If you're reading this page, chances are you already know something is wrong — and possibly have known for a long time. Maybe you found the tick. Maybe you never did. Maybe you were treated and told you were fine, but you're not fine. You're exhausted. Your joints ache. Your thinking is foggy. You don't feel like yourself, and no one seems to be able to tell you why.

I hear you. And I want you to know — you're not imagining it.

I'm Dr. Tavernier, and I founded Tantien Integrative Medicine in Branford, Connecticut, in part because of patients like you. People who have been through the conventional system, received incomplete testing, been told their labs are normal, and been sent home without answers. Lyme disease is one of the most misunderstood and under treated conditions in medicine, and living on the Connecticut Shoreline puts you in one of the highest-risk areas in the country.

What I Treat

I provide integrative care for the full spectrum of tick-borne illness. This includes acute Lyme disease, chronic Lyme disease, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, and co-infections such as Babesia, Bartonella, Anaplasma, and Ehrlichia. I also treat the downstream effects that Lyme leaves behind — the fatigue, the inflammation, the immune dysfunction, the neurological symptoms that persist long after the initial infection.

Why Lyme Is So Often Missed

Lyme disease is called "The Great Imitator" because it mimics so many other conditions — fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety disorders, rheumatoid arthritis. The standard two-tier testing that most doctors rely on has well-documented limitations and misses a significant number of cases. Patients are told they don't have Lyme when they do, and their symptoms are attributed to stress, aging, or depression.

What makes it even more complicated is that ticks rarely carry just one organism. A single bite can transmit Lyme along with Babesia, Bartonella, or Anaplasma — each of which requires different treatment strategies. Babesia is a parasitic infection that won't respond to Lyme antibiotics. Bartonella can drive neuropsychiatric symptoms that look exactly like anxiety or depression. If no one is looking for these co-infections, no one is treating them.

How I Approach Lyme Disease

Your first appointment with me is 90 minutes. I need that time because Lyme is not a simple infection with a simple fix — it is a complex, multi-system illness that requires a thorough investigation. I want to hear your whole story. When did your symptoms start? What were you doing at the time? What have you tried? What helped, even partially? What made things worse? Every piece of that history is clinically relevant.

From there, I may recommend advanced laboratory testing beyond standard Lyme panels, evaluation for co-infections and other contributing factors such as mold exposure or heavy metal burden, genomic testing through 3x4 Genetics to understand how your body processes inflammation and detoxification at the genetic level, personalized nutrition and anti-inflammatory dietary guidance, targeted supplementation based on your individual biology, conventional diagnostics and referrals when needed, and mind-body medicine to support your nervous system during recovery.

I don't chase symptoms with quick fixes. I work to understand what is driving your illness and build a treatment plan around your unique biology — not a generic Lyme protocol.

Herbal Medicine and the Buhner Protocols

One of the most significant contributions to the integrative treatment of Lyme disease came from the late Stephen Harrod Buhner, an herbalist and researcher who spent decades studying how Borrelia bacteria and tick-borne co-infections behave in the human body. His book Healing Lyme: Natural Prevention and Treatment of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Co-infections remains one of the most comprehensive analyses of what these organisms actually do once inside the body — how they evade the immune system, how they damage collagen structures, how they generate systemic inflammation — and how targeted botanical medicines can address each of those mechanisms.

What made Buhner's work unique was his approach. Rather than simply looking for herbs that kill bacteria, he developed protocols that work on multiple levels simultaneously: reducing the ability of the organisms to cause harm, strengthening the immune system's capacity to fight the infection, protecting and repairing the tissues that Lyme damages, and calming the inflammatory cascade that drives so many of the symptoms patients experience. His core protocols use botanicals such as Japanese knotweed, cat's claw, andrographis, and astragalus — each selected for specific, well-researched actions against Borrelia and its co-infections including Babesia, Bartonella, and Mycoplasma.

I am informed by Buhner's research, and when it is clinically appropriate for a patient's situation, I incorporate his herbal protocols into the broader treatment plan. This is not an either-or decision between conventional and botanical medicine. For some patients, herbal protocols are the right primary approach. For others, they serve as a complement to conventional treatment — supporting immune function, reducing inflammation, and addressing aspects of the infection that antibiotics alone may not fully resolve. The decision is always guided by your individual presentation, your history, your testing, and your response to treatment over time.

This is one of the advantages of working with a physician trained in both conventional and integrative medicine. I can evaluate when botanical approaches are appropriate, monitor for interactions with other treatments, adjust dosing based on your response, and integrate herbal protocols safely within a comprehensive medical framework — rather than asking you to navigate them on your own.

Why Physician-Led Integrative Care Matters Here

I am a medical doctor with 34 years of clinical experience. I completed the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona — one of the most rigorous integrative medicine training programs in the world. I sat for the American Board of Integrative Medicine (ABOIM) exam in May 2026, which is the gold standard credential in this field.

What this means for you is that your Lyme care is guided by someone who can order and interpret advanced diagnostics, prescribe when necessary, coordinate with your infectious disease doctor or rheumatologist, and integrate evidence-based complementary therapies into one cohesive plan. I don't replace your conventional care. I complete it.

Where We Are

Tantien Integrative Medicine is located in Branford, Connecticut. I serve patients from across the Shoreline and Greater New Haven area — Guilford, Madison, Clinton, East Haven, North Haven, Hamden, New Haven, and beyond. Telehealth visits are available for follow-up appointments when clinically appropriate.

We are a cash-pay practice. I chose this model deliberately because it allows me to spend the time your care requires without insurance companies dictating how long I can see you, what tests I can order, or what treatments I can offer.

If you've been struggling with Lyme disease, or if you suspect a tick-borne illness but can't get a clear diagnosis, I would welcome the chance to help.