Inspiring Collective Community: Christine Gilchrist PhD, MPH, RN, NC-BC, CH

Inspiring Collective Community: Christine Gilchrist PhD, MPH, RN, NC-BC, CH Transcript

Welcome, everyone, to the Integrative Nurse Coaches in ACTION! podcast. My name is Nicole Vienneau. I am your host, and I’m also a board certified Integrative Nurse Coach coming to you all the way from Tucson, Arizona. And you know those people you meet sometimes, and you’re always curious about where they came from, what’s going on? But you never really had time to talk to them. 

And then you meet them again somewhere else, and then you’re like, this person’s so cool, I want to learn more about them. And then you keep meeting them through your life. Today’s podcast is someone like that in my life. And the last time we were speaking, we reconnected after some years of not talking, and we realized, oh my gosh, we need to connect more often. 

So what a perfect opportunity it is to have someone from the third cohort of Integrative Nurse Coaching. And I took the fourth cohort of Integrative Nurse Coaching. And this person has been doing amazing work throughout the years, showing up and using her voice in very important ways, and learning along the way. 

And continuing to learn and grow and just being an important role model for future Nurses as well as present and past Nurses too. So she’s in New York City, and I would love to welcome Christine Gilchrist.

Christine Gilchrist  01:32

Thanks, Nicole. I’m a big fan of the podcast, and I appreciate you having me here today. Thanks!

Nicole Vienneau  01:38

Yay! And we’re so excited, or I’m really excited. I know our listeners are too, because it’s really important for us to understand people’s histories, people’s stories, learn from them the little nuggets that they take along the way and pick up along the way, and share if they choose to. 

So we love to take a trip down history lane and learn a little bit about our guests. So we’d love to know how you discovered Nursing. What is your story in relation to your journey there?

Christine Gilchrist  02:09

My beginning into Nursing goes way, way back to when I was in high school. I wanted a summer job, and I’m younger than my peer group in school, so I went to get, let’s say, working papers, or whatever it was, the permit to work, and it turned out I was too young. 

So I ended up that summer between my freshman and sophomore year in high school, volunteering at a mother house, which is a home for retired nuns, which is a very interesting beginning. So I did things like open the cartons of milk. You know, those lovely sort of card stock cardboard, that laminated cardboard little cartons of milk, and assisting them in their wheelchairs. 

And I will say the women themselves… I actually ended up taking care of the woman who was my mother’s high school principal, who was 105. So an amazing group of women that really had strong stories. And just to give one, a quick story about that was one of the women in the 1930s I believe, had gotten her PhD in mathematics and then taught English in Puerto Rico. 

So I think just the strength of the women, the amazing, especially for their their time, I guess that made quite an impression, as well as the Nurse who was working with them and, or, you know, oversaw their care. So that’s how I first, I guess, thought of Nursing as a career path. 

Nicole Vienneau  03:43

How old were you at that time? 

Christine Gilchrist  03:45

I’m terrible at the ages and years. So what is maybe 13… 14, maybe? Is that like freshman in high school? Yeah, yeah, I think 13.

Nicole Vienneau  03:56

And then being exposed to all of these different women and then realizing, wow, someone could get their PhD in the 1930s as a woman, you know, you don’t think that. You don’t think that about how difficult that must have been for her back in that time.

Christine Gilchrist  04:14

Absolutely, yeah, they were. And some of it, I wonder now, because I’m looking back on experience. I continued then, as I was in college, working there on my summer breaks as a Nursing assistant. So at first I was volunteering, and then I actually did get a job there. 

But yeah, at that time, these were definitely women who really got their education and saw, you know, traveled and worked in ways, all sorts of… Yeah, it was, it was definitely an empowering experience, I guess, seeing women that had such diverse experiences. And for myself, sorry to interject, but I was a… 

I am a first generation college graduate, so I think to see,  yeah, the paths that education for their again, blanking on the word, but the sort of time period that they lived in, and their lives when they were in the culture that they grew up in, and what they had the experience to do. So I think that also made a big impact, and thinking about education as a way to, you know, really get more experience and travel and all sorts of things.

Nicole Vienneau  05:24

Absolutely. So at a young age, just being influenced by these amazing women, starting as a volunteer, then you did your Nursing assistant and work there. And then what were some of your next steps?

