Health and Wellness Coach Week

Health & Wellness Coach Week

Capitol Hill:

Of the $4 trillion spent on health care in the US, only 2% goes towards prevention. That’s a pretty paltry percentage considering upwards of 75% of all health care costs go toward chronic disease. Capitol Hill took the first step this week towards addressing this crisis by announcing the Health & Wellness Coach Week nationwide.

A group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced the Health and Wellness Coach Resolution in an effort to bring awareness and education to the country. The resolution supports and recognizes health and wellness coaches nationwide and their work in combating the global health crisis.

“Now more than ever, we need to recognize the contributions of health and wellness coaches and lend them support as they continue to inspire positive behavior changes that will dramatically lower our nation’s health care costs,” Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr., D-N.J., said in a statement.

The Soma Institute in Chicago is dedicated to educating the community about smarter lifestyle choices. As a Health & Wellness Coach, you become part of the solution—helping clients establish goals, remain accountable, maintain motivation, and focus on making lasting changes. If you’ve ever considered a career in the health and wellness field, this is the best time to join forces with the capitol and embark on the career of your dreams.

If you’d like more information about Soma’s 15-week Health & Wellness Coaching course, give an Admissions Representative a call at 1-800-694-5314. A rewarding career is waiting for you. Or if you’d like to read more about Health & Wellness Coach Week, see Roll Call’s article.

Health and Wellness Coaching Certificate Program

Health and Wellness Coaching Certificate Program

As the country deals with the consequences of epidemic levels of chronic disease and obesity, The Soma Institute in Chicago is determined to be part of the solution. The Health & Wellness Coaching Certificate program at Soma is considered an innovative approach to addressing the health challenges the nation faces.  Through hands-on training and industry support, Soma prepares its students to come up with strategies for coaching people with health challenges and enabling them to make lasting changes.

Besides motivational techniques, disease prevention, and habits for weight loss, students also learn ethics in coaching, self-care strategies, and practical business approaches to turning coaching into a successful and rewarding career.  Most of Soma’s students are working or have families, so classes run just two nights a week and can be completed in 15 weeks.

Students move on to careers in private practices, health clubs, spas, medical offices, corporations, and more.  According to Hewitt Associates, 67% of American companies have or plan to have coaching programs to help boost worker health. That’s great news for the country—and for those interested in pursuing a career in health coaching!

If you’d like more information about Soma’s 15-week Health & Wellness Coaching course, give an Admissions Representative a call at 1-800-694-5314. A rewarding career is waiting for you.

I Go Walking

If one of your New Years resolutions was to get back in shape, but you don’t think gym life is for you, I’d like to make an argument for a very simple exercise you already know how to do.  Walking.

Two Reasons I Walk

Walking is good exercise.

It’s not great exercise, but it’s pretty darn good.  At a three mile per hour pace it burns about 100 calories per mile (of course this is different depending on your weight, height and speed), and it also gets you places while you do it.  If you walk five extra miles you just walked off a pretty decent chunk of calories.

Studies have shown again and again that walking, aka low-grade cardio, is the only proven method of staving off cognitive decline.  That means people who walk more stay younger longer and don’t suffer from chronic diseases (Alzheimer’s, Congestive Heart Failure, Diabetes, etc) as much.  Simply walking an extra hour a day has been shown to add years to your life.  And you have to get places anyway, right?

Park the car a little further away.  Get off the train a stop or two sooner than normal.  Don’t turn on the TV when you get home, go for a walk.

Walking calms the mind.

The stressors of life often wreak havoc on our bodies which aren’t built to cope with the emotional stressors we face on a daily basis:  mortgages, taxes, the ozone layer, work, spouses.  We’re equipped to fight a problem or run away from a problem.  When we’re forced to sit and anguish over a problem, our cells get bathed in corrosive chemicals that can eventually lead to some very serious health problems.  Walking helps with this.

Meditation helps, too.  But if sitting in a dark room alone with your thoughts is something you don’t think you can do, try a walking mediation instead.  There are several online instructions, books and apps that can guide you through this, but here’s the simple way I do it.  I put in my headphones but I don’t turn on the music.  I just want people to leave me alone, and they’re more likely to do that if they think I’m jamming out.  Location helps but is not crucial.  I’m lucky enough to work in downtown Chicago (one of the most stressed out cities in the country, btw), so after work I can sometimes walk home along the lakefront.  The more nature the better, but I used to walk home right through the center of downtown, and it still left me feeling pretty at ease, despite the traffic, bikers, and the other, slower people.  Being close to nature has some sort of calming effect on the mind, and you won’t even realize it until you get home and your thoughts sound like whispers.

And then just walk.  Walk at the fastest pace you can walk without feeling like you’re forcing yourself along.  I’m 6’4”, and most of that is leg, so I walk at a pretty good clip.  Try to clear your mind of debris as you walk.  Most mindfulness practices will tell you to acknowledge thoughts as they arise, and then let them go.  Acknowledge, move on.  I realize this is not always as easy as it sounds.  Life’s problems have a way of reaching their grubby little fingers into the crevices in our brains and snuffing out all our peaceful intentions.  Acknowledge this, too.  Just try not to dwell on stuff.

Breathe deep into your abdomen, let the sunshine cover your face, clear your mind, and enjoy the view as the world moves slowly past you one step at a time.

