Find the answers you’re looking for

Functional medicine is a leading-edge approach to healthcare that addresses chronic health conditions by identifying and treating their root causes. Research shows that issues such as autoimmune disease, digestive disorders, thyroid imbalances, women’s health concerns, skin conditions, and cardiometabolic issues are often influenced by factors like diet, lifestyle, and environment. Rather than just managing symptoms, functional medicine takes a personalised, whole-body approach to restoring health.

Our practitioners take the time to understand your full health picture – including your medical history, diet, lifestyle, and environment – so we can uncover what’s driving your symptoms. This process often involves functional pathology testing to provide deeper insights into areas such as inflammation, gut health, hormone balance, and metabolic function.

With this comprehensive understanding, we develop a personalised treatment plan tailored to your unique needs, helping to address the underlying causes of your health concerns. The goal is not just short-term relief, but long-term, sustainable health and wellbeing.

They understand the difficulties of making lasting changes because they’ve often faced similar obstacles themselves. As your guide, supporter, and accountability partner, health coaches make it easier to stay on track. Many of our patients find the support from their health coach invaluable, often realising its true importance after experiencing it firsthand.

Health coaching is a key part of our program because it’s essential for achieving lasting results. While it’s a departure from traditional healthcare approaches, we believe that combining functional medicine with coaching is the most effective way to drive meaningful change. It’s this holistic approach that has contributed to our success, including winning the 2024 ATMS Clinic of the Year award. We’re confident that working with a coach will set you up for long-term success.

Working with Melbourne Functional Medicine could be the perfect fit if you’re highly motivated, curious, and ready to make lasting changes to your health. If you’re facing ongoing health challenges and want a personalised, root-cause approach – you’ll find the support and expertise you need.

Our team of functional medicine practitioners and health coaches work with you to uncover the underlying causes of your health concerns, creating a comprehensive plan that goes beyond just managing symptoms.

If you’re eager to invest time and energy, learn new habits, and take an active role in your healing, we’re here to guide you through a transformative process toward long-term health improvements.

Yes, we work with patients worldwide via telehealth. Please note that managing international logistics – such as lab testing and supplement delivery – can sometimes result in delays. We do our best to minimise these where possible.

During your session, your practitioner will be in full detective mode to begin to piece together all the factors impacting – or potentially impacting – your health. As they gather details about your health history, diet, lifestyle, and any existing test results, they’ll create a mindmap to connect the dots and make sense of your unique health puzzle. This process helps identify the root causes of your health concerns.

Throughout the session, you’ll have the opportunity to ask as many questions as you like. If you’ve had unresolved health concerns or unanswered questions, bring them along – your practitioner will explain what’s happening in simple, clear terms, avoiding technical jargon.

Towards the end of the session, you and your practitioner will collaboratively develop an investigative healthcare plan to address your health issues. At this point, one of our health coaches will join the session to ensure you fully understand the plan and the mindmap. They’ll provide additional resources to support you and review the treatment plan you’ve designed with your practitioner.

If you decide to join our healthcare program, your health coach will help arrange supplements, coordinate any necessary testing, and schedule your first coaching appointment. Together, you’ll outline the practical steps to implement your treatment plan effectively.

By the end of the session, you’ll have gained valuable insights into what might be driving your health concerns. You’ll likely leave feeling hopeful and excited about the possibilities of regaining control of your health.

The deep dive is a standalone consultation and is paid for separately at the time of booking. It’s an essential first step that provides immediate value and helps determine whether our program is the right fit for you.

A health mindmap is a powerful visual tool that distils and connects all the insights from your deep dive session, offering you a clearer, more holistic understanding of your health. It organises the information you share with your practitioner, mapping out your symptoms from a biological perspective and linking them to potential influences like lifestyle, diet, and environmental factors. Patients often gain newfound clarity, seeing their health picture in a way that truly makes sense for the first time.

As you progress through the program (should you choose to join), your practitioner will continuously update and refine the mindmap as new insights are discovered – ensuring nothing is missed. This dynamic map guides your treatment plan, leaving no stone unturned on your journey to recovery.

Here’s an example of what a mindmap looks like:

The initial deep dive session is $870, and is a dedicated 3-hour session designed to unpack your full health story and begin forming a clear, personalised plan. In this session, you can expect:

• A thorough exploration of your symptoms, history, lifestyle, and any existing test results
• A mind map built in real time to help visualise connections and guide treatment
• Time to ask your case-specific questions

You’ll leave this appointment with a clearer picture on what’s driving your health concerns, direction on what’s next and an understanding of how we might support you moving forward.

