The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Hosted by Founder and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting LLC, Norman Harris. The Official Healthcare Edutainment station. Empowering listeners with the knowledge and resources to age comfortably. The podcast platform will uniquely provide laughter, peace, joy, resources and most of all COMFORT. Fostering professional partnerships and engaging the audience by providing them access to a REAL family-like conversation. That gives them the REAL reasons. Connects them to REAL reliable resources. To get REAL results. For REAL Comfort! Through interviews with C-suite healthcare leaders, experts, caregivers, founders, authors, educators, and thought leaders who are doing incredible work for older adults, family caregivers, and the healthcare community.
The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Threads of Wellness: From Education to Empowered Healing with Caitlin Whitmoyer
Caitlyn Whitmoyer shares her journey from burnout as an educational consultant to becoming a wellness coach and entrepreneur helping educators find freedom and balance through holistic health practices.
• Owner of Hand in Health Wellness, helping educators find their pathway to freedom
• Co-founder of Thread Education, bringing well-being into schools to strengthen culture
• Defines holistic health as multidimensional, addressing spiritual, relational, financial, and vocational wellness
• Experienced severe burnout and health issues that led to her career transformation
• Offers Access Bars therapy, a technique involving gentle touch on 32 points on the cranium
• Teaches mindfulness as simply being present rather than complicated practices
• Prefers "work-life harmony" over "work-life balance"
• Uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help clients build neuroplasticity
• Growing Thread Education to secure district contracts and expand impact
• Working with Reach University to help fast-track education degrees
Connect with Caitlyn on Instagram @Hand.in.health_wellness and @Thread_edu or visit their websites.
Because it's a free technique. Once you learn where these points are, you can have your partner do it at home. You can teach your kids how to do it. It's a pretty. If you look it up, there's pretty amazing videos of people doing this all over the world. But work-life balance is, I think, kind of overrated. I think people say that and it's so taboo. Now and then there's this idea that you really shouldn't have to work, but like no, you do have to work.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the let's Get Comfy podcast, florida's number one healthcare entertainment station. And and yes, I'm back with another special guest, miss caitlyn whitmoyer, owner of hand in health wellness and co-founder and owner of thread education, wonderful insight that she's going to share with us today. Uh, thank you for joining us and, as I do always, I'm gonna let her introduce herself, all right. Uh, she has a great story to share. Uh, and I'm so excited to have her here, traveled all way from saint pete to be with me on a saturday. Tell us, tell the audience about who you are. Uh, miss whitmoria, uh and just uh, what do you do in your companies and organizations?
Speaker 1:Thanks, Norman, it's awesome to be here and I'm super excited to chat with you today. So I, like you said, right now I'm the owner of Camden Health Wellness. So there I am a wellness coach, primarily for educators and educational leaders, helping them to find their pathway to freedom. So a lot of people in education right now are faced with decisions about do I stay, do I leave? Financial security, and a lot of people are really passionate about being in education as I am, and I just guide them towards what that freedom looks like of not being stuck and feeling like we have to do this job. We get to do this job and I love it. So that's very fulfilling. That's my, that's my passion, that's more of my full-time work.
Speaker 1:But I'm also, like you said, the co-owner and founder of Thread Education. So there we have a similar mission and we are bringing well-being into schools for teachers, for all staff, including administration, and helping weave that into the fabric of the culture of their school. So we help strengthen school culture, we help systems and organization and things that impact well-being and burnout. We help strengthen those on the administrative side through leadership coaching, but we also work with staff through wellness events and workshops and things like that, so truly passionate, so passionate about what I do. It's such a mouthful to say. I've kind of gotten used to being like these are all the things that I do and trying to capture it in a job title.
Speaker 2:It's hard right, you did it, though. You put it all together because I would have been stumbling over my words and everything. So educational, leadership and wellness. Now I know you take things from a holistic approach and that's like a wave now, like holistic health and for the audience and people may not be familiar with that, can you define what holistic health is and what it means to you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I like to think of health as multifold, multidimensional. There's lots of different ways you can describe or define holistic health. Multifold, multidimensional there's lots of different ways you can describe or define holistic health. But for me it's about attending to not just you know, am I eating the right foods? Am I being physically active? Am I going to the doctor when I should? But am I spiritually healthy? Are my relationships healthy? Are my finances healthy? Are my vocations healthy? So all these parts of well-being that influence really who we are and how we interact with the world every day and that is what I do in both of my businesses help bring those things to the forefront so people can really find authenticity in what they do and love, essentially for how they engage in the world.
