Would like to have feedback please!

[jannylee]

Hi all:

I thought I would try this forum for feedback since.

I have a one year old baby girl (just turned one). I have been very fortunate to have spent the past year at home with her...I am from Canada and maternity leave is one year. Prior to this I worked in a Credit Union, but do not really like my job. Over the past few months I started working out with Cathe. I really like fitness, although I will be honest this is the first time I have consistently worked out. I want to change my career and would like to get into the area of fitness. I suffered extreme post-partum depression and have been on meds for the past year. I am presently taking a nutrition and fitness course. I would love to stay at home and work. I want to help women who just had children and those moms who suffer from post-partum depression. I am trying to think of the best way to do this...start a website, maybe put a workout studio at home. I would really love some feedback...ideas...would this interest women.

Thanks so much.

Janet

 

[Jcrew3082]

Hi Janet,

I'm not a mom, but I think your idea is great. You might want to try doing a search on the boards- maybe with the keyword being "career." There are a lot of people who have careers in fitness or have made the transition to careers in fitness.

Good luck!
Gina

 

[clareMc]

To help women with post partum depression, you would probably need at least a masters degree in Social work, not to mention some experience and knowledge of gynecological/obstetric matters to understand how the endocrine system works. Well that's from a psychology end of things anyway. I'm not sure how a fitness career can specialize in helping women with postpartum depression, do you see what I mean? What kind of different fitness certifications are there? How do they tackle different psychological problems?

Clare

 

[endorphin_junkie]

Hi Janet from a fellow Canuck:7 I think that you're aspirations are laudible and it's wonderful that you are taking a fitness and nutrition course. My thoughts (take 'em or leave 'em ) are that you should keep your focus on those courses, get your certifications and some experience under your belt and then concentrate on studying the appropriate courses (degrees) that give you the tools and know how to give counsel to others. CanFitPro (Canadian Fitness Professionals) does offer pre and post natal certifications http://canfitpro.com/ (I hope this link works) but they by no means put the certified individual within the scope of responsibly and effectively counseling women dealing with post natal depression.

I think that with the right fitness and nutrition certifications your vision would definitely appeal to women (marketing effectively is, however, a huge challenge) and that if you have the room and means to construct an effective studio in your home your future would be looking very bright. What a fabulous circumstance, a Mom who works out of her home, if you could incorporate a good day care into the vision then I think that you would have young Moms flocking to your studio JMHO

Take Care
Laurie

 

[Aquajock]

I agree with Clare that to work with women with postpartum depression, you'd need to have an advanced degree in social work, or perhaps something more medically oriented (given that PPD has a strong physiological component) as well as at least a certification from a recognized entity (I believe CanFitPro is a well-regarded certifying agency in Canada; ACE, NASM, NSCA, AAFA and ACSM are some of the majors in the United States) in exercise programming.

IMHO a well-designed and implemented exercise program can be of enormous benefit in the treatment of various forms of depression, but you really have to know your stuff scientifically from the bottom up in order to work effectively with clients of this kind. Also, you need to guard against imposing your own personal experience onto your clients.

Good luck!

A-Jock