Hometown Highlights: Dr. Tabatha Barber Duell

In a world full of buzz words like gut microbiota, leaky gut, diseases of affluence, mind/body connection, functional medicine, mindfulness, phytochemicals, detoxification… it’s no wonder that we are all confused about how to live our best life.

Enter Dr. Tabatha: “Take care of yourself! Doctors orders!”

Dr. Tabatha Barber Duell’s passion to encourage women to live their best life through a functional medicine approach to health is nothing short of inspiring.

She believes that the best “medicine” is for physicians to spend time with their patients, listening to their histories, mapping their personal timeline, and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long term health and complex chronic disease.

As an OB/GYN, she has been working with women through issues that face them as they have their first baby, to women going through menopause and learning how to cope with all of the changes that come with both.

Tabatha’s passion over the past 15 years has been delivering babies for hundreds of patients in West Michigan. She maintains that passion today, with an added dose of care that goes beyond the typical Doctor/patient relationship.

As Tabatha has grown and evolved over time, her course work, readings, and patient care have brought her to a place where she recognizes that women need to be empowered so they can advocate for themselves through movement, mindfulness, and diet each and everyday.

She wants to dig deeper with her clients and our community to see stronger, healthier women who thrive in all areas of their lives.

When asked if she could do anything in the world professionally right now what would it be? Without a second’s hesitation, she answered enthusiastically “I would open a women’s wellness center that incorporates Western and Eastern medicine: with meditation, accupuncture, herbal therapies, counseling, movement, mindfulness, nutrition and aesthetics!”

Giving women the tools to thrive through a mind, body, spirit approach to well being is what Dr. Tabatha would like to see more of in West Michigan and all over the United States.

Tabatha’s training as a DO, her work in Functional Medicine, and her personal struggles with back pain, and an autoimmune disease have given her a personal perspective on how lifestyle changes can make a huge difference in mental and physical health. She has been promoting “52 Weeks of Growth” using social media platforms to promote habit shifts. She teaches workshops through NOCH on related health issues, has been a speaker at the BE event, and has recently written a book “From White Trash to White Coat” that is a fictionalized story of her life.

If you are interested in learning more about Tabatha’s journey into Women’s Wellness, you can hear her speak at this year’s Be Event, Saturday, September 14, from 1-5 p.m. at the Frauenthal Theater. Tickets go on sale June 1.