People who know Cynthia Austin associate her with the keyboard. As music teacher and church organist, she has spent many years giving expression to her artistic talent, developing the musical skills of her charges and also providing accompaniment to worship for church congregations.
These days, however, she is playing a different tune.
She is into integrative nutrition and has just completed certification as a health coach, her passport to the new career she plans to pursue after she retires from teaching.
For the Harrison College music teacher about to switch gears as she nears retirement, it has been a year of study, four exams and “a ton of reading.”
Cynthia defines health coaching as a process which facilitates healthy, sustainable behaviour change by challenging a client to listen to their inner wisdom and transform their lifestyle with extensive sessions of consultation in which the client does most of the talking.
“This is different from the doctor’s visit. We are supposed to listen to people in the hour-long session in which the client is supposed to do the talking. You are helping people to help themselves,” Cynthia explained.
Further explaining the concept to Easy Magazine, she pointed out, “There are other things that affect our lives apart from the food we eat and if they are out of balance, either we are not going to eat as we should or the food we do eat will not have the desired balance.”
Committed to gleaning all the knowledge she can on the subject and to mastering the craft, she continues to immerse herself in the textbook Integrative Nutrition, and engages in intensive study with online instruction from the School of Integrative Nutrition in New York.
Integrative nutrition is a system through which balance is achieved by combining the primary foods, which consist of things like relationships, career activities, spirituality and exercise with the secondary foods – the food that goes through the mouth.
“When you are dealing with a client, it is very important to be able to get to the root of a problem. You do have to fill out a health history but the way that you get to the root of the problem is by asking high mileage questions which can cause a client to release a whole volume of information” Cynthia said. This is where the health coach might trigger an “aha” moment in a patient and is able to zero in.
“A light goes off in the patient’s head and sometimes it can cause them to go back in their history. If you can deal with the person and get them to open up on that particular topic, then we are on our way to bringing healing and the dietary considerations will fall into place” Cynthia explained.
Childhood trauma, a job that is not being enjoyed, a relationship that went sour – all these are issues for consideration as they affect a patient seeking the services of a health coach.
A big aid in her new undertaking will be her spirituality. “Our parents were people whose lives were very committed to Christ. That is the atmosphere that I was born into, so I came up in a Christian household.”
Teenage years spent in a restrictive religion on which the entire family eventually turned their backs may have been a hindrance to a possible university education for which Cynthia was qualified, but she values the alternative experience and knowledge gleaned working in the laboratory of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The principles of histology, microbiology, haematology and other things she learnt on the job stayed with her and have enriched the knowledge required for this new career.
A reflection on her early religious life also gave insight into her journey to this point in life. She had switched religions after a Youth for Christ experience to which she had been introduced by a friend who was a member of the Christian organization of young people.
“I found it amazing – young people praying together, just coming together an evening.” She was further swayed while attending a Pentecostal church service with a group of young people one evening.
“That music, the service and everything did something to me. I was hooked on a good thing.”
In addition, the words “sometimes we tend to major on the minors” spoken by the preacher struck the right chord in her mind. Not only did she start to worship at that church but also became an organist there.
Music is an integral part of Cynthia’s life. She began studying music from schooldays as a student at Queen’s College with some sessions at Harrison College and holds the Licentiate in Teaching (LRSM) from the Royal School of Music. Not only has she made it a career for many years but it is also the gift she shares with congregations at Abundant Life Assembly and Restoration Ministries.
“It is only now that I realize when you tie in Christianity with life, reaching out into the community, that this is scriptural.”
As a health coach, Cynthia’s spiritual life is sure to impact significantly in the way she guides patients to a richer, healthier, rounded life.
