Frequently Asked Questions
General FAQ
A health coach is someone who can help you make sustainable health lifestyle behavior changes to improve your health, feel better, and achieve your goals.
Simply put, health coaching helps you identify areas of your life you need to work on to improve your health and wellbeing, and then helps you identify what’s going on in your own brain.
When you feel unable to get the results you want or feel frustrated with your health, coaching is the answer. A health coach can help you recognize where you’re stuck and show you exactly what needs to change when you can’t see it yourself.
A health coach is someone that walks alongside you, shining the light as you create your own unique path to improved wellbeing, supporting you, and believing in you long before you may be able to. They help you create the exact life you’ve always wanted.
I specialize in empowering folks overweight or with chronic disease (pre/type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol) to improve their health, even when they've struggled with or failed every diet or program they’ve tried.
I KNOW you have struggled. If you're like many of my clients, you carry a lot of heavy emotional baggage surrounding your weight, your health, diet, and exercise. You've felt unheard, dismissed, diminished, or even scolded by doctors. You've been told that you need to follow rules that are too hard and you have no interest in following.
Health coaching is different. My approach is different.
I offer practical, evidence-based strategies that fit seamlessly into your life, rather than quick fixes, restrictive diets, and confusing information that can feel overwhelming and frustrating.
First and foremost:
- My coaching is rooted in positive psychology, tapping into your strengths, and moving you forward in a way that aligns with who you truly are
- Coaching isn't about telling you what to do; rather it's about helping you find what works for you and helps you achieve your goals in a way that works for you.
- I offer a compassionate, whole-person, weight-inclusive approach to health.
- I provide a gentle, supportive, nonjudgmental space for you to build new healthy habits and improve your overall wellbeing.
- I believe everyone has the capacity for positive change, and I am passionate about helping you find that capacity within yourself.
- I am on a mission to help people truly understand their health and how their daily habits impact their current and future health and quality of life.
As a health coach, I utilize my unique combination of education, training, and experience, along with an evidence-based coaching model to help you create sustainable, healthy behaviors. My approach focuses on whole-person wellbeing where your health is more than just your numbers (weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc) and whether or not you have a disease diagnosis. Using the Wheel of Health, we explore how all areas of life are impacting your wellbeing.
Coaching will shift you away from the limiting health changes you have tried in the past and towards an approach based on what REALLY motivates you. I will help you create a personalized plan for your health that draws on what you really want for your life, taps into your unique strengths, and includes goals that fit into your life.
Your journey will be unique to you. No two people are the same so no one’s journey is the same. We will work together to find what works best for you. I like to think of coaching as a series of experiments - trial and correction - as we explore new approaches until things start to click and fall into place for you.
I am right there with you, and you uncover obstacles that hold you back and develop strategies for overcoming them. I will help you create insight and awareness into what is behind your choices, what motivates you, what holds you back, and how best to move forward.
Most importantly, you will establish support and accountability that will set you up for long-term, sustainable success.
Information and Education
At its core, health coaching is about behavior change.
However, with all the confusing health information out there, many clients are looking for information and education.
As a registered nurse and lifestyle medicine health coach, I draw on evidence-based science that has shown that lifestyle changes in the areas of plant-forward nutrition, regular movement, restorative sleep, stress management, social connections, and harmful substances can prevent, delay or improve up to 80% of chronic health issues.
- Group coaching provides generalized, evidence-based health information. We will work through how this information applies to your life and how you want to use it to incorporate new healthy habits.
- In 1:1 coaching, when appropriate, and with your permission, I will share health information.
Common areas for coaching include incorporating exercise/movement, improving sleep habits, implementing stress management techniques, healthy eating habits, lowering A1C, lowering blood pressure and other changes to decrease risk of metabolic disease and chronic illness.
However we can work on anything that will help you feel your best, improve your health, and reduce your risk of chronic disease.
Using an evidence-based coaching process, we will work together to move past what is holding you back and co-create a plan to increase your energy, improve your health, and get back to doing the things you love.
