About

Hi! I’m SK Fishback (she/her).

A bit about me…

In my 30s, postpartum anxiety, digestive distress, mold exposure, nervous system dysregulation, sleep disturbance and complex, chronic pain and symptoms led me to seek the root cause of my issues. Seeking to heal from the inside out and move into a place of empowerment, I pursued training to become a functional medicine health coach. I became certified through the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy in 2022. The biological, integrative and coaching education and practice I gained helped me partner powerfully with my body to heal, and seeded a longing to support others going through health challenges. I’m presently studying to become Board Certified through the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches.

Called Sarah Kate growing up, teammates shortened my name to “SK” while playing competitive soccer. A former club and collegiate player, I’ve worked to shift my relationship with my body and movement from intense and competitive to connected, enjoyable and supportive. I worked in technology operations at Google before earning an MBA and working in the nonprofit sector. As a health coach, my passions include chronic illness, metabolic health, longevity and preventing neurodegenerative disease. I’m married to Luke and reside in Durham, NC with my 11-year-old son and dog. I find joy in walking, sunshine, strength training, community and mindfulness. 

How can I support your health journey? Schedule a complimentary 30-minute Zoom call to see if working together would be a good fit. Email me at sk@rootthrivewellnesscoaching.com. I’d love to hear from you!

More about me…

In the process of healing, I feel like I tried it all. Conventional medicine offered me ways to manage symptoms, but proved too complicated and riddled with side effects to be a long-term viable solution. Acupuncture provided temporary relief and a new way to think about healing and energy. Functional medicine introduced me to considering my health history on a timeline and making connections between life events and health insults. It also asked why things were happening, used biomarkers and testing to discern where and how to focus, and impressed upon me the primacy of gut health and lifestyle factors like stress, nutrition, sleep, movement and relationships. Atlas chiropractic focused on gently correcting the alignment of my top vertebra so that cerebrospinal fluid could flow unimpeded after years of misalignment due to high-speed soccer collisions. Dynamic neural retraining taught me how much agency I have to choose supportive thoughts and behaviors to impact which neurochemicals are released by my brain. A home environmental assessment revealed black mold in my air conditioning and revealed that my house was too dusty ;).

My journey has also taken me a bit into some “woo-woo” territory. Muscle testing, a way of asking the body what weakens and strengthens it, helped me further determine priorities of treatments that would not overtax my nervous system. The Body Wisdom Academy taught me methods for subtle body trauma release. I shifted the layout of my home to be more aligned with ancient energy flow principles like feng shui. Less woo-woo, but a little outside the lines of conventional Western medicine, I’ve used infrared sauna, cold plunge, Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation, yoga, meditation, red light therapy, intermittent fasting, extended fasting, injectable peptides, PEMF, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), and wearables like the Oura ring sleep tracker and the FitBit. I am by nature an open-minded explorer, enthusiastic to find and include ways to heal from a variety of traditions and perspectives.