Christine Gilchrist  05:38

So next steps, let’s see, I got my bachelor’s degree, and then from there, worked on a medical floor, primarily medical floor in New York City. And I guess, stepping back from that, from a moment when I think back to my college experience, I was a peer health educator, a sexual health peer health educator, and I guess was really interested in the health promotion. 

So I guess that’s what I want to back up to that, because that links to the work that I really was drawn to. So when I worked then on the floor in New York City, I think I was looking for how to spend more time with patients. In the hospital environment, you’re quite limited. 

I think I was looking for, what can we do to prevent infection and illness as much as we can. So that drew me, then, to working in the community. So that’s most of my career was as a community health Nurse. And then from there, pursuing a master’s in community health Nursing, a master’s in public health degree, which I guess brought me to the holistic Nursing, integrative Nursing path. 

And that’s through the mentorship of an amazing, trailblazing Nurse in New York City, Aurora Ocampo, who was my clinical preceptor and remains a mentor. And that ultimately working with her, seeing the type of work she did with preparing patients for surgery, teaching breath work and imagery, sort of asking her, like, how do you get to do what you do, sort of thing, right? 

Like, what’s the path? And so she had multiple you would need to take this, you need to take that. And the connection to what you and I are talking about today is the first one. She suggested Clinical Meditation and Imagery with Bonney and Richard Schaub. 

So I took their clinical meditation imagery certification program and then studied under them as well through INCA. So that’s the path of how I got to the Integrative Nurse Coach program back in 2011 which is amazing to think about. Yeah, so that’s the path to how I guess my journey with INCA started.

Nicole Vienneau  08:09

So taking the clinical imagery class with Bonney Schaub, who is one of the creators of Nurse Coaching, with Susan Luck and Barbara Dossey and Bonnie Schaub. And so I’ve taken some classes with Bonney, and just love the work that she’s doing with both Dr. Schaub and her. 

So as you are exploring this, this path, you know, sounds like it was towards maybe the beginning of your career in Nursing, and then realizing, okay, more aligning, instead of, you know, the at the bedside kind of Nursing, that maybe prevention was your niche that you wanted to focus on. At that time, do you recall if there was more jobs or less jobs? Or how did that kind of align with your process?

Christine Gilchrist  09:08

I think the position even in community health Nursing, I think there… it feels like there were certainly fewer, because I remember hearing about my job. I worked for many years as a college health Nurse at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. And I remember sort of reading about that position and thinking like, Oh, wow. 

Like, you know this is my dream job, you know, talking about, again, more of the health promotion side of things, programming, those aspects, I guess, drew me towards that. I don’t remember at the time when I think of what Aurora and I were doing, thinking of that as like a viable career option, you know what I’m saying? 

It was sort of like even her journey of she was a very trusted Nurse at that hospital. She was an ICU Nurse. She had worked on all the different floors. She worked in Nursing education. So she had built up trust. The way that I see it. For some of the folks that really, you know, really started this path, in my opinion, they use the trust they had to create that position. 

I don’t know, I don’t know that no one… my view of it, of their work, is that no one brought it to them, that they sort of kept persisting, and they were there and trusted and used that trust to then say, Okay, this is what we can also be doing, right? So, moving it to the what can people do for themselves? 

I think is… especially at that time, so I’m talking about early… my Nursing career started in early 2000s. Yeah, I don’t remember that being, yeah… there certainly wasn’t like, job listings for a Nurse or a holistic Nurse or Nurse Coach. I was like, No, that was definitely not how I remember it being.

Nicole Vienneau  10:56

Right. Well, I love the direction of this conversation, because it seems like it’s aligning with Nurse Coaching. You know, Nurse Coaching, if you think of your cohort number three and graduating, what you said, it was 2012. I graduated in 2013. I recall there were no jobs for Nurse Coaches. 

No job listings, and so we were part of the trailblazers back then. And someone has to be the trailblazer. Someone has to have the courage to step out and forge a path somehow. So tell us a little bit about your path forging.

Christine Gilchrist  11:42

I guess… alright, so I’ll… when I think of right, those folks who have decades of experience, Nursing experience on me, and so much trust and so much credibility within our field, thinking of Susan Luck and Barbara Dossey and thinking of, right, like, so even signing up for the course, right? I had the teacher I already knew. 

And these, you know, to me, sort of like marquee names of Nursing, right? So, like, when people say, Well, why did you sign up for that? Well of course. Like they, you know… I absolutely, I would say, put them on that pedestal, right? Of like they were the experts. They knew. 

