Michelle Murphy

Michelle grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. She was raised by a single mother who put herself through law school while Michelle was still in elementary school. Michelle grew up with a strong appreciation for independence and education. She had a love for the outdoors and through that love she obtained her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science. She believed her future would be in field biology.

During her term as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, West Africa, she spearheaded two projects in her small village, Kintieri, to support women’s access to birth control and help the village elders with a small animal husbandry project to increase protein access for a population that faced severe malnourishment and the highest infant mortality rate on the planet.

Between these two life experiences she realized her passion for improving the human condition. She changed her course, and when she returned stateside started her academics in Family Medicine.

It wasn’t until nearly a decade into her career that she discovered Functional Medicine. She was facing “burn out” and discontent with the demand for how many patients had to be seen to make a living which left little room for helping guide patients, learn what was new on the frontline of research, or provide the level of care she expected would be part of the work in Family Medicine. Functional Medicine is the practice of applying the investigative work of biology, physiology, and advanced diagnostics with teaching and supporting the patient to be in the driver seat of their own biology. It is “root cause medicine”.

With this new love for medicine she faced the problem: how to make time to support each patient within a system that doesn’t pay clinicians to teach and reverse disease but rather to suppress symptoms. The game is stacked in favor of disease, not in the reversal of disease. Michelle knew there was a better way and she learned from her patients that they were willing to take on a new adventure and risk with her…

In 2016, Michelle sold her home and in 2017 took what equity she had and started Peak Performance & Prevention, LLC (affectionately known as P3).