Meet our Founder
Dr. Olivia Shelton
Dr. Olivia Shelton is a Naturopathic Physician, trained in Primary Care Medicine, and specializing in nervous system regulation, digestive health, and the brain-gut-skin axis. Dr. Shelton holds her medical license in Washington State, which offers one of the broadest ND scopes in the nation—including prescriptive rites, minor surgery, and full primary care privileges. Obtaining both a Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine (ND) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a specialization in Health Education, her practice combines high-level clinical science, traditional healing, and a patient-centered approach. Having navigated her own health challenges with persistent skin troubles, digestive issues, and nervous system dysregulation, Dr. Shelton intimately understands the frustration of seeking answers in a system that often treats symptoms in isolation.
Today, she is dedicated to helping patients uncover the root causes of their symptoms through integrative, evidence-based care. By placing patient education at the forefront, individuals walk away with a clear understanding of their unique physiology—and, ultimately, true health autonomy. Her practice, True Nature Integrative Wellness, is built on the principles of thorough, intentional care—focusing on mind-body medicine, gut health, and cultivating natural, long-term beauty & vitality from the inside out.
Dr. Shelton’s foundational understanding of health began long before medical school. Raised in an environment centered around whole foods and organic agriculture, her early years were uniquely shaped by her family’s restaurant led by her father, a James Beard award-winning French chef and pioneer of the modern farm-to-table movement. From a very young age, she observed firsthand that food was never just calories or convenience; it was culture, art, and a manifestation of our relationship with the natural world. Growing up with a deep regard for seasonal harvests and cherished family recipes instilled a foundational truth into her wellness philosophy: human health is fundamentally and symbiotically connected to, not only the food we eat, but how we grow, nurture, respect, and share it. When a meal has been prepared with months to years of planning, a profound care for the environment, and an intention to nourish its recipients, sitting down to the table becomes a healing and spiritual experience.
As Dr. Shelton entered her teenage years, her diet shifted away from her family's seasonal, whole-food meals toward the typical Standard American Diet—filled with unbalanced school lunches, sugary snacks, and processed foods. In striving to balance rigorous academic demands alongside year-round athletic commitments, family, and friendships, she found herself caught in a cycle of stress, quick convenience foods, and physical & mental fatigue. Her body soon began sending quiet distress signals: persistent acne, ongoing digestive discomfort, and underlying anxiety.
Seeking help from top dermatologists and specialists, she was met with brief appointments, quick prescriptions for topicals and heavy medications like Accutane, and a total dismissal of her intuition that her diet and stress played a role. When she asked directly if what she ate could be causing her skin issues, she was told point-blank that food had no connection to her skin.
Feeling invalidated, she stood in front of her mirror one evening in tears until a sudden, quiet insight broke through her frustration—“What if I am going through this struggle so that I can learn how to heal myself, and one day help others do the same?” Though her healing was far from immediate, that moment planted the seed for a career built on deep patient advocacy, root-cause investigation, and a food-first nutrition approach.
Driven by her desire to serve others, Dr. Shelton completed a pre-medical track during her undergraduate years at Villanova University. However, during hospital internships and clinical shadowings, she felt increasingly disenchanted by a healthcare model that routinely prioritized symptom suppression while overlooking nutrition, nervous system health, and individual lifestyle history.
Unsure of how to align her passion for healing with a system that felt incomplete, she returned home to New Jersey after college where she apprenticed on an organic farm (Asbury Village Farm), volunteered with a farm-based doctor's office (Ethos Farm to Health), and interned with an organic agriculture advocacy non-profit (The Cornucopia Institute).
Immersing herself in agricultural authenticity reignited her vision for medicine, directly reconnecting her to the foundational truth of her upbringing—that genuine health begins with the integrity of our food and environment. It was during this period of exploration that she discovered naturopathic medicine—a distinct medical discipline that reconciles evidence-based science with the natural wisdom of traditional healing.
Dr. Shelton went on to attend Bastyr University, pursuing a dual-degree path. She earned her Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine (ND)—with an advanced clinical focus in Digestive Health, Dermatology, and Mind-Body Medicine. To supplement her academic learning, she continually expanded her skills through immersive preceptorships and medical conferences across the country and internationally.
Simultaneously, she obtained a Master of Public Health (MPH) focused on health education, nutrition access, and food insecurity. Driven by a deep commitment to childhood nutritional advocacy, her capstone work centered on restructuring food bank donation guidelines to better meet the developmental needs of youth. Additionally, she developed a clinic-wide protocol to screen for food insecurity and connect patients to vital food access resources at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health—the Pacific Northwest's largest natural health clinic by patient volume, serving up to 35,000 visits annually.
To further deepen her understanding of holistic healing modalities, she undertook extensive graduate coursework in Traditional Chinese Medicine, studied organic greenhouse and nursery management, and worked hands-on in the Bastyr Botanical Gardens. Her dedication to community food security extends to formal certification in Native Food Systems and Indigenous Food Sovereignty, as well as co-authoring a research paper investigating the relationship between food insecurity and primary spoken language among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was during her specialized mind-body training that the final piece of her own health puzzle clicked into place. True healing required her to go deeper than dietary changes; to improve her digestive and skin health, she needed to understand how her subconscious stress and autonomic dysregulation were driving chronic systemic inflammation. Learning to regulate and strengthen her own nervous system provided the lasting key to resolving her digestive and skin health for good.
Dr. Shelton founded True Nature Integrative Wellness to be the exact clinical environment she once needed as a patient—a space where you are truly heard, validated, and evaluated as a whole person. Her practice centers on the fundamental truth that we are not separate from nature, but an intrinsic part of it. When we restore our symbiotic relationship with the natural world—through nurturing our nervous system outdoors, supporting stewardship of our ever-giving earth, and holding reverence for traditional plant medicine and healers—we honor and reclaim the pathway necessary for deep physiological healing.
Rather than relying on superficial symptom suppression or buying into the empty promises of the traditional beauty industry, Dr. Shelton uses a nutrient-dense food-first, root-cause approach to help her patients look and feel their best. By pairing comprehensive gut health strategies and targeted botanical therapeutics with mind-body practices, she helps patients thoroughly understand the language of their body’s signals, cultivate nervous system safety, and uncover how their mind and body are meant to feel. Every human body carries a distinct, inherent beauty; allowing that radiance to reach its potential requires honoring the body's natural biology rather than fighting it.
Reflecting on over two decades of navigating her own health challenges, Dr. Shelton views her past struggles as her greatest clinical asset. Today, her life's work is dedicated to guiding others out of symptom isolation and into lasting health autonomy and well-being. Dr. Shelton's passion and goal is helping patients resolve persistent skin, digestive, and nervous system imbalances so they can repair their health, restore their peace of mind, and reclaim their innate beauty—revealing the true nature that has been within them all along.
Outside of her practice, Dr. Shelton is most often found doting on her young son, spending quality time with family, and exploring the outdoors, foraging for seasonal berries and wild plant medicine.
