Meet the Authors

WILLOW BUCKLEY is a home-birthing, breast-feeding, baby-wearing mother of two, and she infuses her advocacy of holistic motherhood and real food into her professional practices as a classical homeopath, labor doula, and prenatal yoga instructor. Deeply connected to a birth community of inspired midwives and birth practitioners, Willow has been and remains a dedicated guide for women pursuing natural pregnancies and births. She is a fervent proponent of the body’s power to heal itself when provided proper nutrition and supplementation, having experienced the body’s innate ability for natural birth during her own pregnancies and childbirths.

Willow first combined her holistic interests with her medical science studies while earning a Bachelor of Science in Neuropsychology from the University of California Santa Barbara. Continuing her search and passion for a whole healing approach, Willow ventured into homeopathy, where her own health was transformed. As a child, she suffered from strep throat one to five times per year and was dependent on antibiotics for treatment. After having her tonsils removed, her sensitivity moved to her sinuses and she was afflicted with chronic sinus infections. It was homeopathy that finally helped her break free from the repeated cycle of illness and antibiotics. As a homeopathic practitioner she has helped families and individuals of all ages handle everything from anxiety and ADHD to morning sickness and sore throats. With her own pregnancy and motherhood on the horizon, her focus turned to the womb, leading her down her current path as a prenatal, birth, and postpartum guide: balancingyourhealth.com.

Willow lives in Encinitas, California, with her husband, Marcus, a writer and Montessori educator, and their children, Grayson, age four, and Emerson, age two.

 

 

 

CHRISTA ORECCHIO is a clinical nutritionist, a certified holistic health counselor, and the founder of The Whole Journey (thewholejourney.com). She is a self-described former caffeine and sugar junkie who was raised on pizza, pasta, and antibiotics. Embarking on a healing lifestyle change of whole, real food, customized supplements, and lifestyle adjustments was beyond transformative for her. For the first time in her life, she experienced energy all day long, enthusiasm, peace, confidence, great digestion, deep sleep, and lost the last ten pounds. She was astounded at what true health really was and vowed to help everyone she knew experience the same thing. So she left the corporate world and did just that.

Her approach is clinical with a functional medicine spin—she looks for the root cause of whatever is going on with a person’s health. She also views the body as a systemic organism, recognizing that all organs, glands, and systems affect each other.

In private practice for more than eight years, she loves helping people bust the myth that healthy eating is boring, difficult, or time-consuming. Christa’s mission is to help as many people as possible heal their bodies using food as medicine so that they can thrive. She believes that when your health thrives, you become a better version of yourself, enabling you to contribute more to your loved ones and the world around you. This is her motivation every morning.

Christa does not advocate one specific way of eating, believing instead that every individual has distinct dietary needs based upon genetics, lifestyle, gender, blood type, stress levels, how they ate as a child, current state of health, and future health goals. Her focus is bio-individuality that provides a positive and empowering perspective shift around food, resulting in greater lifelong food flexibility.

Christa is the creator of The Whole Journey Healthy product review site, twjproductreviews.com, is a TEDx speaker, and is the weekly FOX News nutrition expert in San Diego, where she imparts a mind-body approach to eating and wellness every Thursday with “Food as Medicine.”

She is also the co-host, with Randy Alvarez, of the nationally syndicated Doctor TV Channel show The Randy and Christa Show, a talk show focusing on health and wellness topics. The show currently airs in 2.8 million homes. She has also appeared on the CBS show The Doctors as a nutrition and health expert.

Together, Willow and Christa are the dream team of holistic health, nutrition, and pregnancy wellness.