Higher Plane Health Coaching

As a teenage gymnast, my weight was constantly being monitored by well-intentioned coaches and I started to develop a very unhealthy relationship with food; periods of eating very little, followed by uncontrolled binge eating. It took nearly a decade for me to completely heal my relationship with food. This long and arduous struggle is what inspired me to study clinical nutrition at Cornell University. As a dietician in a hospital setting 30+ years ago, I cared for many very sick patients who were often unwittingly sabotaging their health with their lifestyle choices. Now, thankfully, we know the monumental impact of nutrition on the prevention and reversal of chronic disease, but at the time, medical nutrition therapy was not considered an evidenced based science. lt was terribly frustrating to witness the patient disconnect with regard to their own lifestyle choices and their health. Consequently, I left the field and returned to school to study pharmacy. During my 20 years of hospital pharmacy practice, I have observed an incredible rise in the rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and I was again feeling frustrated and dissatisfied. I really wanted and needed to put health into my practice as a healthcare professional! My final wake-up call came a couple of years ago, when two of my colleagues (very close to my age) tragically died of cancer. They were only 58 and 62. It really forced me to look at my life and ask the questions-- What really matters to me and what do I want my life to stand for? During this same period, I completed a pharmacy continuing education module in health coaching, and I knew I had found the path to fulfill my potential as a true health advocate. I then applied to one of the best programs in the country, and completed my certification in Integrative Health Coaching at Duke Integrative Medicine.