And really coming to my cohort at the time, I guess in 2011 I would say there were probably three of us that were in— and forgetting how old I was at the time, but I would say we were definitely among the younger Nurses in the group. 

There was someone, I think, either who had retired or was about to retire, and I just remember being blown away by the level of education, experience, care that these Nurses, frankly, quite far along in their careers, again, were putting to their own education and wanting to do more for the people that they served in their work. 

So when I think of the trailblazers, I think of them, like I think of my role and a privilege now to be a connector to the trailblazers. But I don’t see myself in that way, although I guess when I see, right, they’re recruiting for cohort 50 now. So I guess with that lens, I appreciate you saying it, Nicole, you do have to acknowledge we were on the early adopter side of things for INCA. 

But when I finished up, I guess in 2012, then there was an advanced Integrative Nurse Coach program, which we… where we think we met, I believe that’s where we met. And around that same time was when the board certification. 

So that’s my first certification, was in 2013. And an amazing privilege from that time is that Barbie and Susan were asked by Hunter College, of which I am an alum, that’s where I got my master’s degrees, to teach a course for their baccalaureate students needed, like, a one credit course, so pretty, like a short course. 

It didn’t have to have homework or tests, and they wanted to teach the students about self care and about Nurse Coaching, and so they asked me to teach with them. So that’s kind of, certainly one of those career highlight moments of I shared with people that I had gone to college with a photo of, like the front page of the syllabus, which is, you know, like me, just me, and then, you know, fellow American Academy Nursing. 

Like, it was definitely such an amazing experience to be asked to teach with them. And I definitely felt ahead of my element, frankly, of where I was with my work. But it was, it was an incredible honor, and it was great to have that experience with the students there to kind of see, how can this be, right? 

So the students, I think many of us, can recall this feeling, shared that they were feeling distracted. There was, I think, a pharmacology test that day, or anatomy or physiology, one of the bigger tests that they were taking, and they shared about, kind of like, okay, this is great, you know, the self care stuff, but we’re distracted. 

So we did, like, an imagery about that, right? That you’d be even more successful than you thought you could be on this test. And so it was nice to be able to weave that, the modalities we do, right, meeting people where they are, yeah. 

So I guess that was a great experience. And then got to contribute to the first textbook, a little bit from the work that the three of us had done together there. So that was an incredible honor again, to kind of be able to be a part of that, I guess the beginnings of that.

Nicole Vienneau  15:58

Yeah, some really great opportunities. It’s interesting because, as I hear you speaking about it, it was an… you mentioned it was such an honor to work with them. And who else could have done that, right? I mean, for you, they look to you as an up and coming. 

I’ve always felt that Barbie, Susan, Bonney, they’re always looking to see who can come, who can come behind them, and then also move Nurse Coaching forward. So they’re, they often are, you know, reaching out to younger, I’m going to say younger Nurses, or just Nurses who are really engaged in what is happening, and want their voices to come along with them. 

And that is such… It is an honor to work with them. It is, and at the same time, if they, if we ask them, like, they’d be like, Yes, I’ll do that with you. You know, so it’s so… and they would think it would be an honor to work with us. And, you know, it’s just such a beautiful relationship that I have seen through my career. 

You know of this, you know, if I’m graduated from in 2013 and now we’re in 25 you know that time frame has… we’ve seen trailblazers going back, picking up people who are just coming along at the beginning and pulling them with them. So it’s been a beautiful sharing of knowledge, and then the reflection of like, Yes, I have this knowledge, and I need to go back and pick someone up. 

Because they have different knowledge and different wisdom that is so useful, that we need now because we’re here. So let’s go get them. We’ll bring them with us and and then we use… it’s just always kind of the circular, I don’t know if picking up is the right proper term, but I’m imagining walking along and then the front person goes back and gets someone in the back, and then they become a leader. 

And they are then leading. And so I think that’s just a really beautiful way of continuing to acknowledge that even if you’re a leader, you don’t know everything. You need to go back and you need to elevate someone else’s wisdom so that they can also share their gifts, and just continuing the compilation of wisdom along the journey. 

Christine Gilchrist  18:40

Yeah, I heard you in that say share a few times about the sharing. And I do, I find our teachers have been incredibly generous with that, of sharing opportunity. And as you said, acknowledging the areas that right in that program, that people aren’t… that people have experiences and different perspectives. 

And I remember even just thinking of our recently departed friend Nancy Carlson, like in the advanced programming she was asked to teach about, oh, I’m blanking on it now… 

Nicole Vienneau  19:11

The Ayurveda?

