At Neura Health, we offer care coaching for all our patients. This helps everyone on their journey with neurological care. We’re happy to introduce Jackie McLees! Jackie is a certified health and wellness coach with a Bachelor of Science in dietetics. Jackie is here to help empower you to have more control over your own health and well-being.

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Video Transcript:

Hi, I'm Jackie, and I'm a care coach here at Neura Health.

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What is your professional background?

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in dietetics, and I'm a national board-certified health and wellness coach. I have a bit over 10 years of experience in health coaching, and over that time, I've had the opportunity to work with a wide array of different patients. This ranges from, of course, neurological conditions, but also many other chronic conditions, like diabetes and hypertension. I've worked with a lot of sleep patients, weight loss patients, and general wellness patients as well. On top of that, I've done a lot of leadership work with mentoring different health coaches, as well as leaders of health coaches, too.

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What is your special interest within your specific field?

I think my special interest lies mostly in being able to help empower people. I think that navigating different health conditions can be incredibly difficult. So, I like to come alongside people and help support them and, kind of, give them that confidence to be able to identify these areas that might be in their control, as well as kind of work on those areas, too.

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What is your approach to care coaching?

When it comes to treating patients, I kind of just touched on making sure to help empower people. But I think what really comes before that is, you have to make sure that you're actively listening, and you also have to make sure that you create a safe space for people to feel comfortable opening up, sharing, and being able to dive into different areas. So, I think active listening is huge, creating that safe space, to allow yourself to kind of support people

and empower people to move forward. But on top of that, I think what's most important is meeting someone where they're at because everyone is so incredibly different, and what our obstacles are, are gonna be different, and what our strengths are, are gonna be different, and what our lives look like, they're all gonna be different, and so you have to make sure that you're meeting someone where they're at. So when you're kind of diving into areas, you can take those steps forward in a realistic and sustainable way.

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What is your POV on patient-first care?

Patient-first care, really, to me, means honoring a person for truly who they truly are, and not just for what their condition is. I think that, too often, people might not feel heard when they are kind of working with doctors, and here at Neura Health, we always want to make sure you're feeling heard and supported. So, really understanding someone, listening to them, and figuring out what support they need most, really falls into a kind of patient-first care.

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Do you have a chronic condition or does someone close to you have a chronic condition?

I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, I guess roughly maybe like 15, 18 years ago. I also have migraine, but migraine is not chronic for me. With both, I kind of come at it from both a medical perspective as well as a lifestyle perspective, and so I definitely have medical support when it comes to navigating both. But I also work a lot on my diet, and I also work a lot on my stress management, and my physical activity, and while right now things are really good, and I'm very happy to be able to say that, things go up and down, kind of depending on circumstances.

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Who do you think is a good fit for care coaching?

I think care coaching can be supportive, honestly, for everyone. I think that having the provider view and the health coach view together is so amazing. In my eyes, it bridges a gap, and so

I think often it can be a little overwhelming when you have a diagnosis, or even maybe when you hear that certain lifestyle pieces might contribute to exacerbation of a diagnosis, and while sometimes we know what actions we can take, taking those actions are incredibly difficult at times, and so a care coach can kind of help you break that down and help you kind of see the realistic steps that can be taken to help support you. In the past, I've definitely worked with patients on also kind of navigating what they want to talk to their provider about, as well, because I think that piece can be overwhelming, too. So, I think care coaching can come in many different avenues. I think that sometimes we just need to get things off our chest, too.

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To book a coaching session with Jackie, activate your Neura membership trial today!

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