Q & A

What is a Health/Wellness Coach?

A health and Wellness Coach is a supportive mentor and wellness professional who works with families and individuals who want to make positive changes in their lifestyle and optimize their overall health and well being.  You may be one of many who are tired of taking medications and dealing with side effects.  You also may be tired of seeing specialists who don’t offer a clearer understanding for what you’re feeling and experiencing.  If you believe your body can be healed through by means of eating nutritious, clean foods and by adopting positive lifestyle habits, we can help you!

We take a whole-body, holistic approach to wellness.  This means we go way beyond just the introduction of nutritious food or exercise.  The human body is a very complex machine that knows how to run smoothly when it’s in optimal condition.  But environmental toxins and poor eating and lifestyle habits can cause the body to run down, feel and look older, produce inflammation, stress and fatigue.  By replacing bad habits with good ones, you allow the body to begin to heal from within.  Your body and brain knows what it needs!

You will learn how to identify the challenges that prevents you from feeling and looking your best as we support and motivate you to improve your quality of life…one step at a time.  We will introduce strategies so you will feel more empowered, motivated and energized to think more clearly as you learn to set positive and attainable lifestyle goals.  Wellness coaches are taught a unique set of skills that are not taught in your typical life coach training programs.  And IIN graduates go even further…

As a Health Coach, how can you help me?

We offer ongoing support and guidance that doctors are often unable to provide.  We also offer group and individual 1-on-1 coaching programs that are designed to help target the health challenges you and your family are experiencing.  Together we form a partnership and peel back all the layers that have been preventing you from obtaining optimized health using my 5 “As” approach.  Instead of prescribing a specific diet and/or one way of exercising, I tailor my wellness programs to meet your unique and individual needs.  After all, you are unique and require strategies that are geared just for the specific challenges you are working through.  The outcome is a transformation from old habits that cause sickness to a new appreciation for your body, mind and spirit.

What makes a Health Coach unique?

A Health Coach seeks to develop a relationship with their clients and creates a safe place for clients to share information about their career, physical activity, relationships, satisfaction with work, peers, sleep, diet and their personal feelings and values.  We take a holistic approach to supporting the whole person, so these areas usually surface and need to be discussed.  We are taught to transform lives by helping you discover the connection between your brain and body…and the earth.

How does a Health Coach differ from a Nutritionist or Dietician?

There are many types of wellness advocates with lots of experience in the area of health that make this title very vague.  Many RD’s use this title interchangeably as do some Health Coaches, Life Coaches and Fitness Coaches.  Even though I have many years of experience helping clients with their nutritional needs, I do not consider myself to be a Nutritionist.

A Registered Dietitian, on the other hand, is a person who has had more formal training in the biology and biochemistry of the human body.  An RD is overseen by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and must follow a certain set of guidelines with recommendations that they offer to patients.  As a result, there is little room for individualized support or focus on all the life challenges that can prevent healing (for instance, anxiety about their job, relationship problems, financial concerns, or sleep problems).  Because RD’s are more likely to work in medical settings, they are less able to provide ongoing support needed by individuals.

How can I benefit from health coaching?

Do you feel tired more often than not?  Are you taking more medications than you’d like?  Have you tried a number of unsuccessful diets?  Do you suffer from a lack of energy and vitality?  Do you want to learn how to use food as your medicine?  Do you have constant joint pain, diabetes, weight, digestive, or sleep problems and you just want to feel healthier and happier?  Then YOU will benefit from working with us because we specialize in helping you make the connection between what you eat, how you move and how you live.

We will show you how to use food as your medicine so you can enjoy life again.  You see, you already know what you need to do to improve your health, but there is a lot of conflicting information that makes starting difficult.  We support you along the way so you feel the difference.  And once you feel better, you stay motivated as you create healthy habits for you and your family.  We provide all the tools to make your transformation easy because we know you’re busy.

Just as you would maintain your vehicle to last a long time, you must maintain your health.  When life gets in the way, this is when you need support the most….and this is when we can be of the most help for you!

How do I get started?

It’s very simple!  We get together either in person, over the phone or with one of the popular video chat sites and converse.  We offer this initiaal visit free of charge.  Once we feel that we are a good fit, we will discuss which consulting package best suits your budget.  Once you’re on board, We will send you the Wellness Discovery Inventory for you to fill out as thoroughly as possible as we get you set up.  Then we’ll set up a schedule that works for both of us and you can begin your journey to a more vibrant and energetic self.

What is a Wellness Discovery Inventory?

This is a very thorough questionnaire that begins your journey to better health.  The only way to get to the root of any problem is to learn from where it came and when it began.  Your body probably gave you many subtle signs that something was wrong (indigestion, headaches, skin problems, etc.) long ago that you overlooked.  But when dismissed as “normal inconveniences” of age or circumstances, those problems can cause a cascade of other problems.  The result–symptoms that don’t neatly fit into the cause-treatment model of modern medicine.  These are the problems that baffle doctors today.  We use the WDI as your first step in learning more about you.

How are IIN graduates different from other Health Coaches?

The Institute for Integrative Nutrition offers extensive training that introduces their students to hundreds of dietary theories, taught by the world’s leaders in holistic health.  After more than a year and a half of training, students are equipped with the tools to help individuals change how they think about their health so they can begin to make positive lifestyle changes.  Students also focus on disease prevention, reducing stress and creating balance in all areas of life.  We work hard so you don’t have to.

What is the Holistic Wellness Academy?

The Holistic Wellness Academy is an online school for health coaches and other wellness advocates designed to offer more in-depth training in our five categories of well being along with our new business building category.   Learn how to create your own courses, invite your clients into them and get paid percentages based on the amount of courses you create and sell.  This is a great way to receive passive income while also working on business building.

Do you have more questions for us?  Let us know and we’ll do our best to answer them.