Hippocrates may have said, “Let food be thy medicine,” but Michael DeSanti walks the talk: having experienced the healing power of whole foods and a nourishing lifestyle firsthand, he has transformed his own health and now has a successful career helping others do the same. A 2010 graduate of the Health Coach Training Program, Michael left his grueling, unsatisfying career as a corporate event planner and launched a thriving health coaching practice, Authentic Self Healing, in Verona, New Jersey.

Michael partners with Villani Chiropractic Center and sees an average of 20 clients a week, coaching them to improve their energy levels, lose weight, and become the best versions of themselves. Read on to learn how Michael is changing the world, one client at a time!

What were you doing prior to enrolling at Integrative Nutrition?
I was a corporate event planner, traveling two weeks a month, living out of my suitcase and in hotel restaurants. My health, weight and happiness suffered tremendously.

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
When I was 17 years old, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were unsatisfied with the guidance we were receiving from her doctors and decided that we were going to take her health into our own hands. We changed her diet, managed her lifestyle and stress, and without chemo and radiation, slowed, stopped and eventually reversed my mother's cancer to the amazement of her oncologists.

Years later, I was unhappy in my job and life and began to make changes to my diet. I saw immediate results and became incredibly interested in my personal health. When I found IIN, a school geared to helping and coaching people to better health, I was immediately interested.

How did your life change after enrolling?
As soon as I walked into the first class of my enrollment year, I felt in an instant that this was the exact place that I was supposed to be. I absorbed information like a sponge, met incredible people with inspiring minds and learned from the most cutting edge doctors and teachers in nutrition.

Since enrollment, I have since left that job that I felt stuck in, and opened my own health coaching practice, Authentic Self Healing. I see an average of 20 clients per week and partner with a chiropractor in Verona, NJ. I focus on improving people's energy, correcting digestive issues, weight loss, and emotional eating. I see the extraordinary power of the body's ability to heal and peoples ability to change on a daily basis. I wouldn't change what I do for all the money in the world.

How did you forge this partnership with a chiropractor?
I asked a local family-run gym if we could affiliate and any new member that signed up at the gym would be offered a free health history consultation with their new Health Coach in exchange for a 10% commission. The first health history I had became one of my best clients. We worked together for my 12-session program.

Meanwhile, I noticed there was a chiropractor up the street from my apartment and went in to speak with the owner. He was a really nice guy and seemed interested in possibly partnering up. As it turned out, the client that I was coaching from the gym was one of his best friends, and when he wrote a testimonial about what it was like working together, it became an obvious decision for my new chiropractor partner.

Now, I have an office where I see all my clients every day. We have also partnered on selling supplementation and cleansing kits that have added a tremendous value to our patients and clients. We have each become an invaluable part of each other’s practice that complements each other and makes our results far more effective.

Which topics and modules were most beneficial for you?
I can honestly say that all the teachers at IIN had something beneficial to offer. Personally, I have always been a fan of Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra and Bernie Siegel because I have always felt so strongly about the body/mind connection. However, the greatest impact that an IIN Teacher had on me was Dr. Mark Hyman and the practice of Functional Medicine. It is the system that I use with my current clients and I find it incredibly effective to use food as information for the body to re-balance itself and aid in its own healing.

How do you help your clients be successful?
I truly care about my clients and their success. My hands-on approach and genuine compassion for anyone looking to improve their life is what sets me apart from the current medical field.

I believe that there is something great inside every person and that it is unique to each individual. Instead of trying to overload my clients with information, I actually try to extract their own inner wisdom and allow that to help guide our sessions.

I love seeing the light bulbs go off in people’s heads and witnessing their "a-ha moments." To be a source of that is truly rewarding.

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