Health & Wellness Coach ~ Trauma Informed Certified

Natalie Dunston, TICC

Working alongside clients as you create lasting behavior and lifestyle changes, improve self-esteem, and shift your mindset toward optimizing your own health.
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Want to know more about Natalie?

Natalie is a certified Health and Wellness coach who partners with people who want to create change and accomplish goals involving; health habits, behaviors, wellness, exercise, weight, nutrition, and stress management. Through her integrative approach, she considers you as a whole person and addresses your wholeness and well-being through a combination of healthy lifestyle and self-care practices. These practices help to connect the body, emotions, mind, spirit, community, and environment. 

As a Certified Trauma Informed Coach (TICC), Natalie is able to extend her work as a Health & Wellness Coach to individuals who have experienced trauma. As a trauma survivor, she understands how a traumatic experience can limit your outlook on life and how those experiences shape your behaviors and responses to the world around you. She understands the importance of creating a trustworthy space to explore the sea of emotions associated with various traumas. She seeks to create a safe place for her clients to explore your trauma and guide you out of a state of survival and into a state of empowerment.

In her free time, you can find Natalie on a snowboard in the mountains or surfing in the summertime. She also enjoys practicing Pilates, cooking a new recipe, and cuddling with her two cats, Milo and Koda. 

Natalie completed her Applied Science degree in Integrative Health at Front Range Community College in the Fall of 2022. Through this Integrative Health program, she also received her certification in Health and Wellness Coaching and her certification in Integrative Health Professions. She went on to pursue her certification as a Trauma Informed Coach (TICC) through Moving the Human Spirit. 

She is currently working on becoming a nationally board-certified Health and Wellness Coach through The National Board for Health and Wellness Coaches (NBHWC), which sets the standard for a Health and Wellness coaches’ training, education and assessment standards for the industry. 

How does she practice?

As a Health and Wellness Coach, Natalie is passionate about working with individuals or groups in a client-centered process to facilitate and empower the client to develop and achieve self-determined goals related to health and wellness. She supports her clients in mobilizing internal strengths and external resources, and in developing self-management strategies for making sustainable, healthy lifestyle and behavioral changes. She supports you in achieving the life you desire, based on your own goals, and does  so in line with the treatment plans prescribed by your professional health care providers. 

She believes that self-empowerment, overcoming limiting beliefs and behaviors, and accountability enables people to create change in any area of your life. She also highlights the importance of practicing self-compassion and that being imperfect, failing and experiencing life’s difficulties are inevitable; that suffering and personal inadequacy is part of the shared human experience.

A Health and Wellness coach partners with clients who are seeking change, hoping to create lasting lifestyle changes that align with your values. The purpose of these changes is to enhance overall well-being. Health coaches use a client-centered approach wherein clients decide their goals, engage in self-discovery or active learning processes, and self-monitor your behaviors to increase accountability. Whatever goal you set, the health coach ensures that you are supported until the desired outcome is achieved.

Why is change so hard?

Change creates loss; even if the change is positive, we have to let go of something. Fear of change is fear of loss and fear that we may not be able to adapt to the changing environment. The more you live in fear, the smaller you make your world. People reduce their options, and therefore their choices, in order to stay safe. 

We fear failure and we fear success

“For many people, lifestyle improvement is an area where they have already experienced the pain of many failures,” Natalie explains. “This is a pain very familiar to me. Discouragement feeds the fear and unfortunately there is much in the world around us that reinforces a very unhealthy lifestyle. My goal is to guide you through this fear and as we identify obstacles, you work to overcome them.

“The goal of this partnership is to empower you to take control of your own health and well-being. Together, we will work to identify where you are currently, define what you want to change, and create a path for where you want to go. 

“My mission is to work alongside you as you create lasting behavior and lifestyle changes, improve your self-esteem, and shift your mindset toward optimizing your own health.”

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TESTIMONIALS

How did she get into Health and Wellness Coaching?

Natalie initially started studying Psychology and has always been intrigued by the brain and human behavior (why people do what they do). One day, she stumbled upon a Holistic Health fair and discovered the various modalities that Integrative and Functional medicine had to offer. She initially learned about the importance of healthy lifestyle habits and started to use Integrative techniques to address anxiety, depression, and PTSD that she felt limited her from truly experiencing and enjoying life.

Prior to discovering Integrative medicine, she felt like she was floating through life on autopilot and trapped by her limiting beliefs about herself and the world around her. Although she was unhappy with where she was, she also feared change, so staying in the same place felt like the least scary option. This led her to feeling dissatisfied and unfulfilled in life.  

She started incorporating holistic and mindfulness techniques, which led her to start changing how she showed up each day.  She worked to honor her experience and show herself compassion for all she had overcome in her life. She also identified the thoughts and behaviors that kept her feeling stuck. 

After working through the discomfort and struggle of changing subconscious thoughts and habits, not only did she start experiencing less panic attacks, anxiety and depression; but she actually gained a greater sense of physical and emotional well-being, purpose, and empowerment in her life. This experience led her to pursue a career in Integrative medicine and find purpose in helping others.  

Here are a few things she has learned through her experience as a Health & Wellness Coach:

  • All behavior is driven by belief. 
  • Change happens when we work to identify and overcome our limiting beliefs. 
  • In order to set sustainable goals for yourself, you have to know where you are going. 
  • Your life doesn’t just change overnight, but the small steps you take each day to change your thoughts, behaviors and habits will drastically change who you are.
  
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