[00:00:00] Kara: Sick of the fatigue and fog? Fed up with the unpredictable flares? Hangry from the super restrictive diets?
Hello, and welcome to the Crunchy Allergist Podcast, a podcast empowering those who like me, appreciate both a naturally minded and scientifically grounded approach to health and healing.
Hi, I'm your host, Dr. Kara Wada, quadruple board certified pediatric and adult allergy immunology and lifestyle medicine, physician Sjogren's patient and life coach. My recipe for success combines, the anti-inflammatory lifestyle, trusting therapeutic relationships, modern medicine, and mindset to harness our body's ability to heal.
Now although I might be a physician I'm not your physician And this podcast is for educational purposes only.
Welcome everyone. I am so excited to welcome you to a very special episode of the crunchy allergist podcast. Today we are featuring a session that was recorded at the Aila health auto-immune summit. This was the invisible to invincible conference and we had an incredible time amongst auto-immune invisible illness patients and physicians and other healthcare professionals who both care for patients with invisible illnesses and many of whom are also invisible illness patients themselves.
During this session, I spoke with my coach, Dr. KA. Kathy. Stepien Dr. Shannon Sims of Aila health and Lauren Freedman of an invisible pod. We spoke about the power of coaching and how coaching can help auto-immune patients and healthcare professionals.
Join us as we talk about what exactly is coaching, how has coaching helped us in our everyday lives? And how you may look. For a coach to help you on your health and wellness journey. Let's jump in.
[00:02:15] Shanon Sims: and so we'll, let's, without further ado let's let's go ahead and get to it. So welcome everyone who is joining us and in trickling in just wanted to begin with a few introductions of our wonderful panelists when we're all gathered here to just hear about the power of coaching and just how this can be a supportive tool during in your self care and just in health overalls.
I will be happy to just introduce introduce our panelists here. So first we have Dr. Kara Wada, who is an allergist and immunologist and a lifestyle medicine physician. She's an auto-immune warrior herself. She's also a life coach and a medical educator.
We have Dr. Kathy Stepien, who's a pediatrician. International speaker and founding director of the Institute for physician wellness. She's also a physician coach and is trained in mindfulness-based stress reduction as well as mindful self-compassion.
And Lauren Freedman is an integrative health coach and activist and how she motives warrior. She's also the host of the award winning podcast uninvisible pod.
So welcome to all of them.
[00:03:32] Kathy Stepien: Thank you.
[00:03:34] Kara Wada: Shannon. You need to introduce yourself as well, because you are an integrative wellness coach, a coach, a mind body specialist, and you work for this great organization. I love how have your master's and PhD in mind and body medicine where you also help teach as a core faculty member. So we're excited to have you in this conversation too.
[00:03:55] Shanon Sims: Thank you so much. This topic is near and dear to my heart, and it's just so wonderful to have even credible folks here with us as well. And yeah as a wellness coach with Iowa health, I'm working with folks who are dealing with chronic illness in a coaching capacity.
And so in many ways, the coach is at the center of Aila health. And I've been coaching with auto-immune warriors and really seeing this amazing transformation that can unfold as a result of that process and this collaborative and supportive relationship. And so it's still for those maybe who are tuning in here and it might be new to this idea of coaching.
Why don't we start by defining it? What is coaching and and how do you practice it? Kara, would you care to share.
[00:04:43] Kara Wada: I always go back to thinking about my earliest experiences with coaching, which for many of us may have been in either sporting or in music or in another kind of activity. Really working towards a goal with someone who is helping give you feedback, maybe some mentorship, they are at least a couple steps ahead of you maybe in the game and helping provide some reflection in ability to give you a little more clarity in what is going on as well. And so that is. What I define as coaching kind of broadly and see it really help with patients, but also with my medical trainees and then personally in my own journey with autoimmune disease as well.
[00:05:33] Shanon Sims: And Dr. Stepien and you are a physician and a coach as well. So what does this look like in in your life and your world.
[00:05:40] Kathy Stepien: So I think about coaching as an ability to see what's in our blind spot. It's coaching is a, is an organization affiliated with Harvard medical school and they define coaching as a relationship that helps you figure out what is keeping you stuck so that you can move forward toward what it is that you want.
And I'm paraphrasing that they stay at much more elegantly, but really it's about. What's going on for me, that I am struggling with that's that's coming up for me that I'm dealing with as a human being, walking on this planet. And then how is it that I would like things to be, how do I want to think?
