Helping People Change When Change Is Difficult: Health Coaching with Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum

Hi and welcome everyone to How Humans Heal. Today I'm going to introduce you to Dr. Sandi Sheinbaum.

She.

Well, she has been a clinical psychologist for a lot of her career for 40 years or over 40 years. And in the past decade or so, she launched a new company that's called Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, where she trains people to be health coaches. And this is such a evolving new field to help people with their health. So I'm really excited to hear directly from Sandy all about that and why she created this training program which is in collaboration with the Institute of Functional Medicine. So how cool. That is what you've done. Sandy, thank you so much for joining me today.

Oh, well, thank you. It is a pleasure to be here.

So how did you, like, how did that come about for you? Were you practicing as a psychologist and then kind of became more aware of health coaching or tell us how that transition happened in your life.

Sure. Well, initially, way back in the 70s, I was a teacher and.

Oh, you started with that?

I was, yeah, I was an educator. I was working with kids with learning disabilities and I realized very early on that they were stressed and parents certainly were stressed. We didn't talk so much about stress back then, but I started leading groups for the parents of the kids who were in my classroom and that led to working with teachers. And I started teaching in a local college and I did lots of workshops on stress management and that led to, well, what else could I do to get more skills? Because I always loved learning. So I got a doctorate in clinical psychology. But at the time, the world of psychology was very much on what's wrong with people establishing a diagnosis and the treatment was psychotherapy, often for life. And I was looking at things like mind body medicine because I knew that these modalities could really help because I was applying them personally. I was binging like crazy on sugar, getting panic attacks, and I had no awareness that there was any connection between what you eat or movement and quality of relationships in your life and how that can impact what would be your stress levels and how that impacted the physiology, your every organ system. So I was very interested in that. And so when I was working as a psychologist, I was a health psychologist and I was working with people who had physical symptoms. They were referred by their doctors and what I would do is help them with these mind body strategies like breathing, which we didn't talk about very much. It wasn't breath work back then.

You were early, very early.

The idea I used biofeedback, the idea that you can Take data, you can see it in real time, and based on what you're seeing about your physiology, for example, with biofeedback, you can see muscle tension that we measure, and then you can do a relaxation process, and that will change. So that also led to very strong interest in nutrition. I studied at the Institute for Functional Medicine, and I was an educator, I was a psychologist. So what could I do with all of this knowledge of functional medicine? I could teach it, and I could teach it to health coaches. And we were being called upon to help coaches who had trained from other training programs. They felt like they needed more. And so I felt like I had something to offer because I had worked by this time with hundreds of people with a whole range of physical and emotional conditions. And it helped them through this positive psychology, mind body strategies, cognitive behavioral work, integrated all together. And so we entered into a collaboration. And by we, I could not do it alone. You go far when it's we. And so I had a partner, Elise Wagner, who was working with me at the time. We had this small little office in a suburb of Chicago, and we were dreaming big. And we had this mission to see a coach in every doctor's office. And that's still our mission, and now we're extending it to see a coach for every human on the planet. Everyone needs a health coach. So that's that. That's the story. I was 65 at the time when we created FMCA. And there were a lot of naysayers, including my husband, who said, what do you need this for? Now you could just retire and you could still see a few people on the side. But this is a big undertaking. But I like big undertakings. And like that challenge. And so this is my mission and purpose. And we've trained thousands of coaches now, so it's super rewarding.

Wow, that's amazing. It really is, because you're right, you're like. You're at the point at age 65 where you're like, hey, is this the end of my career?

Yes.