Our healthcare program is $5700, and includes:

• 5 months of uncapped care
• Personalised guidance from your practitioner, ensuring your treatment plan aligns with your needs and goals, so you can feel more confident in your path to better health.
• Ongoing health coaching that empowers you to make lasting changes, bringing you closer to the vitality you deserve.
• Access to world-class labs that help to identify underlying issues and create a targeted treatment plan for peace of mind and clarity.
• Tailored resources to help you implement changes with ease, so you feel supported and in control every step of the way.

Payment plans and telehealth are available. Some tests and supplements may be necessary to support your treatment. These are billed separately and can range from $200 to $1200, depending on what’s needed.

Healing takes time, guided by the knowledge and support of a practitioner and health coach to help you get to the root of your health concerns and achieve your health goals. This is why we’ve designed a program with your needs in mind. The program includes:

• Uncapped care 5 months
• Dedicated functional medicine practitioner
• Dedicated health coach
• Access to the world’s best pathology testing and practitioner quality supplements
• Personalised resources to support your health goals
• Telehealth available for interstate and international patients

We offer a high contact program because in nearly a decade of delivering care for chronic health concerns, we know it provides the best chance for you to achieve lasting, meaningful results. Making lasting changes to your health is challenging, especially if you’re feeling unwell, and lead a busy life with many competing priorities. A program allows for continuous support, including care and time on your case behind the scenes from your team in between appointments. Without continuous support, many people struggle to stick to their health goals. That’s why our program combines the expertise of both your practitioner and a health coach to ensure you have the support needed at every stage of your journey.

Your practitioner provides ongoing, tailored care, evolving your treatment plan as your needs change, whether you’re in the investigation phase, actively addressing health issues, or transitioning to maintenance. This ongoing, one-on-one practitioner support ensures that your treatment remains effective and relevant over time.

In addition, health coaching bridges the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. Your health coach works closely with you to implement the necessary changes, providing motivation, accountability, and guidance to ensure you stay on track. This collaborative approach – combining practitioner expertise with the actionable support of health coaching – has been proven to significantly improve outcomes, giving you the tools and confidence to make lasting change.

By investing in our program, you get the best of both worlds: expert guidance from your practitioner and ongoing support from your coach, ensuring a tailored, comprehensive approach to your health that evolves and adapts with you.

Our practitioners are highly qualified functional medicine-trained naturopaths with a strong academic and clinical background. All have:

• A minimum of 10 years’ clinical experience, with most having worked in healthcare for over 20–30 years
• A Bachelor of Health Science (Naturopathy) or equivalent
• Formal training in functional medicine, a systems-based approach to addressing root causes of illness
• Experience in teaching at tertiary level, including institutions like Endeavour College and Torrens University

This depth of knowledge and experience allows them to confidently manage chronic health conditions with evidence-based natural therapies. 

Our practitioners follow a functional medicine approach – meaning they take time to understand the whole picture, not just your symptoms. This includes:

• A thorough initial deep dive consultation that explores your health history, lifestyle, diet, environment, and more
• Use of advanced testing (where needed) to help uncover the root causes of your health concerns
• A personalised plan involving dietary changes, nutritional and herbal supplements, and lifestyle strategies
• Ongoing guidance and refinement of your treatment plan over time

They work with patients over the long term – not only to address the issue that brought you in, but to support your overall health and wellbeing as your needs evolve. This long-term, partnership-based care is central to how they practise.

While they aren’t medical doctors, our practitioners often collaborate with GPs to ensure your care is safe, coordinated, and combines the best of both conventional and integrative approaches.

While our practitioners are not medical doctors and cannot prescribe medication, they offer a complementary approach to conventional care. GPs typically focus on diagnosis and prescribing, often within short appointments. In contrast, our practitioners take a functional medicine approach – spending more time with patients to understand the root causes of health issues, rather than just treating symptoms. They use a combination of advanced testing (when needed), targeted dietary and lifestyle interventions, and natural therapies like nutritional and herbal supplements. Their focus is on supporting the body’s systems – such as digestive, hormonal, and immune health – to promote long-term healing. They also consider factors like stress, sleep, and environmental influences that may be affecting your health. Importantly, they often work in collaboration with GPs to ensure your care is safe, coordinated, and combines the best of both conventional and integrative medicine.