How do I want to feel, what do I want my life to be about given the situations of life? So coaching for me is a very empowering process. It, I think allows all of us to really inform me personally, allowed me to tap into, oh, wait. Okay. Whatever's happening in my life. I'm not a victim to it. I'm not I'm not just like passive where it's happening to me.
I'm an active agent. I have, I may not be able to control or change everything, but I can absolutely impact how I show up. And my part of it. And I love that the connection to our agency, our connection to choosing and empowering. That for me is like the magic of coaching. It's just like really, for me personally, and also the physicians I work with really claiming that human alien will defining feature of what it is to be human
[00:07:10] Shanon Sims: Lauren. How about for you?
[00:07:13] Lauren Freedman: I would say I want to echo what Kara and Dr. Stepien are saying. Beautifully said. I don't think I'm going to be able to say it any better, but I'll give it a shot in that. In its simplest terms I see coaching and coaches, health coaches, specifically as agents of behavior change.
So what we're doing is supporting our clients who are most often patients, which we all are in some respect supporting others in being able to. Oftentimes recognize what's holding them back in order to really complete and be empowered to come back to ourselves, which often means commitment to change and long-term transformation.
And a lot of that has to do with helping clients recognize. What they need to hold themselves accountable for. And in many ways, especially for those of us who have auto-immune disease, bridging the gap because often we go to see doctors who give us a treatment plan, but we have 15 minutes with them because a lot of us are saddled by these issues with health insurance, right? And as such, we get a treatment plan and we almost don't know where to start and what to do without it. And a health coach is someone who can step in and say, what's most important that we work on right now. What feels most important to you and a client might say I've been told, I have to start this medication regimen.
I have to start exercising. I've got to do this with my food. It's there can often be so many different factors that go into a treatment plan. And so whereabouts. Simplifying the steps and helping people commit to them longterm and really being there as fierce advocates, a big role that I also play is to help us come back to ourselves.
Find empowerment and be able to learn how to advocate for ourselves within the healthcare system, to which I'm going to be talking about later today. All of those factors go into it, but really it is about long-term change and being able to hold someone's hand while they're going through all of that. Cause it can often be really scary and isolating and we operate so as, so no one has to be.
[00:09:24] Shanon Sims: Yeah. And having an accountability partner, right? We all have ideas for, how we want to be living our best life or these things that we know that we should do, or that even we want to do, like really we want to do, but making change and lasting meaningful change it's difficult.
It takes intention and commitment. And that's where the role of the coach, how. No really comes in to help support. And and I had a colleague of mine say something really incredible the other day that I would like to bring into this as well, which is that, you know what I feel as a coach I'm creating the conditions for the magic to happen, but you bring the magic.
The patients, the one bringing the magic, this is all I'm just helping and guiding and, hands holding Lauren like you said, and not in an enabling sort of a way, but really in an empowering sort of way.
[00:10:21] Lauren Freedman: I like to use the analogy of, those side cars on motorcycles. I see coaches as like your friend in the sidecar being like you could do it, whereas our clients or the people who are in the driver's seat. And as you say, Shannon, are bringing the magic and that's, what's so important is that a lot of it is about taking responsibility for ourselves too, but in a really supportive and respectful and inclusive environment and loving environment too.
[00:10:49] Kara Wada: It's funny, Lauren, I use the analogy of the patient being the quarterback of the football team, because I live in a big football college football town. So that goes pretty far in the clinic, but then, the coach being the coach, but you really need to have your special teams, all these different people to help support you, but really you are the star of the show and that's really, how it should be.
[00:11:20] Shanon Sims: Yeah. It's interesting to also know too. We have our poll going and we're split among people who are tuning in, or at least to answering this poll. That's, some books have been coached, but then there's almost about another half that haven't never been coached or maybe thinking about it.
So how you know, so how is coaching used in patient care. And maybe Kara, Kathy, this might be a break, a launching point for you to kinda describe how, what does that look like? How do you use, patient care in tandem with coaching and just, what's the value in that?
[00:11:59] Kara Wada: Do you want to take it Kathy?
[00:12:00] Kathy Stepien: Sure, I'm going to speak up on that one. So prior to becoming a physician, I was a physical therapist for 13 years. And every day, I helped people who were dealing with chronic issues that that had a lot of pain and dysfunction involved. And I look now at the coaching skills I have, and I still wish I had that back when I was a physical therapist.
