One Woman's
Story of Healing
Overcoming Obstacles
By Rachel Kieffer
24 | ElementsForAHealthierLife.com | December 2016
In the 35 years that I have been working as a health coach I have met some incredible women. I am happy to share their stories with you. May they inspire you and help you realize that healing is possible, that you have all the resources you need inside you, and that every step forward you take is significant. All the stories are true but names and some details have been changed to protect the privacy of my clients.
Lucy was a participant in a spiritual group I was going to. She is a beautiful woman with one of the most generous spirits I have ever met. She is the kind of woman who will do anything for anyone, and give a stranger the clothes off her back. We all fell deeply in love with her radiant soul. But Lucy did not see herself that way. During the group meetings, we all shared our stories and journeys but when it was Lucy’s turn she would always burst into tears because she felt so terrible about herself. Lucy has been struggling with her weight her entire life and her eating compulsion was making her life seem out of control. She was not able to see herself beyond her food and weight issues. All of the beautiful things that we saw about her were invisible to her.
We had a few private conversations, and Lucy signed up to be in one of my group coaching and private coaching programs. Lucy was so discouraged by all the diets she has tried that she didn’t think that I, or anyone, could really help her, but she decided to give it a try out of sheer desperation. Lucy’s journey has been one of the most amazing experiences for me, it taught me about the strength of the human spirit, it inspired me to overcome my own obstacles, and it is the reason why I do the work that I do.
Here are the lessons and triumphs that Lucy has experienced:
~ In our first sessions I just let her cry and talk about her struggles which was an essential part of her healing journey. Many large women are told to ‘get with the program” and are seen as indulgent or lazy. Having my own struggles with food and weight I was able to communicate to Lucy that I totally understood and that she deserves understanding and compassion from herself. The only recommendations she had to follow in the first few sessions were to notice what is wonderful about herself. I would ask her to make lists of