Hi! I am so very glad to welcome you to HER: Holistic Health.

My name is Valerie Tookes and I am a certified holistic health and lifestyle coach.

HER: Holistic Health is built upon my personal journey to befriend and ultimately fall in love with my body. I have always been a woman aware of her weight, always considering myself on the chubbier end of the spectrum (even when I wasn’t). For years and years, I dieted, abused, manipulated, deprived and shamed my body toward an ideal size only to find when I arrived that the voices in my head were saying the exact same unkind things to me and I was confused.

Wasn’t that where happily ever after begins? Wasn’t I supposed to finally be happy?

Then the realization came that no matter my size or weight, I had to deal with the things I was saying to and about my body. I simply could no longer live “white knuckling it,” worrying about every bite, lick, or taste I consumed. I decided that there had to be a better, healthier way to inhabit my body and to learn to trust my own being.

During my coursework at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I found the writings of Geneen Roth, best selling author of several books including Women, Food and God. While I have studied hundreds of dietary theories, my practice is influenced by her books and the work I have done at her annual five day retreats.

“The shape of your body obeys the shape of your beliefs about love, value and possibility. To change your body, you must first understand that what is shaping it.”  ~Geneen Roth

I not only help my clients to take action toward achieving their health and wellness goals but also encourage and support them to go below the surface to look at the motivation behind the unhealthy choices they make in their lives. Until they can understand themselves, lasting change is not possible.

“Change, if it is to be lasting, must occur on the unseen level first. With understanding, inquiry and openness. With repeated experiences of opening and ease, you learn to trust something infinitely more powerful than a set of rules that someone else made up: your own being.”  ~Geneen Roth

I will help you create a completely personalized roadmap to health and understanding that suits your unique body, lifestyle, preferences, and goals. This multi-layered approach to coaching helps you make life long changes and step into a new relationship with the beautiful woman that you see in the mirror.

Are you curious about how the support of a health coach can help you to change the dialogue in your head and befriend (and perhaps love) your body?

Let’s talk. Schedule a consultation with me today.