April 21-23, 2026

Led by Julie Matthews, MS

DAY 1: Why is this Happening?

Root Causes & The Body-Brain Connection

Most families spend years chasing symptoms — trying one thing, then another, never quite finding answers. Day 1 changes that. Today’s experts reveal what is actually driving your child’s behaviors, challenges, and health issues at a biological level. You will discover why the gut, inflammation, brain chemistry, and environmental toxins are not separate problems — they are interconnected patterns that, once understood, finally make your child’s symptoms make sense. By the end of today, you will have a framework, not just more information.

Descriptions + Learnings

Opening Keynote

The Missing Piece: Why Food Is the Most Powerful Tool You Have for Your Child’s Brain, Behavior, and Health – Julie Matthews, MS

Most approaches to autism, ADHD, and anxiety focus on therapies and behavior — while overlooking the one factor that influences every system in the body. Julie explains why the brain is downstream of the body, how nutrition impacts gut health, inflammation, and brain function, and why food is not a side conversation but a central one. This session sets the foundation for understanding your child’s symptoms through a biological lens.

Why Your Child’s Gut Is Driving Their Behavior, Mood, and Focus – Elisa Song, MD

If your child struggles with mood swings, anxiety, focus problems, or behavioral outbursts, the answers may be in their gut — not their brain. Dr. Elisa Song explains the gut-brain axis in clear, practical terms: how the microbiome signals the brain, why gut dysfunction creates neurological symptoms, and what it means for the way you approach your child’s nutrition and health.

Why Your Child Reacts to “Healthy” Foods — and What That’s Actually Telling You – Steven Wright

“One of the most frustrating and confusing experiences for autism families is doing everything right — eating whole, healthy foods — and still seeing reactions. Steven Wright explains the mechanisms behind leaky gut, histamine intolerance, and food tolerance issues that cause children to react to foods that should be nourishing them. This talk reframes reactions not as mysteries, but as meaningful biological clues..

Brain on Fire: How Neuroinflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Epigenetics Drive Behavior and Developmental Challenges – Brendan Vermeire

“Brain on fire” is not just a metaphor — microglial activation and neuroinflammation are measurable, addressable biological processes that are driving symptoms in a significant number of children with autism and related conditions. Brendan Vermeire unpacks the root causes of this inflammation — including leaky gut, mold, histamine, and infections — and explains how diet plays a central role in both creating and resolving it.

When Infections Trigger Behavioral Crises: Understanding PANDAS, PANS, and Immune-Driven Symptoms – Nancy O’Hara, MD, MPH, FAAP

Some children experience sudden, dramatic behavioral changes — rages, OCD onset, regression — that seem to come out of nowhere. In many cases, an immune response to infection is the trigger. Dr. Nancy O’Hara, a pediatrician with decades of experience in neurodevelopmental disorders, explains PANDAS, PANS, and POTS: what they are, how to recognize them, and how medical, immune, and nutritional strategies work together to support children through immune-driven behavioral crises

Closing Session

Making Sense of It All:
The 5 Root Patterns Behind Your Child’s Symptoms – Julie Matthews, MS

After a day of deep, science-rich information, Julie brings it all together. In this closing session, she maps everything you have heard onto five core biological patterns that underlie most symptoms in children with autism, ADHD, and anxiety. By the end, you will understand not just what each s

Descriptions + Learnings

Opening Session

Why Every Diet You’ve Tried Has Only Worked Partially — and What That Actually Means – Julie Matthews, MS

If you have tried gluten-free, dairy-free, or other therapeutic diets and seen some improvement but not the full results you hoped for, this session is for you. Julie explains why partial results are not a sign that diet doesn’t work — they are a sign that you haven’t yet found the full picture of what your child’s body needs. This session reframes your previous experience as valuable data and introduces the BioIndividual Nutrition approach that today’s speakers will expand on.

Your Child’s Genes Are Not Their Destiny: How Methylation Shapes Brain Chemistry, Mood, and Behavior – Bridget Briggs, MD

Methylation is one of the most important — and least understood — processes in the body. It regulates neurotransmitter production, gene expression, detoxification, and dozens of other systems that directly affect your child’s brain and behavior. Dr. Bridget Briggs makes this complex science accessible: what methylation is, how genetic variations affect it, and how understanding your child’s methylation status can guide a personalized approach to nutrition that actually works..

Why Your Child’s Brain May Be Running on Empty
— and How to Restore Cellular Energy – Kurt Woeller, DO

Every cell in the body — especially brain cells — requires energy to function. When mitochondria are not working properly, the brain cannot do its job: language, focus, emotional regulation, and learning all suffer. Dr. Kurt Woeller, a biomedical autism specialist with over two decades of clinical experience, explains what drives mitochondrial dysfunction, how to identify it through functional lab testing, and the nutritional strategies that support cellular energy production in children with autism and related conditions.

