ABOUT HEALTH COACHING
Create Vitality Health Coaching is the culmination of my decades-long passion to understand how we can live the most healthy and vital lives possible throughout our senior years. Functional Medicine (FM) is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. FM seeks to discover the underlying causes of complex, chronic diseases, which unfortunately are rampant in our world today. Some of these diseases are cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, obesity, and many more. As a Functional Medicine Coach and a senior, I can relate to the issues we face as we age, but I also know we have control over so much of our health. I believe, and science confirms, that our bodies are miraculously self-regenerating organisms.
We are all what we repeatedly do, so my goal as a health coach is to help you create better habits using your unique character strengths and your vision of what a healthy life should be. I share healthy tools with you that enable you to structure your environment in a way that reduces the need for ‘will power’, which we sometimes think we need to develop in order to stop these less than healthy repetitive habits. As a coaching team, we’ll set goals and build upon your successes, all of which will move you towards experiencing greater vitality in all areas of your life!
- Many chronic diseases can be prevented, significantly improved, or even completely reversed simply by making positive diet and lifestyle changes.
- Everyone wants to live a long and happy life, free from chronic illness. The problem is that many of our health choices are based on deeply ingrained habits. It’s not a simple matter of just making a change.
- Adjusting the way we eat, how we exercise, or even the way we go to bed at night means running counter to habits that we’ve built over the course of years – or even a lifetime.
- What’s often called for is dropping strongly held habits and replacing them with brand new routines.
No matter what your age, you deserve to lead a life where you thrive rather than just survive.
Have you been to numerous doctors and still don’t feel well? Today’s medicine is based on treating your symptoms, not on finding and treating the underlying cause of your health challenges. Many people find working with a Functional Medicine practitioner helps them get to the bottom of perplexing problems that have eluded other clinicians for years. This was certainly my situation years ago.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO THRIVE THROUGH EVERY STAGE OF YOUR LIFE?
This is where the beauty of a FM Coach comes in. Together, we can find solutions to aid your body in reaching its own equilibrium and vitality. If you’re looking for guidance in your busy and stressful life, and just don’t have the time to explore all the areas related to health on your own, that’s where I come in. I’ve spent most of my adult life researching and educating myself on how to enhance vitality at every age.
GET TO KNOW ME
My Personal Journey
Fifteen years ago, I began to feel intense pain in my back and neck, and I spent five years visiting numerous medical practitioners to find an answer. I went to doctor after doctor; they did every test they could think of. They offered pharmaceuticals, but deep down I knew this would not get at what was really wrong with me.
After five years of searching for an answer, I went to a naturopath and she diagnosed me with Lyme disease. None of the allopathic doctors I saw were “Lyme literate”, so they could not even give me a diagnosis of Lyme disease. It is one of the most complicated diseases to understand and to fully recover from, and I feel blessed to have found good holistic care with a naturopath. This was all before I was aware of Functional Medicine.
But that was just the beginning of my years’ long, and at times, grueling journey to the much greater health and happiness that I enjoy today. It hasn’t been easy, and as I reflect back on it, I imagine how wonderful it would have been to have had a coach to guide me on that complicated journey to health.
Today, I know that my tenacity and resilience are some of the character strengths that got me through those rough times, when I questioned whether I’d ever get well again. We all have unique character strengths and inner wisdom, which we can draw on in times of great challenge. I’m sure you can remember times in your life when you’ve relied on your strengths and wisdom to solve problems. My goal is to help my clients to find their own inner wisdom and to Create Vitality in their lives no matter what their age!
Why work with me?
Having been through my own health crisis, I know how confusing it can be to go through the range of emotions from fear, anger, denial, and then hope and even joy, as you come to a point of realizing that you too can recover and experience a renewed and vibrant life. I would be honored to pass on my life’s experience to other’s who may be overwhelmed by the diagnosis of an illness, or who simply want to learn preventative lifestyle habits, and to thrive throughout their life.
In addition to being a certified FM Health Coach, I’ve had 2 years of nutrition training and spent 1000’s of hours researching the cutting-edge health science available today. As a result, I’ve come to think of myself as a 21st Century Health Coach, and I want to empower my clients address the underlying cause of their health issues, in order to prevent, significantly improve, or even completely reverse those illnesses.