Speaker 2:Right, right. So you went into two businesses. You said both of your businesses. Entrepreneurship is hard as it is, and I know this show is a health care edutainment right florida's number one, by the way, uh. But I do want to talk about uh entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur myself, just starting out, but that's hard, a hard thing to do when you have two of them. If you just tell us just the story behind uh, a hand in health, wellness, but also through education as well yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, it's kind of funny because they both started around the same time. I was going through this huge like I call them like cocoon experiences, where we like go and hibernate and kind of let parts of us die and then we come out and we're a little bit new and renewed in a sense, and I had just had this big realization when I was at I was still very much like in a school-based education position. I was working as a consultant, very high pressure, high stakes job, and I just had this experience with burnout that led me to a state of disease and just complete breakdown. And it's a huge part of I needed it to happen, to birth what I do now.
Speaker 1:But I think at the time that, like crossroads I was at, paused me to force and think about what am I contributing in my life that feels authentic and real and fulfilling? And I couldn't say that what I was doing felt like all three of those and nor did I really know. All three of those were like the most important thing and like the thing that would sustain me through life of you know, working in this field and just being the person. I feel like I'm meant to be Right. I know, earlier we talked about spirituality a little bit and you know I'm, I was born and raised Catholic.
Speaker 1:Um, I don't identify as Catholic now and I still have a very strong sense of spirituality, but that guides a lot of what I do. I feel like I have this bigger purpose and, um, I think we all have that and um, you know, whatever you call it the universe, god or higher power um, I truly have learned like the need to rely on that and let that be a guide and fill myself in as things start becoming evident. And that's called like surrender right.
Speaker 1:So, I got to this point with my health where I was so sick and so frustrated with my work and I had no choice but to surrender, because what else do you do at that point? So I took a little bit of a sabbatical, I waited tables for a year and did a yoga teacher training and just really tried to find out like more about me and what I was passionate about. I read, I did tons of research and I initially considered just like finding a business or an organization to work for, that like was multi-passionate in the way that I am about education, and I couldn't find it. And or I couldn't find, you know, the one that felt like it would align, like fuel me financially and like feel like the right fit.
Speaker 1:So you know, being a projector or that human design that we talked about, the projectors they see the way and they go and I just I just went. I didn't see any other option. I was like this doesn't exist, it needs to exist, versus like this doesn't exist, let me go find something else, right? So I just stuck with what I felt I was being called to and it's grown into these two businesses. They kind of both started at the same time when became more clear, when it became fuzzy, then clear.
Speaker 1:And now I just really get to enjoy the work that I do every day.
Speaker 2:Right. Right, you found your message right, you found your purpose and it took a journey. It took a journey, so does that the way you found your journey? Does that impact your coaching process, like when a patient or a client comes to see you? How do you, if you can walk us through, like like your personalized coaching process for any client if they was to come to Hand in Health?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a loaded question, right Like how does my journey influence what I do and how do I coach. So I think you know, starting with, how my journey influenced what I do. It is a reminder that, like in yoga, there's the saying to always be a beginner when you step onto your mat, and that's just the philosophy that every day is a new day, every you know. Every day you wake up like with a new part of your soul, awakened or part closed off, or your physical body is different and changing, and so you have to bring that body to the mat when you practice.
Speaker 1:And I think the beginner's mindset, like when we can be in that mindset and understand how it feels to be a beginner, how it feels to feel stuck and not know where you're going, even though I'm farther and farther removed from it by the day. I just constantly remind myself of how that feels and I think it it helps me coach with empathy and also with intuition, because I kind of I can sense like where my clients are if, even if they don't have the words to say it. And just naming that and helping bring that awareness to light is, I think, part of why I find coaching so effective and what I really like about it, because you can get there fast If people already come to you with awareness of, like, what's going on and they suspect, like I think it's because of this and I know I have this deeper wound here, or even if they haven't done that, but they can tell me how they're feeling, like I can relate with both of those because I've been there, right.
Speaker 1:But I don't forget like it's just like my fertility journey. I, you know almost two years removed from the experience of giving birth, and I don't forget how hard that was to even be on that journey and remember what it was like to not be able to get pregnant right away and to grow my family when I saw it fit Right.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think it's just all about like remembering how that beginning feels and always being able to connect with that feeling like so much of and I'll stop at the end of the sentence because I could go on and on, but so much of what I see in coaching with my new clients is this disconnection from feeling and all that like embodiment right you can feel how our body is presenting in terms of emotion, and there's a lot of really cool info and research on that.
