We were lucky to catch up with Dawn Kulaski recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dawn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

Many people don’t know that I spent 13 years in the manufacturing industry before entering the world of healthcare, now 14 years ago. I often joke that I have always been in healthcare. Only now I am working with the human body as opposed to working with engineers helping them to create and maintain machines and devices. I went from working on preventative maintenance and the health of manufacturing equipment versus now maintaining and optimizing the human body.

Back then I thought I was healthy for the most part. I was super active doing mini-triathlons, skiing, mountain biking and all of those fun things. But under the surface I could tell something wasn’t quite right. My husband and I were trying to get pregnant, and it was proving to be quite difficult. I suffered from several miscarriages which resulted in so many doctors’ visits to see what was happening in my body.

At that point I was suffering from various health issues and finding no real answers from my Medical Doctors. I tried Acupuncture at the suggestion of a good friend. My first treatment was life changing. Hours after my first treatment I found myself researching this ancient medicine and was enrolled in school a few months later.

After several sessions of acupuncture, I found balance in my life and clarity I had never before experienced. Finally, I had answers for my heart palpitations, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue. And most importantly, acupuncture helped me conceive our second child naturally without the intervention of medical drugs. I was fascinated with how this 5000-year-old medicine worked and was grateful to find a medical system that made sense and provided me with answers.

I knew I had to make acupuncture a part of my life and I knew it was my purpose to share this medicine with others. Looking back now, I see Acupuncture was just the beginning of this chapter of my story.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So many healers are on that life path because of their own health struggles. Myself included. I thought that was my story, too, until I was tasked with defining my “why”. I thought my journey was about finding answers to my health challenges. About educating myself. About empowerment and personal health freedom. And it is. It is about all of that. But when I really sat down and thought about why I do what I do, I realized it was really two-fold. One, find the answers as to why my body was struggling so I could get healthy and get my life back and, two, live my soul’s purpose.

It was then that it really occurred to me that without the health challenges I have struggled with over the years, I may have never discovered my life’s purpose. And when you finally learn your truth and are blessed with this knowing, it is your joyful duty to share it.

My purpose in this life is to guide and educate people to find answers to their health challenges, so they can cultivate their inner healer, regain optimal health, and live a life of purpose.

I help women experience breakthroughs in health by finally finding answers to their health challenges and escaping the cycle of trial and error so they can restore youthful energy, mental clarity and self-confidence so they can live a healthy, balanced, sustainable lifestyle. It is my mission and purpose to use the lessons I have learned and skills I have obtained to teach others how to take care of themselves and unlock their body’s innate ability to heal.

As a Functional Medicine Practitioner, I take a root cause approach to healing mind, body and soul. Functional Medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root cause of disease for each individual. My role as a practitioner is to help my clients free themselves from the trial-and-error paradigm of the traditional medical model. I do that by running functional lab tests which uncover malfunctions in your body that are causing symptoms and organ dysfunction. We refer to these malfunctions as “HIDDEN” stressors, because they are within the Hormone, Immune, Detoxification, Diet, Energy production and Nervous systems.

Lab diagnostic results are taken together with the client’s symptoms to draw clinical correlation to find healing opportunities in the body. When we find these opportunities for healing in the body, we create a natural, holistic protocol to help the person restore health naturally. We call this the “DRESS for Health Success Program”. DRESS stands for Diet, Rest, Exercise, Stress reduction and Supplementation. So, all of these things are a part of the coaching process. We optimize diet removing inflammatory, irritating, reactive foods. We run functional lab tests to identify and help irradiate infections, remove parasites, bacteria, yeast, fungi and viruses.

So now it’s my turn to teach others what I have learned. To educate you in the process of how to take back control of your health. You don’t have to make the mistakes I made or search for answers in all the wrong places. It is your time to finally be heard. I will help you cultivate your inner healer so you can regain youthful energy, mental clarity and optimal digestion and live a healthy, balanced and sustainable lifestyle.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think everyone was forced to pivot in 2020 when Covid hit. Just about everyone had to go into lockdown or shelter in place. Thankfully at that time I was already making the move from a brick-and-mortar Acupuncture and Nutrition Response Testing practice to a Functional Medicine practice where I am able to work with clients in person and remotely. At first this was scary as a business owner. Wondering how you will keep your business afloat while the world is shutting down. But on the other hand, I learned to pivot with everyone else. I very quickly had to put together my online offerings with both group programs and one on one programs. At this point I had no other choice. I know I am on this earth to not just heal people, but to teach people how to heal themselves. During lockdowns people needed me more than ever so a complete restructuring of my business was necessary, with no time to waste.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

For the last decade over 90% of my clientele has been from referrals. I appreciate that and I think it says a lot about how I work and treat people. People come to me and refer their friends and family to me because they know they will get positive results. Very often when a person comes to see me, they have already seen multiple Doctors and found no answers from the western medical world. They are frustrated and just want to feel better. My patients often tell me they are so happy to finally feel heard by their practitioner and to finally find answers to why they are not feeling well. I also treat each person with compassion. I know how they feel, because I have been there. I enjoy spending time with each individual and really explaining things to them and talking through their issues. When a patient understands what is happening in their body and understands why it is happening and what they can do to change it, then they can take action and heal their body.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.catalystfamilyhealth.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/dawnkulaski
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dawn.kulaski

Image Credits
Cherie Sutton, Nicole Samuels, Edica Pacha