River City Six – Emily Gilli
Meet Emily Gilli, RN, functional medicine certified health coach, and the owner of Reveal & Heal Health and Wellness Coaching (www.revealandheal.coach).
Tell us a little about your business.
Reveal & Heal provides health and wellness coaching in a functional medicine model of care. Coaching sessions are offered as a one-on-one service to men and women seeking to make permanent lifestyle changes either prompted by a medical provider or through their own self-awareness that a change needs to be made. I believe coaching fills a gap currently not offered in the healthcare system. It focuses on creation of heath so clients can attain true primary prevention of disease. I guide clients through personal reflection and positive psychology, character strengths, and goal setting in a way that leads to self-discovery and lasting change.
How did you get started in the business?
When I discovered functional medicine two years ago, I knew right away my career would take a different route. Functional medicine is a model I completely align with, and I wholeheartedly believe in it as the way of our future. It’s personal and integrative, and the goal is to heal disease and promote a healthy lifestyle, not just keep reacting to symptoms. It doesn’t reject conventional medicine, but rather enhances it by looking at the issue from multiple dimensions. I decided to enroll in the 12-month FMCA (Functional Medicine Coaching Academy) program, and as they say, the rest is history!
What has been your most important achievement professionally?
Accepting myself as an informal leader. Most of my life was about achievement, for all the wrong reasons, then I realized that being in a high-up leadership position and actually leading are two different things. The day I accepted I was most effective outside the corporate ladder was the day I was set free.
Tell us a little about your family.
My husband Marco and I have three children: Lewe (18, pronounced Lee-uh-vuh), Xzavier (16), and Brody (15). We have a dog, four cats, and a green cheek conure. As a blended family, we have worked really hard to have open communication, structure, and function as a family unit even when the kids are all going different directions or living in different households for a time.
What is your favorite thing to do on a day off?
Breakfast with Marco, playing pickleball, a nap, and some reading.
What is the most unique or interesting thing about you that most people probably don’t know?
I am what is called a transitional character. It’s a person, who in a single generation, changes the entire course of a lineage.
What is your favorite quote or the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you could choose only one descriptive word to be remembered as, what would it be?
Transformative.
What local nonprofit organization(s) are you passionate about or involved with, and are there any special reasons why?
I’ve always had a passion for the Backpack Program with the Omaha Food Bank. I can’t understand how we have kids (anyone for that matter) going hungry in Omaha, in America, in the world.
What is your favorite book or the last good book you read?
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk. It’s about how trauma reshapes the body and the brain, and how to reclaim your life after trauma.
What is your favorite TV show?
Recently, I binge-watched Outlander.