I absolutely use it now as a pediatrician, I use it in every aspect of my life, including parenting. So specifically to your question about, how would coaching help patients with auto-immune diseases? I don't work with specifically, like that's not my specific area of focus but at the same time it can, I think it can be so helpful for everybody. Again, coming back to the when we have things in our lives, whatever it is that we are wishing were different and doing everything we could, but it would be different. There's so much mental chatter going on and there's actually physical tatter as well. It's a state of physiological arousal.
We're like, we're amped up because things are different than they should be, and we're grieving. Think I don't want this or whatever, it might be, whatever our experience of the situation is. And so recognizing and settling into, oh, this is what my mind is offering me. This is what my body is sharing with me.
This is how I'm showing up for this and how and meeting that with compassion and acknowledgement. And wholeheartedness like, this is what it's like to be me right now. And what else is possible? Is it possible for me to, and then fill in the blank. Is it possible for me to experience joy despite misery, is it possible for me to navigate a system that can be frustrating and complex and challenging and bewildering?
Despite all of that, like what else is possible? So I think coaching I wish so much. I would've had it earlier in my life, both as a care provider, but as, also as a patient. Oh, it really, like Lauren said puts us in the driver's seat of our lives and allows us, our brains and our bodies to see, okay what is possible for me?
And what do I want, and how, what are some things I can do to help myself get there, both in behaviors, but also in our thoughts and feelings that are so connected with our.
[00:14:21] Shanon Sims: How about for you, Kara?
[00:14:24] Kara Wada: I don't know if I can add anything more than that, in the practical sense. So as an allergist, I'm trying to help coach patients to quit smoking quite frequently, because that is something. Very detrimental to both sinus and respiratory health in particular.
And so I go back to some of those foundational behavior change things. Okay. Where's the patient at? Where can we meet? Where are they ready? What are they ready for? And so using some of those skills from the health coaching aspect of okay, are they ready for, or could we move help, try to get them one step closer to yeah, those little 1% improvements over time that really do add up over the longterm.
[00:15:05] Shanon Sims: Yeah. I think this piece of know meeting, meeting that person where they are, and that's really important piece of all of this then really in talking about what now, how do you get to a place that you feel more fulfilled and whatever area of wellness that might look. And I often see it. This relationship between wellness coaching on the one hand and the work that I do with people and then also, the physician relationship that they have. And with Aila health, we have a multidisciplinary team of specialists. And you're working with me on the one hand and then also seeing, one of our physicians or some of these other things, and it's this beautiful relationship too, between, more right frequently meeting with people in between when they have their appointment with their doctors.
And this is just like that extra piece to really help move forward in, in a good way and in a productive kind of meaningful way. As you're in with your doctor and you say, okay here's some things that might be good to focus on. Let's just use exercise as one example.
Okay, let's start moving, you're moving your body a little bit more. And then coming into a coaching session and really discovering what does that mean for you? What how would that look like in your life, in your body? And then we can create a really tailored individualized plan for, how are you going to go about doing it?
And then next time meeting with the doctor saying, okay, yeah, I'm actually working on this and here's some of the results I'm seeing. So the coaching with the doctor and the physicians can be this really complimentary approach to just supporting health and this journey in in a way that might not otherwise be seen.
So I don't know other thoughts from you all on that matter. Lauren, if you have thoughts on that too, in your own.
[00:16:49] Lauren Freedman: Yeah, thank you. Shannon. The only thing I would add is that for those who are like on the fence about coaching who are a little skeptical about the prompt access? What I wanted to add was that there have been numerous studies that have shown us that coaching optimizes patient outcomes.
So it is an evidence-based approach. And it's the reason that so many physicians are beginning to incorporate it into their practices on a regular basis. And I always get excited when I see physicians who have coaches in their practice or work with coaches or refer out to coaches because to me that shows a real commitment to supporting the patient long-term.
Not just spending the limited amount of time that we have with them, but being able to say, all right, look, I'm going to set you up with someone who's going to help you unfold and translate all of this stuff, right? Because it can be really overwhelming, especially when you have an autoimmune disease or if you have multiple diagnoses chronic conditions. There can be so many different factors that play in your wellness, including any kind of stressor in your life, which can look like work and relationships and your home environment.
