Timothy A. Zercher (00:00)
All right, well thank you so much for joining us Cortney. We really appreciate having you on and we're excited to learn a little bit from your experience and some of your expertise.

Cortney (00:08)
Great, thanks so much for having me.

Timothy A. Zercher (00:10)
You blend integrative therapy with clinical nutrition and after 15 years in the field, what's one insight from combining those two that has surprised you? What's kind of one result that surprised you?

Cortney (00:23)
Well, it's really surprising to me that we're not more advanced in this area, right, across the behavioral health spectrum. I think that's what's really just surprising to me. You know, more and more research is coming out about that connection between the gut brain and the foods that we eat and how they impact our mood.

And so for me, it's not necessarily surprising in what I see in my day-to-day practice, but just surprising that it's not more sort of common knowledge, even though there is a lot of research coming out right now validating what I think so many of us have known intuitively. But to really put that into practice is not intuitive, right? Like it takes a lot of behavior change to implement, you know, bringing in nutrition and lifestyle habits into clinical practice.

And so there's quite a bit that kind of goes into this. So I understand like the apprehension sometimes and why we're not quite there yet as this is more common across other providers. But I think that it's just surprising that we've not been able to kind of push the needle, although more and more so, yes, obviously there's more of an acceptance around this. But I think it's just surprising that we're not further along.

Timothy A. Zercher (01:39)
Yeah, well, and it does make sense, because eating habits and nutritional habits are some of the hardest to change and hardest for people to shift.

Survivorship and healing feature prominently in your personal story. How has your journey kind of shaped how you approach therapy and how you approach your clients?

Cortney (01:57)
Well, for me, I actually went through quite a traumatic situation in the midst of grad school. And so I ended up having to like totally pivot and take care of that before I could jump back into finishing out my degree and moving on to getting my licensure. And so through that process, really like obviously quite healing to be able to experience that and to know what that process is like.

And you know, I always tell my clients like I'm on a healing journey too. I might be like a few steps ahead of you and a little bit higher up on the mountain but fortunately I can look back and kind of help them with their footing and say like, you know, from my perspective I think it'd be really helpful if you kind of took a step here or you took a step there.

And so I can kind of look back and guide them through that process. But I also have experience because I've kind of walked that path and we all are walking our own different paths and different journeys in life, but I'm able to at least kind of give them a different perspective, maybe a little bit further down the road or a little bit further up the mountain. And so I like to kind of share that metaphor with clients that we're all moving in the same kind of direction of healing, but we all just take our journeys a little bit differently and it always helps to have someone kind of hold your hand or guide you through that process.

Timothy A. Zercher (03:13)
Absolutely. And though everyone's journey is unique, you can at least say that you've been on a similar journey.

Cortney (03:20)
Yeah, yeah, I mean absolutely everybody's experience is so unique and their healing experience is very unique but I do think that there's some commonalities that we can kind of share and we can help each other to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We can reach the top of the mountain and yeah, healing is possible.

Timothy A. Zercher (03:37)
So you're in a pretty unique side of the industry. How do you go about gaining new clients and what is working best for you right now?

Cortney (03:45)
Partnerships, 100%. I have been able to successfully develop a lot of relationships and good partnerships, working relationships with other practitioners, other providers who can see and understand the importance of collaborative care. And so I work really closely with physicians and chiropractors and acupuncturists and naturopaths.

And so just being able to kind of create that, not just cross-referral partnerships, but like actually collaborating on treatment plans and supporting people in whole person care. I think that's really where we start to see major transformation. So that's what's propelled my practice.

And to me, I don't feel like I'm really in a competitive space in that regard because I think we all have such important value to bring to our clients and different perspectives. And so when we create more of a collaborative model, we're able to treat someone from multiple perspectives and what I like to say is just we're kind of putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

You know, I might be able to support them in this area, but someone else can really help them with something else. And so let's work together to strengthen them. And that's what creates lasting change. So it's really, really important for me to always practice that sort of collaborative model. And then I don't feel like I'm competing.

