“I was fortunate to find a good system for myself. How can I create that for others?”
- shoadley
- Jun 27
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 29
BNC Health & Wellness Coach draws on his own mental health crisis experience to help clients heal.
Years before he joined the Bert Nash Center (BNC) team, Ian Cook received crisis and follow-up care as a BNC client. He credits his providers’ kindness and compassion as the keys that allowed him to understand and accept what was going on, enter treatment, and trust the process of healing himself.
Now, as a health & wellness coach and case manager on the peer support team, Ian is living what he calls a “wonderful full circle.”
He’s able to share his challenges, strategies, and tools with clients who are navigating their own mental health journeys.
Ian has struggled with anxiety and depression since high school. Over the years, he has included outlets such as poetry, art, music, being in nature & exercising as part of his self-care.
He also comes from a family of healers. His grandfather was a psychiatrist who worked at both the Menninger Clinic and Veterans Affairs (VA), where he treated soldiers experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His grandmother was a nurse. It is their legacy that Ian works to carry on with his efforts to support people and help them get better.
He sees himself as a role model for his clients, sharing basic foundational skills that can help them through the stressful mental health and/or substance use struggles they’re experiencing. He is open and honest with them, pointing out the similarities between their conditions and his, and celebrates moments when things click.
Ian said, “Seeing this light pop on and this openness that kind of just enters that space from there. They feel more comfortable sharing. I feel more connected to them to be able say, ‘Oh, we've had very similar experiences. How can I help you move through that?’”
He recently earned formal certifications for lifestyle therapeutics coaching and tobacco treatment specialization that have already strengthened his capacity to support a wide range of clients. He helps them identify their own motivations for changing their behavior along with their strengths to accomplish their goals.
Ian sees his clients make progress when he provides them with, in his words, “an environment where they feel safe and trusted, where they feel heard and listened to. They are motivating themselves to go through [a] change process for their reasons, like health, longevity, family, wellness, doing things for themselves and through themselves, that empowering process. So it's beautiful to be able to tie all these different trainings together, apply them on the job, and then see what happens.”
Recalling his own experience several years ago building trust with his crisis counselors, Ian was struck by the calm energy they brought as they helped him feel safe and cared for. He also appreciated the reassuring way they understood and explained his situation to him. Ian explained, “I didn’t feel like I was in danger. I didn’t feel like I was being coerced into anything. I just felt supported, which was really, really nice.”
Ian draws on all of these memories as he approaches his client sessions with compassion, empathy, and a willingness to listen. He points to the power of simply being present with someone, particularly when they’re in a heightened crisis state with elevated emotions. He sees people as being “experts of their own person.”
He added, “They know what they need more than anyone else. I’m just here to help support and bring that out.”
Engaged in work that is both challenging and gratifying, Ian sees it as a good sign that the days and weeks since he joined the BNC team are flying by.
He said, “I’m with these people and time does not exist,” adding, “I’m so grateful. Just endlessly grateful.”
