We recently connected with Seth Rotman and have shared our conversation below.
Seth, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?
The healthcare industry is broken. Effective communication with doctors is a struggle. Introspection and self-care all too often drop off peoples priority lists. Maybe these statements sound harsh or aggressive. Or, if you’re like most people, maybe this resonates more than you want to admit.
Most people have had some experience in the healthcare system that left them feeling like something wasn’t quite right about how they received treatment that they weren’t heard, or worse – that they weren’t seen.
As a nurse working on the inside of that industry for 12 years, it became increasingly clear that not only is the care model not working for patients, but the employment model isn’t working for clinicians. Patients don’t want to make changes when they are being lectured, and quality care can’t be provided by staff that is overburdened, burned out, and unsupported.
I was diagnosed with ADHD and some other nondescript learning disabilities fairly young. Early on this manifested as anxiety, social anxiety, anger, disorganization, and a general feeling of being different. But I had the benefit of having incredibly supportive parents, a strong support system, and due to the early diagnosis, the benefit of time. I was supported and encouraged which gave me the opportunity to fully understand myself and create systems that play to my strengths and avoid my weaknesses as much as possible. This often meant finding alternative solutions and thinking outside the box.
Searching for an alternative solution is how I ultimately became a Transformative Nurse Coach, founded Clarify Wellness LLC, and started offering Transformative Health and Wellness Coaching services. Of course staying in a bedside hospital job would have been the easy route. Frustrating and taxing, but the path of least resistance and safety. However, that’s not what I’m looking for. I wanted to find the path that allowed me to serve my passion for helping others and serve my clients in a truly meaningful way. Nurse Coaching is changing the field of medicine and wellness. It makes clients and patients responsible for identifying what success looks like to them. The coaching process allows for the co-creation of attainable goals along the journey to the initially defined success. Nurse coaches provide a constant network of support, but also act to challenge regressive thinking and actions. This builds resiliency and overcome barriers to achieve their goals. Ultimately, not only do Nurse Coaching clients achieve their singular goals like going through a checklist, but they ultimately experience lasting transformative change that serves them even after the coaching relationship has ended.
Once again with the support of my wife and family I have taken the dive to use my lifetime of experience in nursing, martial arts, meditation, and mindfulness to help individuals and businesses.
Seth, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
What I offer is 1:1 coaching and corporate coaching as a Nurse Coach. This type of coaching is not executive coaching, it is not personal coaching, it is nothing like anything most people have experienced before. What it is is holistic, evidence based, comprehensive, effective, and transformative. I bring my full self to my coaching. My nursing background, martial arts, meditation, mindfulness, ADHD and the tools to manage it, etc. everything that makes me, me is what informs my coaching. And that is what makes my coaching so effective regardless of scale. I didn’t want to be a nurse at first. I wanted to be a paramedic. I was already an EMT in love with emergency medicine, running 911 on the ambulance. But, when I brought up the idea of becoming a medic, my medic friends encouraged me to become a nurse instead. They explained that becoming a paramedic means holding a certification, while nursing holds a degree and license, which offers unlimited career potential. The deeper I have gone in my training and education in the nursing field, the more I love it. It all stems from the desire to help people.
Like many other people, COVID changed me. I worked in an inner city, safety net hospital that serves the poorest regions of Philadelphia. During COVID I had a severe case of the virus, but was strongly encouraged by the occupational health doctor to go back to work before I was well. That developed into long COVID and I now have long-term health effects from it.
Working as a nurse during a pandemic changes you – not for the better. I developed PTSD and dreaded going to work. I became depressed, anxious, and eventually even started having auditory hallucinations. I would hear alarms going off for hours or even days after my shifts ended. I was traumatized, burnt out, and felt woefully under supported by hospital administration. I knew I had to make a change or I’d continue to suffer. So, I made a change. I looked for and found a career option that would allow me to be a nurse the way I had always wanted to.
Nurse coaching was everything I’d originally hoped for when I set out to be a nurse over 15 years ago. Being able to spend time with clients one-on-one allows me to focus on their needs and goals in a way I couldn’t when I was at the bedside. I have the bandwidth to provide comprehensive education and work as a partner in my clients’ pursuit of better comprehensive wellness larger goals. Not to mention, helping others is deeply fulfilling for me!
Most people are familiar with the idea of a life coach, or a health coach, or wellness coach, or dietitian. As a nurse coach, I can combine my nursing background and expertise with coaching skill sets to fulfill all of those roles. The result is powerful, transformative change for clients that is measurable and rooted in evidence-based practice.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to a school specifically for kids with learning disabilities. Even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, I was armed with invaluable knowledge, skill sets, and understanding of how to navigate my own needs as well as the needs of others. With the support of my family and training in martial arts, meditation, and mindfulness, I’ve been able to find my path and develop skills to manage my ADHD and depression. I’ve learned that my ADHD can be a strength – for example, it has provided me with the gift of flexible and creative thinking. Using this skill, I’ve learned that there is always another way, no matter how difficult the problem.
Now, I’ll get into my unique approach to coaching. I mentioned before that I have a background in martial arts – I’ve trained in several styles since I was a kid, most recently in Kung Fu. While training in Kung Fu, I was also introduced to Qigong, which is a system of coordinated body movements, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health and wellness. I really connected with a set called the 8 Brocade, which focuses on the idea of fluid connectivity between the movements and in the body to achieve maximum health and wellness. The flow as the name implies should be as smooth as repeatable as the silk patterning of its namesake.
