The physical distancing requirements during covid-19 caused a swift removal of red tape that might prevent telemedicine from being covered by insurance. This enabled the functional medicine center where I work to see many of our high-risk patients from the safety of their own homes.

As a health coach, I meet with clients one-on-one or in small groups. We also offer small group exercise classes at our facility. When the “stay at home” order hit, we quickly moved our classes and many of our individual appointments online, using video conferencing or phone. We also launched a collaborative online movement membership, where participants could join from anywhere to follow along live or access the recordings.

People who would not normally participate in classes due to distance or schedule have been able to join us online. At a time when we have been required to maintain physical distancing, it’s been wonderful to be able to continue to connect online with our local community members and to welcome others into the fold from afar.

There are certainly some advantages to meeting in person, but I sense it will be quite some time before we can get back to group classes in our physical location. In the meantime, we are finding several benefits to the online approach. No driving in bad weather or after dark, no time spent commuting and the ability to include those who are not local to our area have certainly been some positives. Everything has tradeoffs but I expect going forward, we will try to find a way to have the best of both worlds.

When have you made the best of a tough situation and what have you learned in the process?