When you decide to work with a health coach, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you get unstuck and start changing your life in ways that you never thought possible.
You’ll begin to understand why you’re doing what you do, and what’s holding you back without beating yourself up to make any change.
You’ll discover your true potential and begin to notice excellent results. It will completely change your life, your health, and your future.
You’ll be amazed at the clarity, insight, and help you can get from working through your problems on a coaching call. Whether you’re being coached directly or listening to others being coached on a group call, coaching will help you experience life-changing breakthroughs.
You can bring an infinite number of topics to a coaching session. You may seek coaching when you are ready to overcome any obstacles that are impacting your health and wellbeing and grow to uplevel your life and your health.
The National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) credential identifies a health coach that meets rigorous training and education requirements, demonstrates coaching competencies, and adheres to ethical and legal guidelines. Given in collaboration with the National Board of Medical Examiners, it indicates the highest professional standard in the health coaching field.
Lifestyle Medicine is an evidence-based approach to reducing chronic disease risk by replacing unhealthy behaviors with positive ones such as eating healthfully, being physically active, managing stress, avoiding risky substance abuse, adequate sleep and having strong social connections.
National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coaches, particularly those certified as Lifestyle Medicine Coaches by ACLM, are uniquely positioned to support clients in making changes in the lifestyle areas listed above. Lifestyle Medicine Coaches are trained to educate, equip and empower their clients with lifestyle choices that can prevent, treat and possibly even reverse chronic disease.
Education, Training, and Certifications
- Bachelor's Degree in psychology
- Associate Degree in Nursing
- Health Coach Training - Duke Health (2018)
- National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (2019)
- Certified Lifestyle Medicine Coach (2019)
- Certified in Type 2 Diabetes Remission by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (2023)
- HearthMath Certified Practitioner (2021)
- Breath as Medicine Facilitator (2021)
Experience
Extensive experience working with chronic health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, CKD, NAFLD, heart disease, and more
- Registered nurse since 2004 - worked High Tech, Homecare, and Hospice
- Coached patients referred by the lifestyle medicine clinic at North Start Health, Springfield, Vermont (2019 - 2023)
- Helped to create and coached clients in a coaching pilot for VillageMD, a national primary care company
- Coached private and group clients in my own business since 2018
More FAQ
The Practice Better Client Portal will be the "hub station" of our work together! Your Client Portal is a HIPAA compliant client record system that is private, safe and secure. You will use your portal to log into video sessions, sign paperwork, read your session notes, schedule appointments, pay for sessions, and chat securely with me between sessions.
All clients are automatically granted access to their Client Portal upon scheduling a Health Coaching Package or joining a coaching group. To access the Client Health Portal on a computer, click HERE or at the top right hand sign of this webpage. For easy access, be sure to bookmark the link. You can also download the app for your phone/tablet in the Apple Store or Google Play.
You can message me via secure messaging in the Client Portal. I will respond during my regular business hours. Please keep in mind that I have other clients, so response time will not be immediate but will be within a short time.
Success will be different for everyone. When we work together, we will set a goal and work towards reaching it.
In short, therapy is working on what has happened in the past, and health coaching is working on what is currently happening and what you want to create in the future.
I offer both private coaching and group coaching. We can work together until your desired outcomes are achieved. When we meet for your Free Info Session, we will talk about what’s happening for you, and work together to create your initial coaching plan.
Yes, health coaching is for everyone who wants to make positive changes to their health, but… yes, that’s right, there is a “but”. It is important to realize that not everyone is READY for health coaching. In order for health coaching to be successful, you must be ready to explore change and to do the work to get there. Don't worry, I will be there to support and guide you!
Additionally, there may be times where clients have prior issues to work through and they will be better served (and more ready to jump into making positive lifestyle changes!), by dealing with that “stuff” first. Your FREE Intro Session is a great way to find out if health coaching is the next best step for you, right now.
