About Dr Kate
Hello! I’m Kate Barry, a Functional Medicine Nutritionist, Holistic Health Practitioner and Doctor of Biology from Sydney, Australia. I believe that a functional approach is the answer to our current healthcare crisis, so I created the Holistic Health & Nutrition Clinic as a way to provide functional solutions for those suffering from complex chronic illness.
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My road to understanding the power of diet & lifestyle modification in healing began with personal illness. In 2016, seemingly out of nowhere, I began to feel dizzy and off balance to the point that I could not walk or think straight. Doctors put it down to an inner ear issue, but a week later I noticed that my limbs and face felt intermittently numb in certain areas - I knew something was very wrong.
I was eventually diagnosed with Mould Illness/CIRS, realising that my workplace was riddled with mould and it had been building up in my system for years until I'd hit a tipping point​. It was so good to finally know what was causing my symptoms, and even more importantly, to feel acknowledged and heard by somebody in the medical profession. I started on a CIRS treatment protocol, and after about six months I could feel myself coming back to life. Unfortunately I also developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a debilitating condition that is under-diagnosed and poorly understood. My gut feeling was that even though I had detoxed from the mould, it had done some serious damage to my system over the years and my body was having trouble recovering. I decided there must be more I could do in the diet & lifestyle realm. I enrolled in online courses, listened to podcasts, attended virtual conferences, and read many many research papers about health & nutrition. Implementing many of these new strategies, I started to improve to the point that I could work from home and do basic housekeeping activities like cooking ​and vacuuming. I have had many "dips" since then, but each one teaches me something and tells me where to go next on my journey.
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If you're interested in hearing more about my story, please watch the video below:
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Education
– Biology Doctorate (PhD)
– Bachelor of Science, Honours (BScHons)
– Certified Functional Nutrition Counsellor (CFNC)
– Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Practitioner (FNLP)
– Certified Health Coach (CHC)
– Certified Life Coach (CLC)
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Awards/Accolades
Kate is the winner of various awards for her contributions to Biology teaching, such as the Open Universities Australia Teaching Excellence Award and the Macquarie University Creativity & Contributions to Teaching Award.
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In addition to various student awards for outstanding academic achievement and postgraduate research, Kate has published in many peer-reviewed Science journals and presented at many international conferences. Kate also won the prestigious Alfred Russel Wallace Award for her PhD thesis in Nutritional Ecology, and her research has been summarised in many popular science publications and newspapers. Most recently, two of her publications were listed in the top 25 most downloaded and/or cited articles in their respective Science journals.
