How to find a functional medicine doctor near you

If you're searching for an integrative or functional medicine doctor near you, you're probably already frustrated with traditional healthcare. Maybe you've seen multiple specialists who treated symptoms without addressing root causes. Maybe you're dealing with chronic fatigue, digestive issues, or autoimmune conditions that conventional medicine hasn't solved. Finding the right integrative physician can change that—but the search itself requires knowing where to look and what questions to ask.

It's not like going to a restaurant, where we now have ubiquitous online ratings systems, dozens of guides, and whole professions—even whole shows—dedicated to finding, reviewing, and telling people about which restaurants you should go to.

Yet finding a good doctor, usually a primary care physician, is such an important part of your health and wellness. We have studies that show that patients who trust their doctors report healthier behavior and better outcomes—so we know trust is important.

Our practice is located in Rockville, MD and we see patients throughout the surrounding area, including Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Potomac, and other communities around Washington D.C. But even if you're not searching for an integrative or functional medicine doctor near there, this post will help you know where to look.

The importance of trust in healthcare

I practiced emergency medicine for thirty years. In the ER, we usually don’t know the patients who come in. We have very little time to establish trust so that we can get an accurate medical history. Sadly, primary care physicians can be under just as much time pressure as I was in the ER. Today’s family or internal medicine physicians have thousands of patients who they hope to see maybe once a year for twenty or thirty minutes.

I started Dignity Integrative in part to change the nature of that relationship to one that works more like a partnership over time. I think any local integrative medicine physicians who can check in with their patients on a monthly basis to see how they’re doing and adjust their care as needed will have a much better chance of helping people to better health than the traditional ways our healthcare system has been throughout my life.

One patient came to me after five different specialists dismissed her combination of joint pain, fatigue, and digestive issues. Each specialist focused on their specific domain—rheumatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology—but no one looked at the whole picture. When we spent two hours together in that first visit, patterns emerged that revealed Hashimoto's disease worsened by multiple food sensitivities. That kind of discovery requires time, and it requires trust.

So, we know doctor-patient relationships built on trust lead to better outcomes. And, we know that the integrative medicine model provides a better opportunity for us to build that trust.

But the challenge remains: how to find an integrative medicine physician?

Word of mouth

Traditionally, a lot of us look for a doctor the same way we look for any trusted, very important professional: through word of mouth. Just as we ask our friends and colleagues if they know a good lawyer or accountant, we usually default to word of mouth in our search for a good doctor.

My first few patients also came through word of mouth and awareness through social media. I can't personally introduce you to them here, but you can see from the reviews some of them left us on Google, they were very happy :)

But of course, this is the Internet age, which means there are online resources for how to find physicians, including how to find an integrative medicine physician.

Integrative Medicine Directories

When I first opened my practice, I searched these directories myself, curious what patients would find. The Institute for Functional Medicine maintains the most comprehensive database, listing practitioners who've trained through their programs. When I searched within a hundred miles of Rockville, I found seventy physicians—but here's the catch: it only includes doctors trained specifically through IFM. I completed my fellowship through the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, which means I wouldn't appear in their results despite my specialized training.

The American College for the Advancement of Medicine offers another directory, but it's limited to their membership. When I searched for Rockville, only one practitioner appeared—not because there aren't qualified doctors here, but because not every integrative physician joins every organization.

The American College for the Advancement of Medicine also has a directory search. ACAM is a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of integrative medicine. They offer education and training for integrative medicine practitioners throughout the country.

Yet their directory is also limited to membership, which means it’s limited overall: a search for integrative medicine practitioners in Rockville, MD only showed one option.

This is why Google remains useful despite its limitations. A search for 'integrative medicine near me' will surface practitioners regardless of which training program they completed. You'll find more options, but you'll also need to do more evaluation."

Finally, there's always an AI like ChatGPT or Perplexity! We've also tried this for a few key conditions such as SIBO, and were pleased to see that Dignity Integrative was recommended as the number 1 choice in Rockville:

Google Maps

Finally, there's Google Maps. It's worth noting that Google may be a big tech company with enormous market power, but there’s also something quite democratic about how Google handles search: open to everyone with an internet connection and designed to deliver as much useful, relevant information as possible.

