Andrea Nakayama is a Certified Nutrition Educator and Holistic Health Counselor. Her path to nutrition began when her husband was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor in April of 2000, when she was just seven weeks pregnant with their son. Those combined events propelled a whirlwind journey into a realm where she could nourish and heal her family, one meal at a time.
Andrea consults with adults, children, and entire families to create an experience of transformation and foster the changes that stimulate healing. Through counseling and testing she takes a functional approach to removing the barriers to balance and health. With food and supplemental therapies she works from the core; to engage the natural resources of the digestive system as a pathway to heal all body systems, eradicate deficiencies, and open the channels to invite nourishment and healing. The body yearns to heal itself. Andrea’s mission is to nourish each body in a way that inspires self-healing. Her practice and continued studies focus on the link between food, digestion, mood, and energy–how what you eat, digest and absorb are fundamental to your ability to thrive.
Though Andrea’s undergraduate degree is in fine art, she has nutrition certifications from both Bauman College and the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Her studies over the last decade include a wealth of sciences that enable her to take a unique functional and physiological approach to healing the body.
Andrea lives with her nine-year-old son Gilbert in Portland, OR. She’s one busy lady! She enjoys making food, eating food with friends, reading and learning more how food nourishes the body. She loves yoga, hiking, the sound of waves crashing, and is learning to like to play games.
Andrea’s wisdom in growing and preparing food spans almost 20 years of ongoing education and professional experience as an organic farmer and gardener and as a holistic chef and educator. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies with an emphasis on Human Health and Sustainable Agriculture from Prescott College in Arizona. Upon graduating she went on to earn a certificate of completion from the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Andrea devoted the next ten years to managing and operating her own working organic farm in Santa Cruz, as well as other professional organic farms in California and Washington States. From 2000 to 2004 Andrea managed the expansion of the organic vegetable and medicinal herb gardens at Bastyr University School for Natural Medicine in Kenmore, Washington. While there she designed an organic gardening curriculum for the students and staff. She also spent a great deal of time developing recipes and researching the healing and nutritional value of food, benefiting from the vast knowledge of the professors there. In 2008 she took her passion for cooking and organic foods to the next level completing the intensive Associative Chef and Instructor Training Program at the Living Light Culinary Institute in Fort Bragg, California.
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Andrea holds certificates from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS); the Pacific Yoga Teacher Training in Seattle; Permaculture for Drylands in Arizona; and the Nutrition Therapy Practitioner Program in Olympia, Washington.
In her spare time, Andrea enjoys life with her husband and their five year old son Isaac, hiking the beautiful Pacific Northwest, running, yoga, and getting together with her friends and extended family.