I am so excited for the release of this podcast episode: The Beginners Guide Functional Health Coaching where we discuss elevating our families from the depths of chronic illness! Everyone, please listen, like, share, and support this exceptionally important show.

Here is what PJ Harlow had to say about our revolutionary conversation!

“New podcast episode of The Tourist for your commute to work on this happy Monday!

I made it to episode #2 with my mentor & friend Carla Atherton who is the director of Healthy Family Formula & producer of the Children’s Health Summit.

PJ & Carla break down the medicalization of health as we know it while illuminating the rise in chronic illness, childhood epidemics and the simple fact that many people aren’t finding answers & healing where they once did. As they talk about our own families experiences with chronic illnesses & how they both came into Functional Health, they discuss the common patterns of denial, low expectations and feeling abandoned by the system. They go deep into some of the barriers & obstacles families, parents, caregivers & individuals are currently facing.

Both energetically describe their rising occupation of functional health coaching, the concepts & foundations that it’s based on, what exactly coaches do, how functional coaches differ from other health coaches, and why you may consider this as an option in your healing vs. traditional medicine. Additionally they identify the qualifications of what it takes to dial into this growing niche profession, which Carla also teaches as the Curriculum Director of Healthy Family Formula’s Certified Practitioners Program.

PJ & Carla have an amazing connection & vibe; it’s an episode that keeps you invested the entire time, especially if you find yourself, tired, sore, and struggling with unidentifiable or chronic health issues. With some sobering topics on the table, it’s a loose & sometimes humorous conversation packed with eloquent wisdom & realistic truths. As usual, PJ doesn’t hold back with her raw perception & relative boomeranging points, as her own personal experience tie into this podcast.

Carla discloses some of her techniques & concepts for her students and clients as well, mixed with both her personal & professional philosophies.

Carla has interviewed over 200 expert health professionals with her annual Children’s Health Summit and doesn’t fail to bring the goods in this interview.

We are excited to get her new book, Family Health Revolution which is on Pre-sale now & drops this summer. Both a novel & a reference book for families looking for answers, you are bound to find value in both her book and this episode.

INCLUDED IN THE EPISODE:

How Carla became a Functional Practitioner & her personal story.

Is Chronic Illness on the rise?

Current Statistics of Childhood & Adult Illnesses.

What does Health mean to you?

The normalization of feeling unwell.

What is Functional Health?

What is a Functional Health Coach?

The concepts of what Carla does for her clients & what she teaches her students.

Feeling abandoned by the medical system, friends & family when your chronically sick.

What are your expectations of your health care provider?

Health Concepts & The new Health Revolution.

Obstacles in healing & solutions for getting well.”

Subscribe, rate, and “like” the show and take a moment to leave a comment.

Available on iTunes, Spotify, GooglePlay & Stitcher

Listen on iTunes

Website Link

I HAVE NOT been keeping up in this blog! This is not a full blog post but an announcement that Day 5 of The Children’s Health Summit 4 is live now!!

Today, we discuss The Brain, Sensory Disorders, Autism, and ADHD.

We still have 7 days of great information in store!

Register for our FREE online event!

Drumroll, please!!!!! Hundreds of hours of work and some pretty hectic days later, we are ready to announce the line-up for the Children’s Health Summit 4! And IT. IS. FANTASTIC!

Reserve your free spot to listen online at www.childrenshealthsummit.com

Day 1 May 13

Intro to Childhood Chronic Illness

1. Carla Atherton: Coaching Your Family Into Health (Heather Korbmacher)
2. Dr. Michelle Perro: What’s Making Our Children Sick?
3. Beth Lambert: Documenting Hope, The CHIRP Study, and the Role of Research in Root Cause Resolution
4. Josie Nelson: Cracking Tough Cases
5. Dr. Madiha Saeed: Heal and Reverse Chronic Disease in All Ages— Even on a Budget!
6. Dr. Martha Herbert: The Brains of Our Children on a Planet in Crisis: Powerful Lessons for a Viable Future

Day 2 May 14

Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, and Relationship

1. Carla Atherton: Healing Our Epidemic of Depression and Anxiety (Detria Branch)
2. Carla Atherton: A New Generation of Addiction (Dori Abbott)
3. Tommy Rosen: Beyond Addiction: Your Kids and The Great Inner War
4. Niki Gratrix: The Vital Importance of Emotional Health
5. Naomi Aldort: Transforming Parent-Child Relationships
6. Dr. Sandy Gluckman: Non-Inflammatory Parenting: The Missing Link in Healing Learning, Behavior, and Mood Challenges in Children

