024: Simone Cohn – Holistic Connections (Part 1)

Simone Cohn

 Simone qualified as a Reflexologist at The British School of Complementary Therapy in Harley Street London, in December 2000.

To further her knowledge and passion in health and wellbeing, that same year she embarked on a Health Science degree, specialising in Therapeutic Bodyworks at The University of Westminster. From her degree, she gained experience in a variety of bodywork practices, that combated conditions such as migraines, muscle tension and stress-related illnesses.

Whilst completing her degree, Simone also built up a successful private practice offering treatments and techniques in a variety of Bodywork therapies, including reflexology.

In 2013 Simone was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia; a chronic pain disorder. To understand more about the illness, she trained with renowned USA Fibromyalgia coach, Tami Stackelhouse. Once qualified, Simone incorporated her knowledge of pain management and nutrition into her roster of Bodywork therapies, to re-establish herself as a Health and Wellbeing Coach.

With her wealth of knowledge and personal experience, Simone was fortunate enough to be part of the, “NHS Healthier You”, National Diabetes Prevention Programme, where she worked with individuals and groups for nine months, to provide educational and nutritional sessions to pre-diabetic patients.

Simone found the programme a wonderful, eye-opening experience which further ignited her passion and interest in the psychology around health and sugar addiction.

As a bodyworker with almost 20 years of experience in the health industry, Simone’s extensive training and practical knowledge, coupled with her own health journey, has given her the unique ability to recognise each clients’ individual needs and goals, making Simone a highly successful, empathetic and intuitive Health and Wellbeing practitioner.

She strongly believes that her role as a Health and Wellbeing Coach is to educate, encourage and support a patient’s journey to living a healthier, vibrant life.

Simone’s health journey anniversary is memorialised on 04/06/15 when her ex-brother-in-law introduced her to the Prof Tim Noakes Banting and Real Meal Revolution.  As a qualified Therapeutic Bodyworker, she has a deep understanding of how the body works and more importantly heals. With a diagnosis of fibromyalgia in 2013, Simone set about to learn more about the role of chronic pain management, both for herself and her clients.  This led to her next chapter which incorporated nutrition and lifestyle when she was introduced to Tim Noake’s Real Meal Revolution.  Now working as a health and wellbeing coach, Simone seeks to educate, encourage and support clients to a healthier and vibrant life. 

Simone's Top Tip

1. Keep your journey to yourself, role model good choices and behaviours
2. Plan your meals to ensure that you have the right foods available to you
3. Keep a symptom tracker whether that be a paper diary or some electronic record 

Quotes by Simone Cohn

“It just changed my health. And I just thought God, everybody's got to learn about this. Everybody has to know how good that they can feel. I think you go through life thinking. It's normal to feel exhausted all the time and to wake up feeling achy or headachy or whatever it is that you're dealing with. It gave me so much clarity to understand that it isn't normal to feel unwell all the time or tired or whatever your symptoms are.”

“I thought I would take matters into my own hand. And  I sort of always knew that that nutrition always played a very key role in people's lives. I've been in the health industry myself for 20 years, working on people as a bodyworker, but I think I had to have a shift in my own mind about certain addictions, I am a real chocoholic - a real sweet tooth. And I just wasn't really ready at any time before this change, to give that up.”

“It doesn't have to be done, all in one day. I mean it literally has taken me years and I'm still learning and I'm still growing and I'm still learning and understanding my mind and my body. It’s taken years and years and years and that's with somebody who's got experience, and an interest in learning in the body. So it doesn't have to happen overnight.”

“It is so important in your health to set goals, and to plan because that's when we will fail and we will just not bother. We will be octopus on rollerskates just holding all these things that we need to do and just never doing any of it because it's too much.”

“A lot of people don't listen to their bodies. They really do listen to the doctors and what they're being told, or the media, or other people, rather than listening to themselves, and it's fascinating to me, the psychology around health because it's very limiting people really don’t trust themselves. I think they've lost trust in themselves and it is sad.”

“There's a reason why your body is giving you symptoms. You have to work with them.”

“When people work with me as I’m not necessarily interested in them writing a food diary, but a symptom diary. What are you coming to me for? What are your symptoms? Really listen to your body.”

“There are a lot of experts who will tell you that there is not a one size fits all. Actually, they are right, there is not a one size fits all. But what I truly and utterly believe from my core is that low carb suits, everybody. And I believe it because it's the processed foods that are causing us problems. And actually, if people just took out the refined carbohydrates and sugars and processed rubbish and ate real food, they would feel a lot better. So how people do that, the balance and the restriction, and I don't mean a negative way just the change and how far they do that is completely up to them.”

“You can't just throw a pill at everything. You have to take some accountability for your health and you need to sit back, I don't know how forthcoming people are in wanting to take care of their health.”

“I truly 100% come from prevention is better than cure. And I saw that in myself but I saw that I was the one that had to take control and I think it's sad that that has to be the case.”

“I think it's important that people know that you can't just go, I think for acute things the GP is brilliant. But for when it comes to chronic issues then you need to think outside the box you need to think about what it is that I can do for myself.”

“If you went to the doctor and you were told you were intolerant to gluten. People never question that. They take it out immediately. “Gluten is going to kill me, it is causing me all these problems, I will remove it.” But the minute you tell them they've got carbohydrate intolerance, and they need to possibly reduce the bread sugars biscuits sweets and chocolate. It's like the walls have gone up it's like “Oh my god you’ve literally just ruined my life!.”

“I was so honoured to be able to work in the prevention side on the NHS, I thought this is amazing to see that the NHS are going to make changes to people's health and in a quitex holistic way.”

“So the story we tell ourselves around food became clearer to me during that time. So I learned, as I said, that maybe I wasn't hungry, I was actually just more thirsty. So my body triggers became clearer to me and that's quite a big shift to have mentally.”

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Music by Bob Collum

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