We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Megan Taylor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Megan below.

Megan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

When I was in school to become a Nurse Practitioner, I was learning about self breast exams. I had never done one on myself and I decided to do one. When I did, I found a lump. I was sitting in my living room, practicing the self breast exam, and when I felt the lump, my heart sank.

At first I thought I was being paranoid. So the next day at work (I was working as a floor nurse at the time,) I told my coworker about it and asked her to feel the lump.

She encouraged me to go to my primary care doctor, so I went. She referred me for a mammogram and biopsy, and shortly after, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I received the diagnosis 4 days after I was married. I under went chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and reconstruction. After I completed my treatment, I dealt with many chronic symptoms like weight gain, worsening anxiety, worsening IBS symptoms, chronic fatigue, joint pain, and depression. Eager to be free of relief, I began exploring alternative health options and God opened my eyes to a functional approach to healing. I began applying the information I was learning and began by healing my gut (chemotherapy is very harmful on the gut lining) and many of my symptoms began disappearing. I then began learning about the nervous system and how chronic stress, mineral depletion, and cortisol imbalances can fuel chronic health problems.

After this, I decided to become a Functional health practitioner and now run a successful practice where I help women reverse chronic symptoms through a holistic lens. This was a turning point in my career because it not only gave me empathy and compassion for my patients (as a patient myself), but also opened my eyes to viewing the body through a holistic lens. It also refined my faith as a Christian and helped me cultivate a deeper understanding of our mind, body, and spirit connection because relying on my faith and praying for direction was a huge piece of my journey.

Megan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, My Name Is Megan Taylor Throughout my own journey of navigating breast cancer, chronic fatigue, hormone imbalances, IBS, anxiety, depression, and weight gain, I understand root-causes and solutions from both personal experience as a patient and as a provider.

I have over 10 years of education including a Masters Degree in Nursing, 9 years of clinical experience, and multiple certifications including:

Board Certified Family Practice Nurse Practitioner (no longer practicing through this lens).

Registered Nurse (no longer practicing through this lens).

Certified Christian Mental Health Coach.

AFMC Level 2 Functional Medicine Practitioner.

Functional Nutrition Institute graduate.

HTMA trained.

Polyvagal + Trauma Informed Practitioner.

Brainspotting Trained Practitioner.

I have a passion for lifelong learning, a heart for Jesus and Biblical Living.

After working as a full time Nurse Practitioner, I began seeing a flaw in our medical system.

The patient load is heavy, and the time we can spend with our patients is limited. Care is often based on symptom based management with no holistic focus. As a result, many illnesses and disease processes are overlooked or soothed with a quick fix. Patients feel unseen, hopeless, neglected, and are given pills for their symptoms that sometimes lead to long term negative effects.

This has fueled my motivation to leave conventional medicine behind and establish a Functional Nutrition Coaching practice where I have sufficient time to spend listening to my client’s concerns, take a deep dive look into the potential root causes of their illnesses, empower them with the education they need to take care of their unique body, and offer an empathetic, listening ear along the way.

You can read more about my offerings here: https://www.refinedwellness.org/work-with-me

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was a terrible student in high school. I slept through my morning classes and hardly paid attention during the rest of them. I barely graduated. Due to the fact I was undecided about what to do with my life, my father encouraged me to join the military. I listened and joined the air national guard right out of high school.

Once I completed basic training and tech school, I came back home to Ohio and went to college undecided. Though I was unmotivated about high school, I had always had a passion for helping people, and this desire heightened in college and I decided to go to nursing school.

My parents were hesitant at first, but supported me. Around the time I was graduating with my associates degree in nursing (ten years ago) my mothers ovarian cancer returned. She had ovarian cancer when I was in high school and she beat it, but my biggest nightmare came true and it returned a few years later and took her life. I was by her side when she died.