Day 3 May 15

Autoimmunity, the Immune System, and Childhood Cancer

1. Carla Atherton: A Novel Approach to Type 1 Diabetes (Sutton Healy)
2. Dr. Brandon Brock: The Role of Functional Neurology and Chiropractic in Brain Autoimmunity and Developmental Disorders
3. Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Take No Prisoners! Neurodegeneration, Reactivity, and Autoimmunity
4. Dr. Ayla Wilson: Identification and Treatment of PANDAS/PANS
5. Dr. Nasha Winters: Prevention Is the Only Cure: Taking on Childhood Cancer
6. Dr. Ty Vincent: LDI for Immune Inflammatory Problems in Children

Day 4 May 16

GI, Atopic, Allergy, and Asthma

1. Maria Rickert-Hong: Brain Under Attack: PANS, PANDAS, Lyme, OCD & Anxiety
2. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride: The Role of Gut Healing and the GAPS Diet in Childhood Chronic Illness
3. Dr. Kiran Krishnan: Deep Dive: The Microbiome at the Root of Your Child’s Health
4. Dr. Elisa Song: Allergy, Asthma, MAST Cell Activation, Histamine, and Reactivity
5. Dr. Jill Carnahan: Is Mold Making Your Family Sick?
6. Jess Sherman: Feeding Your Kids Without Losing Your Sanity

Day 5 May 17

The Brain, Sensory Disorders, Autism, and ADHD

1. Dr. Phyllis Books: Dyslexia, ADHD, Allergies, and the Brain
2. Dr. Angela Knapp: Naturopathy, Neuro-sensory Challenges, and Down Syndrome
3. Patricia Lemer: Vision Issues in Autism and ADHD: More Than Meets the Eye
4. Dr. Andrea Libutti: How Mindfulness in Autism is the Key to Healing
5. Dr. Robert Melillo: Reconnecting Disconnected Kids
6. Sonia Story: 3 Keys to Overcoming Anxiety and Sensory Processing Issues

Day 6 May 18

Causes

1. Lloyd Burrell: How to Protect Your Kids from the Shocking Effects of Cell Phones and Similar Technologies
2. Dr. Victoria Dunckley: Is Screentime Damaging Your Child’s Brain?
3. Rachel Fresco: Botanical Support for Pathogenic Infection
4. Michael McEvoy: Epigenetics: Our Power Over Chronic Disease
5. Dr. Christine Schaffner: Could Retroviruses Be Fueling Your Child’s Chronic Illness?
6. Pam Machemehl-Helmly: Brain Health: Surprising Factors that Play a Role in Imbalance

Day 7 May 19

Causes Part 2

1. Stephanie Seneff: Glyphosate and the Environmental Chemical Assault with Devastating Consequences
2. Dr. Christopher Shade: Identifying and Detoxing Heavy Metals
3. Jeffrey Smith: GMO as THE Main Causal Factor for Human Chronic Conditions: An Indisputable Argument
4. Peter Sullivan: A Father’s Deep Dive Into EMFs to Recover His Sons
5. Dr. Todd Watts: How Parasites Are Affecting Your Children
6. Serenity Carr and Joe Carr: Infant Nutrition: Every Bite Counts

Day 8 May 20

Begnnings, Basics, and Prevention

1. Carla Atherton: Pre-Natal and Post-Natal Health For Mom and Baby (Courtney Homer)
2. Jason Prall: Ensuring Youngevity from Birth to Old Age
3. Ian Clark: Whole Body Remediation for Prevention, Healing, and Longevity
4. Cilla Whatcott: Exercising the Immune System to Create Real Immunity
5. Anat Baniel: Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement®: The Power of Brain Change to Heal and Transform the Life of the Child with Special Needs
6. Stephanie Newton: Homeopathy and Childhood Acute and Chronic Illness

Day 9 May 21

Elevating Our New Normal

1. Carla Atherton: Treating the Whole Child for Idiopathic Juvenile Arthritis and Other Chronic Childhood Illness (Tiffany Thompson)
2. Reed Davis: A Simple Strategy for Chronic Illness
3. Tara Hunkin: Drinking From the Firehose: How to Overcome Overwhelm and Find the Right Treatments for Your Child
4. Tyler Lewis: Mapping a Healthier Future for Our Children
5. Heather Korbmacher: Managing Behavioral Symptoms in the Home and School Settings
6. Joel Salatin: Family Farms, Gardens, Cooking, and Connection: Returning to the Nature of Things

