About Nina
Aloha, I’m Nina & I am so glad to have you here!
I am a NAMA certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, Herbalist & Plant-Based Chef living on the Windward side of O’ahu. My passion is to help bring people back to living in rhythm with nature through our food & natural healing systems. When not seeing clients or cooking for Nina Cucina, you can find me surfing, making herbal medicine, studying la’au lapa’au (traditional Hawaiian medicine), hiking in the Ko’olau mountains or stand up paddling in Kane’ohe Bay.
My Professional Journey
since I can remember…
I gravitated towards wanting to learn how to live more aligned with the rhythms of nature. I learned to use food as medicine from my paternal Italian heritage, cooking fresh, whole foods from scratch together as a family every day. I observed using nature as medicine from my maternal Celtic grandmother as she made poultices & herbal remedies for our bug bites, sun burns, splinters & chickenpox. These experiences inspired my own personal hobbies as I matured into adulthood & shaped me in ways I wouldn’t understand until much later.
2015
I realized a greater purpose for these passions after a dear friend was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. I volunteered to be one of her primary care takers & advocates. I helped her weave together a treatment plan that bridged Western Medicine with Naturopathy, Chinese Medicine, a plant-based diet & lifestyle changes. I witnessed first hand the impact this profound path had in shrinking the tumors & aiding in the side effects of chemotherapy. I also learned how important prevention is and not to wait until a diagnosis happens to make diet and lifestyle changes. This experience changed the course of my life, motivating me to evolve my hobbies and personal lifestyle choices into a profession, becoming a health advocate for others.
2016
While caring for my friend I realized how hard it was for her to get clean, healthy, organic prepared food. This inspired me to bring my love of cooking healthy food to the community, creating Nina Cucina. I began making nutrient rich, plant-based dishes sourced from our local organic farmers & selling them at my local co-op and farmers markets.
2017
My professional health advocate journey began through an Integrative Nutrition Health Coaching program with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I learned that no one single approach to diet or lifestyle is right for everyone & was taught the skills to counsel clients through one-on-one coaching & began to build a practice as a health advocate. The calling to learn what was right for an individual kept me on my quest to learn more & deepen my skills. That desire eventually brought me to the ancient holistic medicine system of Ayurveda. Finding Ayurveda felt like a homecoming, a remembering deep in my soul. I knew I had found my path, my calling. I took the invitation to dive deep into this system of healing & never turned back.
2018-2021
I enrolled in The California College of Ayurveda as a full time student, begining with the Ayurvedic Health Counselor program. Throughout this time I committed to extensive academic studies focused on diet, lifestyle & preventative medicine. I was given hands on trainings along with supervised patient visits to learn how to guide people to live in balance & prevent diseases. I then began studies in Clinical Ayurvedic Medicine, learning to apply the principles of Ayurveda to treat & even reverse diseases. I was gifted priceless insight & mentorship including herbal medicines formulation, Ayurvedic tongue & pulse diagnosis & creating complex treatment plans for acute & chronic diseases. Most importantly I learned how to understand people on a deeper level, to see their tendencies & imbalances in a way that is so uniquely Ayurveda . Where no one treatment plan is ever the same for any two people, because no two people are the same.
After completing 2.5 years of full-time study with The California College of Ayurveda I became a certified Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist, completing a total of 1,500+ hrs of academic studies & 1,200 hrs of supervised patient visits.
Today
Now as a NAMA certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, I work with clients to help them find the root cause of their symptoms and support them to find deep healing and lasting change. It feels like Iʻve come full circle, all of the twists and turns of life have led me to my true dharma, or lifeʻs purpose. To help guide people back to nature, joy, peace & happiness within.