Meet Yelena
I know what it feels like to sit across from a doctor and hear "everything looks normal" when nothing about how you feel is normal. That's the gap Functional Root was built to close.
I'm Yelena Tselenchuk, BCDHH, a Board Certified Doctor of Holistic Health, Naturopath, and Homeopath. I work with women 35-50 who are tired of being dismissed and ready to investigate what's actually driving their symptoms. The practice is 100% virtual, 1:1, and grounded in one principle: investigate before you intervene.
Key Takeaways
- Board Certified in Holistic Health, Naturopathy, and Homeopathy (BCDHH, BCN, BCHP), plus Certified Functional Blood Chemistry Analyst and Certified Hormonal Mastery.
- 100% virtual practice. Every session is 1:1 via Zoom, serving women across the United States.
- Author of a 4-step methodology: Investigate, Interpret and Prioritize, Recommend and Strategize, Support and Refine.
- Lived-experience origin. The same pattern many clients describe: persistent fatigue, gut dysfunction, hormone shifts, and a nervous system that wouldn't shut off.
This is my story. It is also the story many of my clients tell me on our first call - almost word for word.
Our Practice
Functional Root is a 100% virtual naturopathic and functional medicine practice serving women across the United States. Every session is 1:1 via Zoom. There's no clinic to visit, no waiting room, no geographic limitation. You work with me directly, not a team, not an associate, not an intake coordinator.
Before we speak live, I spend several hours preparing. You complete a comprehensive intake questionnaire covering your full health and symptom history, diet, lifestyle, stress patterns, and prior testing. You also submit photos for a Traditional Chinese Medicine observational review of face, tongue, eyes, and nails. By the time we meet, I've already mapped your symptoms across body systems and identified where the investigation needs to go.
The work is consultative and educational. I don't diagnose medical conditions, prescribe medications, or replace conventional medical care. What I do is help you understand what's driving your symptoms so you can make informed decisions.
Credentials
My clinical training is built on three board certifications combined with specialized work in functional blood chemistry and hormonal assessment.
BCDHH: Board Certified Doctor of Holistic Health
BCN: Board Certified Naturopath
BCHP: Board Certified Homeopath
Certified Functional Blood Chemistry Analyst: functional and optimal-range interpretation of bloodwork
Certified Hormonal Mastery: advanced training in hormone assessment across the female lifecycle
Certified Life Coach
Certified NLP Practitioner
Certified Quantum Biofeedback Practitioner
My undergraduate degree is a BSBA in Business Logistics and Marketing from John Carroll University. The analytical foundation it built is the same one I now apply to health investigation. Every credential reinforces the same approach: look at the whole person, gather comprehensive data, and use that data to create clarity, not assumptions.
The Story Behind the Practice
For years, I was the person doing everything "right" and still feeling wrong.
The fatigue came first. Not the tired a good night's sleep could fix, but the kind where you wake up already depleted, push through on caffeine, and crash by mid-afternoon. Then came the digestive issues: bloating after meals that had never bothered me, irregular digestion, new food sensitivities. Sleep unraveled next. I'd lie down exhausted and not fall asleep, or wake at 3 a.m. with a nervous system that refused to rest. The anxiety followed, not tied to any specific event, just a constant, low-grade hum of unease.
I was a working professional, a mother, a woman in her late thirties whose body had started behaving like it belonged to someone else.
So I did what most women do. I went to my doctor. I described the fatigue, the digestion, the sleep, the anxiety. I expected answers.
What I got were variations of the same dismissal:
"This is normal."
"You're a mom."
"You have a demanding job."
"Women go through this."
The only options offered were antidepressants or sleep medications. No deeper questions. No meaningful investigation. No one looked at my gut health, my nutrient levels, my hormone patterns, or my body's detoxification capacity. The conversation ended at "your labs look fine." But my labs weren't fine. The right labs had never been ordered.
What Changed Everything
I refused to accept that feeling this way was simply the cost of being a busy woman in her late thirties.
