Health at heart of new career

A bid to relieve strain on healthcare providers has helped a Blenheim dental assistant find a new lease on life.

Mollie Maxwell has spent her adult career working in the health sector, focusing on dental and chronic disease prevention.

After attending a specialist dental conference highlighting the link between poor oral and general health, Mollie began a diploma in health and life coaching.

Now she hopes her new part time role as a health and life coach, will encourage others to make positive change.

“Making healthy decisions about what we eat and drink, how we exercise, getting good quality sleep and reducing stress are the first lines of defence for our immune systems” says Mollie.

“When life knocks us off balance by adding stress into busy lives, balancing work, family commitments and more, it is easy to forget that we need to eat well, sleep well and care for ourselves as well as for others - and coaching helps find the right balance.”

Mollie’s ongoing dentistry career gave her a greater understanding of how stress, unhealthy eating and lack of exercise makes people less resilient to disease.

“It is like a silent fire inside us that can light the flame of heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, dementia and some forms of cancer”, she says.

“Health coaching showed me the effect of mindsets on actions, why do some people see the glass half full and others half empty, and how it affects us”.

As a health and life coach, Mollie works with clients to improve health with healthy eating, stress reduction, improved sleep and goal setting.

Studying for her diploma led her to launch her new business, Maxwell Coaching.

She takes a holistic approach to mind and body wellness. “You can’t have one without the other,” she explains.

“Coaching assists lifestyle changes, life purposes, following a dream, living a healthier life, finding ways to move more and sit less or losing weight for less strain on the heart and joints.”

“A coach is on your team, cheering from the sidelines and supporting you through that journey, encouraging you and helping you find the answers to questions that you never thought to ask yourself.

“It is very empowering to have the confidence to make changes and see them through”.