Gina Caracciolo
I am an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, and received my training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I studied a variety of dietary theories and practical lifestyle coaching methods. With my knowledge, we co-create completely personalized actions based on your goals to move you toward your ideal vision of health within your unique body, lifestyle, preferences, and resources. I am also an RN, and have been for almost 17 years. I have worked in many different settings, starting out on a medical/surgical floor, where I was exposed to many different illnesses and disease processes, and then continued my career into the ER where I became an adult and pediatric trauma nurse. I am a wellness advocate for doTERRA Essential Oils as well, and I feel that essential oils can truly help enhance our lives, and make us healthier. I am certified in AromaTouch Massage technique, and I am a member of the American Holistic Nurses Association. I truly feel that integrating modern medicine with natural and alternative medicine is an important transition, and my goal is to help you learn how to take care of yourselves so that you can allow your bodies to heal itself, and not have to depend so much on going to the doctor to get the answers. I want people to learn to listen to their bodies, and know what their bodies need. The body is an amazing thing: it knows what to do if you take care of it and feed it the right things so it can do just that. As a Health Coach, I teach you to put the power back into YOUR hands!
I offer 3 and 6 month programs, as well as single appointments, where I work with clients to establish a healthy lifestyle. I also work alongside their physicians to promote balance and a holistic approach. I feel that including the clients MD is helpful, especially for clients who are having difficulty with certain disease processes and management of their illness. I am trained to work with the pediatric population as well.
Practitioner Q&A
1.What are you passionate about?
As an RN for the past 17 years, I have seen our healthcare system go in a downward spiral. Nurses no longer have the ability to holistically care for their patients because they simply don't know how, and they don't have the knowledge to educate their patients or community. Doctors have no training about nutrition or holistic health, and prescribe medications for any and every ailment a patient complains of, simply because the drug companies offer incentives to do so. As an RN, I believe in Modern Medicine, and I believe that it has it's place in our lives. I also believe that there is a HUGE place for holistic and natural medicine in our lives, and I want to help teach others of any discipline, whether lay person or professional, how to integrate the two so that we all can achieve that balance that is so important.
2. What is unique about your work?
The thing that is unique about my work is that not only am I an RN with a background in General Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Adult and Pediatric Trauma, but I am also a graduate of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, where I became an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. Because of that, I am able to fully understand BOTH Modern Medicine and Holistic and Natural Health. I am able to work with clients and understand how their bodies function from a disease standpoint, understand the medications that they are on, and tailor their diets and lifestyle so that they can live healthier and happier.
3. Where do you see earth/humanity going in the next ten years?
This is a tough question! If you watch the news, you would think that it was going down the toilet, and if you live in New York it really would depend on the weather haha! But, if you concentrate on how you behave towards others, and you are kind, respectful, then I think that in just those simple gestures the world would be a better place. The other day my kids and I were shopping at Whole Foods. My daughter is 5 and my son is 2. My daughter says hello to everyone, and usually everyone smiles and says hello back. She gets it from me. I usually smile at people if I catch their glance, or politely say hello. She said hello to one woman in the parking lot who glared back at her like she did something wrong. My daughter looked at me and said "mommy, why did she look at me that way? Is it wrong to say hello to people?". I said to her "No! It is respectful to smile and say hello to people! You keep giving people sunshine, because that's what our world needs!". I see more and more kindness in people than not. I think if people continue to be kind and loving, and respect our planet, our world will be better for it. Hopefully in ten years we will have healthcare that is available for everyone, with Health Coaches in every doctors office. A Health Coach should be the MD's right hand man/woman! Health Coaches promote balance in peoples lives, and when people have balance in their lives, they live happier lives. And when people live happier lives, they are kind, they smile, they say hello to others, and the world will be a better place for it.