Speaker 1:but that's also a big skill that I have, that I learned myself to feel and still do. You're never like once you're the teacher of it, you're never not the student.
Speaker 2:So Not the student Yep. So at Comfort Measures Consulting, we're here to help you navigate the complexity of health care. If you're caring for a loved one as a caregiver, you don't have resources, you don't know what questions to ask. You need to have options right. Give Comfort Measures a call, give us a chance. First consultation is free. Speak with me Comfort Measures Consultant 850-879-2182. You can also visit our website at wwwcomfortmeasuresconsultingcom. Talk to you soon. A special segment here on the Comfort Show what we do. We like to do an interactive portion here. Oh cool, yeah, I got a surprise for you. Okay, all right. So you indicated to me that your favorite show was the Office, right, so I have special people that I know in Hollywood and they said that they would. I told them about you and they said they would give you a shot to audition for a new episode coming up. All right, so if you could, they're gonna watch this show oh my gosh if you will participate here.
Speaker 2:We have a part here that we're gonna do an audition here, all right, so I hope you're ready I'm ready.
Speaker 1:I was, all right, born already, all right so here's All right.
Speaker 2:So here's the setting, all right. Here's the. It says we are in the office, in the break room. Kelly is sitting in the break at the break room table. So you're, kelly, scrolling through her phone. I'm Jim. Jim walks in holding a bowl of cereal. He pauses when he sees her looking upset.
Speaker 1:So I'm more concerned about the fact. Have you seen the Office?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm more concerned for you than me, honestly.
Speaker 2:Really yeah.
Speaker 1:You're going to butcher this.
Speaker 2:I'm going to butcher this so you know this scene right here.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love the Office. It's like one of my favorite shows dang, I do watch the office.
Speaker 2:You know, I watch the office. I'm lying, I don't watch the office, but okay so okay, I got it well, you tell me, what do you judge me then, after I do this? All right. All right, so you tell it go ahead okay, yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:So I start.
Speaker 2:It says no, I start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, everything's okay no, my life is like a mess right now.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's hard to hear that what's going on?
Speaker 1:I just found out that brad pitt is single again, and I'm like here in scranton that's rough.
Speaker 2:You're basically two missed flights away from destiny exactly?
Speaker 1:and do you know what r Ryan said when I told him?
Speaker 2:Let's guess cool.
Speaker 1:Worse. He said Brad Pitt's probably not into reality TV.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds like Ryan.
Speaker 1:Do you think he's right? Should I start like reading books or something?
Speaker 2:Well, maybe just one. Like they say, you've done it.
Speaker 1:But books are so long. Do they have like a TikTok version of Shakespeare?
Speaker 2:You mean a summary?
Speaker 1:Yes, that's what I need A summary. You're so smart, Jen.
Speaker 2:Just another day helping Kelly with her Brad Pitt strategy.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm starting with Romeo and Juliet. It's like a love story, right? Brad would love that.
Speaker 2:Just walks out shaking his head. That's the scene Cut. So how do you? I guess you gotta do it. How do I do? Well, was I Jim? No, I was terrible, you weren't Jim.
Speaker 1:You weren't his character.
Speaker 2:How's his character? Well, was I.
Speaker 1:Jim. No, I was terrible. You weren't Jim, you weren't his character.
Speaker 2:How's his character, jim?
Speaker 1:is like a little awkward and it's what's his name? John Krasick or whatever. That's the actor's name. Do you know him?
Speaker 2:Not at all, he plays like a lot of movies.
Speaker 1:Look him up. You would know if it look at more I'll look at more.
Speaker 2:I'm good with faces too, so, yeah, I'll have to look at more yeah thanks, I'd be a terror. What you'll grade me like from a to l okay, so not knowing the character yeah that's a big part of it that's a big part. I should look it up. I'm a bad host, it'll all good. I might have to cut this out. No, honestly, no activity was so fun, okay, oh yeah, I know we'll do right there, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was so fun, I loved.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I know what we'll do right now. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That was so fun.
Speaker 1:I loved doing that. Don't cut it out.