And for you, you started this whole new career, really, like an extension of what you had been doing in your first career of, like, your. Because it sounds like you really were a health coach for the people you worked with, with your background from psychology, but also what you had learned from a functional medicine perspective. And that's. That's really amazing. Just again, for people listening in to just see how you were sort of at the spark of things at the beginning of seeing how these things could be helpful for people. And that something else was needed. And I think sometimes people feel like they're. I'm asking you this because, you know, both the conventional even mental health world versus all the other approaches for mental health that you and I know about. And I think a lot of times, even now, or especially now, people feel like they're torn between the two. Like they might be hearing the messaging from the conventional mental health world of like you mentioned earlier, like, here's your diagnosis or your label, here's your, your plan for psychotherapy and for medications. And then it's kind of just. That's where it ends. They don't even. Still less likely to integrate in breath work or biofeedback, let alone nutrition or nutrients. Right. It's like, so I just want people to be able to hear like, yeah, that is the. That's kind of where the conventional system is sort of stuck. Although I know some things are being more integrated now, but it's such a slow integration process. Right. And people don't have time for that. They have such potential for their lives to change, especially with things like anxiety and depression, to just have some way to guide them, how to access that.

Yes, you. You are so right. And I think the key words there are someone to guide them, someone to help them access these tools. And it's not one size fits all. And typically in the past we've been stuck there. So you have a diagnosis for anxiety, you go see a therapist and maybe that therapist specialty is a work on. It's more of like a psychoanalytic approach. And so like everybody needs to then be in therapy once a week for a long, long time because you have to sor past trauma experiences and you're basically told you're broken, you have something wrong with you and you need to be fixed. And when you look at a personalized approach, which is where medicine is going in the future, personalized precision, and that is you design something that fits for you as an example. So even with Mind Body Medicine strategies, there was a landmark study and it was wonderful that it's getting recognition. It was a mindfulness based stress reduction approach which comes from the work of Jon Kabat Zinn. This study was in the Journal of the American Medical association jama. So the fact that it is there was absolutely incredible and I love that. What did the study compare? Well, it was around 240 people. They were randomized to two groups. One group for they all had anxiety disorder. One group got the medication, it was a generic version of Lexapro. And the other group got the mindfulness based Stress reduction. They both did well. But that's like, it's wonderful for like for example, psychiatrists to hear that not everybody who walks in the door is going to need an anti anxiety medication. And believe me, I worked with tons of people who were on those. They were so hard to withdraw from. And so yes, the mindfulness meditation works. However, it's not for everybody. In the study they were recommending 40 minutes a day of mindfulness based stress. Well, who has time for that? And somebody who may have anxiety or panic, perhaps sitting with your thoughts and your feelings for 40 minutes is going to drive you crazy. So what a coach would do is look at where, what's going to work for you. Maybe it's starting with one minute of a walking meditation or turning on some music and just closing your eyes and get carried away by the sound. Like what do you like? Would be a question, how do you want to start this? And it's personally designed. Without that then the chance of these strategies not working is really high.

That's such a good point. And too I love when a patient comes in to see me and they, maybe they've tried on their own, right? A lot of people have tried on their own. Maybe different meditations, apps or different types of exercise or different diets. And they, at a certain point people feel like maybe they've gotten some benefit. You know, Maybe they're getting 10% or 20% results, but they feel like it's not enough. They're like still having an impact on their quality of life. And that's where when they may then contact me and they realize I need more help. And sometimes even just realizing we need help is difficult for us. I love that you have this background in psychology because maybe you can help us understand why is it so hard for us to come face to face with this truth that we need help.

Sometimes.

There is so much stigma to asking for help. Often as women we don't want to ask for help. But men too, the guys are like macho, you know, I can, I can do this. They won't help ask for help getting directions, for example, in the ages before gps and they, they would rather get lost than look at a map. But it's the sense that I can do this. There's some shame involved. Perhaps they have also heard of bad experiences in working with professionals. The other thing now that is a big problem is it's expensive. In some cases people are wanting to use their insurance, it might not be covered and they don't know how they can work that out. And so the other person thing that is often a problem is there's a waiting list. And often they are access to care people who live in areas where there isn't access to care. Fortunately that's changing. There's people you can do telehealth and I big believer in that. And there's been studies that show that when you are having a virtual session, whether it's with a coach or a therapist or someone like yourself, it is just as effective. And people like that, they don't have to get stuck in traffic and take a lot of time out of their day. Also the rise of group process and groups have always been there. I was leading groups back in the 70s on stress management and now you can do this over Zoom HIPAA compliant platforms. And that experience in itself is healing. So there are this possibility and I think that the rise of more and more people seeing group medical appointments, for example, and certainly coming together with people who are like them, where they can say gee, I'm not alone. And what's great about that is it's social proof. Gee, if, if she can practice mindfulness meditation and wow, she looks like, you know, this is working, maybe I can try that too. And so that is. And also just the ability to help somebody else to offer suggestions and support by being in a group that alone is healing.