So there are so many different factors that can culminate to create symptoms. And in order to really get a handle on these things and to get back in the driver's seat to feel that we are back in control. In a body that often teaches us quite the opposite. It's amazingly empowering to be able to work with someone who can be there for you along the way and choose using these evidence-based approaches that are drawn from various elements of coaching practice. And yeah, to be able to support people is such an exciting job to it's a very meaningful thing to do so
[00:18:36] Shanon Sims: Watching, just witnessing people flourish, that is what brings so much joy to my heart in this work
Either to be human it's a complicated thing, right? We are complex as human beings and, getting to work with people through that, into, help identify goals that are important, and then to work towards those goals and to track those goals over time and to champion and cheer and support along the way is really valuable?
[00:19:12] Kathy Stepien: I think one of the things I love so much just adding to the conversation here is everybody loves so much is the sense of that we are growing and developing across the lifespan, right? The bio-social cycle, psycho model of our growth and development is that we really, and I see this as a pediatrician, we have these developmental milestones and then aha suddenly we're an adult. Typically that growth and development happens across the lifespan. And I, one of the things I love about coaching is it really helps us step back sometimes and see that what's going on with me currently is part of something that's so much bigger. It's just I think often when we are facing challenging time in our lives, it can feel so consuming that our world becomes more like this.
And our focus becomes more like this. And I think one of the things that coaching has been so great for me is oh yeah, it's it doesn't define me. It just helps. What's on hand doesn't define me, it's just, what's going on now in my life, in this bigger lifespan, this bigger process of my growth and development across my entire life.
And that to me feels very liberating. Doesn't it? There's this sense of hope and with the change of perspective, that feels empowering and actually it's activating, it's rather than just stuck in my narrow focus oh, wait a minute, here's a different perspective that serves me so well.
[00:20:36] Shanon Sims: Yeah. And so in our remaining five minutes, I know there's lots of questions that are coming through too. And I think our incredible conversation is getting people really fired up and excited about the idea of coaching, which is incredible, obviously, we're huge advocates for that.
And so there's, people are wondering, how do I find a coach? What are, where are resources for that? I am very interested in coming here. So that's so wonderful. For one thing Aila Health, you can find coaching through Aila health. I'm the coach with Aila.
And so we offer coaching right there. But maybe from our other speakers here to, suggestions for resources.
[00:21:15] Kara Wada: So I personally found my coach who is Kathy through word of mouth, I think that's really helpful. Kind of those personal relationships and personal recommendations from folks.
And so that's something that I found pretty helpful. Pass it on.
[00:21:34] Lauren Freedman: Yeah. There, there are a few resources that I would actually recommend aside from Aila health. Obviously if you're working with the team at Aila and you're set you've got everything you need, but if you're looking beyond that the national board of health and wellness coaching offers a directory do certain organizations depending on where people have trained and how they've trained you can always look through the American association of drugless practitioners.
If you want to work with me, you can reach out to me. But yeah, there are a lot of ways to find coaches these days and sometimes it's also about, getting involved with communities and events like this and being like how, and who's a coach here, and being able to go through that way as well.
But it's becoming more and more common in physician practices, especially integrative and functional practices. So even just asking your PCP or your GP and saying, Hey, I want to work with a coach, do you have anyone you'd recommend can be a really helpful way to move forward.
[00:22:34] Shanon Sims: And one of the, one of the silver linings of the pandemic is that a lot of services have turned to virtual. And so the accessibility of receiving care that you're looking for is. That you know that much more. And there was a question somewhere along the lines about insurance and gosh, it's sure depends on your insurance, but I would say most coaching, it would not be covered by insurance. Probably. Probably not, but...
[00:22:59] Lauren Freedman: We're working on it. It is something that's in the works for a few years from now
[00:23:08] Shanon Sims: ... just looking through some of these chats here. Yeah. There's such excitement here. But in our final two minutes, any, anything else from our speakers that you just want to share around? Yeah, just coaching the value of it recommendations or just remaining thoughts?
[00:23:22] Kara Wada: I would say personally, as I think about things that I have spent or invested in coaching has been something that I think has been.
The best investment of my time, energy and financial resources in my overall health and wellness. As I think about coaching, I invested in to help learn more about food with Jennifer, one of our other speakers today, that was one of the best investments I made in learning those skills and having someone to help me see those blind spots as Kathy had mentioned as well.