Timothy A. Zercher (05:09)
Yeah, that makes complete sense. That makes complete sense. I mean, at the end of the day, hopefully other practitioners, even though they have different specialties, are focused on the same thing, right, which is making their patients, making their clients healthy.

Cortney (05:19)
Yeah, and then not everybody's welcome to that, not everybody's open to that, and that's okay, that might not be the right path for them and for their practice, but for me, this is what I've found to be really transformative.

Timothy A. Zercher (05:31)
So what have you found is the hardest part of growing your practice?

Cortney (05:36)
I think for me in terms of being able to align myself with, again, people who also see and value that importance of collaborative care. Again, not everybody understands the importance of it and sees the value in it. So when I'm bringing on new team members or clinicians into my practice, I really have to make sure that they understand the importance of collaborative care, whole person care.

We're not here to just treat one specific… the whole person, the whole picture that we're going to look at. And so I need someone who can help share that same experience or at least provide that same experience for my clients. So yeah, I think that's the hardest part sometimes is really helping to either shift someone's mindset or find someone who already has that perspective.

Timothy A. Zercher (06:17)
What is one marketing or advertising strategy that you're kind of currently considering or watching carefully in the marketplace right now?

Cortney (06:26)
That's a good question. Again, like I don't think that this is a competitive space unless, I mean it is if you make it, but partnerships, 100 % hands down. I have had so much success in partnering with other practitioners for one thing, but also like even beyond that expanding into working with fitness instructors or gym owners.

You go to the gym nowadays to get, obviously for fitness goals or whatever, but now they have massage therapists in there and they have nutritionists and there's sometimes therapists. It's again, a whole person collaborative care model. And so I also partner with digital health companies to help clients be able to look at some of their blood work and how do we bring that into practice and again, make some behavior changes around some really specific things that are going on with their health.

That's to me where like I'm starting to feel like I'm really moving the needle and being able to partner with other practitioners, even putting together things like package deals, right? Where it's like, hey, you get a couple of sessions with your chiropractor because you're dealing with some chronic pain issues, and hey, let's work on that in session together and we'll do a couple sessions together and we'll work with your chiropractor and we'll have all the treatment goals aligned specifically around managing chronic pain or something.

So we're kind of tag teaming and so those partnerships are what I have found to be really successful and helpful.

Timothy A. Zercher (08:02)
Absolutely. So your job is not an easy one, right? You work with people going through hard challenges and sometimes it can feel like the life-ending challenge if they don't get it right. What brought you into this space? What is your story? What made you invest your time and energy into this?

Cortney (08:19)
Well, I've always been really interested in what drives change, whether that's macro level or micro level. I do a lot of consulting for major healthcare organizations and I've always just been really interested in passion and understanding what drives change. And so being in behavioral health, I was able to understand, well, moving from my background as a social worker and then I was fortunate enough to move into the ABA world, applied behavior analysis.

And I really just fell in love with the change model, the scientific evidence around how do we shift and change behaviors. So seeing that in practice and seeing change, like rapid change, brought me a lot of hope. And so then moving that into different areas of my career in terms of the macro level and systems change and also applying it in practice in terms of using a nice blueprint or like a framework to work off of.

I feel like it's really empowering for me to be able to apply that over and over and over and know that it's consistently going to bring about change, consistently going to bring about progress if you just continue to stick to those same exact change models and those same behavioral principles.

So I think that's why I really love the work that I do because I know that it's effective and it's just really rewarding to see all the change in my clients. Yeah.

Timothy A. Zercher (09:53)
Absolutely, absolutely. I think that's the best part of working in this space is that you get to see actual change, right? You get to see your work actually improving people's lives and actually making them feel better in a lot of different ways, which is awesome. Perfect, perfect. Well, thank you, Cortney. Thank you so much for joining us, for giving us time out of your day, and thank you for the work that you're doing. I know you are impacting lives every day. I just like to take the opportunity to say thank you from all of us out here in the wider world that don't have your skill set.

Cortney (10:21)
No, thank you, Timothy. It's been a joy being a part of your podcast and I appreciate what you do as well. Thank you so much.