It's so cool to see. I love you're reminding me with. In the past several years I've created a couple a few different programs, online programs. But one of my main programs is for patients with HPV and abnormal Pap smears. And I really have seen this it be true when, when women come together, of course with HPV and abnormal Pap smears, there's already a lot of shame because it's kind of a condition that we're. I'm trying to break that pattern, but there still is a lot of times women feel shame related to it and so they feel very isolated. So when we create a safe like you said, a secure, safe, even anonymous environment where they can come and be with other people and ask their questions and get support, uncondition, compassionate support, which is hard to find otherwise. Right. And you, you're in a group where we can be on a. Yeah, HIPAA compliant zoom. We can be. We can. There's private messaging groups we can use and it's been transformative really for I. It's one of the things now that brings me so much joy is to see how these women from around the world because it then it doesn't. We're not limited by time or location. People could be anywhere in the world at any time and be in this group together. And so I love that you're mentioning the power of that because. And I know there are studies that show that too, that when we have a sense of community and connection already, it helps facilitate our healing process. And what you're saying is, you know, I'm as a naturopathic doctor offering that. But that also can be offered by a health coach for various different kinds of health issues, right? Where they can say, hey, here's a community support for, to help everyone along the way of healing. What kind of health issues are you seeing? Health coaches that you train? What, where are they putting their focus? Where are they helping people?

It runs the gamut. You name a condition or a group of people who need support. And there's health coaching coaches out there who specialize in that. For example, we have coaches who work with families, they work with women with postpartum depression. They work with people who are parents who.

Have challenges. We have one graduate and he has a child with special needs. And so he and his wife have group programs for parents of kids. And his specialty is actually dads of kids with special needs. Because it can get really specific, be really specific. And then on the other end of the spectrum, we have coaches who work with people with cognitive decline, with caretakers, people with cancer people. A lot of support is needed because we have an epidemic of type 2 diabetes. We have coaches who specialize in autoimmune conditions. And increasingly, and I think one of the common threads through all those groups is coaching emotional health. And again, as a psychologist, I would certainly say that coaches are not replacing mental health workers because you need a license to do that. And there are many, many people who benefit from psychotherapy. For example, there are people who would benefit from psychotropic medication. Somebody who is a severe bipolar, who's hearing voices, schizophrenics. Well, you look at a whole continuum of strategies. Health coaches support emotional wellness. One of the ways they do that is by having grooves so people feel that they're not alone. And it's normalizing the feeling. It's a sense that you are not broken. There's hope by practicing some simple thought changing techniques which come from cognitive behavioral work. By feeling accepted and also by feeling heard. One of the great things about coaching is that they're listeners. It's not like you go to the doctor and you have your seven minute appointment and your doctor is looking at his computer screen or her computer screen. The Entire your time and you feel like you didn't even talk about what's really bothering you and you were rushed out the door. But health coaches listen and so you feel heard. And that alone is very, very healing. It's that therapeutic alliance that's created and the coach is also your advocate and that can also be very, very healing. So they can help you navigate often through the medical system and get the right care.

