What is Integrative Health Coaching?
An integrative health coach forms a partnership with individuals or groups to empower and support them in achieving their personal goals related to improving health and wellness.
It is client-centered and focuses on building relationships with individuals or groups to collaboratively meet their health goals.
It addresses the health and wellbeing of the whole person.
It acknowledges the interdependent roles of mind, body and spirit, and the innate healing capacity within each person.
It emphasizes self-care and facilitates each individual’s ability to tap into their own inner wisdom.
See WhatIsIHCoaching for more information.
Dr. Abercrombie has national board certification as a health and wellness coach. She completed a certificate program in integrative health coaching through the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. This is a rigorous program that included in-person mentoring and supervision, numerous proficiency evaluations and 100 hours of coaching before graduation.
What is integrative guided imagery?
There are many different ways to use imagery to improve health and promote healing. With integrative imagery you are actively involved in the imagery experience, making this a very personalized and transformative experience. You can use integrative imagery to tap into your inner healer to get insight into a health issue, relieve pain or create a special place of comfort and relaxation. Imagery can also help you access your inner strength to cope with fear or an illness. The sessions usually take about 30-45 minutes. It begins with a brief assessment and explanation, then the actual imagery experience and concludes with a few minutes to debrief about what happened during the session. Here are some examples of how integrative guided imagery is used:
Create a Special Place
Imagery can be used to create a place of comfort and safety that promotes relaxation and facilitates healing. With integrative imagery you create this special place to meet your own unique needs.
Work with an Image of a Symptom or a Problem
By exploring an image of a symptom such as abdominal pain, you can gain insight into it and learn how to deal with it.
Consult with your Inner Wisdom
We all have an inner aspect of ourselves that is wise, loving and intuitive and already knows the answers to many of our questions. Imagery gives us an opportunity to get in touch with this inner wisdom and explore an issue or concern that you have.
Access your Inner Strengths
This technique involves choosing a quality or feeling you wish to possess in a particularly challenging situation. Deep inside you already possess all the inner resources that you need to manage life’s challenges. This is helpful for dealing with fear/anxiety, loss, performance anxiety, recovery, coping with an illness, etc.
Confer with your Inner Healer
Similar to consulting into your inner wisdom, you can tap into your inner healer to activate healing. The inner healer can help with all aspects of health; physical, emotional or spiritual.
Explore Inner Conflict
Many of us have been faced with a conflict within ourselves. For instance, the part of us that wants to exercise and the part of us that does not. This technique can help you gain insight into those conflicting parts so that you can move toward resolution and change.
Transform Pain
This technique is used to help change your experience of pain, stress, or a physical symptom. It incorporates the use of the body diagram as a visual representation of the pain or symptom experience.
Dr. Abercrombie received certification in integrative imagery through Beyond Ordinary nursing by completing 110 hours of training including observed imagery sessions.
Where did Dr. Abercrombie receive her training in integrative health care?
She completed the Associate Fellowship in Integrative Medicine offered by the University of Arizona, Tucson. This program was created by Dr. Andrew Weil. It is a two-year program designed for physicians and nurse practitioners who want to incorporate the philosophies and techniques of integrative medicine into their practice. The Associate Fellowship emphasizes clinical applications, case studies and collaboration to provide a broad conceptual and practical education in integrative medicine. Topics covered include: Philosophy of Integrative Medicine, Botanicals, Nutrition, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Mind/Body health, Energy therapies, Homeopathy, Manual medicine, and many others. It is a 2-year, 1000 hour program and the Associate Fellows are required to spend 3 separate residential weeks in Tucson throughout the 2 years.