My name is Cristiano Percoco and I am an insured and registered nutritional therapist, trained using the functional medicine model at the University of Westminster in London. My passion for complementary medicine began in the year 2000 when I participated in a basic aromatherapy introductory course and loved it.
Can you tell us a little more about yourself?
Thereafter, I continued my education in alternative medicine and gained diplomas in deep tissue and Swedish massage, Indian head massage, aromatherapy, Reiki and others. I worked as a massage therapist for several years in a well-known clinic in South-East London.
Today I only practice nutritional therapy and work alongside one of the best probiotic brands in the UK, as their education and training manager.
During my spare time, I love walks in nature, cycling and yoga, and I very much enjoy preparing super healthy and tasty meals from scratch. These habits contribute to keeping my mind and body in healthy shape.
What led you to a career in nutritional therapy?
Like many holistic therapists, my nutrition journey started because of my own illness. Due to a combination of difficult life events, poor nutrition, unhealthy lifestyle factors and behaviours, I developed depression and fibromyalgia, among other symptoms.
You can read the whole story on my website under My Journey to Nutrition if you wish. It is an emotionally touching story that I hope will motivate you to take chances and make dietary and lifestyle changes, so to regain optimal health for good.
I recognised that the only way out, was to go within.
Ultimately though, I am very passionate and privileged about what I do, because it gives me the opportunity to contribute to the well-being and happiness of our society, for which I am very grateful for and honoured.
You have a diverse set of qualifications including Psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics. Can you tell us a bit more about your specialisms and approach to nutritional therapy?
Nutritional therapy is a relatively new science and the latest research shows us that there are so many aspects regulating our homeostatic balance. Therefore, I like to explore and study various approaches to diagnosis and healing from different experts. This constant knowledge development allows me to use the most updated nutritional science, when designing a tailored protocol for my clients.
There are three crucial aspects to how I work:
1. To establish a confident and trustworthy rapport with clients.
2. To question and listen to their stories, allowing space and honest conversations.
3. To further investigate into every single case I am presented with, each time.
These three aspects, combined with upfront research, have helped me to restore health and happiness in so many people so far.
The areas I have specialised in are mainly the following, but I can certainly help in many other areas as well:
What can clients expect from their first chat with you?
It is important for people to know what they are buying before they do. So, I offer a free 15-minute initial phone consultation, for my potential clients to see if I am the right therapist for them. This preliminary session is also important for me to understand if my skill set is right for the case history I am presented with.
Then, if we are both happy, I will book the person in for their first appointment. Prior to this, they need to fill in a health questionnaire and a three-day food and symptoms diary. During our first appointment, I will further question their answers to the questionnaire. This allows me to gather as much information as possible to fully understand any possible antecedents, triggers and mediators, in other words, the real cause/s of their problem.
I normally take another day to deepen my research into the case and put together the most comprehensive and tailored nutritional protocol, which will be sent via email.
You’re an NLP accredited practitioner and life coach. Can you tell us a little about how this complements your work with nutritional therapy?
Have you ever heard of ‘mind over matter’?
The real challenge for a nutritional therapist is not knowing what’s best for their clients to do, but it is to make them do that; willingness to get better. Most importantly, compliance with the protocol is all there is between healing or remaining within a dysfunctional body. Because of this, I wanted to get more insights on how the mind operates and why, so to hopefully achieve 100% compliance rate.
NLP has given me the tools to read between the lines of my clients’ stories and to guide some of them to break through some emotional barriers that kept them stuck in old, unhealthy patterns. When that happens, healing may speed up, as it may take place on different levels.
Have you any advice to give someone looking for help?
Nutritional therapy has changed my life forever and made me believe that humans are not meant to live in a chronically ill body. In fact, our bodies have been equipped with everything we need to heal and stay healthy. This is only possible as far as we remove the cause of the problem and provide our bodies with the best healing dietary and lifestyle choices.
So, if you have any health concerns, do not ignore them, because symptoms, over time, can degenerate into disease. Consult with a qualified, insured and registered nutritional therapist who can assess your present and past medical and health history, and come up with a safe, and tailored plan for you to follow.
It is very important that you do not just follow recommendations from a friend or something that you read on the Internet because your case is unique to you and you only.
Remember though that nutritional therapy is not a quick fix, but rather a journey of self-discovery.
Where can people find you?
I have based my daily clinical practice in Poole, Dorset, at The Consulting Centre, 348 Poole Road, BH12 1AW. I also offer online consultations and home visits whenever required.
This year I have launched my website, where you can find links to my social media channels, articles on different illnesses and emotional well-being, healthy food recipes and a dedicated shop page with the best supplements available in the UK, and other very interesting bio-hacking products.
Please feel free to get in touch with me via my profile.
I will leave you with one final thought that means a lot to me: “You can achieve whatever you put your mind to. So, take that first step, it may lead you somewhere magic.”
