s nothing. Everybody’s just sitting at their desk shoving food down.” And so disappointed in that. And then the contrasting experience was when I was on vacation in France with my friend. She’s a social worker, she goes to an office, it’s probably, I don’t know, 15 minutes away. But she gets like two hours at lunch. She comes home, sets a table outside with a tablecloth on the lawn, makes an extensive meal, and we all sit down and enjoy it together with her husband. And I mean, it was such a difference, such a different mindset about what a meal should look like, especially lunch.
Brooke Herbert:
And I bet, I would put money on it that she’s a lot happier and healthier than your coworkers were, eating lunch on the go, or fast and quick compared to actually having the time to do it. It’s such a culture thing, but it’s also something that we do have control over, and we can voice those needs. Seek companies that do support that or set that out for ourselves that hey, this is something that’s important. I see the value in it.
Lindsey:
Yeah. So we’ve talked about a bunch of different modalities for managing stress. Were there any that we didn’t mention that you like?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, so many. You know, the biggest one I will say, is who’s in your corner. What does your support team look like? Noticing the people you’re around who make you feel calm, you know, investing in people and places that are nourishing to your soul and soothing for your soul. That’s everything, whether that’s your job, right, and you have the ability to eat in a cafeteria with your friends, with your coworkers, or if it’s a yoga studio, if it’s your gym, scheduling time out with your partner for a walk. What is that for you? Those are things that are specific to me, but I just want to go back on: What is that for you? The listener, whoever’s listening right now, something came to your mind as I was speaking when I said, “What soothes your soul?” And making time and carving out time for that.
When I was really sick and trying to figure out what’s going on, and I was trying all different things, coffee enemas were a massive thing for me. And anyone who’s familiar with them, you know, you’re my people. Those people who aren’t, you’re still my people. But what it does is it really just helps detoxify your body. And I’m not saying that everyone should do this. Definitely consult your practitioner, your healthcare provider, but when I look back and I think, what really was it about it? You have to sit or you’re supposed to sit with that coffee in your colon for 15 minutes. And in that 15 minutes, you really can’t do anything else, because it might come out, to put it bluntly. So during that time is when I would meditate, when I would focus on my breath, and I would just have all of these downloads, these ideas that you really get when you meditate, because you get out of your own way. You’re fully in the present moment. You’re allowed to see whether you believe in God, the universe, a higher power. You can hear your intuition. So that was a big one for me, and what comes to mind when you ask that question. I know probably people were not expecting me to say coffee enemas, putting coffee up your butt, but there is something to it.
Lindsey:
I looked into it once, but I never went through with it.
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, I’ve really struggled with energy and constipation, and when I was working really closely with a naturopathic doctor, so definitely don’t do these without doctor’s supervision. But I felt safe enough to do it, and it was something that really helped. And again, I think it did help, mostly because I was still and I calmed my nervous system, which you can get in a lot of other ways.
Lindsey:
And then take some NAC for your liver, right? So we may have already sort of hit this, but are there other lifestyle changes that you recommend to clients to help eliminate the overwhelm of the chronic stress of their daily lives?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, great question. So when I think about lifestyle changes, and I think about coaching my clients, I really like to focus on the four categories of health and wellness. And this is something me and my business partner, with our own company, what we do is break it down into four categories, because that helps the brain with overwhelm, right there. You’re thinking about all of these things, and it helps bring it back to what I can control. It’s these four categories. So exercise, sleep, stress management and nutrition. And you can read any book, you can read all of the books, they’ll give you a million tips. But pick what works for you, what you can commit to, what you have evidence with that works for you, what maybe you want to experiment with. It feels expansive. It doesn’t feel constrictive.
I think about what you said earlier, Lindsey, with trying to fit everything in the day, and what can I let up? Right? That doesn’t necessarily feel expansive. It feels like, “Oh gosh, that feels overwhelming.” So for example, with sleep, okay, I know sleep is really important. We all know we feel better when we get more and quality sleep. So what do I have control over? Okay, can I buy some blackout sheets? Can I limit my phone usage for an hour before bed? I’m not looking at screens. Can I try and stick to the same time of getting in bed, going to bed and waking up? That’s awesome for our sleep schedule, for our circadian rhythm. I think about nutrition. What foods work well for you? For me and my digestion, it was warm foods versus cold foods, and I learned that because I would have shakes all the time and thought like, “Why? Why doesn’t this feel good?” I’m like, “Huh?” I do some research. Okay, so warm foods easier to digest, that makes me feel better. Warm water in the morning makes me feel good, right? So starting to get curious with what works for you in these four categories of wellness, and then honoring that. And scheduling the time in for stress management, we listed a handful of things. Can you walk outside? Can you schedule time with your partner? Maybe you look into therapy. Maybe you look into a coach. Maybe you do need more one-on-one support.