When I began studying functional medicine and naturopathic approaches, I learned that the standard lab panels I'd been given were designed to screen for disease, not to evaluate how well my body was functioning. "Normal" reference ranges are wide. They tell you whether you've crossed a clinical threshold. They don't tell you whether your systems are declining, under strain, or operating far below optimal.
So I ran the tests that had never been ordered. What I found explained everything:
Hormone imbalances that had never been assessed beyond basic bloodwork.
Severe gut dysfunction, including infections and pathogens silently driving inflammation and nutrient malabsorption.
Critical vitamin and mineral deficiencies undermining energy production, nervous system function, and immune response.
Toxin burden adding strain to an already overtaxed system.
Neurotransmitter imbalances connected directly to the anxiety, the sleep disruption, and the feeling that my nervous system couldn't fully rest.
None of it had been explored. The realization was equal parts relief and frustration. Relief, because the data confirmed what I'd known in my body for years. These symptoms weren't invented. They weren't "stress." They were measurable, identifiable, and had contributing factors that could be addressed. Frustration, because the information had always been available. The right questions simply hadn't been asked.
That experience became the foundation of how I work today. I don't stop at "everything looks fine." I connect patterns across body systems and evaluate labs alongside health history, lifestyle, stress load, and timing, because numbers in isolation tell only a fraction of the story.
I was my own first client. The clarity I found in my own data is what I now help other women find in theirs.
How the Work Is Framed
The practice is grounded in a few non-negotiables. Investigation before intervention. Facts over guessing. Whole-body context over isolated labs. Sequencing and safety before aggressive protocols. Clarity before action.
What Patients Say
Frequently Asked Questions
What are your qualifications?
Yelena Tselenchuk holds three board certifications: Board Certified Doctor of Holistic Health (BCDHH), Board Certified Naturopath (BCN), and Board Certified Homeopath (BCHP). She's also a Certified Functional Blood Chemistry Analyst and holds a Certified Hormonal Mastery credential, plus certifications as a Life Coach, NLP Practitioner, and Quantum Biofeedback Practitioner. Her undergraduate degree is a BSBA from John Carroll University.
Are you a medical doctor?
No. Yelena Tselenchuk, BCDHH, is not a medical doctor (MD) or doctor of osteopathy (DO). Board Certified Doctor of Holistic Health is a credential in naturopathic and holistic health practice, not conventional medicine. The work is educational and consultative in scope. It does not diagnose medical conditions, prescribe medications, or replace conventional medical care. The focus is functional data interpretation, root-cause pattern recognition, and informed recommendations.
Who is this practice for?
Women 35–50 who are professional, high-functioning, and tired of being told their labs are "normal" when nothing about how they feel is normal. Most arrive with some combination of persistent fatigue, digestive issues, hormone shifts, sleep disruption, and mood or cognitive changes. Many are in early perimenopause or perimenopause. All are ready to investigate what's actually driving their symptoms rather than manage them indefinitely.
How does a 100% virtual practice work?
Every session is conducted 1:1 via Zoom. Before the session, you complete a comprehensive intake questionnaire and submit photos for a Traditional Chinese Medicine observational review. Yelena spends several hours preparing. Functional lab tests are at-home collection kits shipped directly to you, with results reviewed in a dedicated follow-up session. There's no clinic to visit and no geographic limitation.
What kind of recommendations do you make?
Recommendations are drawn directly from your findings, not from a protocol template. They may include targeted functional lab testing, nutrition adjustments, supplement support, lifestyle modifications, or sequencing guidance for gut repair or detoxification. Every recommendation comes with a rationale you can understand, and everything is prioritized so you know what matters most and what can wait.
Your Next Step
You've spent enough time wondering what's wrong and waiting for someone to take your symptoms seriously. The free naturopathic consultation is a 15-minute conversation designed to understand your situation and point you toward the most useful starting point. No obligation, no pitch, no guessing.
Prefer to reach out directly? (216) 282-4520 (call or text)