My work experience at several integrative medicine clinics has given me the opportunity to explore many different pathways to health and wholeness.
Specifically, I can help you resolve the following challenges:
- Fatigue or low energy levels—lack of stamina and endurance
- Poor sleep quality—lack of deep, rejuvenating sleep
- Poor digestion—sluggish bowels, excessive gas & bloating, leaky gut
- Poor body composition—excess body fat or lack of muscle tone
- Chronic stress—inability to relax, focus and cope with pressure
- Immune system weaknesses—frequent colds, flus, etc.
- Blood lipid imbalances—such as low HDL and high LDL
- Circulatory problems—poor blood circulation
- Blood sugar imbalances—glucose is either too high or too low
- Cognitive issues—such as poor concentration, focus and memory
- Chronic inflammation—joint pain and other aches and pains
- Cancer-related situations—e.g., peace of mind, recurrence prevention, short- and long-range effects of conventional treatments
- Premature aging—poor vision, strength, flexibility, sexual vitality, balance, agility, memory, focus, mental acuity
Health Coaching with Nutrition as the Foundation
How I can serve you. My goal as a seasoned integrative health coach is to help you reclaim your health by setting goals, making well-informed self-care decisions, and developing a program that balances leading-edge health research with your own personal needs, goals and beliefs. After researching options, I will instruct you as to what I think are the best ways to bolster your health and overcome existing health challenges, such as those listed above.
Cost. This is a package deal that includes the coaching session, a comprehensive report, and follow-up guidance for an entire month. The cost is $160-$200 per hour of consult time. After the consult, you will receive a detailed evidence-informed report within one week of the session, followed by one month of follow-up support by email, phone, and other methods (e.g., FaceTime or Skype). The length of the coaching session will depend on the complexity of the situation and can be determined beforehand. Regular weekly or biweekly “check in” sessions are available for a nominal fee if desired (typically $50 per session). Revisits are 20% off.
A special integrative health package is offered for more complex situations that may require extensive research as well as consultation with leading medical experts in the field (cost: $400-$500). This entails a carefully researched, comprehensive report following the consultation, along with consultation and collaboration with experts in the field of integrative medicine (as well as functional medicine and precision medicine) and follow-up communications by phone and email for two months after the session.
If you're interested in transforming your health and vitality, please click on CONTACT MARK at the bottom of this page.
More about my Background
My interest in nutrition and natural medicines began in my teens when I initially aspired to become a medical doctor. At age 17, I went to work with a large-animal veterinarian in northern Holland. During my one-month stay, I lived with a holistic physician and his family, adhering to a vegetarian diet, meditating and exercising daily. That experience radically transformed my perceptions of the health-promoting potential of changing one's diet and lifestyle. The ensuing explorations of self-care strategies and innovative natural therapies would take me on a path of writing, teaching and eventually coaching others on the art of holistic self-care.
I was blessed to be able to attend some topnotch schools, majoring in Biology at Reed College and later earning my Master of Science degree in Nutrition from the UNC School of Public Health and Medicine (now called the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health). Both programs were ranked number one nationally at the time and for years afterward. It was at Reed that I began my formal studies of nutrition and frequently immersed myself in gathering, synthesizing, and translating research on physiology and biochemistry. It was also during that period that I began interviewing health experts, offering talks on whole-foods nutrition, and getting published in popular health magazines.
Before completing my studies at Reed, I took a year off and became certified as a macrobiotic counselor at the Kushi Institute (KI). While attending the KI, I served as an assistant to macrobiotic teacher/visionary Michio Kushi, an experience that further deepened my understanding of the healing power of whole foods. While assisting Mr. Kushi, I met many people who had recovered from advanced metastatic cancer and other potentially life-stealing diseases after adopting Kushi's macrobiotic recommendations.
My father's diagnosis of Type II diabetes became a strong impetus for furthering my studies of nutritional medicine. For my biology thesis at Reed, I spearheaded a pilot clinical study of diabetes, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and macrobiotic diet at Oregon Health Sciences University. In 1986-1988, I wrote and published the FIT Health Letter for the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, giving occasional talks on holistic self-care to FIT students. Two books were generated during this period, one on allergies and another on AIDS. The latter project, which I coauthored with Michio Kushi and Martha C. Cottrell, MD, involved a collaboration with the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Boston University's School of Medicine.
In the early 1990s, I taught high school biology for several years and received four grants for environmental science projects. I also began serving as a contributing editor to Natural Health magazine, an occupation that would open many doors, including: (1) the ghostwriting of books on cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and autism; (2) researching evidence-based summaries of nutritional and herbal therapies for the Office of Alternative Medicine (predecessor to the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine); and (3) generation of an extensive report on mind-body connections to cancer for the Washington, DC-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. At this writing, I have worked as an Integrative Health Coach for four integrative medicine clinics and continue to work for these clinics as a nutrition research consultant out of my home office.
