Samantha Harnish & Alyssa Burke, Integrative Health Practitioners and co-owners of Balanced Friends, met in dental hygiene school in 2010. Frustrated by the flaws in the American healthcare system, they transitioned to holistic health, drawing from their shared upbringing in low-income households. The creation of the Balanced Friends Instagram page in 2017 unexpectedly propelled them to become Certified Integrative Health Practitioners. Today, their virtual practice offers functional medicine detox programs for mold, metals, parasites, liver, and gut health. Perfectly designed to disrupt the broken healthcare system and to guide clients toward a more vibrant and balanced life.
Samantha Harnish & Alyssa Burke, Integrative Health Practitioner: Detox Expert
Starting from the beginning, what inspired the inception of Balanced Friends?
To be completely transparent, we are still shocked that we have our own virtual healthcare business. It all happened by accident and very organically. We started our healthy Instagram page @balancedfriends as a way to keep our friendship close while one of us was living abroad in Germany. Our Instagram page gave us a reason to talk every day and we loved it! From there, we became Integrative Health Practitioners to simply gain knowledge on how to overcome our health issues at a root cause level. After healing from things like toxic mold, heavy metals, gut issues, and hormone imbalances without medication – we knew we had to share this message with the world. Working as dental hygienists and seeing the corrupt medical system firsthand only propelled us further into getting our message out to the world about holistic wellness. Each client we help gives us the confidence that we are exactly where we need to be in this moment of life. All these years later, things feel very “full circle” as Balanced Friends still keeps our friendship close during the many seasons of life and continues to give us a reason to talk every single day. We feel so grateful for this besties in business opportunity we have fallen into.
In what ways has your shared upbringing influenced your approach to holistic health and wellness?
We both share a similar upbringing with divorced parents, alcoholism, low-income households, and lived in small country towns where there was zero access to holistic health. We feel it’s given us a lot of grit to keep pushing in life and our business when times get hard. It also sheds light on why some of our core missions are to increase access and affordability of holistic health.
Balanced Friends focuses on Detoxification Bootcamps for mold, heavy metals, liver, gut, and parasites – what sets your detox programs apart from the conventional cleanses or detoxes?
Our bootcamps are quite different from the fad diets and cleanses you will find surfing the web. We use therapeutic-grade detox kits that are third party lab tested for purity and safety. The kits are designed by a leading naturopathic doctor. Our bootcamps also offer community support, healthy recipes, educational material, and tricks for both long-term and short-term success. You can think of us as your virtual in-home holistic nurse practitioner.
How do you blend the demands of being stay-at-home moms with your roles as co-owners of Balanced Friends?
Balance, team work, and a whole lot of communication. Some days our babies take a lot more of our time and other days Balanced Friends gets more of our time and energy. We feel that having each other in this business journey has made all the difference in creating a healthy work life balance. We talk every single day and work together to tackle any tasks at hand. We feel the demands of motherhood has actually equipped us to better prioritize our time, be more efficient, and become more organized in our business as a whole.
What are some common misconceptions about detoxification programs and how do you address them in your programs or virtual practice?
One of the biggest misconceptions about a detox program is fasting. In all of our detox programs you get to eat!! In fact, we highly recommend it and teach our clients which foods to eat to reach their goals. It allows us to tackle symptoms at a root cause from a food standpoint as well as a supplement and detoxification angle. Another misconception about starting a detox is that it’s going to be “too hard” and that you have to sacrifice all the things you love in life to be healthy. Our detox bootcamps are intentionally designed to do the exact opposite of that. We have crafted them to help each client create a balance of health and indulgence to still obtain desired health results. The easy to follow steps included in our detox bootcamps has made detoxing at a root cause level as easy as possible.
Balanced Friends advocates for a balanced approach to wellness. How do you strike this balance between promoting health without advocating for extreme sacrifices?
It’s very important to us to create easy to follow and realistic detox bootcamps that can be completed from the comfort of home. Being busy Moms, we understand how important convenience is! We believe in making our detox fit your life where you are right now not waiting for life to be perfect to start or you will never start.
Could you share some success stories or transformative experiences from individuals who have undergone your detox programs?
We are proud to say that we have many success stories. Most you can find on our website. A few worth mentioning would be our client that was told IVF was their only chance at pregnancy. After our gut detox bootcamp they have gotten pregnant naturally and has since welcomed a healthy baby into the world. It’s common for our clients to say our bootcamps have “changed their life”. Some clients that looks like a 20 pound weight loss, fitting into an old pair of jeans, or being able to finally eat foods like eggs without having to immediately run to the bathroom from stomach pain. We have another client that struggled with secondary infertility for 2 years then got pregnant during the second month of our gut detox bootcamp. She had a healthy easy pregnancy and has recently welcomed her healthy baby boy into the world.
Looking ahead, what are your visions or goals for Balanced Friends in the near future?
We have high hopes in helping clients all over the world and not just here in the USA. We have recently updated all the countries we ship to on our website. Aside from taking things global, we hope to continue to build meaningful relationships with companies who are creating their products with our health in mind. We believe in voting with our dollar to help change the world.
What advice would you give individuals hesitant about embarking on a detox journey?
It’s not as scary as you think! You don’t have to have it all figured out or worry about being perfect. We are here to guide you every step of the way. Rebalancing the body at a root-cause level has never been so straight forward, affordable, or convenient as the bootcamps we offer. We truly are the future of health for all the busy parents out there who are ready to feel strong, healthy, and vibrant again.
