Transform Your Health Journey with Integrative Wellness
Cara Hoover of East River Wellness is a Board-Certified Nurse Practitioner, Health Coach, & Nutrition Expert Helping Women Reclaim Their Health Through A Holistic & Functional Medicine Approach. Learn About Cara’s Programs
Meet Cara: Your Partner in Integrative Health & Wellness
With nearly two decades of healthcare experience and a deeply personal wellness journey, Cara brings professional expertise and genuine understanding to her role as an Integrative Health Practitioner.
“East River Wellness is an Integrative Health & Nutrition Practice born out of a need to save myself, that transformed into a passion to help others do the same. Together through investigative medicine, expert advice, coaching, and education, you can move toward a life of wellness.”
A Personal Path to Healing
Cara’s wellness journey began during her undergraduate years at UVA, when she faced multiple challenging diagnoses, including melanoma in situ, fibromyalgia, POTS, chronic fatigue syndrome, and depression. When conventional medicine offered limited solutions, she discovered the transformative power of nutrition and natural healing approaches – insights that would later become foundational to her practice.
A Vision for True Healthcare
Through her years in traditional healthcare settings, Cara observed firsthand how limited appointment times and rigid protocols often fell short of providing genuine healing. This realization inspired her to create East River Wellness – an integrative health practice that combines evidence-based medicine with holistic nutrition and lifestyle approaches executed through a functional medicine lens.
Bridging Traditional & Functional Medicine - The Integrative Approach
After experiencing the healing potential of nutrition & natural healing firsthand, Cara graduated at the top of her class from Bon Secours Memorial School of Nursing. She went on to obtain her Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her extensive clinical background includes:
- Critical care and neuroscience nursing at St. Mary’s Hospital
- Primary care practice experience as a Nurse Practitioner
- Post-Masters certification in integrative health and nutrition from Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH)
- Board Certification in Holistic Nutrition®
- Health Coaching certification from the Institute for Transformational Nutrition (ITN)
Values
Patient-Centered
Realistically Balanced
Evidence-Informed
Intuition-Led
Holistic in Nature
Integrity
Compassion
Patient-Centered
Realistically Balanced
Evidence-Informed
Intuition-Led
Holistic in Nature
Integrity
Compassion
YOUR Journey to Wellness Starts HERE
At East River Wellness, Cara offers something uniquely powerful: the clinical expertise of a Nurse Practitioner combined with a deep understanding of integrative health and nutrition. She partners with clients to:
- Uncover root causes of health challenges
- Develop personalized nutrition and lifestyle strategies
- Create sustainable paths to lasting wellness
- Navigate health decisions with confidence
Experience the difference of working with a practitioner who understands both traditional and functional approaches to health.
1-on-1 Integrative Health Packages
Personalized Wellness Transformation
Transform your life with dedicated one-on-one wellness guidance. Cara’s personalized packages help you unlock your full potential, identify hidden health challenges, and develop sustainable habits that align with your body’s unique needs. Experience renewed vitality and rediscover the joy of optimal health!
Your Path to Wellness Starts Here: Transform, Thrive, and Flourish
Cara specializes in guiding women through life-changing wellness transformations using evidence-based strategies and personalized support. Utilizing a systems-based approach & identifying core imbalances, she can identify root-causes of symptoms in order to repair and restore your body to a state of optimal health. By partnering together you’ll receive the structure, accountability, and expertise needed to navigate your healing journey successfully.
Optimize Your Diet:
- Learn basic nutrition principles to nourish the body & finally feel full
- Learn what foods work with your body, and which ones work against it
- Restore your relationship with food & learn to trust yourself again
- Feel confident in making balanced, realistic choices that still get you to your goals
Optimize Your Lifestyle:
- Identify & implement stress management techniques that you actually want to do
- Prioritize movement of the body in a way that fits with your schedule
- Learn what it takes to get a good night’s sleep
- Feed into relationships, connections, and activities that propel your wellness, and learn to say no to what keeps you from your goals.
Optimize Your Mind:
- Foster self-awareness of emotional triggers and habitual coping mechanisms
- Release old patterns that no longer serve you
- Cultivate self-compassion & self-forgiveness
- Build confidence in your own intuition
Your time with Cara means having a healthcare provider who will actually hear your story, concerns, and goals + individualized action plans, support, and expert guidance to help you overcome obstacles and build on your successes. Together, you’ll focus on practical, and often subtle changes that build over time to weave into a sustainable lifestyle of wellness.
Single-Day Nutrition Overhaul
*Must live within 25 miles of New Kent, VA, or pay an additional travel fee for each 5 miles beyond that.
