my story

A career in helping

 

 
 

Although my first passions for learning about health and wellbeing probably began with competitive sports and coaching, they were formalized with completing a kinesiology degree at Simon Fraser University in 1980, which lead to my interest in medical school.  As I started my clinical training, though, I was surprised by the paradigm shift in learning–toward disease management with drugs and surgery, as opposed to those embraced in my first degree: disease prevention, optimizing health and vitality, empowering health strategies, and becoming the best you could be. 

Through 30 years of primary care, I still managed to learn about and interject preventive health strategies into my clinical approaches wherever possible. Diet, exercise, smoking cessation, stress management, and other patient-centred solutions were my clinical bread and butter, while trying to walk the talk as much as possible myself. 

Setting an example in the health care setting ultimately helped make my retirement decision easier, since, for my long-term wellbeing, it was pretty clear that moving on the right thing to do, and it was the right time to do it.  And since the transition was more challenging than expected, wanting to share the process with those who may benefit from it was the reason for launching this website.