Functional Health Canberra has a mission to help people transform their relationship with food by teaching them techniques which reduce stress, develop healthier eating patterns and attain lifelong skills to support their optimal health levels.
As the founder, Melissa Kovacevic is a qualified Functional Nutrition Consultant and Clinical EFT Practitioner. Melissa’s interest in nutrition and health was sparked by her own personal struggles with dieting and weight loss. This led her to commence studies as a hobby initially, and whilst studying her fascination for nutrition grew. “The more I studied, the more my perspective shifted and I no longer looked at food as the enemy, but rather a way to care and nourish my body.”
Nutrition and health quickly became more than just a hobby, it was her true passion and something that she wanted to pursue into the future. It was only after the birth of her daughter Isabella, that Melissa says she finally developed the confidence to change career paths and follow her passion.
“Functional Health Canberra really came together when I combined a functional approach to nutrition with EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques).” Melissa found that an isolated approach to nutrition was generally not enough for many people; as was the case in her own personal circumstances. “There is a resistance many people face when it comes to nutrition and making healthy choices. This resistance can be due to a number of different factors including stress, limiting self-beliefs and negative behavioural patterns or habits; for which EFT is extremely effective.”
In simple terms, it is also known as ‘tapping’, and is a powerful and very effective stress management tool using a combination of principles from ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology.
As Melissa states “EFT as we know it now has only been around since 1995, which is also why you may not have heard about it before. Even though the science and proven effectiveness are 
undeniable, it is still considered a new modality in the experimental stages.”
Melissa goes on to explain that “EFT works by tapping the fingers on specific meridian endpoints on the face and body while focusing on negative emotions or physical sensation. This has a calming effect on the stress centre of the brain, the amygdala, whilst reducing cortisol production, which is the body’s main stress hormone.”
When queried about the link between EFT and Nutrition, Melissa explains that “Tapping can be extremely effective for stress reduction and eliminating negative behavioral patterns, making it a potent tool for combatting emotional eating, undesirable food patterns and cravings.
In addition to EFT, Melissa practices functional nutrition which is a science-based approach to health care.. Through her nutrition consultations, Melissa teaches people to consider not just food and nutrients but other aspects of our daily lives including environmental factors, sleep and exercise habits, as well as their emotional state. Melissa’s approach to nutrition has strong ties to intuitive eating and mindful eating principles; as she truly believes it is the key to long term weight management.
In the past for her personally, and for many people right now, the desire to lose weight can be a frustrating and never-ending cycle. “We can get drawn into the ‘fad’ diets which usually leave us feeling restricted, deprived and stressed. This generally leads to more weight gain as a result and then the cycle starts again.”
Melissa believes this snowballing diet cycle, and ultimately diet culture, is one of our biggest barriers to health, particularly for women. “Unfortunately, this can then feed into under-lying limiting beliefs and negative behavioural patterns such as emotional eating.”
Combining EFT and Functional Nutrition has been Functional Health Canberra’s winning formula to help people break free from the diet cycle, cultivate a positive relationship with food and achieve their weight loss goals for good.
For more information about Functional Health Canberra, including office location, online session options and healthy recipes check out the website.
Website: https://www.functionalhealthcanberra.com.au/
