How will you decide which health coaching institute to attend? Once you’re a certified health coach, will you pursue more certifications to advance your career?
We sat down with two alumni from the Primal Health Coach Institute (PHCI) who were previously certified by another institution. How did they decide to pursue the PHCI credential, and how has this leg of education changed their coaching career?
Let’s find out…
Meet Jennifer Bambrick
Jennifer is a Level 2 Certified Primal Health Coach and founder of Thrive on the Basics where she coaches clients through cooking from a primal template, understanding emotional aspects of food, and overcoming struggles with body image.
From Health Challenges to Primal Healing
Growing up with a mom whose vocation entailed being a labor and delivery nurse, Jennifer always had a passion for health. And being a competitive gymnast and athlete at a young age, she was privileged to have a nutrition education so early in life.
After a diagnosis of hypothyroidism in early 2007, Jennifer found the Primal Blueprint philosophy, which she says had a tremendous impact on her thyroid health.
As if that wasn’t challenging enough, she suffered from a life-altering injury after a snowboarding accident. “I have minimal-to-no use of my left arm. Managing and living with deadly pain changes you. It pushes me to want to do more, help more; who knows how long I have in this life.”
Jennifer was already experimenting with a primal lifestyle at the time of her debilitating injury. “Going through so many surgeries, all the pain, healing, arthritis; I know that eating primally had a major impact on recovery and how healthy I am despite what I have…the primal lifestyle also brought me full circle with my hypothyroidism. I feel better at 37 than I did at 23. I’m more or less symptom-free.
I don’t want to think where my overall health would be if I hadn’t found the Primal Blueprint and adopted this lifestyle. Primal changed my life.”
From IIN Health Coach to Primal Health Coach
Jennifer’s life-changing health journey sent her on a quest for a health coaching education, but the Primal Health Coach Institute did not yet exist at that time. “I wanted to be able to help others find this freedom in eating, overcome health issues, live a happier life like I had. I knew health coaching was the path that would best serve me to serve others. To say I was bummed there was no primal health coach certification was an understatement but, meanwhile, I found the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN).”
“I started my coaching practice after graduating from IIN. I used many of the concepts I learned from IIN, but I was basically a Primal coach—taking what I learned from the many years of reading Mark’s Daily Apple…
For me, when the PHC certification became available it was a no-brainer to take the course. I had been patiently waiting and hoping it would come along one day, so I jumped on board…
Once I got into the first chapter of the curriculum, I was excited!!! I remember being grateful I had been faithfully reading Mark’s Daily Apple and was familiar with the concepts. The course goes into great detail on how the body functions, how our food and lifestyle influence our genetics, and much more.
I’m sure I understand genetics better after this course than after a genetics class in college. I often joke that IIN was my undergrad and PCHI was my graduate program.
Unlike IIN, PHCI is not about learning 100 different beliefs on healthy eating. It is specific to ancestral health, nutrition, fitness…it offers you depth, science, genetics, chemistry, physiology; the why’s, the how’s; getting lost in the weeds of ancestral health. This is far more in-depth than other courses. If you want to deeply understand the Primal Blueprint, this course is for you.”
Primal Passion
I’m passionate about helping others to find health and overcome whatever obstacles are in their journey, and I’m blessed to pursue this with the knowledge of PHCI. I love doing this work; it feeds my soul. My dream is to support myself with my passion, and going through PHCI, I have more confidence in myself and my abilities as a coach. I have all the knowledge from years of studying, and I have the primal community to reach out to.
I know from my personal experience and the countless others who have taken the plunge and went primal—this can change your life. I have belief in the primal lifestyle, in spades.”
Meet Brad Eaton
Brad is a Level 2 Certified Primal Health Coach, the founder of Hormesis Health and Fitness, and a clinical health coach for a family medical practice where he coaches middle-aged adults prone to metabolic syndrome.
Brad has an impressive number of certifications in the health industry—more certifications than we can count on two hands. I got a good feel for Brad’s natural drive and appreciation when he explained that “Each certification has taken me to a new level, or complimented my existing skills and made them stronger.”
From Strength Coach to Health Coach
Starting out as a strength and conditioning coach, Brad worked in a variety of positions, including his first coaching business, where he helped others achieve their ideal physique with a traditional “eat less, move more” strategy—and their success didn’t come easy with that model. Brad said, “There’s a difference between fitness for sport and fitness for health. I learned how my concept of what the body needed from fitness in order to be healthy was all wrong.”
His curiosity began to multiply when Brad’s partner, Diana, found her type 2 diabetes in remission after Brad coached her through nutritional ketosis and weight training.
“Diana came off 6 medications and went from a size 16 to a size 4. In general, I did everything the opposite of traditional approaches. I believe it was this experience that opened my eyes to the power of nutrition and fitness to health. I started the Primal Health Coach Level 1 shortly after this experience.”
The PHCI Experience
Brad says it was an easy choice to pursue his PHC certification because “It was a natural progression of my growth, my beliefs, values, and understanding of health.”
What was it like when Brad first dove into the PHC curriculum? “Every expectation was met by the content…the information was well-substantiated and evidence-based. Each topic opened my eyes, engaged me to dig deeper, and answered my lingering questions.
As a busy person balancing a lot of responsibilities, having limited time to begin with—let alone much time for enjoyment—this program fed my why. It was nourishing. The self-paced nature was convenient and it minimized stress due to flexibility. It’s designed with written, audio, and video to support my learning style—like listening while driving—and the online learning system is easy to use.”
Comparing Certifications
Although Brad is also certified as a Precision Nutrition coach, he appreciated the specific philosophy presented in the PHCI framework, which focuses on ancestral health and epigenetics (how genes respond to inputs related to diet, lifestyle, and environment).
“Aspects of each program made me exponentially better…the principles of Primal Health Coaching Level 1, and only these principles, are the essence of what has improved my life and those who I work with. When followed, they produce lifestyle benefits like no other approach. These principles are not mainstream, and they are just as science-based as anything else.”
“The understanding of Primal Health principles enabled me to empower people relative to health in ways I could not have done otherwise…and, it has given me confidence. My clients are amazed they have not been told what I educate them in. They are amazed thinking it seems they’ve been deprived of important information that’s relative to their health.”
Next-Level Coaching
Brad didn’t stop there. He took his coaching career to the next level (literally, with Level 2 PHCI certification) and his reflection on the matter is quite pragmatic. He realized that there are two aspects to coaching: The first aspect is the framework and principles you teach/promote to your clients, and the second aspect is the behavior-change expertise you utilize to see clients grow and succeed (the latter being what coaching is all about).
“I’ve had experiences where I had the right content but my coaching skills could have been better. PHCI Level 2 has enabled me to improve on that. The Primal Health principles are the right content…and PHCI Level 2 took my abilities to a whole new level because it is primarily about behavior change psychology.“
Where will your passion take you? Continue reading here to learn more about what makes PHCI stand apart from the rest.