CURRENT STUDIES
Currently, I’m enrolled in Dr. Dale Bredesen’s Recode 2.0 program, which he created for recovery from and prevention of Alzheimer’s. This is a very in-depth program for practitioners as well as anyone who’d like to prevent this complicated and serious 21st century disease in their own life. According to Dr. Bredesen, ‘Alzheimer’s should be – and shall be – a rare disease. Remember polio? Leprosy? Syphilis? These were all scourges at one time or another. And, Alzheimer’s shares features of all of them. If we fail to take the critical steps to prevent it, then many of us – about 45 million of the currently living Americans – will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, which unsettlingly, has become the third leading cause of death.’ You can find more information about the Recode 2.0 program at the website – www.apollohealthco.com.
MY COACH APPROACH
My coaching is client-centered, non-judgmental and personalized with the goal to empower my clients to achieve vitality in every area of their life!
I don’t diagnose or prescribe, but I work with a client’s desires and values to create a personalized treatment plan that brings vitality into every area of their life! I will also partner with a client’s medical provider, if they’d like that involvement.
We can start our coaching relationship by identifying the areas of your life that are keeping you from flourishing – keeping you from healing. Then, as we gain an understanding of how your unique body functions and the causes of your symptoms, we can create a personalized plan of action. Your doctor, whether FM or allopathic, can be involved in our care plan, if you desire this. I can assist you to eliminate lifestyle risks that are holding you back from thriving. Partner with me and I’ll listen to your needs to help you set goals and to blossom and thrive in every stage of your life.
KEY FACT – I’ve spent the last three years working closely with seniors doing in-home care for people living with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease, and recovery from falls, to name just a few areas. In so many cases, our seniors today are living the last one to two decades of their lives in a ‘survival’ mode. My goal is to equip my clients to make lifestyle changes that lead to thriving lives at any age!
FUN FACTS ABOUT ME
- I’ve done many back-packing trips over the decades, and on the first of many trips I carried almost 70 pounds on my back! Those were the days before ultra-light weight food and gear.
- Some of my travels have been to Myanmar, South America, Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, as well as across the US and parts of Canada.
- Some of my adventures include, 11 sky dives, hiking to Machu Pichu and spending a week in the Amazon rainforest!
- Dancing, music, gardening, art and reading are all things that give my life meaning and joy
- I went to ‘beauty school’.
- After leaving the corporate world, I worked in 3 non-profits, related to childcare and the homeless population.
- I then spent five years in an after-school program, helping third-graders become better readers. Many of these children were living in poverty.
- I don't own a TV, but I do invest my time in educating myself not only about health but also about the wide world we live in.
SUGGESTED READING
- Dr. Bredesen’s book, The End of Alzheimer’s was published in 2017 and his latest book, The End of Alzheimer’s, Program, (Recode 2.0) was published in August, 2020. I would recommend these books to anyone interested in maintaining, not only superior brain health, but overall health throughout their life.
- David Perlmutter, MD, Grain Brain
- Dr. Pompa, PScD, 5R Principles
- Dr. Osborn, DACBN, PScD, Gluten Free Warrior
- Steven Gundry, MD, The Plant Paradox
- An extensive list of functional medicine and integrative doctors, can be found at draxe.com/health/top-50-functional-integrative-medical-doctors
CONTACT ME
Let’s not wait for a diagnosis! We can prevent and reverse most every unhealthy 21st century disease scenario using lifestyle interventions that target behaviors which often lead to the deterioration of our health. This is the benefit of working with a FM Health Coach.
Allow me to guide you in discovering your strengths and your personal vision for health. These areas will enable you to create the healthiest lifestyle habits possible. The beauty of working with a Health Coach is having a guide who can enable you to discover the root causes of your symptoms, to find a deeper understanding of your inner strength and wisdom – and the knowledge in these areas will allow you to take control – and to Create Vitality in your life!
Let’s talk!
Your first 30 minute consultation is complimentary.