Jul 10, 2024 9:05:00 AM | holistic health Alumni Highlight: Kristy Bowers, From Emergency Response to Holistic Healing

The Journey to Alternative Health Sciences

Kristy Bowers discovered ACHS after a long career as a paramedic in New York. She wanted to study holistic and complementary health after she recognized the stress her career had on her mind, body, and spirit. She began seeking alternative ways to heal and restore. Kristy was motivated not just to treat her post-stress symptoms but to really get down to the root cause and make long-lasting changes. She had a strong background in Western Medicine through her training as a paramedic and wanted to explore herbal medicine and alternative methods of addressing health. This brought her to American College of Healthcare Sciences, where she enrolled in the Associate of Applied Science in Complementary Alternative Medicine (now the Associate of Applied Science in Integrative Health Sciences) and graduated with honors in 2017. 

Combining Business and Holistic Health Studies

Kristy chose ACHS based on the college’s excellent reputation. “I was very serious about learning integrative health and wanted the best possible education from an accredited school,” she says. “I loved everything about it - from the original phone call to learning in an online forum. There is a stigma that you would not get the same experience as you might from in-person classes. However, my classes and labs exceeded my expectations.”

Kristy highlights the great experience she had in her Holistic Health Consulting and Business Skills class. She felt this course professionally approached business essentials and still included the holistic mindset of integrating coaching skills and building a business. 

Kristy is proud to call herself an ACHS Alumni! She boasts, “We are an incredibly talented and dedicated group of people.” The post-graduation support has really helped her flourish and she’s grateful for the connections made at ACHS. 

Building a Coaching Business

Kristy loved learning about herbs, aromatherapy, and coaching. When thinking about starting her own business, she wanted to craft wellness programs for clients but realized she needed to find a niche within this broad area of interest. Her research and experience as a paramedic, combined with her education at ACHS, led her to believe that focusing on stress management would help the greatest amount of people. She realized that “stress affects every human being and can be the underlying cause for many ailments.”

Kristy launched her business, The Sage Moose, in October of 2023. Her specialty is coaching clients on how to master their stress. She offers individual and group coaching packages to help clients in a variety of settings. Kristy conveys that “There is no greater gift than being able to help people transform their lives by improving their emotional, physical, and mental well-being.”

Client Testimonial: " I had never paid attention to where I carried stress in my body. The Body Scan was a great tool and really helped me relax as well! Learning where I carry tension helped alert me to situations I didn't realize were stressful."
-Donald B.

Giving back to the Holistic Health Community

Kristy loves to be a resource for other budding business professionals. She’s very active in the ACHS community and hopes to create a positive impact by sharing the following advice with her peers:

1) A business plan is crucial. I didn't start with a formalized plan, which cost me much time and energy!

2) Plan financially- This can be different for coaching versus selling. Understand and plan for costs and allow for unexpected expenses.

3) Be flexible and understand that your plan and vision may change and grow. I reinvented myself three times before everything came together in the right way.

4) For the coaches- NICHE, NICHE, NICHE! Life Coach and Wellness Coach are broad fields. People don't search for wellness coaches. They search for someone to help them with a specific problem. I started as a wellness coach but didn't find traction and success until I narrowed my field down to stress management.  

5) The most important! Live and act like a CEO. We all want to run our own businesses for financial and personal freedom. But unless you show up every single day like a boss (even if it's just you), you will never obtain the reputation, success, or freedom you desire.

All of us here at ACHS thank Kristy for sharing her story and her wisdom. We look forward to following the growth of her coaching business and her future endeavors! 

This article is for informational purposes only. Please contact ACHS Admissions at admissions@achs.edu or 800-487-8839 for additional information and to apply for admission. Graduation from any ACHS program does not confer a license to practice medicine. ACHS graduates do not claim to treat, diagnose, cure, or prescribe. Please note that professional success is achieved by a number of factors beyond education and experience, including soft skills, work ethic, integrity, and other skills that may not be developed through education and training alone. Not all graduates will achieve the career outcomes provided as examples in this article and other ACHS marketing materials.