If you are a practitioner in functional medicine, you will have seen the amazing effect it can have on people’s health and their lives, through addressing the root causes of chronic health conditions.

However, most practitioners work on their own or in small practices, which can be really challenging and isolating, and not everyone feels well connected to their peers.

At the British Network for Functional Medicine (BNFM), our goal is to build a community of collaboration among practitioners from different professional backgrounds. By facilitating understanding and learning from one another, we aim to improve patient outcomes and foster a sense of belonging for practitioners.

We have a bigger picture goal in mind as well.

There is a huge population of people in the UK whose lives could be profoundly improved by a functional medicine approach. However, for various reasons functional medicine remains a “fringe” approach. Very few people in the UK have heard of it. And so the vast majority of people who could benefit from our help have no idea that the approach even exists.

How can we reach the world where good quality, functional medicine style care is known to everyone, and available to anyone who wants it?

We’re not sure, but we want to do our bit to help get there. We think the best way of doing that is by bringing practitioners together to allow them to share ideas and learn from each other. We hope to provide a forum for people to discuss ideas that will get us closer to that ideal, so that we can support each other to make them happen.