Eli Priest is a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP), a Master Restorative Wellness Practitioner (RWP), and one of Kansas City’s most passionate minds when it comes to the subject of how nutrition plays into an individual’s health and wellness. She is also a Certified Clinical Homeopathic Specialist (CCHS).

Armed with a true understanding of the healing priorities of the body, Eli is able to identify blocking factors and imbalances, and create highly customized therapeutic healing protocols for the clients she works with.

As a FNTP, she approaches clients’ health care concerns with a holistic approach to nutrition based on the Dr. Weston A. Price findings.

As a MRWP, she is trained in the art and science of gastrointestinal healing and optimizing hormones. She is training to use advanced clinical tools such as lab testing and interpretation, giving her the ability to customize client protocols to resolve even the most complicated gastrointestinal issues and identify and correct imbalances that may be driving hormonal dysfunction.

As a CCHS, when appropriate, she also incorporates comprehensive homeopathic methods and remedies into patients’ protocols.

Additionally, she incorporates traditionally prepared food and a foundational root-cause approach to health, relying on the fact that our bodies are constantly striving to achieve homeostasis, and by properly nourishing it, we can do just that!

Before becoming a FNTP, Eli was first introduced to functional medicine in 2010. Back then, she quickly realized everything she thought she understood about health wasn’t very accurate, or at least was leaving out a lot of important considerations. Now excited by what she learned about functional medicine, she immersed herself into learning everything she could, and found herself working with two of the best functional medicine doctors in Kansas City.

After nine-plus years of being a care coordinator and listening to all the stories and pain people struggle with in trying to achieve health for themselves and their families, Eli was driven to contribute more to a person’s healing journey.

Knowing the enormous role food and nutrition play in achieving and maintaining health, Eli began looking for a way to use her passion for great food, healthy eating, and amazing cooking abilities to educate and help people reach their health goals at a foundational level. After some encouragement and self-reflection she enrolled in the Nutritional Therapy Associations (NTA) course to become a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, FNTP. This decision was one that changed how she looks at health and wellness, and the course of her life and professional career forever.

Commencing on the NTA course Eli thought, ‘this will be easy, I already know so much’… but she was quickly humbled and realized that while she did know a lot, there was so much more to learn. As challenging as it was, on so many different levels, to get through these studies she proudly completed the course with honors in June 2020.

Being a lifelong learner, Eli quickly decided to further her understanding and training, and enrolled in the Restorative Wellness Solutions program, earning certification in Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Master restorative wellness.

As a mother of three amazing children, including one beautiful teenage daughter, Eli sees a need to educate young girls on their health and wellness. It is an important topic for her, and one she’s passionate about gaining further knowledge on. This led to her taking a 7-week course called Women Are Not Small Men, based on the book Roar by Dr. Stacy Sims. The course focused on exercise, nutrition, and the menstrual cycle for female athletes. Far too often in sitting in consults with mothers and daughters it has become so abundantly clear the misinformation or lack of information most parents and teens simply do not have about a healthy functioning body. Teaching teenage girls the importance of eating real foods, the importance of the quality of their thoughts/ mindset, and educating them about the female cycle is such a vital piece to setting up healthy generations to come in our community. This has quickly become a passion of Eli’s and drives her desire to empower young girls with the tools they need to create a solid foundation of health at a young age in which they can pass on to their children!

Eli has always pushed herself hard to learn more, know more, take the road less traveled, and not settle for the status quo. She is dedicated to continuing her education and training in the Functional Medicine/ Functional Nutrition industry, staying current with the latest trends in the industry, and utilizing the newest and most comprehensive tools available.

When Eli is not at work, she’s a busy mom of three amazing children, who she honestly admits, are her greatest teachers. She loves good food, cooking, travel, music, listening to records (especially her favorite band, the Smiths), and playing the piano. Sometimes you’ll even catch her singing in the car or to her kids. She is an avid runner and a triathlete, and also a creative; having studied fine art at KU. Oh yeah, and Eli is short for Elizabeth.