And then the last piece is exercise. The link between exercise and our mental health is huge, right? But too much can be overwhelming on the body. When I was very, very sick, HIIT workouts were too much, and honestly, right now, they are still very stressful in my body, so I lean more towards feel good movement. I’m talking yoga, walking, stretching. When I was really depressed, I would say, “Okay, movement makes me feel better. But what type of movement doesn’t feel overwhelming right now?” And it was just laying in bed, stretching, and that felt good. So meeting yourself where you’re at, thinking about what you can control, and sometimes the best thing we can do is nothing, is rest. I’d retrain my brain that, hey, rest is actually productive. It’s actually helping me heal. It doesn’t mean I’m lazy, doesn’t mean I’m not trying to feel better. But hey, maybe Sundays, you know, it’s my rotting, recharging day, and that is productive. That allows me to be fueled so that I can have a productive week.
Lindsey:
Yeah. So do you see a lot of clients who, despite supplements or exercise or diet changes, they’re still not getting better. And you kind of think there must be the unresolved trauma or the stress or mental health things that are underneath it?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, and I like to look at that first, because when you think about it, when we are in that chronic state of fight or flight, like we said, the body can’t heal. So you’re spending time and energy and money on not cheap supplements, if you want good supplements, right? So let’s make sure the supplements that you’re taking, they’re working. So let’s start with, how is your mental health, right now? How is your stress load, right now? Do you have the capacity to take on more healing modalities, to schedule more things in your schedule. Going back to what I said earlier, if thinking about 15 minutes to meditate is going to stress you out, we can’t do that. And so let’s get in the practice of what is it like for five minutes, for one minute, for you to start developing that practice of tuning into your body, taking deep breaths. So when I think about a step-by-step approach to healing, let’s look at stress management first. Let’s look at the nervous system first and create that safe space for you to heal.
Lindsey:
That makes a lot of sense, because it’s not necessarily true for everybody I work with. Some people, they’re less than a year into their gut health problems. They’re not deeply stressed about it. They want it to end, but they’re not, you know, people who are 20 years into the increasing effects of gut health issues that have now turned into autoimmune or chronic fatigue or mental health or all those issues. Those folks probably do need to address the stress component at the beginning. So that’s a smart way to go about it. So after you address the stress, what is your next gut health client step?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, I would resort back to the four categories of wellness. So I’m not a doctor. I’m not a therapist. My niche and what I love is helping you become your own best doctor. So what can you control? I’m not going to prescribe you supplements, because that’s not in my wheelhouse. But are you moving your body in a way that feels good for you? What does your diet look like? Right? The food we eat, it’s everything. But it’s not only what we consume food wise. It’s what are you consuming in the media? What are you consuming? What are you reading? All of that. And so taking an inventory on the decisions you’re making day-to-day. How is it making you feel and what do you need to tweak? Because what I realized, what I missed and what really helped me, once I had it, was a coach, was someone in my corner that wasn’t throwing all of these things at me, but was allowing me to discover it on my own, because that’s when the real healing comes into place. Because I can tell you, “Hey, do all of these things,” but unless you’re doing it in a way that works for you, it’s not going to help.
So I talk about these four categories and a step-by-step healing, right, making sure the nervous system feels safe to heal. Yes, it’s a huge piece. But in each call I have with clients, it’s what do you need in this moment? Where are you at right now? What do you have the capacity to take on? Because maybe your mother-in-law just passed, maybe you just got a job promotion, you’re feeling really expansive and you’re pumped, or your energy is going to shift, and what you have the capacity for is going to shift, and it’s about coming back home to yourself and knowing yourself. And that’s a relationship that I want to help you build in this season, when it comes to all of those four categories and stress and sleep and exercise, what’s going to work well for you and make you feel good in this moment?
Lindsey:
So do you use gut health tests at all or other tests?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, I have physicians that I can refer to, and the people that I’ve used, the naturopathic doctors, the functional doctors that I loved and that I would recommend. But as far as me getting those tests, I can’t. What I have found is that 80%-90% of the real progress comes from not those tests.
Lindsey:
And so how long do you normally work with a client, and how often do you see them?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, I like to do monthly. I think that’s what I have found, in my journey and with my clients, helps the best is those monthly calls, touch bases in between, knowing I’m there for you, I got you. Reaching out, providing resources to help them find the answers on their own, with my help, of course. And then that can look like three months. It can look like six months. A year. Really depends, what you have the capacity for. What are you interested in? What would help?