Speaker 2:So the office, please have look up on Ms Caitlin Whitmoyer. All right, we're going back into the show. All right, so we're going into hand and health wellness. We want to get into some of your techniques and programs that you offer. Yes, and one interesting one is Access Bars. It's one of the techniques you use. Can you explain that technique and how it benefits your clients?
Speaker 1:Yes, so Access Bars is a I call it an assistive meditation technique and it is when you are laying on a gravity chair or massage table and I'm just placing gentle touch points over 32 different places on your cranium and these points are associated with different parts of our brain where we actually store thoughts, beliefs, ideas, feelings in 32 different primal emotions that we are wired for. Essentially, every emotion comes from love or fear, but a lot of times we're wired for the fear-based ones. It doesn't mean that that's all I'm touching, like. I touch points of joy and creativity and creating connections, but also points like fear and sadness and control. So it's a crazy effective therapy.
Speaker 1:I have seen just things from people having very deep, rich meditation experiences where they're seeing colors and visions even and those are people typically who already have a strong meditation practice in place.
Speaker 1:But I also see things like people who just come because they're looking for, you know, that solution, that something to try to cure or heal.
Speaker 1:You know the thought that keeps reoccurring or the situation that they can't get over, or the anxiety, and it just allows the brain to get into this parasympathetic mode, which is the mode that we call rest and digest, and we're really able to slow the brain waves. And when we do that and we're at the same time pressing on these points, it stimulates a release response. So these thoughts, feelings, ideas that we hold, just by touching those and getting the body in a state of calm, we can let those go. And so people get up from you know, the chair, and it's not like right away. They're like, yeah, all of a sudden, don't worry about these things, it's within the next week. I get messages like no, I've felt really light this week and I haven't done anything different, but like I'm sleeping better and just things feel better, I'm communicating better, and just all these crazy testimonies of what it does in their life. So it's truly like a beautiful therapy, wow.
Speaker 2:And so this is touching your head right. Wow, I can see that's being very relaxing too.
Speaker 1:Yep, we do it with schools, with teachers. We offer it as a workshop because it's a free technique. Once you learn where these points are, you can have your partner do it at home. You can teach your kids how to do it. It's a pretty if you, if you look it up, there's pretty amazing videos of people doing this all over the world. But yeah, it's, it's something unlike anything else I've ever experienced. And we do it with schools, we do it with teachers, and one time we were hosting a workshop and the principal was the one receiving his bars and he actually fell asleep after like three minutes, I think it was, and he was snoring and we just were laughing because you know it's clearly what he needed. But it was great, it was such a fun.
Speaker 2:That's how I like me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was such a fun work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so mindfulness is a big part of you know your process, part of you know your process, and so how give us some of your techniques in regards to your mindfulness and how does it reduce stress overall?
Speaker 1:So let's get on the same page, I think, when we talk about that word right. Because mindfulness, you know, I think a lot of us think, who are far disconnected from that word or don't practice it, think it means, you know, sitting in lotus, pose and yoga and you know, waiting for a spirit to speak to you or whatever, and really mindfulness is just about the idea of presence.
Speaker 1:So it's, you can be mindful. We're being mindful right now because we're present and engaged and involved in this conversation and we're not thinking about anything else, past or future, and that's what mindfulness means to me. So, with my clients, I always try to start by having them, when they walk in the door, in the virtual door, just recognize that embodied feeling of what are they noticing? Are their shoulders tight, you know? Do they feel like their mind is racy? Do they feel tired? Why could that be Just really exploring that mind body connection and then strengthening that through different exercises that are rooted in building awareness. So that's when I coach, that's usually the first chunk of what I do with people is strengthen that awareness, because once you have that, it's game over, you can do, do anything. It's what you choose to do with the awareness right, right.
Speaker 2:Have you ever looked into like partnering with any different like assisted living facilities are seeing living communities like to do different sessions like that, whether it's meditation or yoga or even independent living, where people maybe still can get around on their own to participate like that? You know where people may still can get around on their own to participate like that you know? Or look at it from a business avenue as well. Like they still pay you to come. You know what I mean. I don't know that, just popped in my head right now because I think they could really benefit from. You know some of the aging adults to be able to join that, whether it's a session. You go and do that once a month.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I just thought about it like this yeah, you're so right.