It's, it's huge. That reminds me of, you know, I'm originally trained as a, as a midwife in addition to a naturopathic doctor. And even before I became a midwife, I was trained as a doula. And a doula is this late emotional labor support person. You know, the midwife does the help with the delivery of the baby, but the doula is really helping with the, the mom being able to answer questions, making sure she has her needs met, that she's comfortable, that if she has different emot. Emotional fears or thoughts coming up, that you can be there to help her through it. And so it really, I saw, being that doula, I really saw the value of it. And we know from research how having a doula completely decreases interventions in, in labor and improves outcomes with delivery. And I, I guess I, because of that experience that I have, I see health coaches somewhat similar in that way where they are there to just be a presence so that we don't have to be doing it all on our own. We can have someone who has experience and knowledge and wisdom to help us with it because otherwise we feel like sometimes we have to take big steps. And I think another thing you mentioned is like a health coach helps you identify the little incremental steps along the way.

Yes. Oh, absolutely. And that is so, so important because change can be overwhelming and often you go to your doctor and you have a whole bunch of treatment recommend or they'll just say to you, well, you need to lose weight or you need to start exercising. But what do you do with that? What the coach can do is say, okay, you've hurt. You've gotten this recommendation. What step or steps are you willing to take right now that will improve your health? Where do you want to start? And that can be so tiny. At fmca, at our school, we, one of our teachers is BJ Fogg and he wrote a book called Tiny Habits. He's a Stanford professor, has a research lab there and he studies effective behavior change. And it's starting so small. And so someone might say, well, I'm going to go and get some running shoes. Or I'm going to get some clothes so I can go to the gym. Or I'm going to start looking at costs of gym memberships. And so then a coach would. That's your goal. You said you're going to do this. How do you want to be held accountable? How can I check in with you? How will you know when you've reached that success? And it's step by step along the way. And it's also pairing something you like to do already or you do already.

Every time I start making my coffee in the morning, I'm going to do a squat. And then it's associated, it's paired with what you are already doing. So there's a lot of ways that coaches can help people change. And what is a coach? A coach is somebody who helps people change when change is hard. We tend to stick to the status quo and often by having these deep conversations about what really matters to you, then you decide how and when or if you want to change.

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I love that. And so just so people have a sense like if they are looking for a coach and they can look for someone who's been through your program, what does that program involve? So just so they have a sense of like when they find, you know, a coach, what, what is their experience level? What is their training that they've gone through?

Yeah. So I think you want to start by looking at what you need and who, who you connect with because it is about a relationship between two people or if you're in a group relationship with other members of the group and the coach as the facilitator and you want to Start by looking at what you don't want. So coaches are not licensed in any state. They are not medical providers, and they may have prior training. So they may hold a license as a medical doctor, as a nurse, as a nutritionist. But when they are seeing you for coaching, coaching is about being 100% in your corner. They're not giving recommendations, they're not developing meal plans, exercise plans, they're not diagnosing, they're not telling you what's wrong with you or what you should be doing. You are the one who are. You're creating that plan and they'll support you. They can provide education, they can show you recent studies that came out, or they can talk about what's the standard, state of the art, what we know about some, some area in nutrition, for example. But they're not a nutritionist. And it's really important that your coach is somebody who is not holding themselves out as the expert in terms of whether it's lab work or telling you what supplements to take, then they're not being a coach. People can get a lot of information out there and coaching is something that's about helping you to change given all the information. Sometimes it's helping you sort out the information that's out there. But it's not an information deficiency. Where people are struggling, they can go online and they can find answers to any question. So what we teach is a deep dive into behavior change. And that is first and foremost the art and science of coaching. There are theories that are having to do with being a great coach, Motivational interviewing as a way to really listen to you and ask the right kinds of questions. But it's so much more than that. It has to do with helping you by how are you going to thrive? We use positive psychology, which is the study of what's right with people and not what's wrong with them. It's the study of how people thrive, what makes a life worth living, and using those strategies. And we pair them with the mind, body medicine. We never focus on separation. So realizing that you look at or somebody is assessing, like how they go about their day, are they in a state of tension? What? And then it's not just physical tension, but it's mental tension that has to do with what your thoughts are. I was privileged when I was a psychologist back in the day. I studied with one of the founders of cognitive behavior therapy, which is by sorting out. And it's very commonplace now. It's been widely adapted in self help programs or books. And it has to do with, you know, telling yourself, I should be, I must be, I have to. Those should, and switching your language. And so we teach that in our curriculum, and we put it together with functional medicine and functional nutrition. So what is that? Well, we're not training people to be functional medicine doctors, but we are focusing on how do you help people have a sense of the root cause of what's driving their condition. So that if they have a rash, it might be more than just going to your dermatologist and getting a cream. It's looking at, could it be something I'm eating? Could it be stress? What else? What's going on? What are the driving forces? It's looking under the hood. And functional medicine health coaches, which is what we train, help people to look at their story, to say, oh, yeah, you know what? I never. You're right, I never felt right after that root canal. And they're the ones who discover it. It's a discovery process where people are looking back to saying, okay, yeah, like, maybe it's inflammation, and maybe I can do an elimination diet or I can get some food sensitivity testing and see what's really driving the condition. And so our coaches work a lot with functional medicine doctors, either in their practices or they are getting referrals from functional medicine doctors. And they have these relationships with trained in functional medicine that's collegial. So that they could say, hey, I have a client, and she's interested in having consults with you and looking at digging into the root causes of what's going on with her. So it's collaborative. And that's one of the things we heavily emphasize, that as a coach, you can't do it all. And because you are not a practitioner, you have a whole network of practitioners that you work collaboratively with, and that is an A team for your clients.

