As a Nurse Practitioner for over 25 years in a large academic medical institution, I've found my passion in working with adults suffering from the grips of addiction, mental health instability, and associated infectious diseases. While the rewards of my work have fueled my long career, I've found that the thing I absolutely love THE MOST is to genuinely listen and deeply connect with my patients as a means to help them move towards a positive healthful action step. For example, together we might come up with a single strategy to smoke one less cigarette a day to move the needle on their desire to quit all cigarettes. The problem: I only have about 25 minutes to get to know my patient and to treat the main medical issue of the moment which is never their nicotine addiction.
What I've learned about myself is that I need more time with people to go deeper, to find what motivates them, and how best to leverage that to support a healthful change. Thus, in walks coaching. I've found my new passion as a Life and Wellness Coach.