Lindsey:
So, do you work with people one-on-one or are these group sessions?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah. So, my business partner and I have our own company, Gold Ivy Health Co., and we have a virtual wellness platform that’s similar to a Facebook group, but it’s its own platform where everyone’s in there, where a community can ask questions. So that’s really the group aspect. And then the one-on-one calls are where the individualism comes into play.
Lindsey:
Okay, so that sort of functions like a Facebook group might?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah and then all of our resources are packed in there.
Lindsey:
Oh I see, okay!
Brooke Herbert:
The biggest piece for me has been exercise. Has been movement, moving my body. My business partner is a personal trainer. I’m a group fitness instructor, and so we have all different virtual workouts that people can access, anytime, anywhere. That’s really our groove, it’s let’s help you make it as easy as possible to take care of yourself. So having all of the resources that you need, whether it is the workouts or a lot of mental health resources, gut health resources, we’ve got in our vault, our health hub, that people can access. An awesome resource for people, whether they want to coach one-on-one, or just want a little dip their toes in and see what it is all about and if this could be helpful. Because some people, they don’t need the coaching, right? They just, I want to figure it out, but I want the resources, and I want a course, and I want to go through it. So really meeting people where they’re at and how do you learn best? Maybe it’s not one on one, but you still want some resources. We have that too.
Lindsey:
Oh okay, so you also have a course of some sort?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, we have a Metabolism Reset course, which takes into account the four categories of wellness, and a habit tracker that you follow, so workouts for each day. It’s a 31-day challenging course, all in one, where you learn all about metabolism, and gut health is sprinkled in there as well. So that’s a really fun course. And then I have a gut health starter kit, that’s really what I wish I’d known way back in the day, that goes through these categories. It also goes through different supplements and different resources, different types of doctors to look into. It kind of takes everything I’ve learned in a little bow, here, when you’re ready, take a look, when you feel like you have the capacity for it.
Lindsey:
Okay, and so tell me about your podcast, because I know I’m supposed to be on it at some point!
Brooke Herbert:
Yes, yes, we want to hear all about your stories, our audience would love it. So my business partner and I, Andrea, we started our podcast back in 2020, the pandemic. We’re both health coaches, and I was really in the midst of my journey, and I thought the world needs a light. We can help people. We need to share what I’m going through, knowing that what I was going through was going to help someone else, and it did, and it also helped myself. By me saying, “Hey, I want to serve others,” it allowed me to get connected with someone that really helped me, which I’m really grateful for.
And on our podcast, we release episodes where we interview experts, just like you, all different types of experts, as far as therapists and coaches and healers and doctors, people that have been through insane things, where you’re like, “How did you get through that?” Losing a husband, losing a loved one, suicide, you name it. And so getting to know the tenacity of people and resiliency of how do you get through what you got through? And then also, Andrea and I, our own little fun touch of: here’s what we’re exploring. I just completed 75 Hard, which is an insane challenge. I’ll say that. So if anyone wants to learn more about that, or knows what it is and wants to hear how it went from me, I definitely recommend that. So a lot of fun episodes, taking a light-hearted approach to healing, talking about some really deep, raw, dark things, but knowing, hey, we’re all in this together, and we want to help you find the light.
Lindsey:
And what’s it called?
Brooke Herbert:
It’s called Ivy Unleashed.
Lindsey:
Great! And where can people find you?
Brooke Herbert:
Yeah, so we’re most active, I would say, on Instagram, like most people. Our Instagram handle is @goldivyhealthco. We are constantly posting inspiration and things that are working for us. Andrea, she’s a marathoner. She’s running a marathon in all 50 states, so she’s got a lot of awesome running content for anyone who likes to run, or if that’s your outlet when it comes to mental health. I post a lot about gut health and yoga, and so a real holistic approach to healing is what we’re all about.
Lindsey:
Any parting words?
Brooke Herbert:
I’ll just say: listen to your gut as best as you can. Find your truth. Listen. You’re your own best doctor. It really comes to, are you willing to listen to what your body is trying to tell you?
Lindsey:
Great! Thank you so much.
If you are struggling with bloating, gas, burping, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, soft stool, acid reflux, IBS, IBD, SIBO, candida overgrowth, fatigue or migraines and want to get to the bottom of it, that’s what I help my clients with. You’re welcome to set up a free, 30-minute breakthrough session with me. We’ll talk about what you’ve been going through and I’ll tell you about my 3- and 5- appointment health coaching programs in which I recommend lab tests, educate you on what the results mean and the protocols used by doctors to fix the problems revealed. Or if you’re ready to jump in right away or can just afford one appointment at a time, you can set up an 1-hour consultation with me.
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