'Integrative Health & Wellness' is part of UP's School of Nursing. Upon graduation, will you work alongside nurses in a medical setting?

Kasey: Integrative health takes an alternative approach to health as opposed to nursing, which is more conventional Western medicine. We learn about a ton of modalities like acupuncture and Reiki, meditation, mindfulness that can work in combination or in conjunction with our typical Western model of medicine to create the best health outcomes.

Sydney: I was actually a nursing major at my previous school and then transferred to UP Health and Wellness. I just fell in love with it, especially the alternative medicine. It's more preventative - finding the root cause versus just curing symptoms.

Sydney: Integrated Health and Wellness at UP has several different tracks. We're both in health coaching and looking to take our board exams and get certified. Most people start coaching in an organization, but you can do private practice as well. You lead your own sessions with clients individually, one-on-one. It is basically lifestyle and wellness coaching, like how to form healthy habits and behavior changes.

Kasey: A lot of businesses will give their employees incentives or bonuses to go to health coaching sessions.

What makes Maybelle Center a good place for your practicum?

Kasey: A lot of our health coaching classes focus on meeting people where they're at and working with them there and what they have accessible to them. We also talk a lot about the social determinants of health. Integrative health looks at the entire person, including their environment, socioeconomic status, belief system, and everything like that.

What projects have you been working on?

Sydney: Right now, we're planning health classes, using what we've learned in various courses (read more at right). Last week, we also started doing outreach to recruit new members and check in on current and inactive members. Plus, we've been working on some educational binders for both staff and members. It's a guide to what integrated health is and how it can be beneficial to Maybelle Center.

Kasey: Member feedback is something we both value a lot. We made a little suggestion box about what members wanted to hear about. A member came up and asked what I was doing, and mindfulness was their first suggestion. They said breathing exercises and relaxation techniques would be helpful. We also talked about low-budget healthy meals and healthy cooking as topics.

Sydney: We're focusing on mindfulness for the first class. We think that's a really good topic for members because when you have low income, you have to deal with a lot of stress that comes with uncertainty. So, giving them exercises to manage those feelings will be really helpful.