The Clarity & Support You've Been Searching For
If you've spent years trying to figure out your gut- and you're still not there- the problem was never your effort.
It was the framework you were given.
I'm Dr. Rachael Lovink, a licensed Naturopathic Doctor based in Victoria, BC. This is my story, my approach, and why I practice the way I do.
How My Own Experience Shapes the
Way I Care for You
MY STORY
I know what it's like to eat clean, chase root causes, and do everything right and still feel terrible.
I spent years doing exactly that...
Elimination diets, cleanses, eight rounds of SIBO treatment- all while carrying a complicated relationship with food that the wellness world was quietly making worse.
Ant the more I chased, the sicker I got...in my gut and in my relationship with my body.
What I couldn't see at the time was that I was caught in the same cycle I now see in so many of my patients: the belief that if I just found the right food to remove, the right bug to treat, the right protocol to follow- I'd finally feel better.
That belief kept me spinning for years.
The turning point, in my career and my own health, wasn't learning about a new protocol or root cause.
It was when I finally turned back to the evidence.
Back to the science.
Back to the "conventional" world.
But with a humbleness, a keen curiosity and a willingness to learn new things (and be wrong about what I thought i knew).
When I finally understood what Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction actually were (because yes for awhile, just like you, I thought "IBS is just a waste basket diagnosis) and accepted my own IBS-C diagnosis instead of fighting it- EVERYTHING CHANGED.
I realized that my gut didn't need another elimination diet or "root cause" fix.
It needed unbiased nourishment, honouring routines that supported gut-brain communication, nervous system support, and other tools.
Some of those tools were medications.
Some were habits.
Some were learning to trust food again.
And what struck me back then, and still drives me today, is that nobody is really talking about these conditions in a way that honours their validity & nuance.
I didn't learn about them in naturopathic training.
And I now know that conventional doctors get very little to no training in them.
Which means these, very common, conditions are under-explained and under-supported.
There is a massive gap in care.
And that gap is where I've built my practice.
MY APPROACH
Evidence based gut care designed for real life.
The answers exist.
The science is there.
What's missing is a practitioner who has one foot in the evidence and one foot in over a decade of knowing which parts of that evidence actually apply to you.
That's the gap.
That's what I do.
I'm not anti-conventional medicine.
I'm pro bringing together everything that actually works- the evidence-based tools of conventional care, and the time it takes to actually apply over a decade of clinical experience to your gut, not the five minutes left at the end of a 15-minute appointment.
No fear-based advice.
No elimination spirals.
No expensive testing that won't change your care.
Just clear explanations, a structured plan, and the support to follow it in your real life.
WHO I AM OUTSIDE THE CLINIC
I practice what I teach- but not in a perfect, optimized, biohacking kind of way.
In the way that actually works. The kind that honors the gut-brain science, and also the reality of being a busy woman who wants to be present with her son, needs time in the forest, and isn't willing to let her gut run her life anymore.
I'm a devoted morning routine person (I usually wake at what some call an "ungodly hour" of 5AM), it's one of my favourite parts of the day. I look forward to my hot coffee, and the moments of solitude and reflection it offers.
The forest is my church, and I get there almost every single day with my son. It's a non-negotiable. And we love it.
I dabble in breathwork and meditation, not as a performance of wellness, but because they genuinely help to stay connected to myself.
I'm a proud boy mom to Cedar. And have a special bond with my first "baby"- George. He's a wire-haired Viszla.
I'm pro evidence-based tools- all of them, including medications when the body needs them. I'm not anti-woo, but I am anti doing something just because it's natural. If the science supports it, we use it. If it doesn't, we let it go.
And this extends into my personal life. My husband has learned that presenting me with new health information will almost always be met with "what's the source, what's their bias, and is there a study?"
I can't help it. It's just who I am.
WHERE TO START
Wherever you are in your journey, there's a place for you here.
My signature 1:1 care process for midlife women dealing with chronic diarrhea, bloating, constipation or reflux.
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CONSTIPATION CONFIDENCE TRAINING
A self-paced video training for people living with chronic constipation who want to finally understand what’s going on with their gut. In this 4-part training, you’ll gain the clarity, practical daily tools, and science-backed guidance needed to support more regular, complete bowel movements and lasting relief.
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A free guide to help you build the one morning habit that gets your gut moving more predictably.