Jason VonGerichten – Instructor

“I love working with students who come from all walks of life, and I love that they have come together with one common goal: to learn how to make a profound impact on the lives of others. I very much believe that only Soma can fully prepare them for that. Here at Soma we delve deeply into the methods needed to work in a clinical setting, where real change can take place. We also teach students how to use their clinical tools and techniques in a therapeutic setting, where change can take place, too. I’m very happy to be a part of this process, and I hope whatever positive influence I have over my students gets paid forward in some small way, from me to my students to their clients and onward.”

Health & Wellness Coaching: A New Year, a New You

Health & Wellness Coaching: A New Year, a New You.

Chronic disease accounts for 75% of healthcare costs in the United States and the Soma Institute is dedicated to making a difference in this epidemic—especially this time of year when more people than ever suffer from illness and depression.  The Health and Wellness Coaching Certificate Program at Soma offers hands-on training to pursue a career in helping others and making a difference.

The Soma Institute trains you to become advocates for your clients, helping them become happier and healthier in all facets of their lives. We address all aspects of health, including: diet and food; relationships and emotional well-being; exercise and physical health; and career development.

Health Coaches move on to careers in private practices, gyms & spas, wellness centers, and doctors’ offices. If you’ve always dreamed of helping others and have a natural inclination towards empathy and compassion, becoming a Health & Wellness Coach could be the calling for you.

If you'd like to learn more about becoming a qualified health & wellness coach, now is the time to explore this growing field.  To learn more about The Soma Institute’s 15-week program, give us a call at 1-800-694-5314.  You can make a difference!

A Massage Teacher’s Confession

I have a confession to make.

Every time we have a graduation ceremony, I have the same daydream.  It’s very simple. Both Hovi and Rob can’t be found, and somebody has to give a speech.  Can you wing it, Jason?

And I hem and I haw, but eventually I agree to try.  I reluctantly approach the microphone, stumbling over my words at first, maybe my voice cracks, too, and eventually, with a bit of struggle, I get to the heart of what I’m going to say.  This last ceremony, I thought I would say this:

As we’ve all seen repeatedly this past year, there are many terrible things in the world.  (And in my head I would be thinking, should I say school shootings, or war, or religious extremists, or racism, or Trump, or just keep it as “terrible things?”  And I would decide that there was no need to actually say these things out loud.  Everyone would agree, sometimes, sometimes too often, the world can be terrible.)  Maybe we’ve only witnessed these things on the news, or maybe terrible things have happened to those you love, or maybe, as I know from being with you for the past year, terrible things have happened directly to you, and you’re left asking yourself, why me?  And I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll ever have a good answer to that question.

And maybe you’ve found yourself thinking that the world is in a downward spiral, that people are irredeemable, rude, egotistical, petty little jerks, (they are) or that the government is out to get you (it is).  And I’m not going to waste your time by suggesting that every challenge is a learning opportunity, because despite their silver linings clouds are still just clouds, and metaphorically speaking, we’d all rather just do without them.  And maybe, just maybe (here’s where I really punch them with the sad) you’ve found yourself ready to give up on the world, because from your perspective it can never be made right again.

But you’re wrong (I’d say, trying to find a smile somewhere in between uplifting and like I know something they don’t know, but not in an obnoxious way).

Not to oversimplify our profession, but with your newfound skills as a massage therapist, you get to help make the world right again.  With the simple art of caring touch, a person’s life can be changed forever for the better.  Even if you’re not treating a specific condition, which you are all trained to do, but if you’re simply just there for another person, you are helping put some black back in the ledger.  You are, quite literally, making the world a better place.  (At this point I would begin thinking I was being too schmaltzy, but that it would probably play well with this crowd.  Keep going!)

So thank you, students, for choosing a career path that makes the world a nicer place to live in.  It’s very easy to get depressed at the state of the world, or even just the state of our city, but I take comfort in the fact that I’m part of a practice that helps heal people, both physically and emotionally, and that by teaching you how to do that, maybe, somehow, we’re helping to tip the scales in favor of the good guys.  Even if we’re not directly helping one of those poor people on the news, we’re at least doing something good, which I hope, and which I believe, helps to balance the karma of the world.

Thank you, once again, for choosing to do something positive with your lives. (Here I would either pretend to wipe a tear from my eye, or be genuinely moved by my own words and actually wipe a tear away.)  It’s been a pleasure teaching all of you, and I look forward to seeing all the good you do for the world.

At this point I would step away from the microphone, and there would be silence, and I would think, oh no, I totally messed that up.  But then one student would start clapping, and then another and another, until they are all clapping in unison, and on their feet, and somehow they manage to lift me and carry me through the door, a’la Rudy.

And freeze frame!

Jason VonGerichten – Instructor

“I love working with students who come from all walks of life, and I love that they have come together with one common goal: to learn how to make a profound impact on the lives of others. I very much believe that only Soma can fully prepare them for that. Here at Soma we delve deeply into the methods needed to work in a clinical setting, where real change can take place. We also teach students how to use their clinical tools and techniques in a therapeutic setting, where change can take place, too. I’m very happy to be a part of this process, and I hope whatever positive influence I have over my students gets paid forward in some small way, from me to my students to their clients and onward.”