About Us
Integrative Health Strategies
Integrative Heath Strategies was born of two key observations. The first observation is that effective solutions for chronic health conditions demand a multi-pronged approach. When we look beyond a person’s symptoms and search out root cause, we will often find that a problem is operating on several levels all at once. Because the tools we need to address one level might not be the tools we need to address another, it’s important to devise a truly integrative strategy.
The second observation is that lots of people don’t really have a strategy. In fact, many people are so used to ‘outsourcing’ their health to doctors and other professionals who cannot be held responsible for it, that their own instincts really suffer.
While it may seem convenient at first, this habit may leave people vulnerable to health interventions that are not really suitable for them, especially if recommended by an expert doctor, healer, or guru who is more than happy to tell them exactly what to do to fix their problem (or convince them it can’t be fixed).
As a coach and consultant, it is always Josie’s goal to help clients cultivate their own best instincts. Josie can often be heard to say “Don’t outsource your health. Trust your instincts. …but learn to cultivate them and don’t trust them blindly.”
The Importance of Tradition
It is common these days to hear people talk about the new approaches to health. These “new” approaches share features like an interest in root cause, a focus on prevention, a rejection of narrow mechanistic approaches to chronic illness, a commitment to dietary changes, lifestyle modifications, environmental health, and more. Josie understands that many of these approaches are not really “new” at all. They are indebted to much older and often more sophisticated ways of looking at human health and well-being.
The biggest new variable concerns technology, and the ways it may either enhance or detract from our health and our chosen health interventions. While technology has brought many opportunities for improving health (and Integrative Health Strategies is the proud co-developer of a technological tool called CHIRP™) it has never been more important to understand the limits of technology.
We are always more than something to be quantified, measured, mapped, and optimized. The latest health trend or treatment approach, no matter how brilliant, is unlikely to yield lasting change if not grounded in a larger framework that includes human flourishing.
For these reasons and more, Integrative Health Strategies does not currently offer fixed protocols or turn key coaching solutions. Josie offers old-fashioned and very customized coaching to a limited number of clients with whom she tends to work closely. There is simply no substitute for skillful, friendly, responsive, human support.