Judy Baker B Sc, Grad Dip Nut&Diet, MBA

Teacher, Guide, Mother

Judy offers:

• one on one facilitating and guidance either in person or on Skype
• teaching to groups
• teaching and facilitating seminars and workshops

Judy brings to her work a varied background in study, work and experiences.

This is true. I recognise now, though I didn’t understand it for a long time, that I have always been a seeker. All my life, there was this feeling of looking for something. What? I didn’t know – something new, something more. A sense that there was more to me, some potential unfulfilled. This existed often only in the background, and despite my commitments and the busy-ness of my life. I came to see this as somehow my fault for being dissatisfied, easily bored, always wanting something more. This pervading sense impacted on the choices I made. In retrospect what I lacked was purpose and meaning.

She trained as a nutritionist and dietitian with a Bachelor of Science degree and a postgraduate Diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics. Initially, she worked in the public hospital system before establishing and managing her own successful private dietetics practice, seeing private patients, teaching nurses and student dietitians, as a Consultant Dietitian to private hospitals and nursing homes, and then as a Project Consultant for the development of a multi-million dollar central catering system in Central Queensland. After 22 years working in the area of dietetics, she decided to change direction and completed a Masters of Business Administration. Following her MBA, she was approached to work as joint CEO of the Capricornia Division of General Practice.

However, after working so many years in health and hospitals, making sick people better, I was looking for something different. To begin with my CEO partner and friend, Moonie, and I bought and sold houses but we soon realised that we had to stay true to what was important to us – health and wellbeing. We decided to focus on keeping people well. For 2 years, we researched (and searched) for what we could do.

In 2004 Judy established a health and wellbeing centre, Essents Whole Body Health, with her former CEO partner. Their research had identified stress as a major issue for people and science and medicine were confirming that it was a major impediment to health and wellbeing.

What surprised us was how wide the spread across age, work type and socio economic parameters the experience of stress was. My husband and I have four sons (I’ve been told that there is special place in heaven for a mother with 4 sons!) and my husband’s career has been physically, mentally and emotionally demanding on him as well as our family. I thought I knew all there was to know about stress. How limited in my view of the world and of myself I was.

The opening of Essents® allowed Judy to pursue her interest in stress and anxiety, researching the impact of stress on health and wellbeing. As a part of this work, she has researched and studied mind-body medicine, Neuro Linguistic Programming, psychoneuroimmunology, eastern medicine practice and philosophies, spirituality and Integral theory and philosophy. Their centre took a broad minded and integrative approach with a wide range of different modalities and practitioners. Judy developed the BodyMind Feedback Loop stress management model and in response to requests, she began to coach and guide people on a Whole of Body approach to working with stress. Essents ran successful seminars and workshops for businesses and corporations with Judy providing the teaching.

This was the start of me choosing a path of growth and connection, of choosing to be a seeker. I discovered that there is a lot of information, as well as ideas, concepts, therapies and philosophies that can be used to achieve health and wellbeing. I could see the importance of a Whole of Life approach including meaning and purpose in life. I set about understanding how it could all be integrated and developing a process that could be as useful as it was sustainable. It was the beginning of my life lived with purpose and meaning and it was the end of any sense of boredom or dissatisfaction.

Then life became the “tough” teacher. Over 3 years, Judy and her immediate and extended family experienced a series of tragedies and challenges. Firstly, her family was devastated when her brother was killed driving a semi trailer load of cattle to market. Her elderly father never recovered and began a slow physical and mental deterioration which was heart breaking to watch. Then her daughter in law was given 3 to 6 months to live. Two months later it was discovered that it was a misdiagnosis. On the positive side, she had taken the opportunity that life had presented her and, under Judy’s guidance, embraced the changes she had started as a response to her diagnosis. She is still well. Soon after Judy’s sister’s only daughter was accidentally killed. Then at the beginning of 2011, Judy and her family were flooded out of their home and it took 12 months before they moved back in. During that year, her father finally let go of life.

It was like “if you want to know about stress and to really understand how to help, then there are some things you need to understand, some lessons to be learnt”.

Judy knows about loss, adversity, stress and the effect of unexpected and difficult change. She knows how it can impact on people and their relationships in so many different ways. She felt the personal suffering around her deeply and at times was overwhelmed by the need to ease that suffering.

With every experience, no matter how difficult, I have been offered an opportunity to learn about myself, about others and about the world. I learnt that tragedy is seared with pain and mellowed with love, compassion and gratitude. I learnt that to be whole and healthy, we have to be open to accepting everything in life and everything that is in us, both the stuff we like and the stuff we don’t like. I moved from a place where science, thinking and knowledge was the ultimate arbiter and guide, to a strong sense of the importance of integrating this outer world with our inner world of emotional and spiritual intelligence as well as the intelligence of the body. Daily, I am choosing a path of growth as a human being, as a teacher and as a guide and I have learnt that it has many rewards.

Judy teaches and guides people who wish to strengthen or improve relationships in their lives. This brings together all of her life and work experiences, especially her work with stress, using a whole of body/whole of life approach, and her ongoing study, including certifying as an Enneagram teacher. As a part of her ongoing work, Judy has developed a process that guides people to purpose and meaning in life.