For Kerri Shiozawa, food is power. A licensed pastor, guiding others through their spiritual and emotional healing processes has always been a part of Kerri’s life. However, her interest in physical wellness began in 2005, when she experienced a collapse in her health that led her to embark on her own healing journey. “I found myself going back and forth to my conventional doctor, and the answers were all medication, medication, medication,” she recalls.
Hoping to find a more desirable and long-lasting solution, Kerri turned her focus to learning everything she could about alternative healing practices. Her digging, which included the discovery of the healing power of herbs, Chinese medicine, holistic practices, and Ayurveda, not only gave her the agency to restore her own health but also resulted in her fascination with the possibilities of natural medicine. “That’s what led me to the schooling I went to and led me to a very fulfilling practice,” she says.
Eager to broaden her understanding of natural medicine, Kerri began training as a naturopath through the Trinity School of Natural Health, where she studied countless dietary theories and lifestyle management techniques. Kerri says her educational experiences transformed the way she views food. “Real food, the things that were given to us by nature, are actually powerful tools for healing. I think it was Hippocrates—the founder of modern medicine—who said, ‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,’” she shares. “Through being able to learn about the nutrient density of different foods, and actually begin to apply that in my life, my body healed itself.”
Upon finding success in her own wellness journey, Kerri felt compelled to share her newfound knowledge with others. Equipped with her expertise and passion to make a difference, she opened Super-UWellness, a health and wellness center in Manteca that specializes in naturopathy, weight loss, health coaching, and colon hydrotherapy.
As a health coach, Kerri helps her clients identify the root cause of their issues and begin the process of healing themselves. She first guides them through a detox that eliminates inflammatory foods. “When we attack that inflammation, when we cause the body to go after that inflammation and use it as a source of energy, what happens is weight melts off, body systems come into order, we see liver health improve, and we see sugar numbers balance out. It’s miraculous. And it’s all food-based,” Kerri explains.
While many of Kerri’s clients come to her with weight loss goals, she says her primary focus is getting people healthy. However, in the process of getting people healthy, they often experience weight loss—along with a myriad of other benefits, such as increased energy and improved mental focus.
While embarking on this wellness journey can be challenging, Kerri believes that understanding how to nourish our bodies properly is the only way to true, long-lasting healing. “There’s never a magic pill,” Kerri says. “There are wonderful supplements that help us along the way, but it really is learning to honor the gift of food—real, nutrient dense food—that gives our body what it takes to heal itself. Because that’s what we were created to do, heal ourselves.”
Kerri’s holistic approach to healing has impressed clients and doctors alike. One of her clients’ physicians even reached out to her to learn more about her methods, fascinated that the patient was losing weight and healing herself without the help of any mainstream diets or medication.
Kerri hopes to continue outreach to the medical community to be a resource for doctors and their patients who are struggling with their health. She also enjoys working with small businesses and corporations, recently participating in PG&E’s first virtual health and safety fair. However, Kerri says the most rewarding part of her job is seeing renewed confidence in her clients. “We’ve seen so many success stories from people being healed emotionally because of their confidence, returning or calling in tears, saying, ‘Before I came to you, I literally felt like I was dying, that I didn’t have a lot of time left,’” Kerri says. “Those testimonies keep us doing what we do.”
Embark on your own journey:
Super-UWellness
425 E. Center St., Ste. 1, Manteca
(209) 603.5184