Feel like your health isn’t out of control, yet, and you want to keep it that way? Know you and your family need to eat better, but just don’t know where to start? Spend the day with me, making over your pantry & fridge, identifying healthy and realistic food swaps, and mapping out a sustainable plan for improving your diet.
Includes
- An individualized dietary approach to you & your family’s health concerns
- Nutrition education around label reading, nutritional marketing, & food processing
- Understanding macro & micronutrient requirements
- Budget conscious shared decision-making
Making a Difference Together
At East River Wellness, we believe in creating ripples of positive change beyond our practice. That’s why we dedicate 5% of all proceeds to organizations making a meaningful impact in healthcare and women’s support:
Let Them Live
Let Them Live provides compassionate support and resources to women facing pregnancy challenges, empowering them to choose life and thrive.
Purpose Medical Outreach
Purpose Medical Outreach serves our New Kent community by providing essential healthcare services to those in need. As a weekly volunteer at this free clinic, Cara is committed to making quality healthcare accessible to all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is functional medicine and integrative health?
To answer this, we must first answer, what is conventional medicine? Also referred to as allopathic medicine, conventional medicine is an approach to healthcare in which medical doctors and other healthcare professionals treat symptoms and disease through drugs, radiation, or surgery*. It often views and treats the systems of the body as separate entities, rather than parts of a whole. Conventional medicine is typically reactive, rather than proactive, which is quite beneficial when facing an acute health crisis such as trauma from a car accident, but woefully inadequate in combating so many of the chronic diseases individuals face today.
On the other hand, functional medicine sees and treats the body and person as a whole, addressing the unique physical, mental, and emotional needs of each patient. It provides a framework to systematically identify and address underlying processes that are causing symptoms and disease. Functional medicine providers work to understand each individual’s genetic, environmental, and lifestyle influences on health & wellbeing – tailoring treatment plans that provide transformational results*.
Integrative health blends, where appropriate, conventional and functional approaches in a coordinated way, often emphasizing multimodal interventions that, again, focus on treating the whole person, rather than one organ system*.
Do you accept insurance?
East River Wellness does not accept insurance. Partnering with insurance carriers for payment of services, unfortunately, means limiting the services I can offer, and the time I can spend with patients – two things I am not willing to compromise on.
Some pieces of what we do may be covered by insurance – such as bloodwork or certain prescriptions – but I would always advise checking with your carrier first. I can also provide a superbill to submit for retroactive reimbursement.
What conditions do you typically treat?
I specialize in treating metabolic dysfunction (obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, etc.), and autoimmune disease and related conditions (i.e. fibromyalgia). However, I have a breadth of experience with many conditions and would love to book a discovery call to see if working together is a good fit.
How do the virtual consultations work?
Upon partnering with me to move towards wellness, together we will work in an electronic health records system called Practice Better. Practice Better has an integrated telehealth platform where we will be able to conduct our visits together in a secure manner from either your computer or phone. In-between-visit communication will also be directed through the Practice Better patient portal.
*At my discretion, and in agreement with the patient, I may also conduct at-home visits/consultations.
Are you a primary care provider?
As defined by the American Academy of Family Physicians, “Primary care is the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by physicians and their health care teams who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community”*.
I am Board Certified in primary care and my practice will meet many of the criteria listed above. However, my approach to healthcare is not typical of what most think when they hear “primary care.” Primary care is often sick care – monitoring and treating symptoms with a Band-Aid approach. I provide well care, addressing the root cause of disease through nutritional and lifestyle intervention & education, that moves you away from illness toward a sustainable life of wellness.
Do you see children?
I can see and treat individuals aged 13+
However, with my Single-Day Nutrition Overhaul (link to the description), I can address whole family nutrition concerns.
Do I have to live in Virginia to see you?
Yes, you must be a Virginia resident to partner with me for your wellness.
What is the investment to work with you?
An investment in your health that separates you from requiring pharmaceutical and other allopathic interventions is priceless. In 2023, US healthcare spending grew 7.5% to reach an average of $14,570 per person* while chronic disease rates continued to soar.
Cara offers several tiers of 1-on-1 packages to suit the complexity and budgets of each individual. Through the exchange of information in a discovery call, Cara will guide you to finding a package that works best for you and your individual needs.
Speaking Engagements
Looking for an engaging speaker who combines healthcare expertise with real-world experience? Cara brings valuable insights on integrative health, nutrition, and wellness to conferences, workshops, and community events. Her unique perspective as both a medical professional and holistic practitioner resonates with audiences seeking deeper understanding of health transformation.
Contact Cara to discuss speaking opportunities:
Credentials & Accreditations
