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University of Minnesota
offers holistic health coaching program
MINNEAPOLIS -- The University of Minnesota will be the first accredited four-year
institution in the country to offer a graduate-level certificate concentration with
a holistic focus and integration of complementary perspectives.
As we go through life, all of us will be faced with health challenges. Some are easier
to handle; others are more complex. What if you're diagnosed with diabetes and know
nothing about the disease? What if you need to lose weight but just can't stick to
that exercise program? How do help find understanding for why a particular physical
or emotional symptom occurs? How do you use what you know about yourself to lead
the healthiest and happiest life?
Our current health care system isn't geared towards giving us much guidance after
a diagnosis. After leaving the doctor's office visit, have you ever asked yourself
"Now what do I do?" Sometimes you know that an issue won't be helped in
the conventional medical system. You find yourself wondering "Who do I talk
to or where do I go?" Fortunately, there's a new profession on the horizon that
can help us answer those questions -- Health Coaching -- and it's being taught at
the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing.
Through supportive, one-on-one guidance, university educated health coaches will
help people learn to deal with life-altering health challenges or to just live healthier.
While some health issues can be overcome alone, more profound diagnoses and challenges
require a more personalized plan of care that health coaches provide. Many of us
just need on-going relationship with someone who understands how to help make lifestyle
changes, find ways to greater self-understanding, or make best choices within a broad
field of therapies and practitioners. This personalized guidance can be offered in
a variety of settings including hospitals, clinics, businesses and private practice.
Although health coaches do not diagnose or treat illness, they can assist with serious
conditions to enhance clients' health and promote positive lifestyle changes. This
assistance includes the making of any necessary referrals and the gathering of a
truly interdisciplinary healthcare team. Health Coaches have experience and understanding
of a wide range of health care approaches, from both the conventional and complementary
realms. They apply this knowledge through a lens of holism. Health coaches thus serve
as both guides and facilitators, helping to educate individuals to take charge of
their own health while also helping to establish support and resources.
Health coaches are trained to see each person as an individual whose mind, body and
spirit are interwoven and key to health and wellness. Viewing their clients holistically
allows health coaches to see each person as intrinsically healthy, whole and wise,
and to regard the client, rather than the health care professional, as the ultimate
expert in his or her own journey towards health and healing. Health coaches provide
the professional expertise necessary to support this journey, and to help address
the challenges that most of us will face in this life -- pain, illness, change, growth,
the search for meaning, and the building of relationships.
Given the need for scientific knowledge and interpersonal skills, the University
of Minnesota's certificate program is open to health care professionals or those
currently enrolled in graduate health programs. Such fields include nursing, social
work, psychology, medicine, nutrition, pharmacy, chiropractic and licensed acupuncture.
Upon successful completion of the program, the recipient will receive a Certificate
in Complementary Therapies and Healing Practices: Health Coaching Emphasis.
At a time when the number of people suffering from chronic illness -- as well as
the sky-rocketing cost of health care and the lack of access to adequate resources
-- threatens the stability of our society at every level, health coaching offers
new hope. By emphasizing a health care model that is client-centered rather than
disease-centered, and underscoring the importance of dialogue and deep listening,
graduates of the Center for Spirituality and Healing's certificate program will be
able to empower others to make the kind of commitment to self-exploration and self-development
that will ultimately allow them to achieve a better quality of health and life.
Applications for the Center's Health Coaching program are now being accepted.
If you are a business or employer who believes that Health Coaching services may
be helpful for your employees, please contact Karen Lawson, M.D., at the Center for
Spirituality and Healing at (612) 624-9459. To learn more about becoming a student,
visit our website at www.csh.umn.edu, or contact Nancy Feinthel
at the same number. |
| July 2005 |
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