Frequently Asked Questions

Headwaters Clinic is currently licensed to see patients in Pennsylvania, and at this time we offer telemedicine services only.

For Pennsylvania residents, we function as a primary care clinic, including preventative wellness services. If you are looking for a thoughtful, integrative primary care home, you are welcome here regardless of your specific health concerns.

That said, we have particular expertise in hormonal health and women's health, and we especially love caring for patients navigating hormonal dysregulation at any stage of life. This includes adolescent girls who are just beginning their menstrual cycles and want knowledgeable, supportive guidance from the start, women experiencing persistent or irregular cycle issues, and those moving through perimenopause and menopause. If hormones feel like a mystery or a source of ongoing frustration, this is a place designed with you in mind.

One thing that sets us apart is that we offer hour-long appointments. If you've ever left a doctor's office feeling rushed or unheard, that experience is very different here. We take the time to understand your full picture: your history, your lifestyle, your goals, and build a care plan that is genuinely personal to you. If that kind of unhurried, whole-person attention is what you've been looking for, Headwaters Clinic may be exactly the right fit.

My Catholic Doctor is the platform we use to handle our administrative needs, things like scheduling, billing, credentialing, and electronic health records. It allows us to remain intentionally small and focused on patient care rather than building out a large administrative infrastructure.

That said, we chose MyCatholicDoctor not just for its practical benefits, but because it allows us to practice medicine consistently with our values. You do not need to be Catholic, or hold any religious beliefs at all, to receive care at Headwaters Clinic.

Our values are centered on human dignity and working with the body rather than against it. We believe the body has an innate capacity to function well, and our goal is always to identify root causes and restore that natural function when possible. This means we avoid approaches that suppress or override the body's natural processes: for example, we do not prescribe long term hormonal contraception, as we view it as working against the body's hormonal function rather than supporting it. Where other providers might reach for interventions that mask symptoms or inhibit normal physiology, we look for ways to understand why the body isn't functioning optimally and help it heal.

Integrative primary care is standard, evidence-based medicine (think annual physicals, chronic disease management, acute illness, lab work and imaging, and referrals) combined with a broader lens on what actually makes people healthy. Rather than treating symptoms in isolation, we look at the whole person: nutrition, lifestyle, stress, environment, mental well-being, spiritual wellness, and hormonal balance are all part of the picture.

You might also hear this described as "slow medicine." Where conventional care can feel transactional and rushed, integrative primary care takes time to ask deeper questions; not just what is wrong, but why. Our goal is always to uncover root causes rather than simply manage symptoms.

In practice, this means you get the full scope of a primary care practitioner; someone who can diagnose, treat illness, manage medications, order labwork and imaging, and coordinate your care, while also having a clinician who is genuinely curious about your life and invested in your long-term health. It's the kind of care that used to be the norm, before medicine became so fragmented and fast.

Hormones are signal carriers in the body that transfer and translate information between body systems, organs, and tissues. Their job is to regulate processes in the body, resulting in coordinated and adaptable whole-body functioning. When these chemical messengers are disrupted by any number of things including illness, environment, stress and anxiety, inadequate or poor nutrition, and metabolic dysfunction, the signals do not get where they need to go. The result is a dysregulation of whole-body (systemic) functioning that presents as specific symptoms or problems, and this is usually the point where an individual will seek healthcare.

Problems resulting from hormone dysregulation that we treat include cycle issues (heavy, painful, or frequent periods, absent periods, and short or long menstrual cycles), infertility or recurrent miscarriage, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity and overweight, fatigue, thyroid issues, hyperandrogenism, PCOS, and perimenopause and menopause.

What do we do about it? We utilize protocols from conventional medicine (endocrinology) and integrative medicine to do a thorough diagnostic workup. This includes a full health history intake, labwork, and imaging when indicated. The goal is to identify the root cause of the symptom or problem and begin to support or reset at that level, rather than simply prescribing medication to cover over a symptom. We use pharmaceuticals when indicated, but to restore function rather than suppress symptoms.

Fertility Education and Medical Management (FEMM) is a comprehensive program that teaches women and men to understand their bodies by learning to recognize hormonal and other vital signs of health. FEMM is backed by the science of the Reproductive Health Research Institute (RHRI), which was established to develop and expand ongoing research in the area of reproductive health and endocrinology, and to bring research and foundational knowledge directly to clinicians through educational programs and clinical protocols.

Our lead clinician is certified as a FEMM Medical Management consultant, meaning we use FEMM protocols to diagnose and treat women and men experiencing hormonal dysregulation. The goal is true informed consent for health decisions by education and understanding all options for solving health problems.

We do not provide pregnancy care. Our Practitioner is certified as an Adult Nurse Practitioner, which means she did not receive education or training to care for Pediatrics (under age 13) or Obstetric (pregnant) patients. These specialty populations require specific guidelines for management and treatment. For our patients desiring to achieve pregnancy, our goal is to get them and their partner in the best possible health to achieve pregnancy, and if successful then refer them to their Obstetrician or Midwife to take over care. This is the safest and best practice.

Many of our patients use our clinic as their only source of primary care, including our Urgent Care option, for comprehensive health promotion and disease prevention care. Our Practitioner can diagnose, treat, prescribe, and manage your preventative health and wellness needs. However, for insurance purposes, we cannot be listed as your PCP as our practice is intentionally small and we do not have 24/7 on call or a covering practitioner service.

In case of a true medical emergency, you should go to your closest Emergency Room. For urgent needs outside of our clinic hours, please utilize your closest Urgent Care clinic to be seen in person.