Speaker 1:There is definitely a niche. I have a client who's 63, and there's definitely a niche of people who are, you know, those couple generations older that are seeking all of a sudden like this is trending everywhere to slow down, to be present, to enjoy life. It's they don't, you know, often know how to do that because they're not used to that. That's not the life they lived up to retirement and they don't know what to do in retirement. I see this with my own parents and they want to have peace and joy, but they don't know how to get there. So that's definitely a great point. I actually used to do hospice visits. I would do like visits with people who were actually used to do hospice visits. I would do like visits with people who were nonverbal or you know, in like a comatose state and you know, just sit, talk, and I loved it. It was so fulfilling just to be able to go and spend that hour. I haven't done that in a while. So that's. Thank you for bringing that up, yeah.
Speaker 2:That is really good, even families and their that up. Yeah, yeah, that is really good, even families and they're they're, uh, the caregivers or families that are having someone that is on hospice, that can be a great, a great avenue, uh, for for you as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, just relief, like that, you know, because mindfulness I had to like research it as well, and mindfulness it just, but it's, it's deeper, you know, it really is, and even with meditation, doing it the proper way, it's, it sounds simple, but to understand the true value of it is is really understanding. Like just watching your instagram, like I was like you know what, maybe I should try this, like you do it everywhere too.
Speaker 1:Outside I'm like man, I sweat too easy and I one thing that really it's a pet peeve of mine to see us overcomplicating and glamorizing meditation Like it is this thing that you have to do and look pretty doing or and be perfect at doing.
Speaker 1:And it's not about that. It's just like prayer or any form of sitting and pausing and, you know, receiving or whatever that time looks like for you, and receiving or whatever that time looks like for you. So I personally will never not be the person that's like no, this is actually simple. I have a deep reverence for it and I hope to grow in it. I mean, I'm almost 32. I definitely have a lot to learn, but I will always keep that accessibility piece at the front.
Speaker 2:You do I can't say that too Watching your social media. You don't mind where you do it at Like, and you make it very accessible and just showing people that, hey, it is okay to do it wherever you want to do it at. And just speaking on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, on November 21st you shared an interesting story on IG Instagram. The topic of your story was about how you were told you couldn't have work get pregnant because your job as an educational consultant. Can you share this journey of triumph with the audience? I was like that's pretty interesting because I never heard of a situation like that. So if you can, share like uh and I know that's a little transitioning, but I wanted to hear that story For sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, um, the consulting job that I was in the last um couple of years that I was in a school-based position, like I mentioned earlier, it was very high stakes, it was extremely high stress and it led me to a state of disease. So that particular health issue that I dealt with at the time, one of the kind of side effects or cascade effects from that was just my cycle being disrupted and my hormone levels were not stable, and so I was essentially just given the fast track option to go get IVF, because I think that's what we tell a lot of women these days that have a hard time trying to conceive, instead of helping them, you know, heal and support the whole body, which is the route I took. I think Wyatt took two years, but at that point was the point of that whole post was to say, like you know, I was making my job, the reason that I couldn't have the fertility success.
Speaker 1:And you know, my doctor was telling me all of these things because of the choices I made to be in that job and to be on that career track that I was on and, um, it was, like I mentioned earlier, just a reckoning. Um, it led me to a place of deep self-discovery and, um, just raw vulnerability and honesty and having to face a lot of things that my whole life I had just believed I would be and I no longer was going to be those things. And that was hard because I kept fighting myself to like, just do the thing that you know I was raised to do, which was, like you know, stay in the stable job. You know, get your 401k and all of that. Like you know, just time things out in the way that it was expected of me to do. So, when I went off that path and you know it started with my yoga teacher training and then I, you know, started the thread and the other business, like I said earlier, they were like fuzzy and then they came into focus. They were all starting and I think I saw people around me and be like, what are you doing?
Speaker 1:You know, like, um, how is this going to turn out? And like, are you making money? And that was a huge. People would always ask like, how are you making money and how are you getting through this? And I'm like money is a resource and I'm fine financially with resources being reallocated at times to do what needs to happen, like for me to be able to live a life and my family's be able to live a life that we love, so didn't take vacations for a while. We're very frugal and that's fine, figured it out and like we're still figuring it out. But I would never go the other way of just conforming because that was the other option. Right, you struggle for a little bit and just figure it out, or do you conform? And, um, you know, I even I just went home for Christmas. My parents are asking me about how are things going financially and I'm like great, honestly, do y'all need any help?
