Q. What is your role at Table Health?
A. I am a registered dietitian and licensed massage therapist so I offer both bodywork therapy and nutrition consulting for individuals, couples and families.
Types of bodywork modalities I use are massage, trigger point therapy, active isolated stretching, craniosacral therapy, and visceral manipulation.
Q. What are some of the symptoms you commonly treat?
A. Every client is unique but a good nutrition plan can help nearly anyone with health concerns.
For nutrition, I help clients with symptoms related to
Digestion (bloating, gas, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, sensitivities)
Metabolism (overweight, underweight, diabetes or prediabetes, fatty liver, thyroid)
Chronic pain (joint pain, fibromyalgia, injuries, headaches/migraines, CRPS, cramping)
Autoimmune conditions (psoriasis, MS, lupus, thyroiditis, others)
Heart health and blood pressure
With bodywork, I address many of the similar types of conditions as the ones above. The approaches I use can help relieve pain in the body, to relieve stress, anxiety or depression, or to improve function of digestion, circulation, nerve conduction. Bodywork can also just be enjoyed for fun! Sometimes it is nice to have a relaxing session that allows you to enjoy some downtime.
Q. What does a typical visit/session with you look like?
A. Nutrition and bodywork consults can be an individual session or as part of a series of visits, depending on what you want to accomplish.
In a nutrition session we can have discussions about foods that are beneficial for you, recipe exploration, restaurant menu study, meal planning, family or holiday meal planning, troubleshooting symptoms, food elimination diets or specialty diets. We can also do in-person or virtual cooking sessions or grocery store visits.
In a bodywork session we will typically start with a short chat about the nature of your visit and do some “listening” to the body to determine what is needed. Craniosacral therapy or visceral techniques are performed with you dressed in comfortable clothing like a t-shirt and exercise pants. A traditional massage uses massage oils or creams on the skin.
Q. How do you treat and care for your clients/patients?
A. I listen carefully to the experiences of my clients as they often know their own bodies well and offer many insights into their healing. I also encourage them to observe how they feel when they eat or move or talk a certain way. They discover amazing things about foods, activities, relationships or jobs that either invigorate or drain their energy.
Q. How do you apply functional medicine to your area of expertise?
A. Good nutrition lowers inflammation and provides basic building blocks for the health of your cells to function optimally. Bodywork helps to lower stress, remove restrictions and waste products, and improve circulation so that the nutrients get to the areas needed in the body to heal.
Q. What makes your approach to health different?
A. I’m very passionate about what I do and enjoy being supportive of others who want to improve their health.
Q. What health trends excite you the most?
A. Health trends come and go. Science evolves so much every few years so I like to look at practices that have stood the test of time and continue to be useful: mindfulness, saunas, eating a rainbow of colorful plant foods, spending time in nature, kindness.
Q. Who do you follow in the medical, health/wellness community? Why?
A. I tend to read the highlights of new published nutrition research and do more in-depth reading from a variety of authors and experts on any given topic.
Q. How do you spend your free time?
A. I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking and kayaking in the summer. In the winter I watch a lot of movies and read voraciously.
Q. Who inspires you?
A. I am inspired most by people who walk their own talk and value growth and learning.
Q. What book did you last read?
A. I am probably reading 5 or 6 books at any given time. I typically alternate between medical textbooks, silly novels, fiction, magazines, and books on nutrition, health, pop-psychology, home improvement, meditation and cooking. My most recent favorite book was Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza.
Q. What do you love about where you live?
A. Northern Michigan is beautiful and so interesting! I love how every 4 or 5 weeks the weather changes so slightly and we often have to expect the unexpected. Early spring could be 80 and sunny or a blizzard—often only a day apart! I also love how I can drive in any direction and within a few minutes be on a beach, in the woods, near a river or standing on a hill overlooking the whole region.
Q. Why did you choose this profession?
A. The desire to learn about food, health and the body has been a part of me since I was a small child. It started out as a fascination that evolved into a profession.
Make An Appointment with Carol Today!
We offer multiple opportunities to work with Carol including single 60 and 45 minute nutrition consults and 90, 60, and 45 minute bodywork/massage sessions as well as 4 and 8 visit nutrition or bodywork/massage session packages at 5% and 10% off.
Table Health memberships including Wellness and Health Assessment also include opportunities to work with Carol. Make an appointment with Carol Bell today!
