Pioneering Metabolic Psychiatry With The Brain Fog Recovery Program – Interview With Nicole Laurent
Updated: Aug 3, 2023
Nicole Laurent is an award-winning pioneer in Metabolic Psychiatry. Drawing on her personal journey and her professional expertise, she's developed the Brain Fog Recovery Program, a transformative online platform for individuals grappling with similar struggles with mood, focus, memory and brain energy. Committed to the promise of metabolic and nutritional therapies, she ardently educates about these topics so people can thrive. Guided by her firm belief that everyone deserves to explore all health improvement avenues, her motto rings clear: "You have the right to know all the ways you can feel better."
Nicole Laurent, Mood & Cognitive Optimization Consultant
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I am a licensed mental health counselor with over 16 years of experience and for the last 6 years I have been helping people with mental health and neurological disorders transition to a ketogenic diet as a primary treatment. I discovered the ketogenic diet as a treatment for myself because of a health crisis and I told myself my clients have to have access to this. And so my training began!
Can you provide an overview of your business and the services/products you offer?
I work as a private practice licensed mental health counselor in Washington state, and provide some individual consultations out of state. But most of my work is delivered through a truly superior online program called the Brain Fog Recovery Program. It allows me to help people learn how to transition to a ketogenic diet to rescue mood and cognitive function and utilizes my trainings in nutrigenomics, functional nutrition and my work as a functional health coach.
What inspired you to create Mental Health Keto and how does it relate to mental health?
I was inspired to create the blog after completing a professional training in using ketogenic diets to treat mental illness and neurological disorders. I decided if a bunch of doctors and prescribers were earning CMEs in it for these purposes, then it was legit enough that everyone needed to get to know about it. The blog was my attempt to spread the word, and a pivot to my practice and coaching is using it openly, unabashedly and without apology, especially as I dove into the science supporting its use and had to master it well enough to explain it and teach it to others.
How does your business approach the intersection between the ketogenic diet and mental health? What are the potential benefits?
In my private practice as a mental health counselor, I find that brains using a ketogenic diet work better, and that means we can do better therapy work. In my role as a life-coach, educator and functional nutritionist using ketogenic diets as a cornerstone to help people with mood issues and cognitive symptoms, I see the exact same thing. People are able to flourish instead of just survive. We are not life coaching them trying to get them to shower and eat. We move into work around real self-actualization. It’s a night and day difference for many.
Could you share any success stories or testimonials from individuals who have utilized your services/products for mental health purposes?
I have seen it work better than medication for a host of mental health diagnoses and cognitive impairments coming from neurological disorders. You would have to ask me about a specific diagnosis, and I could probably tell you a story!
What kind of support or guidance do you provide to individuals who are interested in incorporating the ketogenic diet for mental health? Is there a team of professionals available?
Well, when someone is on medications, there should always be a team available. Because ketogenic diets are like their own powerful medication in that being on one affects other medications profoundly. And so the people I work with need a prescriber to work with me that is willing to adjust medications as needed. But the support and guidance I offer is help transitioning to a neurologically appropriate ketogenic diet, assistance and support for the behavior changes that offers, and appropriate supplementation for optimal outcomes. I also help my clients learn how to personalize their supplementation based on nutrigenomics and provide lifetime functional health coaching. Not everyone can reach their goals in 12 weeks! Sometimes it takes a few months and I think people need to know that support is there for as long as they want and need it.
Are there any upcoming developments or additions to Mental Health Keto that we can look forward to?
Not at this time. My program is proven.
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
My most significant career achievement came out of nowhere and was super exciting. I was one of 7 winners of the Metabolic Mind Award in 2022, awarded to pioneers for clinical work in the practice and education of metabolic psychiatry.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
I am a part of many industries. I am a licensed mental health counselor. I work as an educator to the general public about nutrition and metabolic psychiatry. I teach continuing education. I work with people to get case studies published and to help publish research in the clinical psychology peer-reviewed literature. I am a life-coach and functional health coach to the people in my online program. So this is hard to answer. But I think if I could pick one thing in one industry, it would be for Clinical Psychologists to follow the Medical Psychiatry literature more closely so they don't inadvertently do harm by warning someone off of using a ketogenic diet for fear of an emerging eating disorder. That's a huge problem.
There is robust scientific literature supporting the physiological mechanisms underlying the benefit of ketogenic diets for neurological and psychiatric illnesses. We have published case studies in the peer-reviewed literature by respected researchers and clinicians from Harvard and Stanford. We have clinical studies all over the world showing great benefits and even specifically for those with a diagnosis of eating disorders. No psychologist should be warning anyone off of a ketogenic diet at this point without professional consultation with a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist who understands them. For goodness sake, there is a Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic at Stanford using it for eating disorders. Psychologists need to integrate the research data into their clinical practice to provide ethical care. They have an ethical obligation to remain current, and that includes an accurate and professional knowledge of ketogenic diets.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
It was the day I was listening to a podcast by a famous ketogenic researcher named Dom D'agostino talk about its use with Alzheimer's disease. That was the day I decided to use it to try to help my cognitive impairment that had developed and was not getting better through functional medicine treatment alone. So that was an important moment. But the real, pivotal moment was the difference I felt in my brain when I got the macros right and began my own healing journey. That pivotal moment made me feel ethically bound to bring this treatment to the patients I worked with as a mental health counselor. That's when it all began. And I am not stopping until this treatment is as a standard of care for mental illness and neurological disorders. There is a hope and promise of metabolic psychiatry practice that is unmatched by the current offerings of medications and therapy. And I am going to make sure everyone gets to know about it.
