HEALTH COACHING AT IMCNC

 What is a Health Coach?

A Health Coach is a professional who uses evidence-based conversation and strategies to engage patients in behavior change that improves their health. Health coaches help clients achieve their health goals and empower them to integrate healthy habits into their lifestyles. Together, you and your coach will devise goals and the strategies necessary to achieve them.

Who are the IMCNC Health Coaches?

Christine Phillips, who is both a Registered Nurse (RN) and a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC) joined IMC last summer. Christine is cross-trained in foundational functional medicine principles and health coaching techniques. As a Functional Medicine Health Coach and nurse, she focuses on whole person wellness and helps clients achieve their lifestyle and wellness goals through patient-directed behavior changes via a patient-centered process.  She engages and empowers each patient as an active participant/owner in their overall state, sense of wellbeing and their personal vision of wellness. Christine works primarily with membership patients, but is open for Pay-Per-Service patients as well.

Cherry Pfau is an Advanced Practice Holistic Registered Nurse and Healing Touch Practitioner offering Integrative Health Coaching and NES Health Bioenergetic Scanning. Cherry has been in nursing for 40+ years and is a graduate of the Integrative Health Coach Professional Training at Duke Integrative Medicine. She has extensive knowledge of a variety of holistic therapies. Cherry loves to work with women struggling with fatigue, foggy brain and frustration about health concerns to help them understand the root cause of what is behind those symptoms, recharge their batteries for energy, focus and new control over their health. Cherry works exclusively with Pay-Per-Service patients.

What happens during health coaching?

Our Functional Medicine Health Coaches partners with you to co-create healthy and sustainable and modifiable lifestyle habits and changes in the areas of:

  • Nutrition and Detoxification

  • Sleep and Restoration

  • Stress Management

  • Relationships and Connection

  • Movement and Physical Activity

Interventions target behavior changes aligned with the goals that are meaningful to you. Your coach will listen, guide and support you through this change process, which includes setting goals, providing feedback, and identifying obstacles, barriers and blindspots. She will assist you in working through day-to-day challenges that arise as you begin or continue on your journey toward health and wellness. Your Functional Medicine Health Coach will serve to motivate, inspire and provide accountability to you when you implement new lifestyle changes.

Your coach will help you explore and experiment with behaviors that improve your health with a focus on supporting actions that promote wellness - not just the absence of disease - and on those actions that help you to live the healthy, happy and fulfilling life that you envision for yourself. IMC’s Functional Medicine Health Coach helps you to understand and gain clarity about your “why” and assists you in aligning your habits and behaviors with your core values and goals, and becoming clear on your vision of optimal health and wellness. Through the process, you will learn to make intentional choices that serve you rather than unconscious choices that put you further off your chosen wellness track.

The process of health coaching involves:

  • Active listening, empathy, motivational inquiry and asking open ended questions.

  • Exploring your strengths and how they play into successes and choices.

  • Setting weekly, biweekly or monthly health goals that are individualized, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time sensitive.

  • Providing tools and accountability when you implement new lifestyle changes.

  • Educating you and helping you understand your provider’s plan of care.

  • Motivating you using positive psychology techniques.

  • Collaborating directly with your IMC Provider when appropriate.

  • Celebrating successes and encouraging progress.

  • Supporting and empowering you to make successful behavior changes in your daily routines that serve to promote mental wellbeing, healthy mindset and lifestyle.

  • Engaging you as an active participant/owner in your overall state and sense of wellbeing and your vision of wellness.

What does Health Coaching cost?

IMC does not accept insurance as of January 1, 2024. Health Coaching may be reimbursable through your FSA or HSA account - we recommend you ask your plan administrators for confirmation of this.

IMC’s Membership Plan includes Health Coaching at no additional cost when referred by your IMC provider. More information on the Membership Plan is available here.

For non-members, fees are as follows:

  • In-person Intake and Orientation Visit - 90 minutes - $175

  • In-person or virtual Follow-up Visit - 60 minutes - $125

Behavior changes and development of new habits typically take 3- 6 months to solidify.

Working with your coach may be short term for specific wellness goals or long term for continued habit building and multiple goals in different areas of wellness.

Ready to get started with Health Coaching?

Please call the office at (984) 999-0902 and choose the Nurse Line (Option #4) to leave a message for Christine or Cherry to contact you about Health Coaching.