Meet Koko
I’m Koko Lieppman-Collado, MS, CHN, a Functional Medicine Nutritionist, Amen Clinic Certified Brain Health professional, Ayurvedic Chef & Counselor, and mama of three young kids. Everything I practice stems from my deep belief that the food we eat and root cause treatment can truly change our lives. I’ve seen it firsthand in my own life and in helping hundreds of clients over the last ten years. I’m happiest and most grounded when I am purely in the moment with myself, my family, and with others. I believe that everyday is a journey to discover our greatest joys, biggest fears and deepest purpose. The path can be bumpy, so let’s hold hands as we journey together. My goal is guide you to tune in to your body and start connecting the dots between what you eat and how you feel. Through a whole-body approach, I will help you improve the function of the many systems within and undercover the roadblocks holding you back from achieving your goals.
My Journey
For most of my life, I struggled with food sensitivities, leaky gut, urticaria, migraines, and hormonal imbalances. While I appeared healthy to the outside world, my body was completely out of balance. I pushed through all of my symptoms and accepted them as normal for all of my high school and college years. I studied hard, pursued my masters in Health Communication at Chapman University, competed in marathons and triathlons, worked for a nonprofit implementing obesity prevention campaigns in title one elementary schools, worked as a Communications Strategist for corporate healthcare companies, and backpacked around the world. However, I was unable to cope with the demands of both my professional and private life. Instead of addressing the root cause of my health issues, I bounced from one specialist to the next and was given prescription after prescription and I still felt miserable. No one asked about my diet, ran deeper blood work, or considered the health of my microbiome. After years searching for answers and relief, I became my own health advocate. And that’s when my journey toward healing and culinary medicine began.
Once I began cleansing and eliminating foods (and people) that were causing inflammation in my body, my gut started to work properly, my migraines diminished, my skin began to clear up, my menstrual cycle returned, and my energy was back. I had a variety of functional lab tests done that gave me more insight to the symptoms I was having and learned which nutrients my body wasn’t absorbing well. I learned how to slow down and become in tune with my body and the messages it was trying to send me. I began eating in harmony with the seasons, growing my own produce, shopping at farmers markets, restoring my body with vital vitamins and minerals, cooking all my meals, and found joy in cooking for others. I learned to manage stress more effectively by turning to yoga, meditation, energy work, and breathwork.
My Training/ Background
My passion for healing led me to a Masters Degree in Holistic Nutrition through American College of Healthcare Sciences (2012), a 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Bali through YogaWorks (2013), a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coaching certification (Institute of Functional Medicine, 2015), and became a Functional Nutrition Practitioner in 2016 (Functional Nutrition Alliance). In 2013, I launched my first practice, Namaste Holistic Health, where I developed health protocols for many disorders such as: autoimmune disease, digestive disorders, thyroid dysfunction, skin problems, cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, mood disorders, adrenal fatigue, and weight management. I led hundreds of clients through Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicine cleanses and two week, one month, and three-month-long elimination diets. In 2020, I launched my second practice, Shakti Mama, where I cooked and delivered organic, easy-to-digest, and gluten-free Ayurvedic meal delivery for postpartum mothers, post-op patients, clients undergoing chemotherapy, and those that wanted to give their digestive system a reset. In 2021, I completed my training to become an Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor & Ayurvedic Chef. In 2023, I became a certified Amen Clinic Brain Health Practitioner, along with became a certified Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) Practitioner.
In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my friends, family, and dog, Ziggy, at San Onofre or Doheny Beach. My children, Bodhi, Shanti, and Irie are my biggest blessings and teachers. I love hiking, yoga, biking, surfing, swimming, and traveling. You can often find me tending to my mushrooms or creating new recipes in the kitchen. My happy place is Catalina Island with family or on our permaculture farm nestled in the mountains of Costa Rica.
Why Focus on Mental Health?
It’s nearly impossible to find a single person in the world whose everyday life wasn’t significantly affected by the pandemic. It brought various consequences on our lives, changed our daily routines, and caused emotional, physical, social, and mental issues. Supporting my husband, a front-line provider, with his anxiety and asthma, and helping him navigate the grief of losing both parents in a short period of time was challenging. I was the dependable one, the cheerleader, the shoulder to cry on, and the support everyone around me needed. I did not know how to ask for help and thought I was holding down the fort with a toddler, homeschooling my son, supporting my husband, and running a business. However, all of that came crashing down five months after the birth of our third child. My family was healthy and thriving, but I felt like I was living in a dream I couldn’t wake up from. I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I was anxious, numb, disconnected, had post-covid brain fog, difficulty focusing, and had little to no appetite. I was diagnosed with postpartum depression in the summer of 2022 and prescribed antidepressants.
Although sometimes it is absolutely necessary to be on medications temporarily, I opted for weekly talk therapy, EMDR, gentle movement, herbs, dietary changes, regular studio yoga classes, and an Ayurvedic therapy known as shirodhara. I took a deep dive into earth medicine and functional mushrooms as a way to heal feelings of deep disconnection and to reconnect to my body’s wisdom. Although I had been incorporating mushrooms like lion’s mane, reishi, maitake, chaga, and cordyceps in our diets for the past 15 years, I began combining them with Ayurvedic herbs and adaptogens to reduce my anxiety, irritability, and insomnia. Immediately, they had a massive impact on my health and everyone around me saw profound changes in my energy levels, vitality, and happiness.
I became hooked on understanding more about fungi, nootropics, cognitive function, and neurogenesis (the building of brain and nerve cells). I began cultivating mushrooms at home, learning as much as I could about spores, mycelium, substrates, and spawn. I became so fascinated with how to optimize the brain, the gut-brain-microbiome connection, how to revitalize nutrient imbalances, and how to use mood-enhancing herbs and spices to heal that I became certified in a Brain Health Practitioner program through the Amen Clinic. And that’s what has inspired our WHY for Pura Vida Integrative Health.
Our vision for Pura Vida Integrative Health is to focus on improving the health and wellness of the whole person, instead of a quick fix with medications. We will evaluate client’s labs and order additional labs if necessary, take the time to understand the full health history of each client, recommend diet and lifestyle modifications, and discuss healthy protocols to taper off medications alongside one’s prescribing physician. We will also recommend supplements and plant allies that support optimal mental health.