I love that. And as a functional medicine practitioner myself, I mean, I can really see it's like teaching people how to think that way. Because in our. To this point, in our childhood and in our schools and in our medical system, we're not taught to think about, you know, what's really the symptom is an indication that something's out of balance. How do we identify what's out of balance and help and support our bodies to heal? That's a whole different philosophy and way of thinking than what people sometimes are used to. And so it makes such a difference to have someone to help. There's a whole different perspective on health and life. And right at a certain point, you have to kind of be like, whoa, this is a whole different way to think about it. And it makes me realize, I'm not sure how I joke like, my father is a pharmacist. I grew up basically in a pharmacy, but somehow in my childhood, because the way my father always spoke about wanting to prevent the need for medications. And my mother is a teacher, by the way, special education teacher. So I think because of that, I came out of my childhood and went to do my pre med degree, but I also wanted a degree in nutrition and I wanted to study medicine that included food as medicine, because I kind of grew up with this different way of thinking of that we could use food, we can use nutrients, we can use lifestyle to be able to heal and to prevent health issues. And so that's how I ended up straight at nature. By the way, I don't know if I told you this before, but I was at Bastyr University when Jeffrey Bland was doing a lot of teaching there.

I think we talked about that once when we were together in person. That's so cool.

So I was able to, you know, really have. He and Joe Pizzorno were still teaching back in the 90s when I was at Bastyr. And so I got to really learn from them at Bastyr University before because now they only teach in these other formats. And so I feel so honored to have had that in my learning experience as well as. I mean, I love what you're talking about. I specialize in psychology. Actually, during my residency at best year, I taught in the psychology department and I did biofeed research on biofeedback and I did mindful the junk habits in training years ago. So these are. As I'm listening to you, I'm like, oh, my gosh. This has been part of my training just incidentally, because it was my interest in where I was at the time. But what you've done is you're making it possible for people to access that information now through your program. If someone. Because here's the thing is what I see is that in addition to more and more people realizing that having a health coach can help them with their health, no matter which practitioner they're also working with, it works as a health team. But I'm also seeing that a lot of people are kind of relooking at their career choice and saying, hey, maybe I want to be able to help people how I've been helped. And they start to think about becoming a health coach as a new career for themselves. Tell us more about that. What is that like to potentially consider becoming a health coach.