Watching the life leave her eyes, wrecked me, and was a sobering reminder of how short life is. But I clung to hope. She nourished my desire for nursing, and even pinned me as a nurse. She encouraged me to take her vitals and I helped with her medications and changed her dressing after surgery. She was my first patient. My nursing license even arrived a few days before she passed and I will never forget the look on her face when she told me she was proud of me.
Her belief in me kept me going + motivated.

When she died, I was very lost, heart broken, and confused. I experienced complex grief and developed terrible insomnia and ended up with a mental break down. I spent three days in the hospital and afterwards began my journey of healing. My journey began with finding Jesus and obeying the gospel.

I was raised as a Christian but my faith was not my own. As my eyes were opened to the gospel, and the living words found in scripture, and my faith became my own, it began influencing my entire life and how I was living. During this time, I continued studying and completed my bachelors degree in nursing. After I spent a season of healing emotionally and physically, I began my first nursing job as a cardiac step down nurse. A few years after that, I volunteered for my first mission trip and my eyes were opened to the spiritual and physical health needs around the world. On a mission trip to India, I decided I wanted to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner so I could obtain more knowledge to one day open my own clinic and serve in underdeveloped countries.

Throughout the years, I connected with my husband at the church I was attending and it turned out, he also had a heart for mission work. We married and planned to leave once I graduated NP school. During NP school, as I mentioned, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, so our plans were put on hold, and I spent another season of healing.

Throughout my breast cancer journey, God opened up my eyes to holistic health care. More doors opened for me and I gained a passion for functional medicine. That passion turned into a career and I am now able to work online as a Functional health coach and continue working internationally. My husband and I currently live in Albania, where we are working with the local church and learning the local dialect. I plan to one day open up my own clinic.

I believe my story is one of resilience, but also one that shines light back to our Creator. I am no one special, just someone who has chosen to trust God with her story and follow as He leads and opens and closes doors.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I learned, is that grief can influence your physical body, not just your emotions, even if you are a Christian. Many Christian women attempt to spiritually bypass themselves, and ignore the fact that we have a mind, body, and spirit connection. I was one of them. As I mentioned, previously after I watched my mom die, I experienced complex grief, developed severe insomnia and ended up in the hospital with a mental break down.

Now that I know how trauma can impact our mind, spirit, AND physical body, here are a few lessons I learned and that I wish I had known during that time to support + care for my God designed body as I began my grieving journey.

1. Loss lives in our God designed bodies. After experiencing loss, your mind is not the only part of you that responds. Your God designed body also responds to loss and this needs to be taken into consideration. Your body releases high amounts of stress hormones like cortisol and this can lead to many symptoms such as:
– insomnia
– Digestive issues
– Heart palpitations (this is why broken heart syndrome is a real thing (studies show the risk of heart attack increases significantly after experiencing the loss of a loved one). Triggers of grief impact you physically and getting in tune with those can help soothe this process.
2. Loss of a loved one intensifies any attachment wounds you had previously. Becoming knowledgeable about your attachment wounds + taking measures to begin healing them, is such a powerful way to navigate grief.
3. You cannot intellectualize, spiritually bypass, or talk your way out of grief. When it comes to grieving, one of the most healing things we can do is invite our physical bodies along for the journey and honor the God designed mind body connection.
4. God really is near to the broken hearted (psalms 34:18) but part of that process involves being willing to lament and open up your grieving heart to Him like the psalmist displays in the previous verse (vs 17). Crying is a somatic process, not just mental.
5. Compassion is a healing balm for the soul, mind, and body, but sadly, many people (even + especially Christians, struggle with the concept of self compassion). Learning how to apply self compassion can be life changing.
6. If you are grieving, I hope this serves as a reminder to tune into your physical body during the grieving process and give yourself compassion along the way. I teach on attachment wounds + compassion through a Biblical lens in my course Aligned + Renewed if you would like to learn more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.refinedwellness.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/refined.wellness.by.megan/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@refined.wellness
• Other: Link to my program: https://refinedwellnessbymegan.teachable.com/p/aligned-renewed Link to my monthly wellness collective membership: https://www.refinedwellness.org/refinedwellnessmembership