In 1998, Rebecca Pemberton had a high-stress job placing nurses at a major hospital in Atlanta. Along with that came all the unhealthy habits that came along with it – eating on the run, being on call all hours of the day & night. During a routine dental appointment, when the hygiene tools were placed on her chest, she found it was very painful. Rebecca’s dentist recommended that she see a rheumatologist because she might have this new thing called fibromyalgia. Rebecca said she had an easy diagnosis of fibromyalgia, back when people were being told it was all in their heads with all 18 trigger points being active. She spent the next eighteen or so months trying to work out a care plan. But she basically wound up on some heavy duty medications and being bed-ridden!
“I prayed…God, you have to cure me or kill me, because this isn’t living. I can’t go on like this.”
It wasn’t until Rebecca and her husband were on a six month project in the UK that a friend suggested she see a naturopath. The naturopath recommended two supplements. Within thirty minutes Rebecca was symptom free of fibromyalgia for the first time in eighteen months! This began her journey to pursue education in the natural health field.
After completing a Bachelors in Holistic Nutrition, Rebecca and her husband adopted their daughters.
Caring for them, with all of their health challenges made it very clear that she was going to have to be very intentional with their care plan. While the degree in holistic nutrition provided a lot of great theory, it didn’t provide a lot of tools. So, in searching for online lab testing for one of her daughters, Rebecca came across FDN and immediately signed up.
“It was the missing link between theory and actual tools I could use.”
Rebecca said being able run labs was such an eye opener and gave her a plan to address her health issues. She added, being 51 years old, with decades of health challenges, and a fairly recent diagnosis of a genetic condition that is debilitating for most people, DRESS has been life altering and lifesaving! Despite these health challenges, Rebecca is getting up around 5:30 every morning without an alarm. She is successfully being a mommy and managing a household, as well as currently juggling two internships, classes, running a small practice, biking around 100 miles a week and volunteering at her local church…all with no pain. She’s been told the fact that she has EDS at 51 and is not using a cane, walker or wheelchair, nor bed-ridden and doesn’t have on-going chronic pain is a miracle!
The education and tools in FDN hasn’t just helped Rebecca with her own health but their three daughters have really benefited as well. Their daughters were born to a young lady who took a variety of detrimental recreational drugs, and her youngest was born with methamphetamines in her system. All three of Rebecca’s daughters have/had some serious issues because of in-utero drug exposure – neurological issues such as Sensory Processing (Integration) Disorder, ADD/ADHD, seizures, developmental delays (physical, psychological, emotional), and learning disabilities.
Rebecca and her husband were told by a team of five doctors at a neurodiagnostics program that they haven’t seen children who come from a background like her daughters’ thriving the way her daughters are thriving. Even Rebecca’s husband, who was initially a non-believer, and once said to her “You can’t throw all this health stuff at us at one time and think we’re going to change our lives”…is now on board and actively making changes. Rebecca said her biggest challenge when starting DRESS was actually investing the time to take care of herself.
The epiphany came when I realized if I didn’t take care of myself, I wouldn’t be around to take care of my daughters and help them become as healthy as they can be and overcome their health challenges.
Along with her current internships, Rebecca runs a small practice. The majority of her clients are women with hormonal issues and children with ADD/ADHD. The most common challenge she finds with clients is for them to believe that they are worth the investment of time to become healthy. Rebecca shared that she structures her business services to include packages or individual consultations, depending on the needs of her client. Her client feedback from practicing FDN has been phenomenal and several of her clients have gone on to sign up for the course so that they could help others as well! Along with FDN, Rebecca’s holds a bachelors in Holistic Nutrition. She is also a Certified Metabolic Typing Advisor® and currently working toward her Ph.D. in Integrative Homeopathy. Way to go Rebecca!
Rebecca’s top tip for fellow FDNs is to continually educate yourself, find out how you work best and outsource anything that bogs you down.
Check out Rebecca Pemberton’s website: www.WestCobbWellness.com
Some of the things that Rebecca talks about in this interview:
- Her story of healing
- The ways that FDN has helped Rebecca’s children
- How she got started with FDN
- How health and wellness look different for different people
- The genetic condition she struggles with.
- How she has been able to overcome so many health issues.
- What are homeopathy miasms
