Too stressed for success? Working on wellness in Howard County
National health care reform is on the minds of Americans, and whether one agrees with the new laws or not, the debate continues to stimulate discussion on how Americans can be healthier. The bottom line? Being sick costs money — not just for the individual but for employers as well.
“Seventy percent of doctors visits are related to lifestyle behaviors,” says Cheryl Walker, program manager for Health Coaching and Wellness Coaching at Tai Sophia Institute in North Laurel. “If we get people to change behaviors, we reduce health care costs.”
Everyone knows the old saying “habits are hard to break.” What the public health professionals are finally recognizing is that health education is not enough, and they are now looking at a relationship-centered approach to improving health.
One of the up-and-coming careers is the wellness coach, says Walker.
“Wellness, or health, coaching is the linchpin to helping people get out of their own way,” says the former executive coach.
Responding to that need, Tai Sophia has introduced the Wellness Coaching graduate certificate program. The first of its kind in the nation, this nine-month program prepares lay professionals such as human resource and employee assistance specialists, personal trainers, life coaches and others to teach and motivate their clients and staff to restore and preserve their health.
Using contemporary coaching models, students learn to ask strategic questions to help others understand what beliefs and external things might be holding them back from making healthier choices. They learn to gauge if clients are ready to change or if they need inspiration, and they also learn deeper listening skills.
Participants also get an overview on the foundations of health and wellness philosophies, the current health care system and reforms. One weekend session is devoted to the art of becoming a healing presence. This course explores how the rhythms of nature, life skills and language impact health and well-being.
A core belief at Tai Sophia is that “the body is wise, and we can have subtle symptoms that are teaching us something,” Walker says.
Verizon Wireless in North Laurel is a model that shows what a wellness coach can accomplish in the workplace.
Since 1999, a full-time wellness coach has worked to promote healthy living practices through seminars and e-mail newsletters, led fitness classes in the on-site gym and scheduled health screenings, including an annual mammography screening day, says Melanie Ortel, public relations director for the company’s Maryland/D.C./Virginia region. Employees pay $15 a month to use all these services, which includes working out with the personal trainer up to one time a day, if desired. When Verizon Wireless opened its Hanover facility in 2005, it continued with that model, Ortel says.
Another core belief at Tai Sophia is that “we lead from who we are.” For years, the institute had a graduate program in Applied Healing Arts. It reworked the courses, and now the program has a new name and is divided into two options: a master’s degree in Transformative Leadership and Social Change and a graduate certificate in Transformative Leadership.
For those who can’t devote the time to a master’s degree, the certificate program is offered on weekends for six months. Transformative Leadership takes a holistic approach to creating a healthy culture in the workplace, community or family. It’s geared to those who want to make sustainable change in their organizations, or even in their work teams.
The program’s focus is on building trust, self-reflection and the power of language to promote change. The latter component distinguishes Tai Sophia’s program from other executive coaching courses, says Cheryl Walker, who is also its interim program director.
“Culturally, our institutions have had a leadership breakdown in ethics. We discuss the ripple effects of a leader’s decision on the whole community,” Walker explains. “Who is a business responsible to? Only its shareholders, or is it all the stakeholders?” That’s something examined in this program.
Rich Carter, a sales account manager for a national pharmaceutical company in Philadelphia, graduated from the first Transformative Leadership certificate program last fall. Carter heard about Tai Sophia from a friend and attended an open house before committing to driving from Philadelphia to attend the weekend courses.
“I really wasn’t interested in a typical master’s program, like an MBA. This is really how to be a better manager, a better leader,” he says. “To build the best team, to create the best team environment that I can, that’s what I’m interested in, as opposed to only being interested in results.”
Carter found the language and listening skills to be the most powerful components of the program.
“Giving someone our undivided attention is not something we do anymore. We’re so concerned with being busy at work or making that deadline,” he observed. Since the program, Carter says he has learned to engage with others on a deeper level. If someone comes into his office, he takes his hands off the keyboard and turns his computer monitor away so he can give the co-worker his full attention.
Judith Broida, Tai Sophia’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, says that “wellness is not just the absence of disease but a balance physically, emotionally and spiritually that creates a sense of overall well-being. To stay healthy, people must be engaged.”
To help meet this need, the institute has also customized its Transformative Leadership program to deliver it for on-site corporate training.
“What providers and people want are more opportunities to stay well,” Broida says. “The wind is in our sails because the country is moving to incorporate more components of wellness in their life.”
Embodying Health and Wellness
Jack LaLanne, who spent more than eight decades living, breathing and promoting health and wellness, passed away at the age of 96 on Jan. 23, leaving behind a legacy that will undoubtedly influence millions for generations to come.
And he did it all with a doctor of chiropractic degree, embodying the whole-body wellness lifestyle his fellow chiropractors espouse every day in practices across the nation and around the world. In honoring him for a lifetime of service to health care and all those he helped achieve a healthier lifestyle, we recap some of Jack’s legendary accomplishments and share his insights on how you and your patients can optimize health.
While LaLanne never used his chiropractic degree in the clinical setting, his interest in musculoskeletal health was obvious; for example, way back in 1936, he opened the first modern “physical culture studio” – what today would be known as a health spa. Before that time, weight training was generally thought of as reserved for bulky, muscle-bound body-builders, not the general public, and certainly not for women. Decades later (2007), Jack became involved in “Stay Fit Seniors,” a nationwide program developed by two doctors of chiropractic to provide seniors with circuit training within chiropractic offices.
LaLanne’s fitness exploits are legendary, of course; consider the following from his remarkable life:
At age 40, swam the length of the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco) underwater with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks.
At age 41, swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf (also in San Francisco), handcuffed, shackled and towing a boat.
At age 42, performed a world-record 1,033 push-ups in just 23 minutes on national television.
At age 43, swam the Golden Gate Channel towing a 2,500-lb boat.
Age 45: Completed 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 chin-ups in 88 minutes.
At age 60, repeated his swim from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf, again handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-lb boat.
At age 61, swam the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater, for a second time handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-lb boat.
At age 62, commemorated the “Spirit of ’76” by swimming 1 mile in Long Beach Harbor, handcuffed, shackled and towing 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) filled with 76 people.
At age 70, towed 70 boats containing 70 people 1.5 miles from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.
The following is excerpted from an interview LaLanne graciously did with us in 2007, published in our consumer magazine, To Your Health (December 2007 issue). Share the following with patients as you remind them of Jack’s incredible life and the power of true health:
“If you put the right fuel in your human machine and you exercise regularly, it’s like putting money in the bank – the more you put in, the more you can take out. Remember, you are a walking billboard.”
“Exercise is king, nutrition is queen. Put [the two] together and you’ve got a kingdom!”
“So many people over 40-50 years old think they’re over the hump. They say, ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘I’m too old for this.’ It’s ridiculous. There are more older people getting in shape now than ever before.”
“Good health has got to start in school. We have to teach kids pride and discipline in how they feel and what they do. Kids need compulsory physical education in school and we have to get the junk food out of school cafeterias. They learn bad habits when they’re young, and by the time they reach 50, the bad habits have taken their toll.”
“Ever read a label on canned soup? You can’t even pronounce all those artificial ingredients and additives. And people put that in their bodies and end up in the grave.”
People have to learn about keeping in shape for life.”
