While few individuals might consider life coaching in the category of self-care, Robert Allen, a mental health activist, growth coach and author of Self Care: Let’s Start the Conversation, clarifies that self-care is not just a vacation or spa day, rather it is a preventative practice of caring for oneself more than a response to chaos. He also asserts that self-care is a lifelong process of knowing our own story and suggests, “It informs our narrative, and that which informs the way we practice self-care stems a great deal from what coping skills and habits we have developed over time.” 

Based on Allen’s experience and research, when considering modalities to include in a self-care routine it may prove helpful to include a life coach that can assist in shedding light on internal narratives, negative self-talk that interferes with achieving goals, the development of good coping skills and suggestions for the most suitable wellness modalities. Local individuals such as Lori Smith, owner of Balanced Intentions, Rita Davis, owner of Soul Sessions with Rita, and Michele Durham, owner of Access Holistic Healing and Michelle Trias, owner of MyNaturoWellness, all located in Bonita Springs, combine coaching skills with a wellness practice or cutting-edge technology that helps clients expand the scope of possible self-care outcomes. 

Balanced Intentions

Twenty years as a nurse specializing in intensive care gave Lori A. Smith a plethora of experience and valuable wisdom that she uses in her current profession as a life coach. Specifically assisting nurses and other caregivers, she works with clients via in-person meetings, phone and Zoom calls to create compassionate care plans for their wellness. 

Smith began working towards her coaching certification while still a practicing nurse. She personally found life coaching tremendously helpful in how it informed her narrative. “It gave me permission to make time for looking inwardly regarding what I wanted, where I was in my life, where I wanted to be, how I got there, and what I could do to move forward. Breaking it down into little pieces and actions that moved me forward and beyond was life-changing. Like me, my clients discover that the process is lengthy and that the open-ended questions I ask aren’t necessarily meant to bring an answer, but to provoke thought,” says Smith. 

My NaturoWellness

After approaching her career as a naturopathic consultant from a health science perspective, Michelle Trias was somewhat surprised to find that her clients’ healing journeys required lifestyle coaching almost as much as the protocols that she created for them. “While many clients knew beforehand what I was going to tell them about what they needed to do to restore their health, they were frustrated by subconscious blocks holding them back. They would often say, ‘I know I should do this, but.’ After hearing that response on numerous occasions, I knew I needed to shift gears and include lifestyle coaching in my sessions, and that my protocols needed to focus on the issues of self-love and self-care which block healing and cause people to self-sabotage. It can take several onion-peeling sessions for an individual to realize that identifying and addressing these are foundational to following protocols and moving forward,” advises Trias. 

Access Holistic Healing

Michele Durham combines her life coach skills with technology when working with clients in the areas of overall health and wellness as well as transformation, which she specializes in. Durham’s technological toolbelt, which includes the Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique and Neurolinguistic Programming, allows her to work simultaneously with the conscious and subconscious levels of the mind to help individuals gain insights into themselves. “Insights that come from within are powerful motivators. The kind of technological tools that I use connect the individual to their higher 'superconscious' self, the keeper of all past and present knowledge and helps them to intuitively know what it is that may be blocking any unexplained fears, discomforts or health challenges,” says Durham, who also uses technology with binaural beats that induce brainwave entrainment and guided visualization consisting of mental images that depict a client’s desired result of a goal.

“We are spiritual beings having a human experience, and there is much more to life that is more important than what we know superficially. Combining life coaching with the technology I use can accelerate change and achievement of goals,” explains Durham.

Soul Sessions with Rita

While Rita Davis might reach for her thought-provoking questions in a reiki session to help an individual uncover the core issue that is the cause of their unhappiness, she rarely needs them. “When someone is on my table for a reiki treatment, I am able to intuit and psychically sense their issues. Thankfully, many of us understand that we are not just a physical body and that our physical symptoms and illnesses begin first in the subtle emotional body, which as an intuitive reiki practitioner, I can psychically sense and see which of the energy centers are blocked or closed.

Davis also intuits wellness resources that can complement an individual’s healing journey. “Although energy healing is a passive process for gaining insight, self-care is an interactive process in which the clients must be willing to participate and do their own research into the practitioners, modalities and self-empowering workshops that I recommend or refer them to.

Balanced Intentions, Brooks Executive Center, 9990 Coconut Rd., Ste. 251, Bonita Springs. 413-636-509. BalancedIntentions.com. See ad, page 19.

MyNaturoWellness.com. 239-579-3846. See ad, page 17.

Access Holistic Healing & Hypnosis, 27975 Old 41 Rd., Ste. 200, Bonita Springs. 239-776-2211. AccessHolisticHealing.com. See ad, page 29.

Soul Sessions With Rita, 941-275-2859, SoulSessionsWithRita.com, See ad, page 17.