Oh, that's exactly right. And a large majority of people come to us because they've had a health condition. Often the conventional approach didn't solve and they found functional medicine. They worked with someone like you, and now they've seen the power of functional, integrative, root cause medicine and they want to give back. And they have a calling to serve others. And maybe naturally they've been telling friends and relatives and Facebook what's been about this transformation that they've had. And we have about half of people who come to us with a healthcare background. Often they're burned out. They've been nurses and now they want something different. Doesn't mean they're going to give up the nursing profession. Maybe they start coaching on the side and that is so rewarding for them. And then we have others who are career changers. And we're seeing a lot of uncertainty right now in the job market. Now, Amazon just laid off 10,000 employees. We have other companies who are considering layoffs or have already or there are people who have been deciding to quietly quit where they're staying at their job, but they've lost any meaning and purpose in their work. So they're just going through the motions. Others who are contemplating quitting, they just are feeling like this is not their life's calling. And coaching can be. This is one of the most rapidly growing professions and the most rapidly growing in healthcare. Right now. We need a lot of coaches. And so fortunately, the barrier to entry is really low. I was talking to somebody that was asking. She didn't know what I did, but she said, I'm just not really happy at my job. And I'm thinking I really want to go back to school. What do you think if I went back and I got a degree in nutrition and there's nothing wrong with that, it's a great profession to be a nutritionist. But this was a woman who was in her 50s and it was going to be long, expensive and no guarantee that she would have a thriving practice. I know many people in that field who might be struggling to get clients. What's so great about health coaching is the barrier to entry is so much lower. A certificate program is less expensive. And it's not talking about two, three years.

Coming to be a psychologist. You wrote a dissertation, you've got a rigorous training that is quite expensive, for example. Same is true with the other healthcare professionals to be who are getting a license. But when you go to a certificate program in health coaching, you can start. We have people who are coming to us right out of high school and they are committed and perhaps it's in their future to go to med school, but for now they want to get a certificate as a health coach. We have at the other end of the spectrum people in their 80s who are in retirement. We get a lot of ex school teachers, a lot of ex special ed teachers. They're retired already and so they're in it not to start a new career, but to give back and to have to give back to their community. There's actually a woman, I love her, she's in a retirement community, she's in her 80s, she's a recent graduate and her mission is to work with people in these facilities to help them have a better quality of life. So it really is what you're passionate about. And here's the thing that's a common thread amongst all of our students. Graduates report this. It's life changing, it's transformational. So they come in thinking that they're going to, they want to learn coaching, they want to learn functional medicine, functional nutrition. What they leave with is this profound change on a personal basis because what we're doing is experiential. So they're meeting in groups, groups with fellow students. They're practicing being a coach as well as being coached. And so that is profound and we know there's a lot of research on this, that the actual process of coaching is healing. And that's why we so advocated for healthcare professionals who are burned out, who are exhausted, who are feeling like they don't have this connection. They didn't go to medical school for this, yet they are forced to see people for short periods of time. They have such burdens in terms of charting and record keeping and learning. The coach approach is a way to invest in themselves for self care as well as it might be one impactful question that they're now asking of their patient. And that interaction is transformational for both doctor and patient. So yeah, so we're getting a lot of medical doctors coming through to learn the coach approach.

That's wonderful. I'm so excited to hear that. And I. And if. And I'm going to be sharing in the notes anyone who's listening who of course wants to be in touch with Sandy about anything, including learning more about her training program and how you can access that as well as you've written several books, Sandy one including how to become a Health Coach. Right. So that could be a good place if you're curious to start is with your book.

Thank You. Yes. This is a step by step. It looks at what are some of the commonly asked questions about health coaching.

I love it. And, and you had touched on it earlier, but I want to come back to it. When people are thinking about hiring a health coach or even becoming a health coach, it's not underinsured. Most insurance is. Not yet anyway. I mean, hopefully in the future they would include health coach coaching as something. Right. We would think our health insurance should help us with prevention and getting better. But it's, it's, you know, really not built that way. So give us a sense of how, how usually. What are usually the costs and how does that usually work for people?

Sure. So it varies by community, but typically it's. It's comparable to having a personal trainer if you're starting an exercise program, for example, and it.