No, BUT I do guarantee that I will provide you with everything you need to succeed. I promise to coach you and help you understand what’s happening for you. I’ll provide tools, teach you techniques, and show you how to make changes that will last a lifetime. The results are up to you. Like anything in life, you will get out of health coaching, what you put into it. Show up, get coaching, be open to possibility, prepared to think outside the box, and willing to experiment with what works/doesn’t work, and you’ll get results you never even expected. I suspect that you’ll find that our health coaching experience exceeded your expectations.
Health coaching is not a detox or cleanse program. In fact, 1:1 health coaching isn't really a program, at all! Health coaching is a process; a series of conversations in which we work together to find what motivates you toward healthier habits and develop a plan that is aligned with your values and health vision, fits your lifestyle, and most importantly, is sustainable into the future.
We will uncover obstacles that hold you back and develop strategies for overcoming them. Along the way, I will provide support, accountability, resources, and when necessary, referrals. I will help you build upon success as you begin to turn your health vision into reality.
I will not be telling you what to do!
...And really, as an independent adult with your very own unique personality and circumstances, you probably wouldn't want me to give you cookie-cutter how-to instructions, anyway!
During our time together, we will always place emphasis and value on the fact that you are the expert on you. You will always have the say in what your goals are and how you are going to get there. I am there to guide you and help you along, in that process.
Additionally, during our time together, I will be working in the capacity of a National Board Certified health Coach and will work within the scope of practice of that role. I will not be making recommendations on medical treatments, prescribing a diet, or telling you what exercises to do. I can however, assist you with referrals to another provider, for any needs that you and/or I feel may be beneficial to your success
Although I am local to the Southwestern Vermont area, I work remotely and can practice as a Health Coach under my nursing licenses (NY license and VT Compact license). I can work in NY, VT, and many other states as shown on this map. If you do not reside in a participating state, please contact me to discuss how else I can support you.
1:1 Sessions
If you are unable to attend a 1:1 session, you are responsible for notifying me at least 24 hours in advance of the scheduled session. Any missed sessions or sessions cancelled with less than 24-hours notice will be considered "no shows". No-show sessions will be deducted from the total sessions in this package and cannot be rescheduled.
I understand that in life there are emergencies that occur less than 24 hours in advance of the scheduled session and at my discretion, will allow one last-minute missed session without penalty.
*Please note that 1:1 packages have expiration dates. Extra weeks are built into package, to allow for adequate time to use the sessions. For example, a 3 month package is 10 sessions and must be used up within 12 weeks. These details will be in your coaching agreement.
Group Sessions, Webinars, Workshops, and Jumpstarts
Due to their group format, these are unable to be rescheduled.
Cost and Payment FAQs
You will either sign up through a link and pay immediately, or I will register you and you will receive an invoice. Either way, you will pay through a secure server, using a major credit card or Apple Pay.
Note that the answer to this question may change within the next few months!
As of January 1, 2024, Medicare will be covering health coaching, however details are not yet available.
At this time, most insurance companies are not covering health coaching, however yours may. My recommendation is to contact your insurance provider and ask if health and wellness coaching is a covered service using CPT CODES 0591T, 0592T, or 0593T. In instances where they will cover coaching, I am able to provide a superbill that you can submit for reimbursement.
Most likely yes! you will need a letter of medical necessity, from your medical provider. Your HSA/FSA provider will likely have a simple form on their website that can be used for this purpose. The letter must include a medical diagnosis that supports the need for services. Your HSA/FSA should be able to answer any questions regarding this process. Once you have this letter from your medical provider, you can pay using your FSA or HSA card, just as you would a credit card.
Let's talk! I strive to provide options to meet the needs of all income levels.
1:1 Health Coaching:
It is my mission to serve you. If you are not 100% satisfied, I will gladly refund any unused sessions (minus a fee to cover the credit card reversal charge) with no questions asked. You will be removed from, and no longer have access to Program Modules upon early termination of coaching.
Group Coaching:
Group Coaching is non-refundable once the group has started. I understand that life emergencies do come up, and we can discuss those on a situational basis.
Workshops, Webinars, Jumpstarts:
Workshops, webinars, and jumpstarts are non-refundable. I understand that life emergencies do come up, and we can discuss those on a situational basis.
