Returning to Our Roots
Healing Healthcare
“Being a yoga teacher [or a wellness coach] is similar to being a physician: my mission is to find the origination of my clients’ problems and help my clients heal themselves, so I can send them on their way, out in the world with the ability to maintain their health, on their own.”
~Rebecca Lammersen
At My Human Coach, a new employee-run cooperative specializing in text-based coaching services, it’s not about business growth or client retention or making more money than we did last year.1 Of course, on some level it is important to create a sustainable business, have clients, and keep them around long enough for everyone involved to benefit in the ways that matter. But these days, it seems that the ever important dollar gets the final say more than anything else. Pulling a profit that’s bigger than before almost always takes priority in today’s dominant business culture–after all, if business is booming, we can help more people. Right?
In some ways, it’s true. If businesses keep clients coming back for as long as possible, plant the seeds of positive change, treat the condition with a pill, and help the bottom line, everybody wins, right?2
Hmm.
In dominant culture, money is important–that much is clear. Depending on where we live and what sort of lifestyle we are aiming for or born into, today’s average human needs a certain minimum of continual cash flow to thrive. Living on the planet comes with a price tag for most people in the modern world. Things are expensive.
But there’s a cost, more than just one measured by dollars, of doing business this way.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not super interested in working with someone who doesn’t really want to interact with me, or only does so out of fear or guilt or whatever other reasons people do things that they aren’t intrinsically motivated to do.3 People can benefit from programs and classes and appointments, absolutely. Yet things such as yoga and wellness coaching and health care, at their core, are about healing. And true healing is about honoring the process, a process that’s often messy and nonlinear and takes longer than we think it should. It’s about authentic ways of being together and in the world that add beauty and take energy away from destruction. So often dominant culture has lost sight of that. Too often the goal of business is to hook people and try to convince them that they need us forever. Too often healthcare becomes part of the message of lack.
True healing is about honoring the process, a process that’s often messy and nonlinear and takes longer than we think it should. It’s about authentic ways of being together and in the world that add beauty and take energy away from destruction.
Dr. Lissa Rankin, author of The Anatomy of a Calling, writes, “As a physician, I knew it wasn’t enough to treat only the biochemical elements of a healthy lifestyle. Sure, diet, exercise, a good night’s sleep, and [managing stress] are key to a healthy life. But if you hate your job, you feel spiritually disconnected, you feel creatively thwarted, you can’t stand where you live, and you haven’t found your supportive community, no drug, surgery, supplement, or diet plan is going to save you. The body is a mirror of how we live our lives.
At My Human Coach, we’re interested in spreading the message of wholeness and being part of a movement centered on healing and empowerment and owning our stories. We all need support or guidance or extra help with healing sometimes — humans were made to exist in community. We need to come to each other’s aid and accept help when we need it and give help when others ask. As Howard Thurman suggests, “what we need is more people who have come alive.” What we don’t need is to be sold (or sell) happiness in a bottle, programs that will fix us in 10 steps and three easy payments of $45.95, or a lifetime on various medications. We provide accessible and ethical whole-person coaching, free health resources, and the promise of 100% human community and support.
The above audio is from a book called Slouching Toward Radiance.
At My Human Coach, we believe that enhancing individual health is pivotal to elevating societal well-being and the health of our planet because healthy individuals are the foundation of resilient families, workplaces, communities, and democracies.
We empower our clients through personalized health & wellness coaching and embrace the invaluable qualities of empathy, insight, and human experience.
We know better health is possible for everyone and envision a world where improved health is achieved for everyone who chooses to pursue it. We also honor that there are many influences on health and well-being, encompassing cultural, environmental, and socio-economic factors alongside personal choices.
Acknowledging the profit-driven nature of many health resources, we pledge to provide free health information that never engages in upselling, merchandise promotion, or concealed partnerships with retailers or pharmaceutical companies.
Our social media platforms share our coaches’ personal wisdom along with health & wellness concepts and wholehearted viewpoints.
We make 1:1 health & wellness coaching accessible and affordable. Our coaches are skilled professionals embodying a compassionate, non-judgmental approach. We firmly believe that regardless of an individual’s health status or circumstances, they possess the capacity to create positive, lasting changes in their health and their lives.
Consider joining us today, by supporting our early crowdfunding efforts via a platform called I Fund Women.
About the author: Heidi Barr is a writer and wellness coach whose work is founded on a commitment to cultivating ways of being that are life-giving and sustainable for people, communities, and the planet. She is the author of several books of creative nonfiction, including COLLISIONS of EARTH and SKY and 12 TINY THINGS. Her third poetry collection, JUST WILD ENOUGH came out in April 2024. She lives with her family on Dakota land in rural Minnesota, where they tend a large vegetable garden, explore nature, and do their best to live simply.
After covering operating costs and adequate (i.e. provide a living wage) staff salaries, all profits are invested back into the organization so services can be continually improved and coaching is accessible to all, regardless an individual’s financial situation.
yeah…no.
At MHC, we’re not interested on preying on anyone’s vulnerabilities or furthering the message of scarcity and lack.