Or also if you have a child who is getting private tutoring and math, for example. So it might be on the low. The average might be anywhere from 60 to 75, $80 a session. Usually it's effective when you sign up for a package so that. Because one session won't result in behavior change necessarily. But having a package of sessions is the way to go. And it's often more economical as well as. As groups. So more and more coaches are seeing people in groups and that can be more affordable. And there is a movement that will eventually lead to reimbursement. Right now it's called category three. So these are transitional codes, but with more data coming in, that is considered only a matter of time before you can get reimbursed. The other thing I should mention is you want to look for a coach who is National Board certified. That means that they have met the minimum requirements in their training. There's a lot of programs that are like, oh, in, in six weeks you can become a health coach. And there's no standards until. There were no standards until the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching came into being as a school. We are an approved school by the board meeting that our graduates sit for that exam. It's a rigorous exam and it shows that they met the minimal criteria for calling themselves a health coach. So I would look for that. It would be called an NBHWC or National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

Oh, thank you. That's such a great tip. And I have had health coaches as part of my practice over the years and just brought on recently a new coach because again, my goal in terms of HPV and abnormal pap smears is I want to be decreasing cervical cancer rates. Around the world. And to do that when we have such big goals to change the patterns that we're seeing in health, it's only going to help to have more people working on that same, toward that same goal. And so I can see where as a, as a practitioner, like me running, you know, seeing patients one on one and in programs, being able to have a health coach or multiple health coaches to deliver that care and support people through the protocol makes a huge difference. So that if anyone listening is also, you know, a practitioner, I, you know, encourage you to think about it that way. How can a health coach help you to do what you're already doing in your practice so you can help even more people be successful?

Absolutely. Well, there's another area, if I could talk about physician burnout. And that is a huge problem we have in surveys, over 60% of physicians say that they are stressed, they're burned out, they're not recommending medicine to their children. And so there's going to be a severe shortage we're talking about, particularly in direct primary care. And this is a big problem. And there has been a lot of studies that show when you have a health coach in your practice, burnout is decreased. Why is that? A health coach can intervene, mean they can often be the first point of contact. They can be the concierge for the practice. They also can help in terms of people who are diagnosed with a chronic condition need a lot of support. And often they would tend to call the doctor for that. But these are things that often it's the health coach that can really have that time to really listen and take the time to educate. Or perhaps you've had the experience of going to your doctor and you're told what's wrong with you, and you get a whole list of recommendations and you walk out and like, what did they just say? Like, I'm just confused. I don't know if I can do this. I don't know where to start. Is it too expensive? I don't have the resources or the time. And a health coach can help you with having that conversation to what is doable? Where do you want to start? Or they can go back to the doctor and communicate what the problem is. Because a lot of people, people are afraid to tell. They see their doctor as the authority figure. They may not tell them things. They're embarrassed or shameful, or they feel like they're not going to be heard if they do say something. And so the health coach can intervene and they can act as the advocate, both for the patient. As well as for the practice, they can explain to people why certain things were recommended, and that can go a long way to relieving the pressure on the doctor. So we're seeing that. And again, that's been validated in many different studies.

It's so awesome. Oh, my gosh, Sandy, thank you so much for talking this through with me and this audience today. I really think that everyone listening is going to have a much better idea of what a health coach is and the benefit that they offer and how we can can continue to integrate them into our care. Because ultimately for all of us, right? I mean, we're humans. We're at some point gonna have some health issues and how are we gonna support ourselves through that? And I talk a lot in my book, the Master your Stress Reset yout Health Book, and in my work about how do we support ourselves, how do we choose self care, how do we choose to be supported in our process? And I really see that a health coach is really offering that option to really give yourself the support that you deserve and that you need in order to heal or stay as healthy as you can. So thanks again so much for sharing with us today.

It's been a pleasure. And I love that you have health coaches in your practice. Love you. Love the work that you're doing in the world.

Thank you, Sandy.

Thanks for listening to how humans heal.

Heal.

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