Coaching before being fully certified is one of the most valuable aspects of the Yoga Health Coaching course. With the support and guidance of Cate, our mentors, and other course members, we practice our skills and gain proficiency while we train. We emerge ready to coach and support our own course members.

Alison Miller went through Yoga Health Coaching while working a demanding full time job with Special Olympics Michigan. Alison is enjoying her work as a yoga health coach so much that she has set a retirement date for her job with Special Olympics Michigan, a job she truly loves. In the meantime, she’s able to do both by staying focused and organized.

Alison is now in Q4 of YHC and has finished coaching her pilot program. She’s getting ready for her certification exam, and her advice to new YHC members is don’t procrastinate! Keep up with your assignments and keep your certification record up to date.

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How Yoga Health Coaching prepares you for the meaningful, valuable, impactful work of health coaching
• Why coaching is the only way to prepare for coaching
• The best advice for new YHC members

Links Mentioned in Episode:

• Alison’s website
• YHC Have a conversation
• Watch the Masterclass NOW

Show Highlights:

1:12 – Alison went through Yoga Health Coaching while working a demanding full time job with Special Olympics Michigan. She’s now in Q4 of YHC and has finished coaching her pilot program. She’s getting ready for her certification exam, and her advice to new YHC members is don’t procrastinate! Keep up with your assignments and keep your certification record up to date.

4:30 – Coaching before being fully certified is one of the most valuable aspects to YHC. With the support and guidance of Cate, our mentors, and other course members, we practice our skills and gain proficiency while we train. We emerge ready to coach and support our own course members.

10:00 – Alison is enjoying her work as a yoga health coach so much that she has set a retirement date for her job with Special Olympics Michigan, a job she truly loves. In the meantime, she’s able to do both by staying focused and organized.

Favorite Quotes:

• “If you waited until you were ready to coach, you would never be ready to coach. The only way to be ready to coach is to coach.” — Alison Miller
• “It [the habits program] facilitates all kinds of internal work. This isn’t a diet program. This isn’t an exercise program. It’s everything. It’s an entire life program. And it shifts your whole mindset.” — Carly Banks

Guest BIO

I’m Alison and I am a seeker of all-things health and wellness. I believe that my dharma, my purpose in life, is to help others be the best they can be through lifestyle (re)design that includes learning, practicing, and implementing healthy self-care practices.  The formula and principles are simple; the practice takes discipline; and the implementation and experience of a healthier life is just ahead. I’m not going to lie ~ I want to change the world by reaching as many people as I can and lead them into health by (re)aligning their lifestyle choices. Life can be SO much better when you make small adjustments to your daily habits including what you eat, how and when you move your body, and reducing your stress level. Connect with Alison on her website and FB page.

Eighteen months after the birth of her twins, Lael was close to burnout and harboring resentment in her marriage. She and her husband started couples therapy where Lael was forced to confront her own addictions. A couple of years after saving her marriage and overcoming her addictions, and at a time when life seemed good, she received a cancer diagnosis. During treatment, Lael was forced to slow down, and her time spent in contemplation became the turning point in her life.

Lael was introduced to yoga in college but it wasn’t until her cancer diagnosis that she recognized the spiritual benefits of the practice and started waking up to her own life. She started yoga teacher training. During teacher training, Lael found Yogidetox and Yoga Health Coaching, and she now feels like she is following her dharma. With each round of Body Thrive, Lael feels like she’s peeling back more and more layers, and now, as a coach, she gets to see it all from another perspective. Connection with her higher power keeps her effective, efficient, and inspired.

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How the habits of Body Thrive lay the groundwork for deep transformation.
• How burnout, addiction, and resentment can masquerade as highly functional.
• Why you don’t need to be (and probably shouldn’t be) perfect to be a good coach.

Links Mentioned in Episode:

• Yogidetox
• Body Thrive
• Yoga Health Coaching
• Lael’s website

Show Highlights:

• 1:00 – Yoga health coaches are able to show up in a really honest way and share their struggles with each other and with the people they coach.
• 2:00 – Lael has been a therapist in private practice for 11 years. She has faced burnout, addiction and disease, and has overcome them all.
• 9:00 – Despite appearing as though she was doing all the “right things” and functioning at a very high level, Lael was missing the deep self care she needed. She deepened her yoga practice, started yoga teacher training, and found yoga health coaching.
• 14:15 – Lael is now running her first yoga health coaching group. She feels as though she has awakened to her own life. Through health coaching, she is able to share and to be real with her clients in a way that she couldn’t in a clinical setting. She feels she can now help people in a practical way.
• 19:45 – For lasting habit change, kaizen (small, incremental steps toward great change) is Lael’s top tip.
• 24:00 – Scheduling in down time, time to connect with her higher power, keeps Lael effective, efficient, and inspired.

Favorite Quotes:

• “Sometimes our desire to be with other people is a distraction from our own stuff.” — Lael Peterson
• “I was doing all the right things, . . . but it wasn’t that deep self care. It wasn’t about slowing down at all. It was very busy. It wasn’t about really listening to my true desire. . . . It was doing what was in front of me and what I was good at. . . . And I wasn’t unhappy, but it wasn’t sustainable.” — Lael Peterson
• “I didn’t want to be one way in my personal life and one way with my clients. I wanted to take everything that I was learning in my personal life and bring it to people.” — Lael Peterson
• “I want to be real with people. . .  I want to help people in a real, practical way. And I feel like health coaching and what I learned in Body Thrive is perfect for people. It’s exactly what they need to know.” — Lael Peterson
• “It’s incredible to hear that coming from a therapist’s perspective, because I very much felt the same way: No matter what the issue is, start with the habits of Body Thrive, and then see what flushes out.” — Carly Banks
• “How could you have any clarity about what’s actually driving you crazy, when you’re so out of rhythm; you’re so out of sync?” — Lael Peterson
• “I am only as effective or as efficient or inspired as I am connected. . . . It’s really, really important for me to be connected to my higher power, and the way I do that is by getting away from my regular life.” — Lael Peterson

Guest BIO:

Lael is a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, yogi and yoga teacher. She’s a recovering addict, cancer survivor, spiritual seeker, and nature lover. She’s also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been providing support, education and therapy for the past 15 years. Lael offers individual therapy as well as yoga health coaching. Her personal life experience combined with her professional expertise and her innate passion to help people live better lives forms the basis of her practice. Her approach is create an atmosphere of safety and acceptance where her clients can dig deep and get real. Connect with lael on her FB page Lael Petersen and her website .