Therapist uses a holistic approach to guide clients to achieve their goals
Therapist uses a holistic approach to guide clients to achieve their goals
Movement in your body creates movement in your life, according to integrative mental health therapist Camilla Coakley.
It’s like that old saying, “put one foot in front of the other,” and once you get going you can be on your way to feeling strong and confident and in Coakley’s eyes, it’s the way you can become the best version of yourself.
“It’s about that forward momentum and getting unstuck,” Coakley said. “So they can become more of who they want to become.”
Coakley finds that many clients who come to her are in a place where they feel stuck in their lives. What she does in that case is helps shift their perspective from the overwhelm and pressure of feeling there is no way out.
A client might be battling weight issues, have feelings of anxiety, questioning self-worth or going through a crisis of one kind or another. But regardless of the issue at hand, through her wellness business, Sound Mind Sound Body Therapy, Coakley uses an approach that centers on working on the mind and body together.
“I’m bridging the gap between physical and mental health because it needs to be bridged,” she said.
The collaboration of disciplines means a client doesn’t have to go and see many different specialists because they can get all of their needs met from one source.
“With my intake, I’m going to ask them how is their sleep, how are they moving their body, what foods do they eat that make them feel good and what foods do they eat that don’t make them feel good,” she said.
Eco-therapy
While the first session typically occurs indoors, for additional sessions Coakley offers the option for walk and talk therapy outdoors at a local preserve or nature setting. It might occur at an agreed location such as French Creek State Park or Natural Lands’ Crow’s Nest Preserve, where she uses an eco-therapy approach that centers on being mindfully present with nature.
“The whole thing about a forest bath, which is based on a Japanese practice, is that you are burnt out and stressed and being in a green space calms the nervous system,” Coakley said, adding that due to some park closures and self-isolation recommendations related to the coronavirus pandemic, she is temporarily offering virtual sessions to clients.
It was when Coakley lived in San Francisco’s Bay Area that she had her first introduction to the collaboration of various disciplines of wellness under one umbrella. As the director of the MOVE! Weight Management Program at the VA Palo Alto Hospital, she learned a multidisciplinary approach.
“It was there that I saw how essential a mind-body approach is to physical and mental health,” she said.
After the birth of her daughter, Coakley decided it was time to start her own business in 2015. She put her own take on the integrative approach and after a move to Pennsylvania two years ago, she is based in Chester County.
“It made sense to marry my skills as a certified personal trainer, certified holistic coach, licensed mental health therapist, certified mental health integrative medicine provider, to offer my clients more than just talk therapy,” she said.
To help clients make a healthy lifestyle change, her bi-directional approach aims to keep a client from going into a vicious cycle.
“Ultimately you can tell people everything they need to lose weight or change their lifestyle, but they won’t do it if they are struggling in their emotional life,” she said. “A lot of blocks that get in the way are emotional.”
Coakley shared the main issues she is currently seeing among clients.
“I can say without any hesitation it is those who have an inner critic and feel they aren’t good enough,” she said. “Anxiety is the other one, where the overwhelm is just too much.”
She said that anxiety goes hand in hand with not feeling good enough.
“There is a lack of contentedness,” Coakley said. “People are barreling through their lives, they feel a sense of overwhelm, they’re overworked and that can translate into people feeling depressed, they can’t sleep, and could be labeled with a mental health diagnosis as a result.”
Coakley has found that in the end, people are experts of themselves but they just have blinders on.
“I’m just shining a flashlight and opening the curtains and getting curious,” she said.
According to Coakley, evolution happens in the small things we do daily.
“It’s getting people out of their own way so that they can evolve,” she said.
“It’s about that forward momentum and getting unstuck so they can become more of who they want to become.”