The Lauren Castle Show

My guest this week is Dr. Jen Belew, PharmD, founder of Beyond the Dose, FMPhA's Georgia state leader, and one of our very first FMPhA members. After 18 years in hospital pharmacy, most of them in the ICU and operating room, Jen built an integrative practice for high-performing women. She focuses on the connections between hormones, gut health, metabolism and cognition.

We talk about how Jen found functional medicine long before she knew what to do with it, and why she bought our very first bootcamp without really knowing what an online course was. We also cover how she runs her practice today, with long first visits, a three-month minimum, rented space in a shared medical office, and real collaboration with her clients' physicians. And we talk about why the skills you already have as a pharmacist, like reading labs and coaching patients through a plan, are exactly what this work needs.

If you've ever thought "I love pharmacy, I just want it to serve people better," this conversation is for you.

FMPhA Membership

Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM)

American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP)

🌐 Beyond the Dose

📸 Instagram: @beyondthedose

💼 LinkedIn: Jennifer Belew

🌐 Dr Lauren Castle Website

📸 Instagram Lauren Castle

📸 Instagram FMPhA

💼 LinkedIn Lauren Castle

🌐 FMPhA Website

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to The Lauren Castle Show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It takes 30 seconds and helps more pharmacists find this community. And if this resonated, share it with a colleague who needs to hear it

My guest this week is Dr. Kym Klimek, a functional medicine practitioner, certified hormone restoration specialist, and FMPhA's Wisconsin leader. Kym's story is proof that functional medicine can open doors you never even knew existed. After years of surgeries and being told her only options for endometriosis were more surgery or a lifetime on birth control, she found functional medicine and built Innate Healing & Performance, a practice specializing in hormone, gut, and autoimmune health. 

But her story is about more than healing her own body. It is about the time and location freedom she built alongside it, freedom she now uses to compete in half Ironman triathlons around the world.

In this episode, we talk about her path from conventional medicine to building her own practice, why she believes there has never been a better time to become a functional medicine pharmacist, and how your pharmacy background becomes a genuine competitive advantage instead of the "pill for every ill" model so many of us feel stuck in. If you are a pharmacist considering a career pivot, curious about women's hormone health, autoimmune disease, gut dysfunction, or what it actually takes to build a functional medicine practice, this conversation is for you.

• FMPhA Free Roadmap for Pharmacists — get a sneak peek at what it takes to become a functional medicine pharmacist ahead of our fall boot camp
• FMPhA Fall Boot Camp
• Dr Lauren Castle Website

• The Hormone Sovereignty Program

• 🌐Website
• 📸Instagram
• 📸TikTok
• 📸Facebook

• 🌐 Dr Lauren Castle Website
• 📸 Instagram Lauren Castle
• 📸 Instagram FMPhA
• 💼 LinkedIn Lauren Castle
• 🎙️ FMPhA

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to The Lauren Castle Show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts; it takes 30 seconds and helps more pharmacists find this community. And if this resonated, share it with a colleague who needs to hear it.

My guest this week is Dr. Jesica Mills Thomason, PharmD, ND, MBA, a pharmacist, naturopathic doctor, educator, and Regional Director with the Functional Medicine Pharmacist Alliance.

Jesica's path into functional medicine started with her father's cancer diagnosis in 2016, which eventually led her to open her own holistic wellness center alongside her independent pharmacy. In this episode, we talk about what she learned about healing, boundaries, and letting go of control while caring for someone she loved, what it actually looked like to run a collaborative practice with nurse practitioners, and why she eventually closed that practice to protect her own sustainability. We also get into how FMPhA's bootcamp curriculum came together, the five foundational systems Jesica teaches every pharmacist in the program, and why you do not need another certification, degree, or years of study to start practicing as a functional medicine pharmacist.

If you are a pharmacist considering a career pivot, dealing with burnout, or curious about functional medicine, root-cause care, or setting boundaries in a healthcare career, this conversation is for you.

• FMPhA Free Roadmap for Pharmacists — get a sneak peek at what it takes to become a functional medicine pharmacist ahead of our fall boot camp
• FMPhA Fall Boot Camp
• Dr Lauren Castle Website

• 🌐 Dr Lauren Castle Website
• 📸 Instagram Lauren Castle
• 📸 Instagram The Lauren Castle Show
• 📸 Instagram FMPhA
• 💼 LinkedIn Lauren Castle
• 🎙️ FMPhA

• 📘 LinkedIn Jesica Mills
• 📸 Instagram Jesica Mills

Functional Medicine GPT: email [email protected] to request access

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to The Lauren Castle Show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it takes 30 seconds and helps more pharmacists find this community. And if this resonated, share it with a colleague who needs to hear it.