Christine Gilchrist  19:12

Ayurveda. Thank you so much. You know how she would teach sharing. I’m all for it. This is why we nned to have that community, that’s absolutely part of it. And I think that I did see our teachers share, right, the mic, if you will, of passing the voice, that the voice wasn’t a singular voice of this is what Nurse Coaching is, that they encouraged sharing of experiences and perspectives. 

I really admire them for that. The other piece that’s coming back to me, is I think of it, is, you know, traditional, maybe teaching, right, where, as I’ve heard since then, like the sage on the stage, that there was this expert, and the expert comes in. 

And what I was hearing you say too, with the sharing and the different, you know, where people are on their path, sort of, the sharing the voice, is I think they were incredibly generous, also sharing the sort of realness. I remember one time, Barbie sharing like a practice she did or something, and just thinking it was so real, frankly, from what sometimes when someone’s an expert and seems to have it all rather slick and polished, that she just, I think, was very honest and open. 

And I just, yeah, was blown away, I guess, by that, that experience of having teachers that were so open with us, that were experts, yes, but shared their, you know, personal experiences with us, so, yeah.

Nicole Vienneau  20:38

Yeah, which then links back to like the reality of Nurse Coaching is just this true, authentic presence that no one else can have except you. Your presence is so unique and different than someone else’s. And if we’re not able to show up as our authentic selves, how can we possibly truly help or truly hear or truly be with another person. 

Christine Gilchrist  21:06

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And we were, you know, when I think of that, this idea of something you touched on earlier with sort of that Nurse Coaching ongoing journey, right? The self reflection, the self development, that there’s not this linear like and you’re done, you’re an expert Nurse Coach. 

And I’ll just be honest that I get… something like clicks on if I hear someone say like they have all the answers. Because I think it really is that aspect of a journey. And if we look at the teachings of Integrative Nurse Coaching, that this is an ongoing journey process, that will always be in development. 

But it doesn’t mean we’re not ready to do what it is that we’re called to do, so to not think that you have to wait till you have all the letters behind your name, or all the slickness of your polished social media presence, that you absolutely already are ready, and that you know that there’s an ongoing process. 

What also came up for me, Nicole, when you were saying about the, you know, the leaders and the teachers coming back and pulling up this idea of community. So even the connections, right, that when we’re maybe needing that reminder, and I appreciate you giving kind words earlier for my work. 

But to have a community of people who can hold up the mirror for you when you can’t do it yourself. So yes, we are all responsible for our own energy, our own self care, but perhaps you have a little bit more to give one day and to reach out, to reconnect with people that are in your community and to support. 

Yeah, there’s so many different aspects. And when I think of all the different types of work, types of integrative approaches that Nurse Coaches I know do, it’s sort of like, right, we each have our own voice, perspective, and I think that’s a really beautiful thing in our community.

Nicole Vienneau  23:14

It’s so amazing. I just think, just in our podcast, the Integrative Nurse Coaches in ACTION! podcast, we’ve interviewed over 80 graduates of Nurse Coaching who have… who are all doing something just a little bit different, sometimes dramatically different, and ideas that would have… I would have never dreamed of. 

And it is just so inspiring to know that we have Nurses stepping into something that is newer, but stepping into their own unique power, wisdom, education, or just passion. And letting the passion drive their decisions and creating some businesses sometimes, or stepping into roles within, you know, the space that they’re working… presently working in. 

And taking new skills into that environment, and then shifting the way they’re showing up at work, and people asking, What are you doing? You’ve changed the way you’re showing up, and it’s made a positive impact here in the present work that you’re doing. 

So I just think that is an incredible thing to have our voices being heard on this podcast, and then recognizing, like, we have over 1000 graduates just in Integrative Nurse Coaching, plus, like, I think we’re moving towards a couple 1000, and, you know, thinking of all of those Nurses in the world showing up in the way that they want to, in the way that they can, and their uniqueness. So it’s just amazing to me.

Christine Gilchrist  24:53

Absolutely, absolutely. It is a beautiful and diverse community, agreed. So it’s wonderful to be able to reflect on that and connect, that there’s so many Nurse Coaches, as you said, throughout the world, that’s very exciting.

Nicole Vienneau  25:09

Yes, throughout the world. Yes, throughout the world. Okay, so now we’ve heard that you have completed your masters, and then you took one more step. More steps.

