Health Coaching is Lifestyle Medicine for approaching disease and injury. Making a National-Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach a part of your team, whether you are a doctor, or individual has many chronicled healthy outcomes that are worthy of delving into. Here are a few case studies to illustrate just a few of the ways that a patient can get another level of care. Enjoy!
Doctors Club (and all who are curious): Case Studies with Meaningful Outcomes
Health Coaching Case Study - Ovarian Cancer
58 year old female diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Surgery was performed for removal of as much of the cancer as possible through historectomy and partial colectomy. The surgeons created an ostomy and indicated it was reversible if the patient was cancer free after 5 years. Chemotherapy was scheduled to address the remaining cancer. After nearly two years, the patient came in for health coaching, ostomy still in place, hopeful to make it to the 5 year mark. Health Coaching created the opportunity for additional care for her. She felt she had been carrying extra weight for many years and had a stressful job that had adversely affected her health over the years, and wanted a healthier future. So much of what she had been through, and would still go through to treat her cancer, felt out of her control. Through mindful listening which allows for full, non-judgmental awareness, she was able to express she felt that her lifestyle had many obstacles to getting meaningful exercise in her life. We role played the obstacles, and she practiced approaching them with a different mindset and outcome. Initially wanting to go big or go home, she joined a gym and signed up for an hour class every night after work because that was what she did in her 20's and 30's. It took only a few weeks to realize this was not going to be her answer, but she loved walking her dog. We brainstormed ways to get more walks in and she developed routes and time in to her schedule that gave her more time with her dog and longer walks. She made similar progress in the organization of her home, and financial planning, that all brought stress down for her. These are patterned behaviors now that have stayed with her because she created them. She lost weight. She felt better. Her cholesterol and blood pressure improved. At the 5 year mark she was cancer free and they reversed the ostomy. From time to time she revisits new health challenges through health coaching as a matter of embracing lifestyle as medicine.
Health Coaching Case Study - Lack of Gastronomy Contributing to Poor Health (Gastronomy: the practice or art of choosing, cooking and eating good food)
50 year old female struggling with low energy from persistent low back pain and long term grief. She came in for health coaching hoping to help build a better relationship with food, and hopefully her body and mind would respond kindly. She struggled with emotional eating to cope with the grief, and the low back pain created a challenge to movement and exercise. She felt an earlier part of herself would have quit the poor eating habits cold turkey, but instead she was trying to slowly reduce intake, and she had the least control with sugar and carbohydrates. She ate take out restaurant food, or grocery store prepared foods, and bought unhealthy snacks. Talking through her strengths, she had an innate ability to write for long periods of time, and she believed in peaceful progress, not fighting obstacles, a belief that would be invaluable. Working through what needed to be done to route out the unhealthy foods and bring in fresh whole foods for home preparation gave her inspiration to learn ayurvedic approaches to preparing, honoring, savoring and respecting food. Her ability to write for long periods of time, helped her stay focused and away from unhealthy snacks. And yoga was her path through managing her low back pain. She began to lose weight, and her low back pain began to ease. She felt a deeper, healthier relationship with food, and so choosing, cooking, and eating good food became habitual. She learned to love gastronomy and in the process got healthier.
Health Coaching Case Study - Emotional Distress Contributing to GERD
45 year old female diagnosed with GERD. She came to health coaching while working full time, raising teens, and going through a dissolution of marriage. She showed a great wellness vision for a long life well-lived, fully of joy and happiness. Despite some limiting beliefs, she found her strengths proved to be her education, commitment and resilience. She prepared a storyboard of her vision that was a road map visually to guide her through daily decisions. She embraced home food preparation, eliminated snacking and focused on the right foods for her condition. She found eating a clean diet made her feel better in all ways, and started to set significant challenges for her physical strength and training. All together this was a winning combination, and the symptoms of GERD waned.
Energy Body Work Case Study - Torn Rotator Cuff
35 year old female diagnosed with a partially torn rotator cuff. Her back began to shut down and she was unable to move without extreme pain for weeks. She was in physical therapy and under doctor supervision for progress. She came to energy body work to approach the injury to the area with energy work. When beginning energy body work there is some baseline whole body work that takes place to start the whole process. Then we began regular, targeted work on the shoulder joint. The dedication to the process promoted healing more quickly than the rest of the team was expecting, and her whole body health began to improve, and return balance and functionality to her life again.
At Evexia, my goal is always to improve health by providing Health Coaching services to you and your patients through One-on-One Health and Wellness Coaching. With a diverse background of working with clients, conditions, and injuries, it provides insight into how even simple Lifestyle changes can become medicine in and of themselves. It change lives in a lasting way. Get in touch with our team to inquire about partnering for you and your patient's health.