Dr. Lara May built her career in emergency and acute care pharmacy, but her own struggles with IBS, hormone imbalance, and chronic migraines eventually led her to functional medicine. In this conversation, Lara and Lauren revisit how they first connected while building FMPhA's West Coast community, then dig into what it actually takes to run an integrative practice: the real scope-of-practice lines between pharmacists, health coaches, and doctors, why Lara now treats mindset coaching as a non-negotiable part of every protocol, and the physiology tying stress, cortisol, and blood sugar together. Lara also shares how her own exploration of yoga, energy work, and mind-body practices has shaped the practitioner she's become, and where the field is headed next.

• FMPhA Free Roadmap for Pharmacists — get a sneak peek at what it takes to become a functional medicine pharmacist ahead of our fall boot camp
• FMPhA Fall Boot Camp
• Dr Lauren Castle Website

• 🌐 Dr Lauren Castle Website
• 📸 Instagram Lauren Castle
• 📸 Instagram FMPhA
• 💼 LinkedIn Lauren Castle
• 🎙️ FMPhA

• 🌐 Lara May Website
• 🎙️ Light Body Radio Podcast
• 📸 Instagram Lara May
• 💼 LinkedIn Lara May
• 📘 Facebook Lara May
• 🎵 TikTok Lara May

Explore Lara's functional medicine programs, coaching, and meal plan memberships here: Work With Lara May

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to The Lauren Castle Show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it takes 30 seconds and helps more pharmacists find this community. And if this resonated, share it with a colleague who needs to hear it.

My guest this week is Marina Buksov, a functional pharmacist, mind-body health coach, and clinical herbalist. Marina and I have known each other since 2020, back when we were both at the very beginning of our entrepreneurial journeys. In this episode, we talk about how pharmacy and herbalism started as the same profession before industrialization split them apart, what it actually takes to train as a clinical herbalist, and why the field remains unregulated in the United States. 

Marina shares the health crisis that pushed her to look outside conventional medicine, including procedures and treatments that caused more harm than good, and how that search eventually led her back to plants. We also talk about interoception, the ability to notice what is happening in your own body, and why so many of us have lost touch with it in a hyper-stimulated modern environment. 

If you are a pharmacist or practitioner curious about clinical herbalism, functional medicine, plant medicine, or how to bring natural, root-cause approaches into your practice, this conversation is for you.

• Herbal Resources Guide
• Natural Medicine Makeover Guide

• Website
• All Links
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter/X
• TikTok
• YouTube

Connect with Lauren

• 🌐 Dr Lauren Castle Website
• 📸 Instagram Lauren Castle
• 💼 LinkedIn Lauren Castle
• 🌐 FMPhA Website
• 📸 Instagram FMPhA
• 💼 LinkedIn FMPhA

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to The Lauren Castle Show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts; it takes 30 seconds and helps more pharmacists find this community. And if this resonated, share it with a colleague who needs to hear it.

My guest this week is Nicole Grams, PharmD, FMCP, Central Region Lead for FMPHA. Nicole's path from community pharmacy to functional medicine to veterinary pharmacy to Human Design coaching is proof you do not need one job, or one straight path, for the rest of your life. We talk about following your curiosity, what Human Design is and how it changes the way you make decisions, and the real behind-the-scenes truth about building FMPHA.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why your career does not have to follow one straight path, and how Nicole's winding road from pharmacy to Human Design coaching is more common than you think
• How nutrition, the microbiome, and environmental health became Nicole's surprising entry point into functional medicine
• What it looked like to bring functional medicine into an everyday community pharmacy practice
• What Human Design is and how understanding your "authority type" can change the way you make decisions
• The behind-the-scenes truth about building FMPHA, including the moment Lauren considered walking away
• How Human Design applies beyond self-understanding, into relationships, friendships, and business partnerships
• Why giving yourself permission to explore your curiosity, even the parts that feel unrelated to your career, is never wasted

Connect with Lauren

• 🌐 Dr Lauren Castle Website
• 📸 Instagram Lauren Castle
• 📸 Instagram FMPhA
• 💼 LinkedIn Lauren Castle
• 🎙️ FMPhA

Connect with Nicole

🌐 Nicole Grams Website

📸 Instagram: Claritywithnicole

📸 TikTok:  claritywithnicole

💼 LinkedIn: Nicole Grams

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to The Lauren Castle Show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts; it takes 30 seconds and helps more pharmacists find this community. And if this resonated, share it with a colleague who needs to hear it.

