Holistic point of view

by Sean McCarthy

Leah Doroch of Westport is a holistic medicine success story. While in her early 30s, the mother of two young children suffered a near-death accident while riding a horse. Her recovery would include an introduction to holistic medical approaches that would inspire her to reach out to others, perpetuating the success she had experienced in her own life.

Today, as a board-certified holistic practitioner focused on stress and anxiety management coaching, along with experience-dependent neuroplasticity training, Doroch uses her education and experience to benefit people dealing with a variety of situations.

“When I had my accident, I went on an eye-opening healing journey to treat my post-traumatic stress and anxiety. I became a student of holistic practices,” Doroch says. “I needed to do something to help people and I knew there were ways to manage these types of conditions other than the medications that were being prescribed to me at the time –Medications that are now known to be highly addictive and dangerous today. I learned first hand that holistic treatments like breathwork practices, dietary changes, yoga and meditation work would change my life and thought, more people need to know about this.”

As the owner and CEO of Professional Care Match, she spearheads a company that integrates holistic approaches to homecare for the elderly, specifically, those challenged with dementia illnesses and chronic health conditions that cause safety concerns for those living alone and end-of-life patients. Professional Care Match provides both live-in and hourly caregivers that are well trained and experienced CNAs, HHAs, and PCAs and have also had in-depth training in Doroch’s specialized holistic approach to at-home care and the complexities that come along with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia.

“Professional Care Match’s holistic approach to in-home senior care involves not only providing traditional home care services to elderly patients like bathing, dressing, medication reminders, safety monitoring, meal preparation, purposeful engagement, and housekeeping, but also offers support to the family members that are working to keep their loved ones safely living at home,” Doroch says.

“Over the last 15 years, I have developed the tools to enhance a patient’s physical and emotional wellbeing, enlivening the nourishing connection between mind, body, and spirit, and bringing balance and healing into their lives using in-depth and personalized care planning for each individual patient. We also take into consideration the self-care that is needed for everyone involved,” she says.

Doroch also offers an array of programs based on her Ayurvedic studies, caregiver self-care workshops, stress management coaching, holistic chronic pain management, life coaching for coping with difficult diagnoses, overcoming PTSD, and meditation for overall well being.

“The content that I share in my workshops and my approach to coaching clients give long-term solutions to revitalizing our lives, providing balance, self-care, and personal growth,” Doroch says. “It’s based on a 5,000-year-old healing system of medicine mixed with some of the discoveries that scientists are making today.”

Doroch was inspired to start Professional Care Match in part due to her experiences with her grandfather, which is where her passion for the care of those challenged with Alzheimer’s disease stems from.

“When I was eight years old, my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It was really challenging for our family because there wasn’t a lot of education and understanding at that time,” she says. “People were put into an institution and heavily medicated. Behaviors weren’t managed in positive ways and that severely affected the quality of life for those suffering with this debilitating disease.

“Today there are wonderful, innovative ways to manage the disease process and the challenges that people with dementia have. It’s really about diving deep into honoring who they were before the disease began while providing them supportive care. With our company, we look at the whole person and work with their family members and other medical providers to develop a quality-of-life plan.”

To learn more about Professional Care Match’s live-in or hourly home care services, holistic education workshops, and individual coaching programs, contact 1-833-PCMATCH (1-833-726-2824) or visit professionalcarematch.com.