Why I Do This Work

Sam Scarnato, Psy.D., FNLP, CFNC

Hello, I’m Dr. Sam Scarnato. I’m a Pediatric Functional Nutrition & Mental Health Practitioner and a Mom who's been exactly where you are.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­After becoming licensed as a psychologist in 2006, I sought out countless trainings within the field of psychology to give families the most current, evidence-based care available. For many families, it worked. Treatment gains held. They moved on. 

Soon, more complex cases came my way--kids with two or three diagnoses at once (ADHD, autism, OCD, anxiety, tics) who were also dealing with physical problems, like constipation, headaches, stomachaches, and sleep issues. Their parents were doing "all the things"--therapy, speech, OT, medical visits, medications, behavior plans. Things improved, sometimes. Then the kids came back, with new symptoms or old ones returning.

I knew I had to dig deeper.

Then my own son's health changed in ways I couldn't explain. Digestive trouble. A rash across the lower half of his body. Hours standing at the toilet, running back and forth every few minutes. His sleep fell apart. Vocal and motor tics started. He had bizarre food cravings, and his attention and focus at school unraveled. 

We cycled through specialists, tests, protocols. Nothing added up. We were exhausted and scared. 

Unwilling to simply watch my child deteriorate, I researched everything I could about digestion, immune stress, and nutrition. 

None of the providers we worked with were talking about these things, so I just started experimenting--using food to rebuild and support his body and mind directly. I tracked patterns. I stayed close to him through it, because staying connected mattered as much as anything I was trying.

After a lot of trial and error, and real setbacks, his symptoms resolved. 

That's when I got curious about the connection between digestion, inflammation, and the mental health symptoms I kept seeing in my practice. 

I went back into training in physiology and nutrition, volunteered as a scientific reviewer with The Center for Nutritional Psychology, and built a whole-child approach into my clinical work.

Now I ask better questions before reaching for a protocol. I look at your child's physiology, nervous system, and relationships to figure out what's actually going on, while helping you stay the steady presence your child needs through it all.

If you sense there's a deeper explanation still waiting to be found, I'd be glad to help you look for it.