Every person that seeks out big changes in their life has a story. Here is my story…
I have been in the field of natural health and healing for my whole life! As far as my conventional education and degrees, I am a Physical Therapist and Certified Integrative Manual Therapist. I studied Physical Therapy at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. I continued my graduate education by earning a Doctoral Degree from Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I focused my learning and specialization in neuro-pediatrics and alternative therapies for children and adults with autism and learning disabilities.
I began my learning in bodywork and manual therapy at a very early age from my mother, Sharon Weiselfish-Giammatteo, who was an amazing woman. She was absolutely a guiding force in my life for so many years. My mother was the original developer of a beautiful type of bodywork called Integrative Manual Therapy or as many lovingly refer to it as ‘IMT’. This very extensive body of work was created by my mother initially because I was very sick as a baby. As my primary source of healthcare, it was IMT that propelled me into a heathy state.
Up until several years ago, my life was solely about this work and helping to build awareness about it. For many years, I traveled around the world teaching this work to clinicians and managing a large team of Physical Therapists around the country at various clinics that we owned, specializing in this bodywork. In 2014, I founded Integrative Wellness & Physical Therapy, a robust wellness center that offered many complimentary services including holistic Physical Therapy that specialized in Integrative Manual Therapy, as well as nutritional wellness, Chiropractic, and Acupuncture. It was rewarding work but also very difficult at times.
On May 31st, 2018, I closed Integrative Wellness & PT with the plan to reduce stress in my life. Running the ‘family business’ was the single most important priority for the bulk of my adult life. It had been a very large responsibility that I carried for many years, one that at times felt overwhelming and at other times, offered countless blessings.
Over the past many years of managing the field of IMT, I spent my leisure time in the kitchen discovering my love for healthy cooking. I developed my knowledge and skills in the kitchen through grass-roots living! I have spent the past 20+ years perusing cookbooks and creating my own healthy recipes that are delicious as well as anti-inflammatory.
With the daily stress of managing the wellness center and a yearning to spend more time with my beautiful family, as well as feeling a growing need inside me to shift my professional life to one that was more satisfying, I decided that now was the time to make a big change in my life.
My new direction in life is to focus on what matters to me most, my family, and continuing my exploration in natural food and healthy eating. One of my greatest skills, which has been nurtured and harnessed over many years, is holding a person’s hand while guiding them in a direction of greater health. To date, I have worked with thousands of clients, helping them to understand how to ‘get healthy’ and how to ‘be healthy’. Incorporating heathy cooking onto this journey is so much fun!