Your North, My Navigation: How We Build a Life of Vitality TogetherWhy I don’t do primary care- and what I do instead.

By: Siobhan Gray MD

Your life isn’t a someday plan. It’s happening right now. That’s the place I want to meet you.Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of versions of the same question:

“Are you going to do primary care?”

Primary care is essential. I’m grateful for the clinicians who do that work, and I want every person I care for to have a solid primary care relationship.

But that’s not the role I’m here to play.

What lights me up is something different: walking alongside people who are ready to go all-in on their health, growth, and self-actualization. People who don’t just want “better labs” or “a little weight loss,” but a different relationship with their body, their time, their habits, and their future.

I’m not here to be your “everything doctor.”

I’m here to be your navigator while you captain the ship.

What it’s really like to work with me

Working with me is less like booking a quick appointment and more like stepping into a structured journey.

Most people don’t come in with a perfectly clear destination. It often starts as a vague sense of:

• “I know I’m capable of more than how I’m living.”

• “I feel off — burned out, inflamed, tired — and I don’t want a band-aid.”

• “I’ve tried diets, apps, programs, and nothing has really stuck.”

• “I want to live long, but more importantly, I want to live well.”

At first, that goal can feel like a distant, foggy island on the horizon.

My job is to help us sail toward it until it becomes an actual shoreline you can stand on: clearer energy markers, more strength, different choices, a new sense of what “normal” can feel like in your daily life.

We do that with a very intentional mix of:

• Deep intake and storytelling: your history, your patterns, your beliefs about health and your body.

• Advanced labs and testing: metabolic health, hormones, inflammatory markers, sometimes genetics and epigenetics when appropriate.

• Thoughtful tracking: not to obsess, but to illuminate patterns.

• Coaching and behavior change: your thoughts, self-talk, and identity around health.

• Movement and recovery: personal training, physical therapy partnerships, and recovery modalities when they fit your plan.

• North-style work: clarifying your values, your “why,” and what a vital life actually looks like for you.

This is not “come in once a year, get a refill, see you next time.”

This is immersive, structured, and meant to change you.

Who I’m not the right fit for

I think it’s important to be honest about this.

I’m probably not the right clinician for you if you are looking for:

• A quick prescription without changing anything else.

• A one-time visit to “fix” a problem and then go back to the same habits.

• Someone to take full responsibility for your health while you stay in the passenger seat.

• A primary care home for urgent issues, acute illnesses, or routine refills.

It’s not that those needs aren’t valid; they absolutely are. They’re simply not the work I’m called to build my practice around.

I’m building something for people who are ready to dig deeper: to examine their thoughts, stress, coping patterns, nutrition, sleep, movement, and environment, and to experiment, iterate, and stay in the process long enough to see real change.

Who I am here for

I am here for the men and women who feel an inner pull that sounds something like:

• “I’m willing to do the work. I just need a structure, a guide, and a strategy.”

• “I want to understand my body at a deeper level, labs, genetics, hormones, metabolism and then do something with that information.”

• “I’m ready to look honestly at my habits and my coping, even when it’s uncomfortable.”

• “I want to build a life that feels aligned: physically strong, mentally clearer, emotionally steadier, and rooted in something that matters.”

You don’t have to show up “perfect.” You don’t need to have it all figured out.

What you do need is an authentic willingness to participate in your own transformation.

The navigator and the captain

Here’s how I see our roles.

You are the captain.

It’s your life, your body, your values, and your decisions. You set the ultimate direction. You decide how fast we sail, what we prioritize, and which trade-offs you’re willing to make.

I am the navigator.

I bring the maps and instruments: medical training, Obesity Medicine, longevity and metabolic health, menopause care, advanced diagnostics, and a framework that links all of it together.

My job is to:

• Help you clarify the “why” behind your goals.

• Translate complex data into something meaningful and actionable.

• Anticipate obstacles, blind spots, and common traps.

• Offer structure, accountability, and course correction along the way.

Sometimes that looks like reviewing a detailed lab panel together and making a plan.

Sometimes it’s noticing how your self-talk keeps you stuck in old patterns and gently challenging it.

Sometimes it’s scaling your goals back to something sustainable instead of chasing a quick fix.

We’re not just steering around disease. We’re charting a course toward vitality.

The tools we actually use

People often imagine “advanced medicine” as just more testing, more devices, more supplements. Those can be powerful tools, but they’re not the point.

In my work, we might use:

• Advanced labs: insulin resistance markers, lipid subfractions, inflammation, hormone balance, nutrient status.

• Genetic and epigenetic testing: when it will meaningfully change our strategy, not just out of curiosity.

• Body composition and metabolic testing: understanding resting metabolic rate, VO₂ max, muscle mass, and more.

• Coaching and Inner Compass work: identifying thought patterns, stories, and beliefs that shape your decisions.

• Movement and recovery plans: strength training, conditioning, sleep optimization, stress physiology, and recovery modalities.

But underneath all of that, we’re asking bigger questions:

• What kind of life are we building?

• What do you want your body to be able to do?

• How do we align your environment, your schedule, your relationships, and your habits with that vision?

Data is only useful if it changes the way you live. Our job together is to turn numbers and insights into new choices, not just a thicker chart.

Arriving, and also never arriving

There’s a popular idea that “you never really arrive” in health. There’s truth in that; our bodies, seasons of life, and priorities are constantly shifting.

But I also believe in real arrival.

You can arrive at:

• A different baseline of energy and clarity.

• A new relationship with food, movement, and your own body.

• A nervous system that spends less time in crisis mode.

• A life that feels more aligned with who you are becoming.

That doesn’t mean the journey ends. It means the version of you who started this work is not the same as the one standing on that once-distant shore.

And here’s the most important part: your life is not on hold while we work toward that island.

We practice noticing and celebrating the “nows” along the way — the first time you wake up without brain fog, the moment your blood pressure quietly normalizes, the evening you choose a walk or a conversation instead of numbing out, the day you realize you trust yourself a little more than you did six months ago.

We stay present and we build a future, so you can actually enjoy the years you are fighting for.

If this sounds like the work you’re ready for

If what you want is a quick tune-up or a refill, I will lovingly point you back toward primary care.

If what you want is a longer, deeper, and more intentional journey,  one where you are invited to be fully present and fully responsible, with a physician-navigator walking beside you,  then you are exactly who I’m building this for.

When we work together, I’m not just asking, “How do we manage your risk?”

I’m asking, “What would a vital life look like for you, and how do we reverse-engineer your health to support that?”

If that resonates, the next step is simple: reach out, ask your questions, and we’ll see whether this kind of journey is the right fit for you, in this season of your life.

Your North is not a fantasy version of you living in some far-off future.

It’s the path you choose today and the person you become as you walk it.