Christine Gilchrist  25:19

True. Yeah, taking a few steps. So I’m trying to catch myself up now. All right, so we talked about in 2013. Okay, so then through the work at the time with Beth Israel Center for Health and Healing, at the opportunity to work with a grant funded program, people with IBS, working with a group of nutritionists. 

And myself and Caroline Ortiz, who has been on your podcast before, we worked on a intervention using clinical meditation imagery, using Nurse Coaching, to work in small groups with people. And so we built that program and worked with those people, and then got the opportunity to write that up or contribute to writing it up as a article. 

Then we also collaborated on a program for people who have spinal cord injuries, looking at pain management. And again, that was another clinical meditation and imagery and Nurse Coaching intervention. And somewhere in that time, I remember us talking about, you know, these are both Nursing interventions. 

And that where we were at the time, both of us having our graduate degrees, we could never be a PI of a study, that you need a doctorate for that. So somewhere along the line, we started talking about, like, well, one of us should get it, because that way, like one of us can be the PI, and we’ll both get to keep doing these cool projects, right? 

And I guess that’s the thing to seeing them as sort of a side thing that we did. So we both actually have gotten doctoral degrees, different places, different studies. So mine, I pursued my PhD at the Graduate Center, which is the City University of New York, and looked specifically at flourishing, which is a measure of psychological well being, meaning a purpose in college students through a very large data set, so sort of a number crunching dissertation of more than 20,000 students. 

So a lot a lot of data, a lot of numbers. And in a lot of ways, that program, you know, again, speaking of community and amazing Nurses, that’s been a real highlight of staying connected with that group. In fact, later today, meeting up with many of them, talking about writing, writing articles and things like that. 

So that’s another great community that I’m happy to be a part of. And from that, I guess completing the PhD at the time that program was closing, and it has now switched where it’s located. So in a lot of ways, that was a really impactful time of my life. And let’s see, I’m trying to think of the then what. 

Then, to bring it back to Nurse Coaching, I had in 2023 done the Yoga for Nurses program, the specialization, and that was fantastic. Following that in 2024… so yes, to shout out all the programs, I’ve been a graduate of several Nurse Coaching programs and several specialties, and even more recently, the Hypnosis part one and part two in 2024. 

So yeah, that’s been… brought some changes, exciting changes for me professionally. And with Christy Cowgill, who has been on, also on the podcast many times, is an amazing force, speaking of folks who really have a passion and fire about language, the language that we use in delivering healthcare and also in using the power of the unconscious, right? 

So I’ll say that that, for me, has been exciting, right? Because when we’re Coaching someone and folks feel stuck or they’re having this feeling of like, you know, I want to be doing this thing, but I’m not doing this thing, I’m learning more about, you know, the unconscious and all these experiences, everything that’s held there, right? 

So these are things we’re not even aware of, but that our brain contains and is developing, rather is using to guide choices that we make. So we’re not even aware of it. I think that’s just really powerful to think of something we’re not aware of is sort of, you know, directing us and guiding our behavior. 

So thinking about hypnosis as a way to, for me, I like to think of it as almost like a way to update the software, right? So with our devices, we get an update every now again. So I like this idea that in working with someone, especially because hypnosis can perhaps feel scary to folks, that this idea of someone’s going to control you, that someone is going to put ideas in your head. 

So I love this idea that with hypnosis, it really is self hypnosis, meaning if you’re in a hypnotic state and someone says something that you don’t agree with, you don’t, you know, that’s not something you would take on board. But by being in that state, right, you can be more receptive. 

We can use our unconscious then to go in and sort of update the software, the programming, to be more aligned with the choices that we want to make. So that has been exciting to be able to now offer that to people that I’m working with to help them help themselves, right? 

So that it’s their… what do they want for their future selves? How do they see themselves framed very positively? So not the, I won’t do this, but what is it we’re wanting to, like, see more of, right? This version of yourself that you’re hoping for? What’s that person doing? What’s going on? 

So that’s been exciting for me. I’d say, more recently, in the past year, working with people, and I like to say, almost like, feels like freestyling, because I ask them what’s going on, and usually it starts with the, I don’t want to be doing this. And so like listening, hearing that, and then talking about, okay, so what is it you want to be doing? And seeing the language come from them. 

And then I’ll take notes as they’re doing that, and at some point I’ll read it back to them, and then we kind of like work on this, like, so what is it, right? And getting the language just right for what feels right for the message they want to give themselves. So that’s been really exciting to work with that and see that be effective for people. 