Our health coaches are fully accredited by HCANZA (Health Coaches Australia and New Zealand Association), which means they meet rigorous standards of professionalism, training, and ongoing development.

Many of our coaches come from a background in healthcare and have firsthand experience navigating their own health challenges. This gives them a deep sense of empathy and understanding for what it’s like to make meaningful changes to diet, lifestyle, and habits.

They’re not just knowledgeable – they’re compassionate, supportive partners who walk alongside you throughout your health journey.

Healthcare is deeply personal, and what works for one person may not work the same for another. We provide a deeply investigative, personalised approach, thoughtfully tailored to best suit your health picture and health goals, and as such, it is difficult to reduce our success rates to a single statistic. To learn more about the kinds of results we get patients, you can check out the patient success stories page, and our Google reviews.

Follow-up consultations are typically 30 minutes. Each session will consider the effectiveness of any interventions implemented and will seek to gain further insight into your health issue/s or explore other issues that need addressing.

The duration of your coaching calls will differ depending on how you are doing! At the start, coaching sessions tend to be longer and more intensive as you’re in a learning and growth phase.

As you progress through your program, sessions are typically a weekly 15–30 minute call along with more frequent contact via Slack – an app that you can access on your phone or desktop for quick and easy communication. Your health coach will be in touch regularly to give you as much support as you require to meet your goals.

Our programs are designed to provide you with ongoing, flexible support throughout your journey. We believe in an ‘open model’ approach, meaning there are no caps or restrictions on the number of appointments you can have with your healthcare team. We’re here to support you every step of the way.

You’ll work closely with your health coach who’ll monitor your progress, address any barriers, and support you with implementing lasting changes. Your practitioner will recommend how often you should meet with them based on your needs, but if your symptoms change or you need additional support, we’ll bring your appointment forward to the next available slot.

To keep the lines of communication open, your coach will provide access to an app (Slack) so you can easily share updates or ask questions even between appointments. Our goal is to ensure you feel supported and empowered throughout your entire program.

Healing isn’t always linear, and some complex health issues can take longer than five months to fully resolve – and that’s completely normal. Our program is designed to create strong momentum: running thorough investigations, identifying root causes, and supporting key changes in diet, lifestyle, and mindset.

Throughout the program, your practitioner and health coach will be with you every step of the way – reviewing progress, adjusting your plan, and keeping you on track. Most patients see meaningful improvements by the end of the program, but if you’re still working toward your goals, you can continue with ongoing support on a pay-as-you-go basis, tailored to your evolving needs.

Yes, making changes is key. Chronic diseases are often influenced by dietary, lifestyle, and environmental factors, so it’s important to address these to achieve lasting health improvements. If you’re considering working with us, it’s essential to be committed to making the changes needed to get the results you’re after.

We’ll provide you with insights into how these factors may be negatively impacting your health, helping you understand why change is necessary. Our goal is to empower you, so the changes feel like a gift rather than a burden. You’ll experience a significant improvement in how you feel as you make progress.

Additionally, our health coaches play a vital role in making these changes feel manageable and sustainable. They’ll work closely with you to integrate new habits into your lifestyle, ensuring they fit with your routine and support your long-term success. With the right guidance and support, you’ll be able to make lasting changes that work for you.

Because some of the world class labs we use are US based, there is a standard 4-6 week turnaround time from when you submit your tests. However, this doesn’t mean that progress stalls during this time. We can continue making strides in your treatment plan while awaiting results.

The most common delays we encounter are related to the timely submission of test samples. To help ensure everything moves as efficiently as possible, your coach will provide you with plenty of resources and guidance, as well as coaching calls, to help you submit your samples promptly.

Extensions are not typically offered when delays arise due to late sample submissions, but we’re committed to working with you to ensure we stay on track and make the most of your program time.

After supporting hundreds of patients through our personalised programs, we know that the one thing that sets us apart from other practitioners like naturopaths or autoimmune disease specialists is our unique approach. First, our practitioners have a broad range of knowledge about autoimmune conditions and health. By using the methodical and thorough functional medicine approach, they leave no stone unturned when finding the root cause of your health concerns.

When you add health coaching into the equation, your chances of success increase greatly because you’ll have someone walking with you step by step through all the challenges that often stop people from getting better.

