Written by Our Nurse Practitioner and Founder, Jen Owen at the Flourish Center in Portland, Oregon
This Year’s Big Step: My Path Toward Lifestyle Medicine Certification
This year, I completed an exciting step in my professional journey—I became Board Certified Lfestyle Medicine Professional through the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
The certification process was both rigorous and inspiring. It included an in-depth course of study during most of 2025, a board exam, and attending the national Lifestyle Medicine conference this November.
What I’ve appreciated most is having volumes of research to support the very practices I already encourage here at Flourish. It’s deeply validating to see the science confirm what I’ve witnessed in real life: that targeted, sustainable lifestyle changes can be profoundly healing.
What is Lifestyle Medicine?
Lifestyle Medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary approach for treating—and, in many cases, reversing—chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle changes that address the root causes of disease—not just the symptoms.
At its foundation, Lifestyle Medicine is built on six interconnected pillars:
1. Optimal Nutrition
Choose more whole, minimally processed, plant-predominant, nutrient-dense foods and snacks.
2. Physical Activity
Move daily and incorporate strength, flexibility, and aerobic activity into your routine.
3. Stress Management
Develop healthy coping skills to meet life’s demands and build resilience.
4. Restorative Sleep
Create conditions for 7–9 hours of high-quality sleep to allow your body to reset and recover.
5. Connectedness
Nurture meaningful, supportive relationships that bring purpose and joy.
6. Risky Substance Avoidance
Avoid or minimize exposure to harmful substances that can damage health.
Why This Matters
Our current healthcare system is under strain. An estimated 60% of Americans—including far too many children—live with at least one chronic disease, a number that has reached epidemic proportions. These conditions account for much of the $4.5 trillion in annual U.S. healthcare costs.
The good news?
The vast majority of these chronic diseases are treatable—and many are reversible—with the right lifestyle interventions.
The Lifestyle Medicine Difference
Lifestyle Medicine focuses on achievable, sustainable behavior changes in each of these six areas. Over time, even small changes can create powerful, lasting improvements in health.
It’s an approach that restores hope, supports healing, and offers a path toward a healthier future—for individuals, families, and communities.
Looking Ahead
I’m thrilled to begin offering Lifestyle Medicine programs here at Flourish in January. Learn more here. You can join now!
Visit the American College of Lifestyle Medicine website here.
Here’s to building health from the ground up—together.