Speaker 2:Because we're good over here. So, with that being said, uh, what advice would you give someone that's stuck in their personal or professional life? Uh, to get out of that rut. What would you give someone that's stuck in their personal or professional life to get out of that rut? What would you say?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would just have them understand that they have a choice, like, do you understand that you're making a choice by saying yes to being here or by only looking at this opportunity?
Speaker 2:And just if you can come to that, you know that thought and believe that yes that really helps because I know for me, one thing I struggle with is the best understanding that work-life balance. People always talk about work, life balance, work-life balance, work-life balance. When you're trying to be successful, it's like it can drive you and it bleeds over. How do you really balance like understanding work and still be successful in your job? That's so demanding, and I think a lot of corporate leaders and people that are, you know, running their own businesses and owners, and maybe even yourself sometimes. How do you balance your life?
Speaker 1:yeah, I was reminded, as you were asking that question, that I think the first time we talked, I think we were both in our cars like on on a video call yeah and you know, honestly, to me it's like work-life balance is, I think, kind of overrated.
Speaker 1:I think people say that and it's so taboo now. And then it's this idea that like you really shouldn't have to work, but like, no, you do have to work and like, no matter what you do, whether you stay in the thing that somebody else is paying you to do or you do your own thing, it's equally, I think, more challenging at times, the hard work. But you know, I like this saying of like work-life harmony, like there's this harmonious um, back and forth or ebb and flow. There's a busy season, there's a slower season, and I think, as an entrepreneur, like just understanding that. So I don't mind having seasons where I'm slower in the morning and busier in the evenings, or I'm taking a call when I have 15 minutes to quickly touch on something I need to, because to me efficiency is always best and I'm not going to need to schedule a formal meeting and conform and do the other things that you know, jobs told us we need to do.
Speaker 1:So, um, I think enjoying what you do is huge when it comes to work life harmony too, because you know we still work a lot of hours as entrepreneurs and I don't mind that hustle and those hours that I put in because I genuinely love it. It doesn't take away what I love to do.
Speaker 2:So, with your wellness business, what industry, would you say, a lot of your clients work in? Is there a particular industry that you see a lot of your clients work in? Is there a particular industry that you see a lot of your clients? Is it healthcare or construction, or do you have any particular? It's just all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question. I think primarily, like 90%, would be education, so principals, assistant principals, teachers, and then the other 10% is a huge mix. Like I mentioned, I have a 63-year-old that I work with. I have, you know, a couple women in their early 20s, post-college trying to figure it out, really wanting that clarity. I have some people that are a decade or two into their career and they just are not sure anymore. So you know they're at this place, though the theme with all of them is like I have to figure this out right, Similar to where I was and I went through this two year struggle of like things being fuzzy and out of focus and finally I figured it out. But now I know the questions to ask somebody who were following in my you know, similar journey to help them get there faster.
Speaker 2:Right, right, but what I found interesting about your services and your business is when I was like reading it, like when I first found you, I read before I reached out to you, like why isn't this something more prominent in health care? And I figured that was going to be your answer. That's why I just thought of this in my head just now, like because I feel like your services with with the treatment for the access bars and those things can be beneficial to people with high stress jobs.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's on their feet all day, or that's dealing with aqua surveys and dealing with different you know that's working a 12 hour shift and you know, know, having stressful families that they're working with, uh, even caregivers, for instance, that's dealing with taking care of mom all the time, just living with them. That's this thing be very beneficial in this area and it's something that I wanted to introduce, uh, to a lot of to the audience that actually, that tunes into this podcast, that this is a service that can be beneficial in our field, in healthcare, and should be more prominent, and that's why I wanted to bring you on the show for sure. So, if you could just take me through, just a normal client just coming in through, just go over your services that you offer, yeah, just every, just from top to bottom yeah, so I'm actually I'm in the process of changing a little bit how I work with people.
Speaker 1:So I am reserving every quarter of the year a certain amount of spots for in-person clients. So those clients I see for both the access bars, therapy and the coaching, and I truly am shifting that for the benefit of my client, because I've just seen the power of combining the two and it's hugely transformational. So I'm reserving a few of those spots and then I serve virtual clients. I do that both through my one-on-one and then I also work with Reach University, which is an online university, and take some clients through there. But they're a really special school, I have to shout them out. They help take people who are looking to fast track their way to a degree in education without having to get separate internship time outside of their jobs. They're not having to take time away from their job.
Speaker 2:What's the?
Speaker 1:university, reach University.