And so I would say, although time, money and energy are always things that we have to be very conscientious of it is something that does really reap its rewards.
[00:24:14] Lauren Freedman: And I would also add on top of what you're talking about, Kara a lot of health coaches offer sliding scale.
So if you're struggling to afford a particular rate always great to ask if a coach might offer a sliding scale much the same that a lot of mental health practitioners offer, right? Like just say, do you offer a sliding scale or a cash rate? If the rate sounds too high for you, because there is quite a range of rates out there and depending on where your coach might be based on what their practice looks like.
So yeah, don't forget to ask about those kinds of things. Cause it can always make it more affordable and some offer scholarships and donation-based access as well. So that
[00:24:55] Kathy Stepien: I would just end by saying that when I first heard about coaching, it felt a little woo-woo to me and it's yeah, I don't really need that. I'm good. I'm studying this and I've got these, this other support. And I, it just didn't feel like the right fit for me. And I almost was a little bit, I have to admit this. I was a little close-minded about it and perhaps it just wasn't the right time for me. But then as I learned more and I got coached and oh my goodness, like where has this been?
My whole life. So I guess my closing thoughts would be that if people are feeling a little bit of hesitation, like add, I dont know, is that kind of like out there? I would say no, it's, evidence-based, it's really it's, it's it's not, woo-woo, is not out in the fringe. It really is its own its own tool for your wellbeing that is a very worthy endeavor. And I encourage you to don't be like me and be a little bit minded to it. But really just consider it's oh, go check it out. Dip your toe in the water and see if it's thing. And then also talking with a bunch of different coaches, everybody has their own training, their own styles, their own fit.
And so I think that's a huge piece, just like if I were to see a counselor that, that fit is a big part of the therapeutic relationship. And I think that's true with coaching as well, that having working with someone with whom you resonate makes a big difference.
[00:26:11] Shanon Sims: I couldn't agree more with that, finding the right fit is important. And thank you all for for being here and joining us in this session and to our speakers, Lauren Dr. Wada, Dr. Stepien, thank you for being here. We have I know there's some questions we didn't even get to this time has been so full and wonderful, but, and we have a couple of amazing sessions happening right now to move into.
One is with parenting with chronic illness, a wonderful session on that. And then also integrative approaches to managing chronic pain. So hope to see you all shifting into one of those sessions. And thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thanks for having us.
[00:26:48] Kara: Thank you so much for tuning in to this special edition of the crunchy allergist podcast. I was so excited and honored to help out with the Aila autoimmune warrior conference. We had an incredible time. And if you happen to miss it, you can actually head over to the app store, download the Aila app.
And on the free version of the app, you can tune in to all of the sessions from the conference. There you can find sessions on how to advocate for yourself in the healthcare system, emotional wellness, anxiety and identity self-advocacy in the workplace. Sleep well and live well with integrative medicine, parenting with chronic illness and so much more.
Also, I wanted to share with you about an upcoming event I'm hosting with my partner, Jennifer, who also works with Aila. We'll be hosting a free masterclass series called alleviate auto immune depression with nutrition and self-compassion practices. As a mom of three, who has struggled with not only auto immune related depression, but also postpartum depression.
I have found using a combination of treatments, including medication therapy and nutrition and self-compassion self-compassion practices. To be incredibly helpful in my healing journey. So we are going to share the science behind using all of these different modalities in caring for ourselves.
You guys have the auto immune depression puzzle on day one, Jennifer we'll discuss why therapy and medications sometimes alone aren't enough. And talk about the connection between chronic inflammation and depression. She'll wrap up with practical nutrition strategies to improve auto-immune related depression and improve your mental clarity.
On day two, I'm going to talk about why our brains always take us to be our worst critic and how we can break that cycle in order to build self compassion practice. This experience is for you, if you're a new mom, suffering with autoimmune illness, or maybe an autoimmune patient dealing with depression or anxiety. Or if you're just dealing with brain fog and really want to work on improving your mental clarity using a holistic approach.
To reserve your seat for this free webinar series. You're going to hop over to. Bit.ly backslash nourish dash webinar. Or you can head over to the main crunchyallergist.com site and we'll have the link there. We'll also have the link in the show notes as well.
And we look forward to seeing you next Monday and Tuesday, that's June 6th and 7th, at noon eastern standard time. Live or the recordings will be posted later as well. We can't wait to see you. And I hope you have a great weekend. Talk to you next week.
