I am 54, married and run my own business.  I work long hours and rarely made time for exercise, let alone contemplating my long-term vision of health.

I had recently been diagnosed with diabetes and was still not making the necessary changes I knew I needed to make to improve my health and wellbeing.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. It was that I felt scared. Scared about what would happen if I didn’t change my habits and oddly enough, more scared of what would happen if I did.

That’s when I called Zo. We had known each other for about a year and I had come to learn more about Zo’s own story of addiction and recovery and how he had inspired others to improve their lives and get healthy.

I put my trust in Zo in part because I knew he was someone who could relate to my experience and was equally prepared to use his professional training to help me.

For me, that combination was critical.

Zo helped me develop a personal wellness vision that I still use today. He helped me clarify attainable goals I could work on each week and he helped me to understand the importance of motivation and confidence in achieving the goals I’d set for myself.

Zo is exceedingly careful not to overstep the boundaries of his role as a wellness coach. Something I especially respected and appreciated having trained myself as a therapist. What he does is not therapy but it is highly therapeutic.

Instead, Zo challenged me to think through what I wanted (not what I didn’t) and helped me to figure out the necessary steps, even when they were only “baby steps,” to get there.

I worked with Zo in his home office because I preferred the face-to-face format. However Zo would often reach out to me via phone or text to offer his help, his time, his support and his compassion, evidence to me that he truly cares about his clients.

Changing long-held, unhealthy habits, thoughts and behaviors is hard work. In the end its up to you whether you do it or not but having Zo to support me was something I will always be grateful for.