Speaker 2:Reach Reach University.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so they essentially help keep them in their jobs and allow them to accumulate those course hours while they're working. So it's very manageable for teachers, for paraprofessionals, for whoever is doing that degree track. But I love it and I love that wellness coaching is part of what they offer. So, um, that's another platform that I do. But, uh, and then thread is you know, all the time we're interfacing with school leaders and in a way it's um, a bit of wellness coaching too. But I think the themes that we talked about in the beginning are around awareness, like I mentioned earlier. So it's just building that understanding of you know. Here's the mirror. Do you see this? I'm. Am I seeing this? Are we all seeing this?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And um, just coming to terms with those truths of you know what needs to be opened so that you can get to the place you want to be, or heal, or whatever that looks like for you. And then walking the path of creating new habits, which I do using this cognitive behavioral therapy tool, and it's essentially thought work is the layman's terms for it, but it's all about building neuroplasticity in the brain. So our brains are the only organ in our body that can actually rebuild or repair themselves. You know your liver can't be the new liver. You have the one you have, but your brain can do that. And it's really awesome to get to experience that with clients for the first time and understand like this is a real way to change the way I am in the world. And then from there we look into like how do we make this last? So that's, you know, a general synopsis. We do lots more mindfulness and other sorts of mind body embodiment techniques to facilitate that process, especially since we're online.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But it's totally doable and I'm loving it. I'm loving seeing the results my clients are having.
Speaker 2:OK, all right. Well, that's our sign again. Another surprise for you. Uh, miss caitlin, I like to play games. I like to play games. So, uh, this here is a questionnaire. All right for us to learn a little bit more about you, all right? So, uh, it's called. Uh, that's my answer. All right, you only get, let's see how many seconds. I want to give you Three seconds. Three seconds to answer, all right. If you had one thing to eat, one dish that you could eat for the rest of your life, you had to eat it every day. What would it be?
Speaker 1:Spaghetti.
Speaker 2:Spaghetti all right, With meat or with.
Speaker 1:With tomato sauce. That's it, yeah.
Speaker 2:And yeah no meat.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, but I guess I need it for survival, right? Yeah, I guess that may be meat, spaghetti and a meatball.
Speaker 2:A meatball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a big meatball, Like we're Italian, so the meatballs we make are big Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
Speaker 1:Fly.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:To fly.
Speaker 2:Fly, fly.
Speaker 1:Why do you want to fly? It's just cool. You're only giving me three seconds. I'm not thinking critically, I'm just coming.
Speaker 2:I'm a hard person. If you could start a rumor about yourself, what would it be?
Speaker 1:A rumor about yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not cutting it out either three seconds.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I still play with dolls you still play with dolls.
Speaker 2:All right, uh, what's the most hilarious um uh secret you have about yourself?
Speaker 1:okay, the first thing that comes to mind is when I was in middle school, like I was seven, like I was a straight teenager. I laughed so hard at lunch that I peed myself. But I had to act like it was just my time of the month so I made everybody around me like go get me sweatshirts and everybody felt so bad for me and nobody asked me questions. But really I had to speak myself.
Speaker 2:Oh, we are friends from middle school. That they know. Shout them out on the internet.
Speaker 1:Make sure you send them the episode say you know, jenna, hey, you all know what happened yeah, they know what happened.
Speaker 2:Make sure you send them the episode too, so they you know you confess. Okay, um, what's? Let's see what else I'm going to ask you. All right, if you could be any animal, what would it be and why? That's the last one I have Any animal.
Speaker 1:Probably a dolphin. They're so smart and they know how to evade sharks and they all like team up to make the sharks feel dumb.
Speaker 2:That is true, so, but dolphins are dolphins to make the sharks feel dumb, that is true. Dolphins are Dolphins are crooked too.
Speaker 1:They're what.
Speaker 2:Dolphins. What was the dolphins at SeaWorld, they said, took the lady down all the way to the bottom of the little tank and just drowned her. Was that like a sea At a zoo?
Speaker 1:Well yeah they're in a zoo, they're like not right in their minds.
Speaker 2:Because they're in captivity. You ever been to SeaWorld?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, actually I would never go to SeaWorld, Really why? Because I don't like going to the zoo. The aquarium's different. It's like it's fish, but bigger fish, like whales and like animals that are, you know, super intelligent. I just feel bad that they're in captivity. Really they're not in their natural habitat. I know I'm like a weird person.