Day 10 May 22

Solutions, Whole Child Therapies, and Possibilities

1. Carla Atherton: Mindful Change (Ita Teigman)
2. Lora Brady: Advanced TRS – A Safe and Effective Detox Method
3. Dr. Brett Brimhall: Nutrigenomics, Supplementation, and the NrF1 and NrF2 Pathways
4. Larry Doochin: The Healing Power of Human Sound
5. Kirk Gair DC: Can Lasers Help Improve Kids’ Brain Function, Sports Performance, and Overall Health?
6. Terri Hirning: Detoxification with the IonCleanse by AMD Footbath

Day 11 May 23

Solutions, Whole Child Therapies, and Possibilities Part 2

1. Carla Atherton: Vitamin N, Creativity, Meditation, and Play (Kirstie Gran)
2. Dr. Monica Scales and Dr. Maia Walton: Beyond the Basics: Advanced Interventions for Autism, PANS/PANDAS, ADHD, and Other Childhood Conditions
3. Heather Korbmacher: The Therapeutic Effects of Essential Oils
4. Kurt Woeller: Biomedical Treatments for Childhood Chronic Illness
5. Dr. Stuart Nunnally and Dr. Candice Owens: Holistic Dentistry: True Root Cause Resolution
6. Dr. Zach Bush: Restoring the Health of Our Children, Our Children’s Children, and Our Planet

And we air May 13th-23rd!! Reserve your spot now!

If you have never attended an online health summit before, just sign up for free and watch your inbox for the links to the talks. Watch at any time on the day those talks air. Simple!

Is there something on that list that you want to learn more about? Join us for the family health event of the year!! And share with all of the people you care about.

Register here!

by Carla Atherton, Director of The Healthy Family Formula

I mean it when I say that, when it comes to addictions, I’ve seen it all. Addictions to alcohol and marijuana, big-time drugs like heroine and crack cocaine, gambling, pharmaceuticals, “benign” addictions that aren’t even seen as harmful like gaming, shopping, e-cigarettes, and even food. You want to talk about a “gateway drug,” have a look at the behaviours and chemical highs our kids are becoming accustomed to by engaging with their handheld devices from sunup to sundown or by eating chemically addicting “food” on the go where the only clean-up is a bag or box that their burger was wrapped in and the only social engagement is the question, “would you like fries with that?”

I grew up in a home where alcohol and drugs were the norm, they were the tool for both having “good” times as well as to “cope” with the bad. I saw police and violence and deep pain and sorrow. Treatment centres, interventions, al-anon, therapy, family week, relapse, relapse, relapse. Yep. Seen it all. I went through the shame, the enabling, the denial, the rejection, the disgust, the trauma of never knowing what to expect or even that there was any other way to be.

Well, there is.

Gambling almost took my own family down. We also witnessed my husband’s good friend drink himself to death at the age of 45 and saw several kids I knew in my youth overdose, one in the backseat of a car, and another in his own bed where he just didn’t wake up. A good friend of mine was beaten with a baseball bat within an inch of his life while he slept by his roommate who was tripping on hallucinogenic drugs. As I write this, I am thinking about my sister’s friend who made it back from the streets where she was addicted to heroine, saved by the fact that she was pregnant; I am thinking about a few others who I am currently trying to help who won’t make it unless something is done now because their livers are giving up, they already have brain damage, or they have lost their jobs and all sense of self. I have seen people literally eating themselves to death, starving themselves and their brains replacing food with cigarettes, and obsessively gaming, ashen, grey and not sleeping, instead of hanging out with friends, laughing, engaging, living life. More, more, more, while getting less, less, less.

I have seen the systems we have in place fail time and time again because something is missing from what we understand about addiction and why it can grip those we love (and even ourselves), both young and old, so tightly that we will choose chocolate cake, a margarita, or a chemical shot into our arms over our very lives. In my late teens, I became a tiny voice against the gale force of addiction wondering why I was the only one who could or would hear. And as the years went on and I learned more from my work and experience, that voice got louder, bolder, and more effective. Systems will not save us first world people who are immersed in a culture of excess, instant gratification, and apathy, in a culture that values profit over good food, water, air, and shelter, a society addicted to the dopamine high these addictions can give us that nothing else in nature can. The problem goes deeper and wider than the people who are the “addicts.” And addictions are physical, yes, but are also mental, social, cultural, and spiritual. They are the result of our individual, familial, and collective experience. And the solutions have to address them all. Addictions usually come with a huge dose of denial, yet we can’t ignore this problem, because a lot is at stake here.