And so that’s one of the things I’m writing up now is a woman that I was working with for pain, and we did the hypnosis script, you know, with her words. And later that night, she messaged me, and I read it to her recently. 

So I said to her, you know, it’s something I just want to show you, this script that we had co created, that her language in the message kind of reflected that back, like, to a T. Like, there were words that were absolutely, so she wanted to walk further, she wanted to feel stronger, like, and it was just so her message to me later that night about, oh, I went out for a walk. 

You’ll never guess, but this is what happened. And it was,  so, yeah, I guess just professionally, right? Sometimes exciting to be like, oh yeah, this really… you knew it works, kind of, but to just see it, it feels really rewarding. I feel like, hey, like we wanted to… she wanted to feel this way, and we made this shift. 

So, yeah, that’s kind of the exciting stuff that’s going on now in the past year, following that certification and those letters. And also collaborating with Christy with other Nurse Coaches on this Calm Collective Care. So that is a website— about a dozen Nurses who have training in hypnosis and other modalities being able to offer hypnosis. So that’s something that I’m excited about.

Nicole Vienneau  33:56

So I heard you say a lot of stuff there. Nurse Coach mode here, right? One thing I’m really connecting with is finding ways that make us excited to continue to work as a Nurse, call ourselves a Nurse, show up as a Nurse, and then an amazing human too, right? We’re both of those things. 

But finding those paths that really jazz us up, that keep us moving forward with passion and showing up in the world in our best versions. And I was really appreciating the connection, like so INCA has so many amazing Nurses who have taken their passion and then used it in a way to educate other Nurses with their passion. 

So for example, you mentioned the Yoga for Nurses with Lisa Ostler. She loves yoga, and now she’s moving into some Ayurveda. Like she’s doing some great things, and, you know, taking that and learning more, not only for professional use, but it’s like personal use too, right? 

Showing up with this continuous pathway of always going back to reflect, what do I need? What’s going to help me? And then taking the steps to actually take the courses, you know, and maybe take a course, maybe not take a course, maybe just go to a class, or whatever. 

And then, you know, journeying and doing, learning about hypnosis. And this… what called you to say, you know what, I’m really interested… I would like to, you know, invest time, invest money, and show up for hypnosis and learn about that and how it’s going to impact my my Nursing career? 

Christine Gilchrist  35:43

A great question, Nicole. I’m not even sure that I know that consciously. I don’t know that I know that.

Nicole Vienneau  35:48

Maybe it’s unconscious. 

Christine Gilchrist  35:49

It’s in there somewhere. I think, you know, and it… well, I guess the how our thoughts and what’s inside of us has always intrigued me. And I think going back to that clinical meditation and imagery, it’s very similar. In fact, sometimes when I really, you know, try to describe it, or if folks are really… 

It’s very similar to work that many of us are doing, right, in terms of using the mind and supporting. We talk about mind body, even going back to my work with Aurora, and doing the breathing so that we feel better, right, and imagining or optimal healing, all these things, right? 

Using the imagination, using the mind. I think, another piece, and this is just for practical purposes, for those of us that have our board certification, that there’s a significant… and again, the numbers offhand, I think maybe 100 hours of CEUs or something. 

So it is incredible sometimes, you know, at the time, I was doing a doctoral program, I had designed, I think one of the ways that I showed my competency was I had designed a health promotion program for another program I taught in, like, all that, right, writing articles. 

I was like, it’s amazing that the credit, you know, at the end of the day, the time credited for those things is not that large. I think a big component was looking to get my continued education hours sort of like situated in a program, rather than having all these different pieces I’m pulling from. 

But I’m not exactly sure, like, what the final was like, Oh, let me do this. But yeah, the yoga program had come first. There was something about that, and I don’t know if it was, you know, just maybe through different email newsletters, kind of things or something. But then from there, when I saw that one, I thought, Oh, this is interesting. 

And I want to be real about it,  these are things… these are investments, right? All the time, the money that goes into the certification. So, yeah, I think I’m careful about the what do I think I’ll do with these things. And then I challenge other… among my fellow INCA community members that I’m in close touch with about, like, Okay, well, if we’re gonna… 

You know, this modality, this certification, like, let’s make sure that we’re also, like, going out and using it so that we can continue our education and continue our certifications, which I just want to be honest about. Like, there’s a cost, there’s a financial cost, there’s a time cost to these. So yeah, so I think those that just stood out as a really interesting skill set to add.

