Functional Medicine Practitioner Spotlight: Trish Murray

3X4’s new Functional Medicine Practitioner Spotlight series features interviews with practitioners, consultants and functional medicine thought leaders to explore everything functional medicine practitioners need to know about successfully building, managing, and growing their private practice. 

The following is an interview we recently had with Trish Murray, Owner of Discover Health Functional Medicine Center

What can you tell us about your practice? 

TM:  I’m an integrative internal medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine specialist with more than 20 years of medical experience.

Discover Health Functional Medicine Center is a combination Functional Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine practice that I founded more than 15 years ago.

Drawing on the various treatment modalities I’ve encountered throughout my career, I have focused my practice on providing integrative pain, inflammation and autoimmune treatment based on the concept of root cause resolution.

Since its inception, my care team has empowered thousands of patients to take charge of their health and resolve many chronic conditions such as joint pain, migraine, IBS, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, colitis, and many other inflammation-related symptoms.

What surprised you the most when you started your practice?

TM: The importance of patient education and the effectiveness of self-help tools. I realized that when patients are taught how to take charge of their own health and well-being, they benefit so much more than any specific treatment I would provide solely.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome as you built your practice? How did you overcome it?

TM: Time… as my practice has grown, it has become even more important to give people the tools to heal themselves in a way that scales beyond my physical practice. I have overcome this by offering patient education, initially as in-person individual or group instruction. This later evolved to include online educational materials, group classes, and most recently in 2019, we launched the Discover Health Movement Membership in partnership with 3 instructors and our health coach.

This program enables me to reach more patients more often and to help them when they can’t be here in person with me. It has also enabled those who are physically distant to our practice to learn valuable self-care tools to benefit their physical, emotional and cognitive well-being through movement.

What advice would you give to other practitioners considering launching their own practice?

TM: Identify opportunities to build value for your patients in different ways. Think about creating educational and empowering programs; and, collaborating with other providers to give people

the tools they need to take control of their health and to implement the necessary lifestyle changes that will transform their lives.

What excites you most about the field of functional medicine?

TM: The ability to really dig deep with my patients to find the root cause of what is ailing them, offer lifestyle-based approaches and get them from surviving to thriving is one of the most exciting aspects of Functional Medicine.

Where do you see your practice 5 years from now?

TM: Winding down, towards retirement, I am looking at leaving a legacy in the Discover Health Functional Medicine Center that enables people to have the knowledge and tools they need to take care of themselves. Whether for day to day pain prevention, unwinding old patterns or optimizing other lifestyle factors, I want my practice to continue giving people the self-care tools they need to live and play as long as they want. As we age, we all deserve our golden years to be amazing!

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