Kate McCandless

Kate McCandless 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. With more than 24 years in the healthcare industry, she brings together naturopathic and nutritional medicine, functional medicine, gut and immune support, and nervous system regulation to treat autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue, digestive disorders, mould illness (CIRS), Lyme-like illness and stealth infections, skin conditions, and complex chronic illness.

Kate is a qualified naturopath and clinical nutritionist, holding a Bachelor of Health Science in Naturopathy and a Bachelor of Health Science in Nutritional Medicine. She is also a Clinician-Researcher, Certified Mould Assessor, CIRS literate, Certified Enneagram Coach, Certified Buteyko Breathing, Klinghardt A.R.T. G.A.P.S., ACNEM, SIBO, MINDD practitioner.

Kate’s path into this work began with her own health — and it began early. She was unwell from the age of two, living with chronic fatigue, pain, and a series of “unknown” illnesses that went unexplained for more than two decades. There was no “before” to return to; illness was simply the backdrop of her childhood and early adult life, and answers were a long time coming.

At 24, after years of searching, Kate was finally diagnosed with multiple autoimmune conditions, including coeliac disease, endometriosis, and psoriatic arthritis. The diagnoses were confronting, but they were also the beginning of a way forward.

But Kate was never willing to settle for a lifetime of simply managing pain, bloating, and fatigue. Her own recovery led her to train across multiple disciplines — naturopathy, nutritional medicine, functional medicine, gut healing, breathing, and mindset — as she pieced together how diet, the gut, the immune system, and chronic infection interact to keep the body locked in illness. Rebuilding her gut and calming her immune system proved central to reclaiming her health.

Having lived the difference that the right answers can make, Kate built a career — and ultimately a clinic — dedicated to helping others find them. That experience became the foundation of everything she now practises at Merge Health.

Over years in practice, a clear theme emerged across Kate’s caseload: people who had tried everything — endless diets, elimination plans, and round after round of supplements — yet whose symptoms kept returning because the underlying state of their gut had never been fully resolved. This led her to develop The Gut Rebalance, a structured gut-treatment protocol designed to rebalance the microbiome, eliminate infections, and regulate inflammation. It is built for people living with gut issues, food intolerances and reactivity, gut pain, bloating, and IBS — helping them move from constant reactivity to a calm, resilient digestive system.

Beyond her clinical practice, Kate is a recognised voice in the integrative health and Enneagram communities. In 2025 she served on the founding Board of Directors that established the first Enneagram Association across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (IEA), which launched in 2026 with more than 20 speaking experts in Enneagram, somatic process, and trauma-informed practice. She is a certified Enneagram Coach with the Enneagram Academy, and brings this work into her clinical practice as a tool for mindset and nervous-system awareness.

Alongside general naturopathic and nutritional care, Kate offers an integrative medicine service that helps patients reduce the side effects of conventional medicines and, working alongside their GP or specialist, safely withdraw from medications that are no longer required.

Kate consults from the Merge Health clinic in Melbourne and works with clients online across Australia and internationally. She works with people recovering from autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue, digestive and gut disorders, mould illness and CIRS, Lyme-like illness and stealth infections, and skin conditions, as well as fertility and women’s health. She is committed to helping people discover a simple way of eating — supported by herbs and nutrients where needed — that nourishes healing and restores the energy and passion for life they’ve been missing.

Her approach is built on the understanding that lasting recovery requires more than a protocol: it requires addressing diet, the gut, the immune system, and the nervous system together, so the body finally has what it needs to heal.

Memberships: ANTA | GAPS | ACNEM | ACIIDS | IEA