Student Spotlight
Jessica Monteleone, M.S. Holistic Nutrition and Doctor of Naturopathy student
"Imparting life to people"
Jessica Monteleone is a fast-talking, big-smiling, bundle of pure energy. When she turns her full attention onto a new client, her charismatic questions go right to the heart. No time is wasted, and she takes plenty of time to form an understanding with each individual. We're all in this together is no cliché from her point of view, it is just the way it is.
Perhaps Jessica's patient attentiveness comes from her training in physical therapy, from University of Lowell, Mass. Physical therapists know that a patient's progress may occur by leaps and bounds, by shuffling baby steps, or anywhere in between.
PTs (as they are called) constantly witness, at a purely physical level, how very differently each human body responds to stress, illness and injury – based on a kaleidoscope of other factors, from physical strength and agility to emotional resilience and spiritual centeredness. If any of these components becomes compromised, each must be rebuilt, because each is an equal part of the intricate (and intrinsically perfect) human machine.
Back in the early 1970s Jessica met her college sweetheart and future husband, David. After graduation she went to work – first as a home care aide and then at a local hospital. When she did hands-on PT with patients and saw them improve right before her eyes, she deeply felt she was answering an important calling.
But within the first five years of their relationship, her seemingly healthy life partner suffered three heart attacks and was given only a five-percent chance of survival, when doctors discovered his congenitally malformed aortic valve.
Although Jessica’s B.S. degree involved only one nutrition course during four years of traditional college (and it was called “Fitness and Nutrition” at that), she instinctively knew that nutrition and other lifestyle modifications could save David’s life.
They started a rigorous and unrelenting stretching / walking program, and she ultimately settled David into a nutrition program that is 60 percent carbohydrates, 27 percent protein and 13 percent fats. They added CoQ10 to oxygenate his cells, and bolstered his strength enough that he ultimately became a successful candidate for aortic valve replacement surgery.
During this time the couple had another “change of heart” when they discovered Christian International (C.I.) and began studies in prophetic ministries. They moved from Massachusetts to Florida to become lay ministers.
“We established South Walton Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation five years ago,” she says, “and soon earned a reputation for helping people get much better, much faster, by approaching body, mind and spirit together, rather than just physical therapy. When people asked me about their neck pain, I asked them to quit chugging sodas. We empower people to see the connection of each body system to the other. It’s just not easy to ignore something wrong, once you know better.”
It was a life-changing day for Jessica when a new patient named Maureen Kernion presented to SWPTR with a frozen shoulder. We at Clayton College know her as Marty, a Ph.D. in holistic nutrition who escaped Corporate America to become an herbal author and traveling expert. She now serves her alma mater as an adjunct faculty member!
But on that particular day, Marty was also a CCNH ambassador. When Jessica the PT focused in on Marty’s lifestyle and heard about her patient’s experiences with Clayton College of Natural Health, Jessica decided to embark on a master’s degree in holistic nutrition. The experience was so positive that she is now enrolled in a doctoral program.
Clinical translation has not been a problem for Jessica. “PTs work with patients and nutritionists work with clients,” she observes. “The latter terminology is really much more empowering for all concerned. Healthcare professionals typically learn how to take care of disease, but often they don’t focus on their own self-care, and their relationship to God. In my work now it is essential that I impart life to people.
"Eating isn’t about quantity, but quality, and medication is never the only answer. If someone seeks weight loss, they need to know about visualization and affirmations. They need to love their muscles and their skin just the way they are – and then actively care for each component so that, holistically, their body, mind and spirit all get healthier together. God provides us a miraculously forgiving body – up to a point. We have food, water, air, and the capacity to rest everything, every day.
"It's a beautiful thing,” Jessica concludes, with that big, beautiful smile of hers.
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