About · Naturopathic Doctor · Chicago
Healing begins at the root.
I am a naturopathic doctor at Aayu Clinics in Chicago, and I believe in treating more than symptoms, I treat people. With my background in Molecular and Cellular Biology, I help patients restore vitality and resilience from the cellular level up, honoring the body's innate ability to heal while addressing every obstacle standing in the way.
Above all, I am committed to creating a judgment-free space where patients can shed shame, embrace their authentic selves, and move forward with confidence on their path to lasting wellness.
My roots
I am Albanian, and I grew up in a home where healing started in the kitchen and the garden, where food was medicine, herbs were gathered and teas were poured, and nobody ever rushed the body. Those roots, carried down through generations of my family, are the root system underneath everything I do.
My vision for healing is simple: the body is not broken, and it is not in a hurry. I hold space for people to heal, and I believe the physical, emotional, and energetic sides of health are woven together, so that caring for the mind is part of caring for the body, and emotional and mental wellness plays a real role in restoring and maintaining physical health. Illness, grief, and overwhelm are hard seasons rather than the end of the story, and given time, nourishment, and the removal of whatever is standing in its way, a person rises again. My work is to create those conditions patiently and in the right order, in a space where someone can release shame, be fully themselves, and move toward their fullest expression of health and vitality.
What drew me to naturopathic medicine was its unique blend of ancient wisdom and modern science. I am captivated by the therapeutic order, a structured approach that prioritizes fundamentals like nutrition, lifestyle, and environment before considering higher-force interventions. This philosophy of treating the whole person and uncovering root causes, rather than just managing symptoms, allows me to create truly individualized care plans that address the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of health.
That is why I keep asking why, and then why again, until we reach something we can actually change, because every answer points to a different and kinder fix: why the body raised this pressure, held this weight, flared this skin, or stopped sleeping well.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2015 to 2019. My undergraduate training laid the scientific foundation for everything that followed. Research experience in epigenetics, trauma, cancer and Parkinson’s disease. That science still sits underneath every plan I write, in the interaction checks I run against your medications and in the lab questions I refuse to guess at.
Five years of naturopathic medical school in San Diego is where this way of practicing was formed, in rotations that leaned heaviest into women’s health and hormone care and into pediatrics and women’s health, alongside IV therapy, physical medicine, hydrotherapy, homeopathy, and functional medicine. Preceptorships widened the lens further, from Naturopaths Without Borders in 2021 to 90 hours in Quantum Functional Medicine, with time spent learning directly from practicing NDs in clinic along the way. About the Bastyr ND program.
Since October 2025 I have been in practice at Aayu Clinics in Lakeview and Wicker Park, where I see patients in person in Chicago and build the long, written plans they return to between visits. This past year has brought gut cases that finally graduated to maintenance, GLP-1 journeys done carefully, cholesterol and blood pressure worked as long games, and hormone cases where we refused to guess, and the section below is that year, honestly sorted.
This past year at Aayu
Drawn from the plans I write every week, not a generic list of conditions. If you recognize yourself in one of these, you are the kind of patient I know how to hold well.
Bloating, constipation, food reactions that keep expanding, and guts that feel inflamed even when bloodwork looks normal. We use food as information, we consider testing honestly, including what it costs, and we work in phases, from elemental resets when they are truly needed to reintroduction one food at a time, because the goal is tolerance rather than a lifetime of avoidance, and my longest gut patients graduate to simply living normally around food again.
People on or considering Zepbound, Ozempic, Mounjaro and other GLP-1 care, and people doing it without medication. We protect muscle, protein and fiber while appetite is quiet, manage food noise and side effects, and plan the transition so habits can carry more of the weight over time.
High cholesterol, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and body wide inflammation, including joint stiffness and swelling. I ask what is driving the number, insulin, sleep, gut, thyroid, liver, stress, and I work in parallel with your prescriber. Medication and natural medicine, in the right order.
Hashimoto’s and thyroid terrain, cycle changes, hot flashes on HRT, and hormone questions where guessing is not good enough. We track patterns, use labs as context, and support the terrain rather than chasing a single antibody number.
Hidradenitis suppurativa flares, acne that finally clears, hair, skin and nail concerns, and lichen sclerosus alongside conventional care. Skin is rarely only skin, so we look at gut, hormones, inflammation and products already in your cabinet before adding anything new.
Chronic fatigue and brain fog with normal scans and labs, recurring sinus trouble, migraines that have become weekly, and suspected mold or environmental exposures. We confirm exposure first, test with purpose, and only then layer antifungal, binder, gut and gentle liver support.
Sleep that happens in the wrong chair at the wrong time, stress that is a load problem rather than a mindset problem, postpartum and breastfeeding seasons where safety comes first, and preconception planning. Some tools are a clear “not yet, not never,” and saying so honestly is part of the care.
How I practice
The early physicians called it the vis medicatrix naturae, the healing power of nature. Your body is not a machine that breaks and needs to be overridden; it carries an innate intelligence that is always moving toward balance, and my job is to find what is standing in its way, remove it, and give your body what it needs, so we are treating the root causes of dis-ease rather than only quieting symptoms. That is the therapeutic order in practice: fundamentals first, in the right sequence, before anything stronger is considered.
Food, sleep, stress, water, and movement move inflammation more than any pill, so those come first in every plan, with real numbers you can see: protein at each meal, at least 25 grams of fiber a day, and a sample day that shows you exactly how to get there.
We do not change ten things at once and then wonder what helped; instead we move one layer, one supplement, and one experiment at a time, we use what you already own before we buy anything new, and we protect your joys along the way, because pasta night stays and flavor stays, and only the ingredients level up.
Home logs, lab trends, and honest symptom tracking are gold, because they turn guessing into knowing. A restrictive diet is a tool rather than the destination, and a trial that does not go perfectly is data rather than failure, and graduation is the goal throughout: fewer rules, a more normal life, and a plan that gets smaller as you get stronger.
“You are not behind. Every day you make one of these choices, you are taking a step, and steps are the whole thing.”
Additional training
Hands-on experience with IV therapy, applied kinesiology and muscle testing, craniosacral therapy, and frequency medicine, integrated into personalized treatment plans that support the body’s natural healing processes.
I host the Simply Being Podcast, a conversation about living in rhythm with nature and becoming more fully yourself. You can listen on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
