Services Offered

Pam's expertise in the field of nutrition and her dedication to understanding Ayurvedic practices has been instrumental in guiding me toward healthy eating habits. She has provided me with valuable knowledge on how food can be used to fuel my body and has been incredibly responsive to my questions and concerns. What sets Pam apart from other coaches is her background as a scientist, which gives me confidence in her advice and recommendations. I would highly recommend Pam to anyone who is embarking on an Ayurvedic journey. Her passion and commitment to helping others make informed decisions about their health is evident in every interaction, and I am grateful to have her as my coach. Thank you, Pam, for your guidance and support!

-Lindsay G

About

Hi, I'm Pamela!
So good to have you here.

My practice is based on the ancient wisdom that "All Diseases Begin in the Gut" (Hippocrates) and a famous Ayurveda proverb ”When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct medicine is of no need”. I combine Ayurvedic principles with state-of-the-art Biomedical science in a way that gives hope to clients and empowers them to make simple but effective lifestyle changes leading to greater satisfaction in their health.

The idea for Giv emerged from my my scientific career on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This gave me a deep reverence for what the gut does and how it integrates with the well-being of your physical body and mind.

My research on Brain-Gut talk helped our understanding of why you feel ‘butterflies in your stomach’ when you are nervous. Tapping into this mind-body connection for finding effective medications, we discovered and characterized a new medicine that benefits patients suffering from diarrhea-predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Going further into gut physiology led to the important ways that our own friendly bacteria – the gut microbiome – contribute to our feelings when we eat certain foods. This emerging knowledge on the gut microbiome has the potential to help obese patients suffering from metabolic diseases.

This is when I began to think that there should be a way to help those who don’t yet have a disease diagnosis, but their inner senses indicate that something is not right. Ayurveda is a medical system that teaches you to recognize signs of disease starting and correct these, well before the test results and clinical signs for a Western medical diagnosis.

I learned that the saying “You are what you eat” should really be “You are what you eat and your body does not digest correctly”. I modified my lifestyle a little to enable healthy digestion suited to my metabolism. I lost weight, felt energized, and no longer had arthritic or gut aches and pains. I became certified as a full-time GI and Digestive Health Coach and founder of Giv to help others find similar health benefits.

What Is Ayurveda?

Ayurvedic concepts were laid down in India ~ 5000 years ago around the time the Vedas were recorded. It was based on the practical experience of using herbs and treatments to provide an effective medical system for wellness. It requires an understanding of what the individual inherited at birth as a combination of characteristics (termed in Sanskrit Doshas – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha). It is taught that these Doshas become unbalanced during the course of your life. Choosing food with the opposite characteristics 'pacifies' the excessive dosha and restores your doshic balance - with more comfort in your body, more energy, and less anxiety.

Ayurveda helps you gain sensory awareness of your own body’s beneficial response to food, schedule, and how you spend your energy. Everything that we experience contains qualities that are opposites (dry versus wet, heavy versus light). You learn what works, and does not work, for your individual metabolism at different times of the day, seasons, or stages of life, to provide a foundation for wellness.

Yoga, meditation and pranayama are tools that support our "journey to the self”. Ayurveda is the complementary science with a more sensation-based approach. It awakens your senses of taste and the biocharacteristics/energies in your body. It aims to create health and balance in the physical body, from the inside out.

The Philosophy

My philosophy is to help clients learn the practice of Ayurveda by tuning into their senses in order to listen to their own inner wisdom. I love connecting with others and coaching them to be successful. I am excited to learn about your health and wellness goals and see where this will take you

I identify and explain any warning signs in your body that are present because of imbalances in the Doshas. Some of these signs are already known to you and the reason you would like to improve your health – such as feeling tired or lacking energy, bloating/discomfort, unwanted fat deposition, or pain in the belly. Through questioning aspects of daily life and history, the root causes of these symptoms emerge. I provide the tools to help balance and return you towards the doshic balance that you were born with.

Compared with Western nutritional advice – typically calorie counting, and controlling intake of carbs, or fat, or protein - it can be a surprise that suggestions based on the characteristics of food (e.g. dry, hot, pungent etc) to pacify your dosha can have such a positive impact on your well-being. Most clients start to recognize benefits quickly or make slightly different modifications to achieve these. That is what it really means to have “Knowledge of Life” (the meaning of Ayuveda) so that you can learn to recognize and intervene to prevent diseases before they start!

More About Pam

I was raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland during “The Troubles”, eventually graduating from Queens’ University. I remember my mother suffering from symptoms of gastrointestinal distress years before she passed, which instilled in me a longing to understand the gut and help patients. I moved to the USA to pursue a PhD at the University of Kentucky, then trained in Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical School where I met my husband.

I taught in the Department of Pharmacology at Louisiana State University Medical School, New Orleans for twelve years before I joined Drug Discovery at Janssen Pharmaceutical R&D in Pennsylvania. We raised two daughters and a son in Blue Bell PA, while sharing our house with several adopted cats, a Russian tortoise and a gecko.

It was yoga that introduced me to the complementary practice of Ayurveda. I completed certification as an Ayurvedic Digestive Health Coach (Joyful Belly School Of Ayurveda). In 2022 I left Janssen to start Giv Gastrointestinal Vitality LLC. I am a member of Let's Get Zen Yoga + Mindfulness in Horsham, PA , where I have an office for in-person Ayurvedic consultations. I am available for online virtual sessions as well.

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