It’s official! I graduated yesterday with some amazing women from the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute! This program was created by Tami Stackelhouse, who has been health coaching fibromyalgia patients for over 10 years. Once Tami’s schedule got full she was frustrated that she couldn’t help more people, so she decided to create her own training program to increase efforts.
Our team member, Melissa Swanson was in the first graduating class. We hope to every member of our leadership certified in the next year.
Listen to the Graduation Replay!
What is a Fibromyalgia Coach?
A FibroCoach will work with you through the good and bad days. They become your ally. It’s nice to have someone who understands everything about Fibromyalgia. A FibroCoach a health coach but trained specifically for Fibromyalgia. I can speak for the training now that I’ve completed it and the course work provides all aspect of living a life with fibromyalgia: the latest research, understanding pain, sleep, nutrition, therapeutic movement, self-care, adrenals, thyroid and so much more!
At #SupportFibro we really feel that Fibromyalgia Coaches just like Functional Medicine Health Coaches will fill a critical gap in healthcare. Doctors just don’t have anytime to spend with patients. You’ll see from the studies I’ve included below that health coaching works!
All of the Coaches and Advisors graduating from the IFCI program either have Fibromyalgia or someone very close to them has it. I cannot stop raving on the amount of passion coming from the ladies in my class. I look forward to introducing many of them to you in the near future.
Less Pain, More Good Days?
Is it really possible to have more good days? Let’s review some studies that demonstrate the facts. Just a reminder these studies were conducted with health coaches. They were not specifically trained in fibromyalgia. Health Coaching continues to prove itself valuable with chronic disease.
An independent pilot study conducted by Ohio University showed that “the addition of a HWC program to pharmacologic management of patients with FM therapy produced clinically significant improvements in patient quality of life measures (FIQR), reduction in pain (BPI) severity and interference, and marked reductions in health care utilization.”
After one year of coaching, the severity of their pain decreased by 31%
Patients saw a 44% reduction in pain interference
I know many of you would love to see a reduction in pain!
FMCA also conducted formal research into the impact of Functional Medicine Health Coaching on client health. The study, led by Dr. Andrea Cook, found that coaching clients showed improvement in both physical and mental health. The International Positive Psychology Association published their findings in what is hopefully the first of many articles on this research.
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