So, Google Maps is a good place to start if you’re looking for integrative medicine physicians near you. We tried it for where Dignity Integrative is located in Rockville, MD, and we got a lot more than five choices. We circled Dignity Integrative to make it easy to find 😉:

Still: once you've done the Google search or used an AI for recommendations, how do you choose between all the great options?

Reviews

Just as you can review almost anything these days, you can review Integrative Medicine practices as well, which is something none of the directories above allow you to do (Spoiler alert: all the Rockville integrative medicine physicians are all highly rated, including us, so I’m in good company).

Big centers vs. independent integrative medicine clinics

When large hospital systems advertise integrative medicine services, they're often responding to market demand rather than institutional commitment. I know because I called local hospitals when starting my practice to understand their offerings. One hospital in Olney was still advertising integrative medicine services even though their physician had left months earlier. The listing remained because the marketing department hadn't caught up with reality.

This isn't to say all hospital-based programs lack substance—the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Functional Medicine sets the standard for what's possible within a large institution. But most hospitals struggle to make integrative medicine financially viable within their traditional reimbursement models. The time we need to spend with patients, the focus on prevention rather than acute intervention, the emphasis on coaching and lifestyle modification—none of this fits neatly into the fee-for-service structure that hospitals rely on.

Independent practices like Dignity Integrative exist outside that system by design. We can spend two hours in an initial consultation because we're not measuring productivity by patient volume. We can focus on ten-year health horizons rather than immediate symptoms because we've structured the practice around long-term partnerships.

Individual treatments vs. holistic approaches

Another thing you will notice if you Google, for example, "integrative medicine near me" is that some options will be focused on individual services, such as acupuncture or sleep counseling, while others will be general integrative or alternative medicine doctors (or naturopaths or functional medicine doctors).

Obviously, if you already are well into your journey and know that you want acupuncture, then go straight there. Google categorizes a lot of different services under the integrative medicine umbrella. A search in the areas around Rockville (which includes Gaithersburg, Bethesda, and Germantown) turns up a few acupuncturists, a pain management clinic, and sleep specialists.

If, on the other hand, you are at the beginning of your journey, or are looking for an alternative approach to chronic health problems, you probably want to go to a general integrative physician such as myself. My clinic focuses on four pillars of health: sleep, nutrition, movement, and mental resiliency. My practice also partners patients with a health & nutrition coach, but if I think there are more specific treatments which are recommended, then I will refer you to a specialist service such as the ones listed above.

Search trends toward functional medicine

One thing to keep in mind is that functional medicine and integrative medicine have recently traded places in terms of how often users search for them.

As you can see from the Google search trends chart below, searches for functional medicine (the red line) overtook searches for integrative medicine (the blue line) some time in mid 2017.

Now in 2025, functional medicine (in blue) has more than twince the search volume of integrative medicine. Meanwhile, the distinction between the two means a lot less than it used to, if it means anything at all.

As I've written: "In practice, the differences in approach between any two given integrative medicine practitioners are likely to be more consequential than the differences between an integrative vs. a functional medicine doctor."

What does this mean for your search? It means consider doing two searches: one for integrative physicians near me and one for functional medicine physicians near me. Either search could surface someone you connect with who is a good match.

Process & Cost

Finally, before you choose an integrative medicine doctor you should ask what their process is, and of course what the fees are. Do they slot you into a pre-determined path? Is the practice like a menu with a list of services that you choose from?

Or, like Dignity Integrative, do they start from a place of openness and general inquiry, and come up with a custom plan to begin to improve your overall health and wellness, and address chronic problems?

We've created a roadmap that explains our approach here.

Finding an integrative medicine doctor shouldn't feel like solving a mystery with incomplete clues. Start with the directories, expand to Google or an AI like Perplexity, read the reviews, but most importantly, trust your instincts when you make those initial calls. The right practitioner will spend time answering your questions before you ever schedule an appointment—because that's what partnership in your health actually means.

If you're in the Maryland or D.C. area and want to explore whether Dignity Integrative might be the right fit, we offer a free fifteen-minute consultation.