Nicole Vienneau  38:31

Yeah, and then you took it one step further and decided to join this collective of other hypnotists. So tell us more about this Calm Collective… Calm Collective Care, and how that’s working, what’s happening with that?

Christine Gilchrist  38:51

I think that’s been a really wonderful experience, just in terms of the collaboration. So I am a, you know, I’m a community health Nurse. It’s funny, I was looking back that I had written a blog years ago for INCA about community. So I think there’s really something to me healing about being in community with people. 

And what I think professionally, the communities I’m in, that now, you know, we’re meeting, we’re discussing things that, again, came from Christie’s amazing leadership and energy in thinking about, I guess, her former students. I’m guessing for her, I’m projecting perhaps that some of it may have been seeing that she taught Nurses how to do hypnosis. 

And I’m wondering if maybe she was seeing some folks were not using that skill, or maybe, you know, sometimes people hesitate to sort of put themselves out there. And I think one of the advantages then is that when each person, let’s say, has their own website, or has their own marketing or something like that, that there’s… 

There’s, again, a time cost to those aspects of things. What I really enjoy about that is that in that community, is I think that each person brings their talents to the group. What I mean by that is that we meet monthly at this point, and I don’t know exactly, it’s been several months that we’ve existed as a company or a collective, that there’s, you know, subgroups of folks that work on the social media. 

There’s myself and somebody else working on, like, the evidence, right? The nerdy folks that want to look at journal articles and come up with like, where’s the evidence for this? And then one of the things I enjoy about it is writing it sort of in the, How would I explain to a family member all this stuff. 

And then drawing on my background of being able to speak the jargon version of it, right? What’s the sample size? What was the statistical significance? So being able to like, explain it two different ways to like how I would explain it over the dinner table and how I would present it at a research conference. 

So within that group, then, of everybody bringing their own skills and interests and what they do to it, I think it’s so much richer for it, so that we can support one another. And then each person has their sort of area of specialty. And for me, that’s firstly, the sort of inner wisdom, right? 

Of, how can we go inside to get feelings of calm, peace, wisdom, drawing from my clinical meditation and imagery psychosynthesis studies with Bonney and Richard Schaub. And then also with the work that I’ve done for in pain management, sort of, how do we cultivate feelings of comfort and calm? 

So those are my two areas that I’m working on and I’m excited to be working on. There’s folks working on women’s health and menopausal symptoms and preparing for surgery. And so there’s… each of the Nurses is bringing their Nursing background, and then using hypnosis in ways that are authentic for them. 

And as a group, then I guess that’s what I’m enjoying about it is then we meet and discuss what’s going on. Can connect with each other, you know, for consultations or things like that, but also just to bring our strengths and what else is going on to the group.

Nicole Vienneau  42:30

In essence, it’s kind of like group coaching, isn’t it?

Christine Gilchrist  42:35

Yeah, I think there’s something to be said for that. I think in community, right, is a lot of the certain the community can bring healing, can can do a lot of things. So, yeah, I think there’s truth there, that in the group itself. 

Nicole Vienneau  42:49

Yes, I love community things. Yes, that’s where I feel the best, is when I’m with other people in community. And it’s a shared wisdom. Instead of just trying to do it all on your own, you can lean on your colleagues, and, you know, when that’s not your strength, you learn from them, and it soon becomes a strength because of that person sharing their wisdom. 

And then just this circular… I guess it’s kind of similar— the leader goes back, picks up the others, you know, just constantly sharing and growing. You know, I think of our listeners who may be feeling left alone, like they’re… they don’t… they’re not yet connected with the community. 

You know, they’re not… maybe they’re trying to do everything on their own and maybe feeling a little lost right now. What would you suggest for them, or what’s some words of wisdom from you, in the sense of building their own community? 

Christine Gilchrist  43:46

Yeah, I think that’s probably a really common feeling. I just want to acknowledge that, that to feel that way, to feel like alone… I’m just thinking right now, right, we’ve had in the US, the Surgeon General, talk about a pandemic and social isolation and loneliness, right? So people are feeling disconnected. People are feeling those ways. 

And I think that seeking out in whatever way feels right, right? So perhaps I’m realizing, as I’m talking and you’re talking, we’re talking about feeling energized by people. So I acknowledge that there are some folks, right, maybe that smaller community, so maybe even just talking with someone in your cohort or a friend, like, it can look different for different folks. 