In this episode, I sit down for my very first guest interview with a dear friend and FMPhA's new Executive Director, Dr. Veronica Riera-Gilley. Veronica shares the tragic loss that first drew her toward pharmacy, the yoga class that unexpectedly became her doorway into functional medicine, and the years of chasing education, community, and purpose that carried her from chain retail burnout to leading a nationwide community of functional medicine pharmacists. We talk about drug-induced nutrient depletion, what it really means to trust the process in your career, and why every pharmacist has more to offer than they realize.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• How a family tragedy shaped Veronica's decision to become a pharmacist
• Why a single yoga class became the unexpected doorway into functional medicine
• What drug-induced nutrient depletion is and why asking "why" matters more than reaching for another prescription
• How community, mentorship, and organizations like FMPHA and ASCP opened doors Veronica didn't know existed
• What it looked like to leave a stable hospital job to build a career aligned with purpose
• Veronica's vision for pharmacists fully integrated into every care team
  

Connect With Lauren

🌐 Dr Lauren Castle Website

📸 Instagram Lauren Castle

📸 Instagram FMPhA

💼 LinkedIn Lauren Castle

🎙️ FMPhA

Connect With Veronica

💼 LinkedIn Veronica Riera-Gilley

📸 Instagram prairiefire_rx

📸 Facebook prairiefirerx

YouTube Veronicariera-gilleyPharmD

Subscribe & Review

Hey there! If you’re new to my channel, start with Episode 1: Who Is Lauren Castle - and why this podcast exists, where I share my own story and how I found my way into functional medicine. It is the perfect place to begin if you missed it.

If this episode resonated, please leave a review where you are watching or listening to this podcast; it genuinely helps other pharmacists & practitioners find this community. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you know someone who needs to hear this, I’d love for you to share it with them.

What is a functional medicine pharmacist, and why have most pharmacists never even heard of this role?

In this episode, I'm breaking down exactly what functional medicine is, why pharmacists are clinically positioned to practice it, and what this looks like in real, everyday practice.

We cover the actual definition of functional medicine straight from the Institute for Functional Medicine, why our pharmacy training gives us a clinical advantage that most people don't realize we have, and a real patient example that shows how a functional medicine lens changes the way you'd approach a diagnosis. I also walk through the five pillars of a pharmacist's clinical advantage: functional MTM, drug induced nutrient depletions, pharmacogenomics, deprescribing, and collaborative practice agreements.

This episode is for any pharmacist or practitioner who keeps hearing this term and wants to actually understand what it means, and for any patient who's curious whether this kind of care could help them.

Resources & Links Mentioned

Institute of Functional Medicine

Connect With Lauren

🌐 Dr Lauren Castle Website

📸 Instagram Lauren Castle

📸 Instagram FMPhA

💼 LinkedIn Lauren Castle

🎙️ FMPhA

Subscribe & Review

Hey there! If you’re new to my channel, start with Episode 1: Who Is Lauren Castle - and why this podcast exists, where I share my own story and how I found my way into functional medicine. It is the perfect place to begin if you missed it.

If this episode resonated, please leave a review where you are watching or listening to this podcast; it genuinely helps other pharmacists & practitioners find this community. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you know someone who needs to hear this, I’d love for you to share it with them.

Welcome to the very first episode of The Lauren Castle Show. I'm Lauren, functional medicine pharmacist, founder of the Functional Medicine Pharmacists Alliance and host of this podcast. And in this episode, I'm sharing everything: the whole, unfiltered story that brought me here.

We're talking about how I went from pharmacy tech in a small Michigan town to climbing the corporate ladder at Walmart, from discovering functional medicine through my husband's mystery symptoms to secretly struggling with my own hormonal breakdown behind the scenes. From losing my mom in 2021 — and the grief that finally broke me open — to finding my way through psychedelics, plant medicine ceremonies in Costa Rica, and a sense of peace I genuinely didn't know was possible.

This isn't a tips-and-tactics episode. It's the origin story. And I think it matters, because everything this podcast stands for — real conversations about health, career, relationships, and what it means to truly thrive as a pharmacist — grew out of living these experiences first.

In This Episode, You'll Hear

• The personal health crisis (my husband's) that introduced me to functional medicine — and why being a pharmacist didn't help me at all
• What really happened to my hormones, mental health, and sense of self during the peak of my corporate career
• The 10 weeks of intensive outpatient therapy after my mom passed — and what it taught me about grief and the limits of conventional mental health care
• How Michael Pollan, three friends, and a pocket of time between jobs led me to try psychedelics for the first time
• What happened at a ceremonial plant medicine retreat in Costa Rica in January 2023 — and why it changed everything.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• How to Change Your Mind documentary on Netflix — Michael Pollan: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80229847 
• MAPS — Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies: https://maps.org/ 
• FMPhA Bootcamp — functional medicine training for pharmacists: https://www.fmpha.org/fmphb 
• University of Western States — MS in Human Nutrition & Functional Medicine: https://www.uws.edu/academics/programs/clinical-nutrition-functional-medicine/ms/ 
• Institute for Functional Medicine: https://www.ifm.org/ 

Connect With Lauren

🌐 Website: https://drlaurencastle.com/ 

📸 Instagram Lauren Castle: https://www.instagram.com/drlaurencastle/?hl=en 

📸 Instagram FMPhA: https://www.instagram.com/fmpha/?hl=en 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlaurencastle/ 

🎙️ FMPhA: https://www.fmpha.org/