Listen to this articleJohn Dieser left a lucrative job in New York to change lives in the Lehigh Valley through lifestyle coaching.
The move, he said, helps keep people out of the hospital and off medications they may have been dependent on for a long time.
“We rebuild lifestyles through new habits and relationships,” he said of his company, Terra Health Coaching.
The company, which Dieser started in Bethlehem a month before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, had to shutter because Dieser was not equipped to operate remotely.
After restarting the company at 301 Broadway in the Flatiron Flats with coaches ready to assist clients virtually, Dieser said the company now serves clients across the nation with coaches located throughout the country.
“We are changing a lifetime of bad habits created from the current environment of sedentary lifestyles and poor food choices,” Dieser said. “We need to take back control of our health by prescribing coaching instead of pills.”
Terra Health Coaching uses the six pillars of health, Dieser said. They are daily movement, mental health, positive relationships, restorative sleep, substance awareness and whole foods.
Locally, Dieser is expanding with a partnership with Robbins Rehabilitation East’s Easton location. The partnership, which became official Oct. 1, will help Robbins expand its wellness division.
Todd Robbins, owner of Robbins Rehabilitation East, said the partnership is a good fit for his physical therapy patients.
“They need lifestyle changes so they don’t come back with more orthopedic issues,” he said.
“Our patients have asked for this and we referred them to Terra Health Coaching before. Now they are on site,” he said. “We are excited to get started with them.”
“We insert into the health care industry,” Dieser said. “We offer a unique option for preventative and wellness care.”
Dieser, who became a certified health coach because he believes that lifestyle contributes to illness, said he and his staff of 36 coaches work with clients to get to the root cause of their illness.
Those coaches speak five languages and have backgrounds that include medical degrees, acupuncture, mental health and nutrition, he said.
“Doctors write prescriptions to us to treat their patients,” he said. “We put the pieces together.”
Dieser, who works with Dr. David Nichols of RestoreCare LLC, a local primary care practice, and several primary care physicians across the country, said his clients are typically ones who don’t want to stay on medication for life and are looking for ways to get healthy without it.
“We rebuild lifestyles with new habits,” he said. “We don’t take clients off medications right away; we wean them off as they get healthy.”
Dieser said when a client comes to him, he matches that person with a coach that speaks their language and can relate to their culture and lifestyle.
“The coaches are culturally and medically relevant for the client,” he said. “They work with the client to learn about their home and work life and determine what barriers keep them from living healthy.”
The coaches then teach the client how to change the way they are doing things to improve their health condition, he said.
“We work with diabetes, menopause, cardiac issues, weight loss, and other issues,” he said. “We take people out of beds and keep them out.”
Dieser said he can offer cardiac rehab programs since he is working with a primary care physician. That program is offered in person, while the rest of the coaching is
done virtually, allowing people to connect with their culturally appropriate coach when it is convenient.
“We are bridging the gap,” he said. “We believe 90% of medical issues can be solved through lifestyle changes.”
Through teaching health literacy, Dieser said clients can change the way they view their lifestyle and, through those changes, can not only stop taking medication, but live more vibrantly.
“We start at the root cause of the behavior,” he said. “We try to keep it simple.”
Currently, Dieser works with two companies in the Lehigh Valley that refer their employees to him for care. He also provides diabetes education to Valley Youth House in Bethlehem.
And because Direct Care Physicians already work with patients on a cash basis, he said they are often open to referring patients to him.
He added that because he works with a physician, group therapies are billable through insurance as is cardiac rehab programs.
Dieser said health coaching is a growing business across the country.
“There are 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring every day. Medicare can’t afford to keep up with the costs of caring for them so more physicians are looking to create value-based groups.”