meet your practitioners
Dr. Melissa Levy Ellis DACM, AP, CFMP
Founder of Gut Geeks & Integrative Wellness Center of Jacksonville
Dr. Melissa Levy Ellis was born and raised in Philadelphia before moving to Florida to pursue her education at the University of Tampa, where she played collegiate basketball her freshman year. She became a NASM-certified personal trainer and worked as a group fitness instructor, boxing coach, cycling instructor, yoga instructor, and martial arts instructor — immersing herself in the world of movement and wellness.
But her passion for health quickly became personal.
In her early twenties, Dr. Ellis began experiencing significant health challenges, including hormonal imbalances, migraine headaches, neurological symptoms such as Bell’s palsy, and persistent unexplained issues. She was shuffled from doctor to doctor and placed on various medications, yet never received clear answers about why her symptoms were happening.
Everything changed when she discovered acupuncture and integrative medicine.
For the first time, she was introduced to a medical philosophy focused on uncovering root causes rather than masking symptoms. This experience transformed her life and ultimately defined her career path.
Dr. Ellis went on to earn her Master’s degree in Oriental Medicine from the Florida College of Integrative Medicine and later completed her Doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine at the Pacific College of Health and Science. She further expanded her clinical expertise by completing functional medicine practitioner training through Functional Medicine University.
A Root-Cause Approach to Healing
In 2019, Dr. Ellis founded the Integrative Wellness Center of Jacksonville, an integrative health clinic combining acupuncture, functional medicine, and holistic therapies. Over the years, she has worked with hundreds — and now thousands — of patients struggling with chronic symptoms, hormone imbalances, neurological concerns, fertility challenges, autoimmune issues, and complex “mystery” conditions.
One pattern became clear:
The gut is almost always involved.
From hormone disruption to immune dysfunction, neurological symptoms to chronic inflammation — gut health consistently plays a central role.
Why Gut Geeks Was Born
After years of seeing the same root imbalances surface again and again, Dr. Ellis founded Gut Geeks as a specialized branch of her clinic — dedicated specifically to functional gut health.
Gut Geeks was created to:
-
Focus deeply on advanced gut testing (including microbiome and food sensitivity analysis)
-
Identify immune activation and inflammatory triggers
-
Address hormonal and metabolic imbalances rooted in the gut
-
Provide structured, personalized protocols using food, lifestyle, and targeted supplementation
-
Offer telehealth services to work with patients beyond Jacksonville
Gut Geeks allows Dr. Ellis to zoom in on what she believes is the foundation of health — while still viewing the body as an interconnected system.
Advanced Training & Certifications
Dr. Ellis’s background uniquely blends Eastern medicine, modern functional testing, and performance-based health training. Her additional certifications and advanced training include:
-
Functional Medicine Practitioner
-
Certified Fertility Coach
-
Certified Health Coach
-
Advanced Training in Hormones & Reproductive Health
-
Advanced Training in Gut Health & Functional Medicine
-
Pain Reprocessing Therapy
-
Former NASM Certified Personal Trainer
Her approach integrates clinical testing with whole-body systems thinking — understanding that hormones, immune health, brain function, metabolism, and gut health are inseparable.
Dr. Ellis’s Philosophy
Dr. Ellis believes that symptoms are signals not random events.
Rather than chasing diagnoses or suppressing symptoms, she focuses on:
-
Identifying root causes
-
Restoring gut integrity
-
Regulating immune activation
-
Supporting detoxification pathways
-
Optimizing metabolic and hormonal balance
Through Gut Geeks, her mission is to help patients stop guessing, stop bouncing from provider to provider, and finally understand what is happening inside their body.
Because when you fix the gut, you often change everything.
Dr. Douglas Suffield
Dr. Douglas Suffield, DACM, AP, CFMP
Dr. Douglas Suffield is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Florida-licensed Acupuncture Physician, and Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner with a clinical focus on complex and chronic conditions involving pain, stress, sleep disruption, and nervous system dysregulation.
He frequently works with patients who are not improving as expected, including those with chronic pain, head trauma or neurocognitive concerns, chronic fatigue, post-injury or post-illness recovery challenges, burnout, and overlapping multi-system symptoms. Many of the patients he sees have tried multiple approaches and still feel “stuck,” often unsure why their symptoms persist.
Dr. Suffield’s background spans both integrative and academic medical environments. He previously served as the sole Acupuncture Physician within the UF Health Brain Wellness Program, where he worked closely with neurology, neuropsychology, physical therapy, and case management teams to help develop a multimodal clinic model supporting Veteran and First Responder patients with TBI, PTSD, and chronic pain.
He also played a key role in developing one of the first non-opioid pain education and recovery programs in the emergency department setting within the University of Florida Jacksonville College of Medicine. His work in building and leading interdisciplinary initiatives has resulted in multiple presentations at national and regional medical conferences.
Dr. Suffield’s clinical approach is systems-based and evidence-informed, with a focus on calming and stabilizing the nervous system, reducing symptom amplification, and addressing underlying contributors such as central sensitization, neuroplasticity patterns, mitochondrial dysfunction, gut dysbiosis, and inflammatory or endotoxemia-driven processes. He integrates traditional Chinese medicine principles with functional medicine and modern pain neuroscience to create personalized, practical, and sustainable care plans.
At Integrative Wellness Center of Jacksonville, Dr. Suffield works collaboratively within a multidisciplinary setting and is especially well-suited for patients with complex or persistent symptoms, stress-related conditions, and chronic pain that has not responded to conventional care alone. He is known for his thoughtful, thorough approach and for helping patients better understand their condition while building clear, structured paths toward recovery and long-term resilience.