The Biochemistry of Behavior: How Zinc, Copper, Methylation, and Targeted Nutrients Transform Mental Health in Children – Albert Mensah, MD

Why do two children with identical diagnoses respond completely differently to the same treatment? Because their biochemistry is different. Dr. Albert Mensah, co-founder of Mensah Medical and a specialist in advanced nutrient therapy, explains the specific biochemical imbalances — copper overload, zinc deficiency, undermethylation, overmethylation, and pyrrole disorder — that drive anxiety, aggression, OCD, and mood dysregulation in children. This is some of the most clinically specific and immediately applicable content in the entire event.

Stop Guessing: The Lab Tests That Finally Reveal What Your Child’s Body Actually Needs – Reed Davis, FDN

Trial and error is exhausting — for parents and practitioners alike. Reed Davis explains how targeted functional lab testing eliminates the guesswork and reveals the specific metabolic factors driving your child’s symptoms, including gut dysbiosis, oxidative stress, hormone imbalances, food sensitivities, and leaky gut. He walks through the five labs he teaches practitioners to use to get results, and how this data guides a genuinely personalized nutrition plan.

Closing Session

Reading the Clues: How to Know Exactly Where to Start for Your Child – Julie Matthews, MS

This is the closing session where everything clicks. Julie walks through how to take what you have learned today — about methylation, mitochondria, biochemistry, and lab testing — and translate it into a starting point for your own child. She shares the symptom clues, behavioral patterns, and biological signals that tell you which direction to move first. This session is the bridge between understanding and action — and for those who want a step-by-step plan to follow, it is also your introduction to the VIP implementation guide.

Descriptions + Learnings

Opening Session

Your First 30 Days: A Simple, Step-by-Step Plan to Start Seeing Real Changes – Julie Matthews, MS

The hardest part of a personalized nutrition approach is not knowing what to do — it is knowing where to start. In this opening session, Julie cuts through the overwhelm with a clear, week-by-week framework for the first 30 days. No perfection required. No doing everything at once. Just a grounded, practical starting point that creates momentum and gives you a way to measure what is working.te.

Calm in 5 Minutes? How Targeted Amino Acids Can Rapidly Reduce Anxiety, OCD, and Aggression in Children – Trudy Scott, CN

What if you could see a meaningful change in your child’s anxiety, obsessive behaviors, or aggression within five minutes of a trial dose? While not every child responds this quickly, targeted amino acids can sometimes produce rapid changes within minutes when matched correctly to the underlying biochemistry. Trudy explains the specific amino acid profiles for low serotonin, low GABA, and other deficiencies, how to do a safe trial with children, and the foods that either support or undermine these pathways.

What’s Living in Your Child’s Gut Is Affecting Their Brain: Rebuilding the Microbiome for Better Behavior and Health – Kiran Krishnan

“The gut microbiome is not just about digestion. The bacteria, pathogens, and imbalances living in your child’s gut are actively signaling the brain, driving inflammation, affecting food tolerance, and shaping behavior. Kiran Krishnan explains how dysbiosis contributes to leaky gut, neurological symptoms, and the inability to tolerate foods that should be healthy — and how targeted use of prebiotics, probiotics, and therapeutic diet strategies can begin to restore balance..

How the GAPS Diet Heals the Gut-Brain Connection — and Which Children It Helps Most – Silvija Abele, PhD

The GAPS diet is one of the most powerful therapeutic approaches for children whose gut dysfunction is driving neurological and behavioral symptoms — but it is not right for every child. Dr. Silvija Abele, who has researched GAPS specifically in children with autism and ADHD, explains what the diet does biologically, which symptom patterns and clinical presentations suggest it is a good fit, and how to implement it in a way that is sustainable for real families.

Treating the Whole Child: Integrative Nutrition Strategies That Calm Anxiety and Improve ADHD in Real Life – Mary Wilde, MD

From an integrative medicine perspective, anxiety and ADHD are not just neurological events — they are whole-body conditions that respond to whole-body approaches. Dr. Mary Wilde shares the practical, real-life nutritional and integrative strategies she uses with her patients: what to prioritize, how to layer interventions, and how to make meaningful changes that hold up outside of a clinical setting — in real homes, with real children, in real life.

Closing Session

You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone: Your Clear Path Forward – Julie Matthews, MS

Three days of science, clinical insight, and practical guidance — and it is a lot to hold. In this final session, Julie brings it all home. She distills the most important takeaways from the entire event, gives you a clear sense of where to focus first, and offers a direct, honest message to every parent who is exhausted from trying to piece this together alone: there is a path forward, and you do not have to walk it without support. This session naturally introduces the next step for those who want structured, personalized guidance beyond the event.

Your child’s biology is not a mystery

It is a set of patterns that can be understood, addressed, and supported
— starting with what they eat. Join 15 leading experts and thousands of families and practitioners for three days that will change the way you approach your child’s health.

 It’s free. It’s online. And it starts soon.

Designed for Parents and Practitioners
Who Want More Than Generic Advice.