Why Doctors Are Going Back To School To Take Our Holistic Health Program

While M.D.s and other health professionals are constantly learning on the job, going "back to school" to learn a new skill set can also be invaluable. mindbodygreen's Health Coach Certification Program (HCC) is emerging as a popular resource among health care workers looking to improve their standard of care.

Like many physical therapists, Carly Egrie, DPT, reached a point in her career where she was disillusioned with the medical system. After years of helping patients use Band-Aid treatments for their symptoms, she wanted to go deeper and help them address the root causes of their pain.

"I hoped the program would teach holistic approaches to well-being, science-backed health research, and the fundamentals of coaching and behavior change," Egrie tells mindbodygreen. "It did all that and so much more. Completing it has been transformational for me, my classmates, and now my clients too."

The HCC curriculum focuses on the personal side of client care. It trains health coaches to help people get clear on what health looks like to them and work toward that vision one step at a time.

"A lot of times, people have big dreams for work or big dreams for family, but they may not have big dreams for their health," HCC graduate and certified health coach Alexa Hanshaw previously told mindbodygreen. It's the role of the health coach to help them identify these dreams—and then make them a reality.

HCC students learn the basics of coaching (nonviolent communication, positive reinforcement, motivational interviewing, etc.) in a classroom setting before doing live practice sessions in front of professors who provide suggestions in real time. The 20-week course is administered virtually, giving doctors the flexibility to complete it while still seeing patients.

The program has helped practitioners like Egrie provide more personalized and compassionate care. Since graduating from the program, she says, "the way I evaluate patients as a PT has changed. Instead of sitting down with a client and telling them what they need to work on, I take more time to really listen to them and reflect where they feel they're lacking. When I approach care from a more open-minded and receptive place, I've found that I can better support my clients. So many of them already know how they can start feeling better; they just need to be given the opportunity to express it."

Jayaraman has also utilized the lessons from HCC in his work at Sepalika Women's Hormonal Health Clinic, the fertility clinic he cofounded. "We are how we engage with the world. We are how we engage with each other. [HCC] gives you the ability to help people find what it is that they truly want—not thrust things upon them."