Steph Gadsden

Founding Director, Naturopath, Nervous System & Mindset Mastery, Functional Medicine, Breathing Coach & Klinghardt A.R.T. Practitioner

Steph Gadsden is the Co-Founding Director of Merge Health, a naturopathic and integrative health clinic based in Melbourne, Australia, working with clients across Australia and internationally. She brings together nervous system regulation, mindset mastery, naturopathic and functional medicine to treat chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), post-viral fatigue, long COVID, chronic infections, Lyme-like illness, autoimmune conditions, mould illness, MCAS, burnout, and anxiety.

Steph is a qualified naturopath (BHSc Naturopathy), with a Graduate Diploma in Psychology and a Graduate Certificate in Mental Health Science. She is also a certified Functional Medicine, Buteyko Breathing, Klinghardt Autonomic Response Testing (A.R.T.), GAPS, MINDD, SIBO, and MiCBT practitioner.

Steph’s path into this work began with her own health. Before getting sick she was an avid tennis player and high achiever — someone who pushed hard, performed at a high level, and never slowed down. Then her body pulled the emergency brake. She was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Postural Orthostatic Intolerance (POTS)— conditions only 5% of people fully recover from — and was told to learn to manage it. The sport she loved, the energy she’d built her life around, the ability to simply show up and function — all of it was taken.

Steph refused to accept that management was the only option. Her journey to recovery led her to train across multiple disciplines. It wasn’t one that held the answer. It was understanding how the nervous system, the immune system, and mindset patterns interact to keep the body locked in survival mode — and how to shift all three together. Part of her own recovery involved identifying and treating chronic infections that had been lingering beneath the surface while her immune system was too dysregulated to deal with them.

Steph recovered fully. She now plays tennis again at full capacity — something she was told she might never do. More importantly, she became a mum, built a clinic, and got back the life that chronic fatigue tried to take from her.

That experience became the foundation of everything she now practises at Merge Health.

Through her clinical work, Steph identified a pattern she saw repeatedly: patients doing all the right things — supplements, diets, protocols — but stalling because nobody had addressed the nervous system state they were in while doing them. This led her to develop the NeuroWell program, which combines nervous system regulation, functional medicine, and mindset mastery into one integrated framework for chronic illness recovery and peak performance.

Steph is recognised as a leader in integrative approaches to mental health and fatigue disorders in Australia. She served as elected Secretary on the Board of Directors for the International Network of Integrative Mental Health (INIMH). She has published peer-reviewed research on naturopathic medicine for mood and anxiety in the journal Advances in Integrative Medicine. She is the author of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome chapter in the 2nd and 3rd Edition of Clinical Naturopathy — one of Australia’s most widely used naturopathic textbooks.

Steph consults from the Merge Health clinic in Melbourne and works with clients online across Australia and internationally via the NeuroWell program. She works with people recovering from ME/CFS, chronic fatigue, post-viral fatigue, long COVID, fibromyalgia, chronic infections, Lyme-like illness, autoimmune conditions, mould illness, MCAS, anxiety, and burnout. She also works with high performers who want to sustain their energy and output without their body paying the price.

Her approach is built on the understanding that you cannot heal a body that is stuck in survival mode — and you cannot sustain performance from a system that is running on empty. Recovery and performance both require nervous system regulation, immune support, and mindset mastery working together.

Memberships: NHAA | INIMH | ACNEM | ATMS