Carey Giddens has studied Remedial Massage Therapy, Organisational Psychology and Exercise Rehabilitation; he has run a sports nutrition store, and he’s a former top-level athlete! Carey now uses his knowledge from Health Coaching to run physio clinics in New Zealand and Australia with a holistic approach to treatment.
How did you originally become interested in health and lifestyle medicine?
During my 20s, I played top-level sport representing New Zealand, but began to struggle with one injury after the next, just when I started reaching the level I was striving for. I played on for the next few years, in vain, having surgery after surgery until I had to face my fate that my sporting days were over. I lost my identity as an athlete so started coaching and working out how to prevent what happened to me happening to others. I studied Sport and Remedial Massage Therapy, Organisational Psychology, and Exercise Rehabilitation and delivered this alongside opening a sports nutrition store. I then wanted to help even more so I worked for ACC for almost a decade thinking this would fulfil my thirst to help others… it didn’t. So, I moved back into the treatment of injury by running physio clinics both New Zealand and Australia. I strived to install a holistic approach to treatment by understanding what was at the root of the issue and not merely symptomatic relief. But, to be able to fulfil this I needed to understand what was missing in our delivery, which was specifically Behaviour Change, Mind-Body Medicine, and Nutrition. I’ve always held a saying close to anything I do, which is:
For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is only one striking at the root.
∼ Henry David Thoreau
For me, a lot of what is delivered in health and fitness is hacking at the leaves. I want to strike at the root, which is why I sought out learning lifestyle medicine as a career.
How has becoming a PreKureCertified Health Coach impacted your life?
The PreKure Certified Health Coach certainly gives me two things. Firstly, it gave me the knowledge where I didn’t have it. Secondly, it gave me confidence in the skills I already had. It’s meant that I can deliver to our clients in a much different way. It’s meant that our team of physios and our rehab and performance coach can easily achieve their goals, as I can often remove barriers and/or add additional value to their delivery.
Would you like to share any client success stories or a big ‘aha’ moment in your coaching career?
Under a WINZ trial, I was seeing several clients that were on long-term sickness benefits and needed help. One, in particular, was a long-term recreational drug user, and obese, but after we dug down into what was his ‘why’ reason for change it was that he wanted a partner, he wanted to feel pride when he saw his family, he wanted to be able to stand tall in front of his father and look him in the eye and shake his hand. When we calmed his mind and gave him the skills to keep it that way, we then worked on his positive psychology in building a strong future. He is now 12 months drug-free and has gained employment and lost 15kg. He now often pops in to see me, just to show me how well he is doing. But, the ‘AHA’ moment was that without behaviour change and the mind-body medicine, any nutrition or exercise would have fallen short and been short-lived.
What advice do you have for others thinking about starting their study journey with PreKure?
Understand your reason why you want to make a change in people’s lives first, as this directly impacts on your study desire and drive. Then do it!
To connect with Carey, you can visit his website here or email him at [email protected]
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