Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenny Eden Berk.
Jenny Eden, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I received my master’s degree from UPENN in 2001 in Education and Psychology and quickly started my career as a Health Educator at a National Health and Weight Management company where I worked for 13 years helping people to lose weight and make lifestyle changes to promote their health. During my latter years there, however, I began to grow restless and wondered if there was more I could do to help people understand who they were as eaters and why people overate or tended to binge eat or stress eat in the first place. I wanted to understand how to help people have a better relationship with food and their bodies that could be both joyful and sustainable and not restrictive and burdensome. Some research brought me to the Institute for the Psychology of Eating and a certificate in Mindful Eating which were the building blocks that helped me iron out my treatment modalities for my own private coaching practice.
In September it will be 2 years since I began my entrepreneurial adventure and I haven’t looked back. I love helping people go deeper to truly help give them peace and freedom around the way they eat, the way they move and how they manage stress. In that time I’ve become a best-selling author, international speaker and have created online courses all the while maintaining a robust one-on-one coaching practice in Newton, MA
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Entrepreneurship is never a smooth road if you ask anyone who has started their own business. But, I believe that it’s the snafus, challenges and trip-ups that give us the most opportunities for learning and growth. I welcome them in, get curious about them and course-correct where needed.
One of the main struggled I encountered was around technology and marketing. Both of these areas are extremely nuanced and take time to learn and implement. I have taken it upon myself to teach myself both avenues. On the technology side, I went from not even understanding how my own website worked or what a plug-in was, to coding some of my own pages and learning some incredibly difficult software technology. The same is true on the sales and marketing end. I went from hoping and praying clients would come my way through word of mouth to implementing some sophisticated, creative and complex marketing strategies that have helped me to launch my first online course product with great success, become a first time best-selling author and develop social media strategies that have helped me to grow a robust mailing list of potential clients and fans.
I absolutely love to learn and continue to face these struggles head on with as much grace and patience as possible!
Please tell us about Jenny Eden Coaching.
My company’s tag-line is called “Beyond Weight Loss.” This is because my passion is in helping people get past the dieting indoctrination so many of us learned as children and move to a place where we have a healthy, happy, balanced and sustainable relationship with food. My work is centered around helping people heal their relationship with both food and their bodies. I use both therapeutic and coaching modalities in my treatment and look for ways to help the client build efficacy and empowerment around nourishing themselves from an intuitive and respectful place.
I am known as a “food therapist” in that I also look at one’s past history of dieting, familial or cultural imprints around food and look at the wounds that were present early on that possibly made an impact on who they are as eaters today. It’s a comprehensive and holistic look at nutrition that is truly different than most practitioners and coaches in this field.
I am very proud of the progress and success that my clients experience. Many people only view success in narrow ways: namely weight loss. I help people reframe success to also include much more nuanced and expansive ways including learning to eat mindfully, trusting and respecting one’s body, moving and exercising in a way that is joyful and playful and so much more. A lot of my work is centered around stress reduction and finding balance and alignment in all areas of the client’s life which also helps heal their sometimes fraught relationship with food and eating.
My book is all about body image and healing one’s relationship with their body. Its part memoir, part sociological study and part self-help. Body image and body acceptance is a big part of my practice as well. The book is available on amazon.
I am truly passionate about what I do and I feel so honored to be able to help people in this unique and cutting edge way.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I was fortunate enough to have a Father that worked in the travel industry so my brother and I were so lucky to be able to travel the world as children. I remember those family trips as some of the best times of my life. Now that I have children of my own, it is of the utmost importance to me that my children travel with us and experience different cultures and meet new people, try new foods and have the deep bonding with family that I was able to experience as a child.
Contact Info:
- Address: Jenny Eden Coaching
796 Beacon Street, 2nd floor (in the Samadhi building)
Newton Center, MA 02459 - Website: http://www.jennyedencoaching.com
- Phone: 617-304-5059
- Email: jenny@jennyedencoaching.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachjennyeden/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennyedencoaching/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/coachjennyeden
- Other: http://amzn.to/2pBKPyU
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