Using the 8 Brocade as inspiration, I’ve developed a theory that I base my practice on: the 8 Brocade of Wellness. Instead of seeing the eight dimensions of wellness as separated and individual areas – emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual – my theory recognizes them as being interconnected. This interconnectivity is embraced as the root of problem solving.
With a desire to help others more easily overcome the hurdles I have faced in the past, I decided to specialize in ADHD management, specifically for those who work in the tech industry. It is an industry so focused on innovation and being first to market that the people in it forget that they have to take care of themselves and each other to achieve those goals. I have seen the negative impacts that these actions have on individuals and companies. I want to help others gain the same resiliency and clarity I’ve achieved so they can be their best, most-fulfilled selves. In my program, there is no such thing as laziness: my clients learn how to take what they or others see as a bug and excel by turning it into a feature integrating the 8 brocade theory.
Companies are made up of departments, departments are made up of people, people have complex needs. Everything is connected. People and companies are similar in that they have unique issues to address and barriers to be overcome. This means that every client defines what success looks like for them and co-creates an action plan. Despite every company having its unique pain points, there is a problem endemic to the industry: high rates of employee turnover. This is often accepted as a norm in the tech industry these days, but high turnover rates can mean there are millions of dollars literally walking out the door at these companies.
I’m sure that at some point everyone has gotten swept up in a company performance improvement (PI) project. An extra long survey that felt like it led to nothing. And many companies launch these PI projects to increase employee retention but either fail to take action or, worse, create a strategy but do nothing about the culture. As Peter Druker said “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. There can’t be change without meaningful change. Meaningful change is what I offer with Clarify Wellness LLC.
To reduce turnover a top down and bottom up approach is utilized to ensure that time spent changes the culture and doesn’t result in just another PI project with wasted strategy. 1:1 and group coaching is implemented from frontline employees to C-suite. Employees are taught not only how to take care of themselves but how to fully support one another. Surveys are utilized to track efficacy.
My coaching enables employees to thrive at work and at home and in turn allows companies to thrive.
At this time I offer in person coaching for local Philadelphia companies and online programs for companies located elsewhere. On-site coaching is available on a case by case basis for organizations outside of the Philadelphia area.
I am still offering 1:1 coaching sessions at this time. I offer online coaching packages and at the time of this publication do have some availability opening up. I have also recently partnered with a holistic wellness center, Greenhouse Wellness in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia to offer in person coaching sessions. Free discovery sessions can be requested through the links in this article.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The most difficult lesson I’ve had was to unlearn the idea of being fiercely independent. The idea of being the lone wolf, forging ahead through all adversity, and that’s what results in ultimate success. No one can do everything. No one can be an expert in everything. And, if all you do is tell the people around you that you don’t need anything from them, they will start to treat you like you have nothing to offer as well.
Asking for help and being connected is one of the most powerful skills that anyone can learn.
I went through school with an incredible support network. And I give my parents all the credit in the world for never giving up on me, even when I made it difficult for them. When I was younger I did everything in my power to be independent and undermine that support. All that I did was dig myself into nice deep holes.
During my pre-recs for nursing school, I had a skiing accident where I broke my wrist and back. I was now fully dependent. I healed enough to go back to school but couldn’t drive or write for myself. To be back in class I was dependent on my mom to drive and take notes for me. If it weren’t for her it would have set my path back an additional year. I will say, the opportunity to get the hot take from my mom, a practicing clinical psychologist of 35 years at the time, from sitting through my psych 101 and 102 classes was priceless.
The point being, I was forced to start to set my ego aside and receive the assistance I needed to stay on track.
Professionally, this crystallized the most becoming part of a nursing union. Becoming a union rep and committee chair for the local of PASNAP where I worked. Being part of a union meant supporting one another and relying on each others strengths.
Learning to acknowledge my own areas of weakness and readily ask for help has served as the most powerful strength in the creation of my own practice. Being able to lean on those who have expertise in areas where I lack knowledge prevents slow downs and allows for personal development. At the same time it builds relationships and connections.
Instead of grinding away on a website and getting a mediocre outcome, I was able to reach out to connections with experience in web design for tips and recommendations. I have been able to lean on the experience of others who are in the field who have been successful and learn from their successes and failures. The willingness to ask for help keeps me on a constantly accelerating course and allows barriers to be easily navigated.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
Regardless of how critically I may speak about my field, I would never choose a different career. I’m critical of the nursing field and healthcare industry because I care passionately about people. Seeing the self-inflicted wounds nursing creates, while frustrating, only impassions me to work to influence positive change in the future. Without nursing, I wouldn’t be here, having this conversation. I wouldn’t be able to have the transformative effect that I do with my clients. And while I love seeing the positive results my clients achieve for themselves, the results are ultimately more impactful than that.
Henry Adams said “A teacher effects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops”. As a Nurse Coach I lead, educate, and influence. The transformative changes my clients experience have ripple effects that I may never know about, but that positive effect continues on.
I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.clarifywellness.coach
- Instagram: @clarifywellnessllc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seth.rotman
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethdrotman
- Other: https://p.bttr.to/3JQVJg4
Image Credits
Carl Bussler