Speaker 2:You're not. You're not at all. It's a lot of people like that. It's an unpopular opinion.
Speaker 1:Like am I going to take my kid to the zoo? Yes, Do I like it? No.
Speaker 2:You know, going to the zoo, but I'm sorry, let me not say that. No, you can like it. I'm not offended by it, I know. But uh, all right, back on with the show, okay, so looking forward, uh, what's next for hand, and health, uh, wellness, uh, and thread yeah, um.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to start with thread, because I feel like I haven't bragged about her enough. We are, so we are actually going to be pitching at 1 million cups in the next month, which is a part of St Petersburg has this nonprofit called the greenhouse, and they offer business mentorship and just pathways to help you take your business from idea to launch and beyond. So we've been partnered with a mentor from the greenhouse for the last two years Shout out to Sean and gel, she's amazing and we are going to formally present thread to the 1 million cups. What do you call it? It's, it's done worldwide, it's an event and it's really just an opportunity for you to get feedback on your business and eventually ask for funding, looking for our sponsors too.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, we want to be able to be serving more schools in more districts. We're really looking to gain district contracts. So we want to be able to take what we have and, you know, put it in the hands of principals and be able to impact teachers every day, and I feel like going to the district level is the best way to do that.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So we're excited to grow that in 2025. And then for Hand and Health. Like I said, I'm switching a couple of things around, continuing to save and reserve my energy for creative things with my business, because that's really important to me balancing that client load and taking care of myself.
Speaker 2:So all that, all those good things really, you have already your goals out loud for this year. Uh, what does it call? It been seeing a lot, lot of it Thrive in 2025.
Speaker 1:Oh, I haven't heard that one.
Speaker 2:You haven't I haven't seen it but Thrive in 2025. And I think and I'm praying, and I'll pray for you and hope that that happens for all your businesses. But you're already on the right path. You have mentorship going, you're reaching out with resources and I can't wait for that presentation. Is it open to the public at all?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You can come.
Speaker 1:One Million Cups. They present every Wednesday from 9 to 10 am. I think you can sign up to pitch Really.
Speaker 2:And I don't have to live in Pinellas County.
Speaker 1:I don't believe, so you should look into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, what's up, sean, I want to come on there. I'm going to get up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Sean is a mentor through SCORE, which is one of their organizations.
Speaker 2:Oh, I am familiar with SCORE.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm familiar with SCORE yes, yeah, so that's how we were connected through the greenhouse.
Speaker 2:Through the greenhouse. Okay, well, thank you for that. Can I shout out?
Speaker 1:another one of my mentors.
Speaker 2:Please do Okay.
Speaker 1:So I talked a lot about my journey and fertility being part of that, and I would be remiss not to shout out Hilary Talbot-Roland. She is a life coach and acupuncturist and owner at Art of Acupuncture in St Pete, and not only has she been super influential to me just as a human and friend, but she's the one who encouraged me in the first place to take this step and start coaching and start stepping into, like this new Caitlin that I didn't really know how to relate to when I first met and, uh, I, just I she's an amazing person. If you're looking for acupuncture and you're in the takeaway area, please drive to see her. It's worth the 50 minute drive over the bridge.
Speaker 2:Um she's amazing.
Speaker 2:Thank you. That's a very nice of you. Big shout out to you, madam, as well. Love what you do, providing relief, and I have actually fallen in love with massages too. Massages Likewise, and pedicures, because I'm from the country, so I never was raised like a male getting pedicures. You know, because I'm from the country, so I never was raised like a male getting pedicures and stuff never, ever. That's awesome, yeah, for real. So before we wrap up things here, where can listeners learn more about you, your programs, if you can share your socials and websites?
Speaker 1:yeah, so you can follow Thread on Instagram at Thread underscore edu. You can also follow me at Hand in Health at Handinhealth, underscore wellness. Got to work on that and then also wwwsame names of both of those organizationscom. And yeah, we'll be very vocal on socials, on LinkedIn as well, and I would love to connect with more of your listeners out there.
Speaker 2:Yes, for sure. Comfy listeners. You have heard from Miss Caitlin Whitmoyer and your favorite black bearded bald guy on number one health care entertainment station. Thank you for tuning in let's get comfy podcast. Be sure to like, comment, share, subscribe. Try to build up our subscribers. I understand health care. It's not your number one drama station. Tune in, subscribe to this channel. Send it to your mama, your grandmama and your granddaddy too. Peace.
