Are you struggling with Lyme Disease/co-infections or an associated illness? Are you navigating through pain, fatigue, brain fog and more? Healing from Lyme Disease or any chronic complex condition can be challenging, unpredictable and emotionally exhausting. It can make a person feel isolated and alone. It takes a toll on almost every aspect of life, changing relationships, career, social life and finances. It can feel like everything in your life has
been stolen by illness.
How do I know? I’ve been there. What I found is that even with the most respected physicians, I still felt alone and overwhelmed. I found it essential to educate myself and be my own advocate. Even the most skilled physicians struggle to fit multiple agenda items into a 20 minute visit and cannot meet many of the needs of patients with complex conditions. Research shows that half of patients leave their practitioner visits not understanding what their doctor told them.
As a Board Certified Health Coach, I am dedicated to providing the kind of support that was lacking in my own journey. Support that I know would have made a difference in many important ways. I believe that everyone has the capacity to heal and these are some of the ways in which a health coach can help you along the way.
▪ A Health Coach can be someone to talk to who completely understands. It is essential to feel heard and validated. Especially with medical gaslighting being so prevalent, it’s crucial to feel that there is a safe, non judgmental space where you can sit with and process your experience.
▪ A Health Coach works with you to set goals and create action plans. Setting goals while dealing with a complex illness is challenging and nuanced. When healing from Lyme Disease, it’s important to consider the waxing and waning nature of Lyme symptoms. You might not know what symptoms or degree of severity of symptoms you might experience on any given day. Being flexible with yourself, honoring what your body is telling you and still being able to set realistic, achievable goals is an important skill to develop.
▪ An anti-inflammatory diet is an important part of healing from Lyme Disease. It’s important to eat clean whole foods, devoid of toxic ingredients such as seed oils and free from any inflammatory triggers like gluten. I rely on the AIP diet which includes a temporary elimination
phase designed to identify your personal inflammatory food sensitivities or triggers. The intention is to quickly lower systemic inflammation, allowing the body to process nutrition from whole foods without unwanted inflammatory reactions, while simultaneously healing the gut. A Health Coach helps you navigate this sometimes overwhelming process.
▪ It’s important to make the most of your practitioner appointment and I can help you prepare by working together to organize your thoughts and questions. Typically patients leave these appointments with detailed protocols for various diet interventions, supplement and medicine schedules. You might receive lab results from your practitioner. A Health Coach works with you to lessen the overwhelm by helping you understand your condition, breaking down protocols into smaller actionable steps, and by generally supporting you through the entire process.
▪ Are you having a big herx reaction? Have symptoms changed? Do things suddenly feel like they’re no longer working? As your Lyme healing journey progresses you might experience plateaus, negative reactions or you might even suddenly backslide. A Health Coach can help you through situations like titrating onto a new medication or managing herx symptoms. I can assist you in reassessing what’s working and what’s not and can help you articulate these changes to your practitioner.
▪ Working together, we can help you to make the most of the resources that you have available (time, energy, focus, finances), prioritizing and emphasizing what is most important to you.
Healing from Lyme Disease can be one of the most challenging things a person can go through. So often it feels helpless and people feel they have no idea where to turn. As someone who’s been through it, I have genuine compassion and respect for the strength and fortitude necessary to recover from this devastating disease.
If you or a loved one are dealing with Lyme Disease, you don’t need to figure it all out on your own. Although it can be challenging and unpredictable you can benefit from a strong support system who’s “been there done that”.
My role as your Health Coach is to walk beside you, validate you, educate you, connect you with essential resources and to provide guidance and accountability as you navigate this journey. My ultimate goal is to help you reclaim joy and vitality as you succeed in your quest for
healing and growth.