Hello and thanks for being here!
I truly love connecting with you about all things evidence-informed wholistic health and wellness. My new series of weekly emails will keep you updated on the most current research on:
digestive health and wellness (often with a focus on celiac disease),
health coaching and health behaviour change strategies
fertility support
& other topics that come up from my readers (email me your questions!).
There are a number of newbies here, so I wanted to take this time to introduce myself.
I am Justine Dowd. I am a certified health coach*, I earned my PhD in health psychology in 2014, and over the last decade (and 3 babies) I completed two post-doctoral fellowships in health and wellness at UBC at Okanagan and the University of Calgary (click here for my peer-reviewed publications).
I specialize in self-compassion, mindfulness, health behaviour change, gut health & fertility. I have been designing, evaluating, researching and delivering health behaviour change programs for over 17 years. Through coping with my own health issues for years - daily headaches, digestive pain, celiac disease, IBS, SIBO, auto-immune infertility, histamine intolerance, anxiety and insomnia, I have become very passionate about helping people take a wholistic approach to optimize their own health.
When I'm not reading, writing or talking about all things wholistic health, I am the mom to three young kids and our furbaby, and wife to my husband of over 10 years. We live in Calgary, AB and I love spending time with my family and friends, skiing (x-country and downhill), running, swimming, strength training, doing yoga, biking, throwing rocks in the river and spending as much time as possible by the water.
I started health coaching because I am passionate about addressing (one of) the huge gaps in health care – specifically in the available support, coping and accountability resources to make and sustain healthy changes in one’s life. I specialize in helping people struggling with fertility and/or digestive disorders - including celiac disease, IBS, IBD and undiagnosed tummy troubles - I'm here for you!
After completing my PhD in health psychology, I then completed two postdoctoral fellowships at UBC at Okanagan with the Behaviour Change Lab and then at the University of Calgary with the Health and Wellness Lab, during which I focused my research on wholistic approaches to managing celiac disease. I’ve run a variety of research studies looking at the effects of using self-compassion and physical activity to help people to effectively cope with celiac disease. Not surprisingly, I found that the more people with celiac disease practice self-compassion, the better they are able to adhere to a strict gluten-free diet and report better quality of life. I also found that a high intensity interval training (HIIT) + wholistic health program led to beneficial changes in gut microbiota, quality of life, gastrointestinal pain and self-compassion among people with celiac disease.
More recently, I found that self-compassion is a skill that can be taught to people with celiac disease (and yes – I am confident these findings translate to other gut health disorders), and that practicing self-compassion leads to improvements in mental health (anxiety & depression).
I believe that everyone deserves to look and feel their best! This usually comes from finding the right pieces of the puzzle to come together to help YOU be the best you can be. A combination of self-care, mindset, nutrition, movement, quality sleep, and clean personal care products will help you get there.
I offer both group (Heal From the Inside Out) and 1:1 health coaching to help you feel your best.
I’m excited to connect with you and hear about your journey to wellness.
Click here to book in for your FREE 1:1 45-minute consult to see how I can help you get to the bottom of your digestive struggles and create a life you love!
*Certified Health Coach Precision Nutrition – Level 1