What if your most powerful clinical tool is not another lab panel but the way you partner with patients around what their bodies already know?   Functional medicine PA Zoie Phillips joins Tracy Harrison to share how choosing integrity over a conventional career path led her to a values-based, telemedicine practice where patients act as true partners rather than passive recipients. She walks through her decision to commit to functional medicine straight out of PA school, her rocky attempt at a conventional job, and the moment she trusted her calling enough to wait for a role that actually fit. Along the way, Zoie explains how SAFM training helped her turn complex biochemistry into plain language, why education sits at the center of every visit, and how inviting patient intuition into the room often reveals clues no test would catch.   Zoie and Tracy also get honest about the slow, vulnerable early months of building a values-aligned practice, from financial reality checks and awkward networking attempts to the steady word of mouth that now fills Zoie’s schedule with patients who are ready to do the work. They talk about low stomach acid, trauma, and nervous system safety as hidden drivers of gut issues and explore why supplements alone never count as true root cause care. If you have ever wondered how to grow a functional medicine practice that honors your values, your bandwidth, and your patients’ autonomy at the same time, this conversation offers both caution signs and a hopeful, very human blueprint.   Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Functional Medicine for Real World Impact Introduction 01:38 Meet Functional Medicine PA Zoie Phillips and Upcurrent Functional Medicine 03:49 Choosing Functional Medicine Over a Conventional PA Career 11:21 Discovering a Calling and Vision for a Values-Based Practice 15:07 Turning Functional Medicine Science Into Clear Patient Education 20:43 From Paternalistic Care to True Functional Medicine Partnership 26:35 The Realities of Starting a Telemedicine Functional Medicine Practice 33:27 Money, Beliefs, and Building a Sustainable Functional Medicine Business 42:16 Building a Small but Mighty Functional Medicine Care Team 53:18 Low Stomach Acid, Trauma, and Root-Cause Gut Health 01:01:36 Letting Go of the “All-Knowing Expert” and Trusting Patient Intuition Links Zoie Phillips’ Functional Medicine Practice   Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - The Essential Gut Deep Dive Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox  Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training Subscribe to our YouTube channel Access daily quick tips on Facebook  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm