Health Promotion

Promote health, well-being, and QOL of individuals across the lifespan, the communities and society, as movement system experts.

1. ACSM Certified Personal Trainer and promoting health and well-being with my clients.

2. Here to Help: a community program that helps individuals without homes

This was my first client in which we did not focus solely on exercising. It took about a month of discussing health behavior change for her to finally feel ready to begin her program.

We started with small but meaningful goals, and biweekly talked about how far she has come, and how these small, but powerful positive changes she's made in her life have impacted her health. We talked about diet, mentality, social influence and movement, and the synergistic relationship they each hold together. I didn't educate Emily on the specifics of each topic, but instead guided her to discuss her feelings, but also provide me with the answers. Emily came such a long way with the simple yet effective conversations we were having.

After about three months, she came to me to let me know she no longer needed me but would reach out if anything changed. She was confident, she had reached her physical and mental goals and she could independently carry out her health journey while knowing I was still there if she needed me.

Approaching the end of my education, with the knowledge and skills I have since gained, I wonder how much more I could have helped her and if so, would I have been able to help guide her earlier on to prevent the depression and anger she has been feeling?

Getting this education will only further my skill set and sets me on the journey to help a variety of populations, in which Emily represents a lot. Starting from a holistic, patient centered, biopsychosocial approach - I know I can provide strategies to patients that will improve various areas of their lives.

Here to Help

The Here to Help Clinic is part of The Chittenden County Homeless Alliance, which is an organization that supports the mission of providing a safe, decent, affordable, stable home for every person and family in Chittenden County.

Their mission is to end homelessness in Chittenden County through advocating prevention, early intervention and remediation.

After working with the Here to Help organization, I realized there is a lot to be learned from just a few hours of volunteering. Society stigmatizes the homeless as people who "did this to themselves through criminal activity". But, the truth is that they are just as human as those with homes and possessions.

While I did not always, I think about the times I did turn my head to people on the streets or lock my doors because I was scared and I am embarrassed now to say that. Society is an invisible and complex intuition but somewhere in that chain, we need to begin to change our perception. Simply extending a smile and acknowledging their existence as humans is an easy thing we can do and when volunteering I noticed that smiling and being friendly, made their day and it certainly made mine to see that.

While servicing food and handing out clothes the public had donated, finding a way to reach out to the people I was helping was not as hard as I anticipated. I expected anyone coming in to be reserved and shut off, and while some were, it turned out that they wanted someone to talk to and someone to listen to them. A variety of people had opened up to me with appreciation and thankfulness.

While they were grateful for the food and the clothes we were serving, I found it most interesting that the most important thing to these people was to be heard and to be seen. These are the people we pass them on the street without giving them a time of day when they ask for help. And with every plate I helped make and every piece of clothing I handed out, I was given a new perspective on life in return.

I will encounter many different individuals of society, and while this experience was not necessarily movement system related, I still feel as though I gained great insight into what it would be like working with these individuals.

Walking home that day, I realized there is a lot to be learned and a lot I should be ashamed of. With the career path I am choosing, I will be working with individuals of all backgrounds, and its imperative that I understand this vulnerable population may face multiple barriers to not only accessing health care services, but for remediating/progressing through treatment. As a movement system expert, I aim to help people from all walks of life and provide patient-centered care that will meet the needs of each person.

One of the greatest gifts you can give is your time.