Addictions can and will take down not only the individual, but entire families, and rock the core of whole communities. How do we help our youth, our children and grandchildren? How do we help struggling adults who are supposed to be the foundational pillars of our community and family structures? How do we empower ourselves to reverse the current epidemic of addictions, heed the warning signs, and heal?

We can answer these questions by having conversations had in summits like The Addiction Summit. Let’s blow this thing out of the water by first, attending, then taking action, whether you are a parent, child, or friend of a person with an addition or are struggling, yourself!

I have a lot more to say about addictions, what causes them, the warning signs, how to help, and how to heal, so I promise to write a full article about it for you very soon based on the programs I’ve been developing! Because it is not the addictions that call the shots, we do.

Register here.

May you and your family be well,

Revolutionary Mama,

Carla.

by Carla Atherton, Director of the Healthy Family Formula

Watch The Human Longevity project!

Because there has been such a massive buzz about the project, you may have already heard about the new docuseries, The Human Longevity Project hosted by my friend and colleague Jason Prall. If you haven’t yet, let me tell you, it is so good that I have added it to the syllabus for my new HFF Selfcare Coach Practitioner Training program! The film is a revelation, a wake up call, a call to action, and an inspiring celebration of life and our own human potential. So, it’s good.

What do I mean by good? Here are some quotes plucked from the series:

“The most powerful tool you have in the arsenal of vibrant health is what’s on the end of your fork.” Dr. Tom O’Bryan

“It’s how you live your life that is going to dictate your health.” Dr. Pedram Shojai

“When you change your diet, and you change your microbiome, that changes all your gene expressions.” Dr. Datis Kharrazian

“The basics in life, the foods that you’re eating, the environment that you’re in, the people you’re surrounded with, are way more important than those genetic SNPs that you’re seeing on your lab report.” Dr. Ben Lynch

“This is the age of personalized healthcare, moving from the age of the averages, to the age of the individual, to the treatment of a cause and not just the effect.” Dr. Jeffrey Bland

“I really believe that people who have lived and lived well and have gotten the lessons from all these experiences can help the younger generation understand that you will get through this…and there is a way you can do it, and with the support of a community of people who have kind of been there, done that, and got the t-shirt.” Dr. Keesha Ewers

When you watch the series, at the very least, you will learn all kinds of ways that you can act now to improve your family’s health and ensure longevity for every family member, young and old. You will also find answers to your own family’s health concerns and questions; but what is more, how you view health will be forever changed. You will feel so good and inspired and clear that you will want to share it with everyone you know. Become empowered by the community of health advocates, experts, and elders whose vibrance you can actually feel coming through the beautiful images in the film. I have watched every minute, and you bet I’ll be watching again and again.

Well done, Jason Prall, and the HLP team! And thank you for creating an amazingly powerful tool for change so we can all thrive healthy and disease-free, well into our old age.

Register FREE Here.

Do plan to make the time to watch the series starting May 8^th. Join the 85,000 (and counting) people already watching. It is that good and that important for all of us.

When Sandy McKee approached me to speak for her online event Healthy, Wealthy, and Slim, I was, of course, honoured and interested in the topics of health, energy, and success, but it was only after speaking to her over the phone that I really GOT what Sandy is all about. Her energy, her exuberant enthusiasm, her passion, her sense of humour, her kind spirit told me that she’s the real deal. I discovered that Sandy is a woman who works from the heart and that anything she does will benefit the many people she touches.

When I had my health scare about a month and a half back (occluded carotid artery caused by a dissection – seriously!), I didn’t bat an eye (well, actually I did a bit – look up Horner’s Syndrome) at the prospect of keeping my commitment to speak for Sandy’s event. Her reply to my continued commitment made me laugh out loud! I mean, anyone who says, and I quote: “OMG you’re AMAZING Carla!!! 99.9% of people on this planet would back out gracefully-and understandably!! I can’t WAIT to tap into that genius that is currently struggling for blood flow!” is my kind of woman! And the title she gave our interview?! “Fearless Mom Kicks Chronic Disease’s Butt!”

OK, so what is Sandy up to?!  Listen to the interviews she conducted for her Healthy, Wealthy, and Slim online event, and you will be informed AND entertained. It is not a weightloss summit but all about health, energy, and success in all areas of life. Our interview is not one to be missed! So, get your seatbelt on and join us!