Functional Medicine Health Coaching LIVE: Holly + Catherine Session 1

What does a plan for healthy lifestyle change look like for a client with Multiple Sclerosis and Osteoarthritis?
Today, we’re introducing Holly and Catherine, the second coach-client pair featured in our Functional Medicine Health Coaching LIVE video series, where we offer a completely unedited, first-hand look at the power of the coaching process. We’ll see how the unique skills and techniques of Functional Medicine Coaching Academy-trained coaches can help clients tap into their motivation, overcome roadblocks, and find new and creative ways to thrive.
Today, we’ll watch as Holly and Catherine start their coaching journey in the first of 6 sessions focused around maintaining an active lifestyle while managing chronic illness and preparing for major surgery.
Holly + Catherine, Session 1:
Meet coach Holly: Years ago, Holly was working as a realtor...and hating it. She connected with #HealthCoaching in 2013 through another program, but she found that her training was incomplete without the principles of Functional Medicine. That’s when she joined The Functional Medicine Coaching Academy’s first-ever graduating class-and she even reversed her own autoimmune disease while in the program! Holly now looks back on her disease with gratitude that it gave her the gift of a career that she is so passionate about. Currently, she has her own private coaching practice in Nashville, is one of the fabulous Senior Course Facilitators in our Health Coach Certification program, and she’s working on a book, too!
Meet client Catherine: This now-retired Canadian lives an active lifestyle and has a lifelong love of the outdoors, especially hiking and biking. Recently diagnosed with 2 chronic conditions, Catherine is looking to Functional Medicine Health Coaching with the goal of getting into the best shape possible before undergoing knee replacement surgery. She’s hoping she’ll be able to maintain the active life she loves even after her surgery.
In their introductory session, Holly and Catherine establish a baseline for their coaching work together. Catherine shares her health history, including how she suffers from osteoarthritis and has experienced multiple sclerosis symptoms since 2011, though she was only formally diagnosed a little over a year ago.
Many Functional Medicine Health Coaches see clients who are dealing with #multiplesclerosis (#MS). It’s an immune-mediated process in which an abnormal response of the body’s immune system is directed against the central nervous system (CNS)-the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. MS can be incredibly disruptive and distressing, often affecting the patient’s vision, balance, muscle control, and other basic body functions. Thought to affect more than 2.3 million people worldwide, the disease is not contagious or directly inherited, though epidemiologists are identifying factors in the distribution of MS around the world that may eventually help determine what causes the disease.
Catherine brings a positive outlook to this first coaching session; she tells Holly that though her chronic conditions mean that she can’t do all the things she used to do, she finds inspiration in what she can do.
Where she struggles: staying consistent and motivated when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. While Catherine has some initial enthusiasm when trying to implement new behaviors, her commitment tends to wane as the changes get harder to maintain over time.
Sounds like just the kind of challenge a Functional Medicine Health Coach is ready to take on!
Stick with us over the next 6 weeks to see how Holly guides and supports Catherine to stay motivated, implement sustainable lifestyle changes, and successfully reach the next stage of her health journey. Subscribe to see session #2 on Monday!

[@aishawf]

This was fantastic - I love that you seemed genuinely interested in your client and not like a robot reading a script which I have noticed in others I have observed. The client was really sweet- I loved her overall attitude! I hope she's doing well.

[@andrealambert6384]

Flow of questions and staying on topic was great

[@cutieanimalcompilations5333]

Great coaching! I loved this example!