That said, you do have to be prepared and willing to do what’s needed to get your health back, which usually involves changes to your diet and lifestyle.

We understand that finding the right practitioner is key to your healthcare journey. Our approach is personalised, and our team consists of highly skilled practitioners with broad experience across a range of health conditions, along with key special areas of interest.

When you call the clinic or book a discovery call, you’ll either speak with our friendly reception team or one of our health coaches. We’ll ask you a series of questions to understand your health goals and challenges. Based on this information, we’ll recommend a practitioner who has the most relevant experience in the areas you’re looking to address, to help you get you the best possible results. You can also take a look at our team here to get a sense of who’d be the perfect practitioner for you. 

When you book your initial deep dive appointment, our principal health coach Bee will review your case and match you with the best suited health coach. If you’ve spent time on our website and are eager to work with one coach in particular, we’re always open to putting in a request for you and doing our best to accommodate this, subject to the health coach’s availability.

Your health coach will connect with you via phone in the lead up to your deep dive appointment to check in with you, help answer any questions you may have, and ensure you’re ready to go for your first appointment.

On the day of your appointment, your coach will be there to greet you and give you a warm welcome to our clinic (either in person or via video telehealth), before you head into your session with your functional medicine practitioner.

As you’re wrapping up the end of your appointment with your practitioner, your health coach will be welcomed into the session to discuss the key health priorities detailed in your health plan, which is your personalised roadmap as you navigate the investigative phase of your program, including any recommended dietary and lifestyle modifications, and functional testing. By being part of this conversation, your health coach will understand the steps you need to take and help you put your plan into action with ongoing support.

Yes, we do! We’ve had the privilege of supporting many children and their families through health journeys, witnessing incredible transformations. From resolving chronic issues to improving overall well-being, we’ve seen children go from struggling to thriving, laying the foundation for a brighter and healthier future. Every success story is a testament to the power of personalised care, and a reminder of the lasting impact of good health in the early stages of life.

A payment of $870 is due at the time of booking your deep dive consultation. The program fee of $5700 is payable upon signing up to our program, with the option to split the payment into monthly instalments through our trusted payment partners.

To find out more about payment solutions, download our resource here.

Any supplements or lab testing will be charged separately.

All contact with your practitioner and coach are included in the program fee. Other costs you can potentially expect are for laboratory tests and supplements. Your practitioner will discuss the costs for any tests or supplements they recommend in your sessions.

Unfortunately, as of April 1, 2019, most private health insurers won’t offer rebates for our services.

Most of the testing we do seeks to understand how pathways or systems in the body function. These tests are typically more in-depth and comprehensive than you would’ve encountered before.

We sometimes request standard blood chemistry from your GP for more basic tests, and if we need to go more in-depth, such as looking at microbiome health or food sensitivities, we use the world’s leading labs:

Precision Analytical

Genova Diagnostics

KBMO

NutriPath

Metametrix

Mosaic Diagnostics

Bioceuticals for DNA testing

Many of these labs are overseas, so test results can take a few weeks to come back.

Read our article on functional testing here.

Unfortunately, Medicare only pays for standard tests, conventional medical tests, many of which we find don’t give a clear enough window into your health. The tests we order are different from conventional tests you’ve likely experienced and found to be unhelpful before finding us.

GPs, unless they’re functional medicine trained, are only trained in interpreting standard tests that look for pathologies (disease) rather than looking purely at assessing the function of pathways or systems. The functional pathology tests that we use can identify pre-disease states and look at other determining factors that contribute to health symptoms and diseases.

Learning about and interpreting the latest functional pathology tests takes years of functional medicine training and involves continued education as new scientific insights arise.

Given these labs are privately billed, we seek to balance the need for more data on your health with a desire to look after your wallet. Therefore, the amount of lab tests we do varies by individual. Typically, when we ask a patient to invest in testing of this nature, the cost is worth the investment as we uncover insights that inform their recovery.

Our clinic hours are:

9:00am – 5:00pm Monday to Thursday

However, you can reach us outside of those hours via phone or email.

You’ll find us at 186 Buckhurst Street, South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Telehealth appointments are also available for those who can’t make it to our clinic.

Yes. Phone or video consultations are available for those unable to make it to the clinic due to location, time or illness. Simply let us know when you’re booking in, and we’ll organise that for you.