Meet Stefany Testerman | Functional Medicine Nurse Practitioner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stefany Testerman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stefany, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I have been in healthcare for a number of years and had become increasingly frustrated at how I was limited by employers in my ability to offer the kind of care I wanted to patients. It made me ask “WHY?” alot! I realized that there seemed to be a number of unnecessary barriers to providing excellent, patient centered care, thanks to corporate policies that were not rooted in healthcare knowledge or decided upon by those actually at the front lines taking care of patients at all. It was a huge leap to open my own practice, but I have honestly never regretted it. My number one policy is to consistently do the right thing for the patient always; without limitations or restrictions. If a policy is not working in my practice, we discuss it and change it. This has been tremendously freeing, and allows us to be flexible with our practice, policies and decisions.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I own and operate a Functional Medicine/Integrative Medicine practice; what sets me apart from other clinics like mine is the focus on connection and collaboration with my patients. All people have some intuitive knowing as well as knowledge of their own bodies. Listening to patients and their own internal knowing of themselves allows me to construct treatment plans that are highly personalized and more likely to be successful because the patients is always part of the process of creating their treatment plan. I practice something termed Personalized Medicine, which is integrating specific therapies or recommendations based on the unique presentation, labs, genetic information, and lifestyle of the person in front of me. NONE of my treatment plans are one sized fits all.

I would not say growing my business has been easy! However, I have been very fortunate to have experienced exponential growth through the past 3 years, despite COVID and pandemic closures. I feel that with COVID, people became more focused on being healthy and working on their health more constructively, especially early in the pandemic, as patients who had less chronic illness early on fared better through COVID infections. Additionally, allopathic medicine did not have much to offer in terms of treatments or prevention against COVID, where FM and Integrative approaches have actually been very successful with regard to prevention of severe disease and recovery, and in particular, in managing post COVID syndrome.

When shutdowns began in 2020, I pivoted successfully to telehealth platform, and continued to treat a small number of patients in person who were undergoing intravenous nutrient therapy protocols; I really did not want to disrupt their ongoing progress and have been very protective of my patients overall as many have significant impairments immunologically. Add to that school closures and home schooling my son for a time! So, I adjusted our clinic schedule and saw patients on the weekends, and worked part of the week while homeschooling the other part of the week for a time. One highly unexpected challenge I experienced was the inability to purchase medical supplies for a time as all supplies were being shunted to hospitals for a time, however, I was able to receive just enough of what we needed to continue to provide care for patients. I am so grateful that I was able to continue to help so many patients during such a scary time! I have yet to have a patient hospitalized for COVID, and have continued to successfully treat COVID and offer post COVID support options and have assisted patients in making a full recovery.

I would want the world to know that there are more options that just the traditional allopathic model to treat a number of health conditions. I integrate what is best from the Western medicine model as needed, but the use of nutrition, stress management, lifestyle changes and occasionally, targeted supplementation is also instrumental in achieving resolution of a disease. I would also want the world to know that in a medical model where knowledge and treatment options are pretty much stalled, Functional Medicine offers ongoing research that is pushing the envelope, which continues to push forward and advance therapeutic options, in particular incorporating the use of epigenetics and nutrigenomics.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Some of my favorite parts of Colorado include:

Buena Vista/Salida and Mt. Princeton Hot Spring Spa
Hiking in Golden Gate Canyon, and White Ranch Park
Copper Mountain and village year round
American Elm restaurant in the Highlands, and spending time along Tennyson Street shopping
Live music at Red Rocks of course, but so many great bands to see at the Gothic, the Bluebird, the Ogden, and more (I particularly love live music)
Pagosa Springs and Durango; Durango’s main street with amazing shops that are super eclectic is a favorite of mine, in particular the locally owned bookstore there
So many great breweries and Cideries to enjoy too (Locavore, C Squared and Bierstadt, Stem Cidery, more)

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I feel that 3 separate people/organizations have been the most influential for my story: Dr. Maria Gentile DO, the Institute for Functional Medicine, or IFM, and my husband Chris.

Website: www.serenityfim.com

Instagram: Serenityfim

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefany-testerman-fnp-c-ryt-ifmcp-b97aba79/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/serenity-functional-and-integrative-medicine-centennial