But I think the thing that’s coming up for me right now, even having this conversation, is we are, we’re social creatures. So I think that some element of connection in a way that feels right for you is super important to your well being. And study after study, I mean, look at like, you know, the Dean Ornish program. 

I’ll never forget— I had the privilege of hearing him speak years and years ago in New York City, and he was very open about some of his health issues, and then him as a cardiologist, right? So you go thinking he’s going to talk about healthy eating, he’s going to talk about quitting smoking, physical activity, and one of the key components of his program is having people eat together. 

And he really stood by that as the connection being a huge part of cardiac health. And I was amazed, because, especially at the time, hearing him say that, that just felt a little bit revolutionary, that here was this world famous cardiologist talking about, if he had to pick one thing, I think that’s what it was, you know. 

And of course, right, in the work that we do, it’s sort of hard to isolate the one thing ever, but when pushed, that’s what he was saying. When pushed, that’s what he’s saying, is that that is the top thing, that this being in community. So I think that, especially hearing it from different specialties, different experts, that finding one’s community is so important. 

And I think there’s lots of different ways, especially in the times that we’re living in, where, you know, when you and I met, it was in person, it was in New York. That’s where those things were happening. And so I think there’s opportunities now, even thinking about the group that I mentioned, folks on the West Coast, folks on, you know, just the different geographical, so I think there’s a way to connect with like minded folks through many different avenues. 

So I think I’ll put a nod for it. You know, even starting with one other person that you maybe you feel, just to build that connection, I think the connection part is, is very important. So even if community isn’t feeling… is feeling like too big a word, that starting with, you know, your… as Barbie says, right, your work soulmate, or your professional soulmate. 

I feel very grateful, I’ve mentioned different projects I’ve worked on, in this this time with you, Nicole, with Caroline Ortiz, that she and I have worked together, you know, in many different types of projects. And in fact, teach now or faculty now together. So yeah, having someone who gets you, and I will say, like that the the people I collaborate tend to have very different strengths. 

And me that, like… you know, like, it doesn’t have to be somebody who you see, like, everything the same way. I think in some ways that’s the nice thing, is to have someone also who can challenge you, or has strengths that you just don’t have. And I think those collaborations, really, for me professionally, have been rich collaborations.

Nicole Vienneau  47:28

Love it, yes, and I really like the connection that it doesn’t have to be like a massive community, huge, just one other person, one other person, and that connection with them can help shift and help just support you in what you need. Yeah, wonderful. 

So in our last few moments together, oh, I want to talk all day, but in our last few moments together, I love to ask the question and just take a moment to think about the answer. What is on your heart that you would like to share with our Nurse Coach community?

Christine Gilchrist  48:14

So what is on my heart as I think back of the teachers I’ve shared and for myself, for our community of Nurse Coaches, what is on my heart is connecting with hope. So I’m thinking specifically of a practice we do in clinical meditation and imagery of— and I throw this to the group listening today, to each of you— to ask, at this point, what is it you’re hoping for? 

And then when you have that, when you’ve reflected on that, to go back inside and ask, what is your deeper hope? And I think, to be able to connect with feelings of hope through difficult times that certainly we experience in our lives and as a society, it’s important to connect with hope, the feelings of hope, and what ultimately we’re hoping for, because there’s always, there’s always hope in each moment. So, that’s what’s on my heart today.

Nicole Vienneau  49:24

Thank you for bringing up hope. Hope is always there. So Christine, how can we find you? 

Christine Gilchrist  49:37

My social media presence I’d say is primarily on LinkedIn. Will also be on YouTube. So just my first name, last name, Christine Gilchrist. And also through Calm Collective Care for those looking to actually do hypnosis work.

Nicole Vienneau  49:58

Awesome. Yes. Now, you’ve also mentioned a few articles that you’ve published, so we’re going to share those links. Share links to how to connect with you. Share a lot of links in our show notes. So a lot of resources and things to peruse after. 

If I know that our listeners are always looking to support themselves in their own learning and then how they can support themselves, support their clients, their patients or communities. So check out the show notes and connect with other Nurses out there, other Nurse Coaches. Yes. Thanks so much Christine for joining us, for sharing so many pearls of wisdom that we can add to our necklaces. And thank you so much.

Christine Gilchrist  50:44

Thanks very much, Nicole. I really appreciate our conversation, and again, the great work that you’re doing, I’m grateful.Thanks very much.