Psychotherapist
Integrative Health Coach
Prior to joining Duke Integrative Medicine in 2002, Jessica P. Wakefield was a lifestyle maintenance counselor with the Duke Diet & Fitness Center and an assistant research coordinator for the Duke Cancer Control Research Program.
Wakefield received her MA in health psychology from Appalachian State University in 2001, and completed her clinical internship at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center and the Duke Center for Living that same year. Since 2004, Wakefield has sought additional training in life coaching through the Coaches Training Institute and has learned coaching techniques to help clients find life fulfillment, balance, and process.
Wakefield is currently a licensed psychological associate, a certified health services provider psychological associate, and a certified Quit Smart smoking cessation instructor.
Wakefield's clinical and coaching practices have focused on helping individuals to obtain optimal health and well-being. She has helped clients lose weight; stop smoking; reduce stress; become physically active; better cope with anxiety, depression, and life adjustments; and improve overall health and quality of life. In her work with clients, Wakefield uses the mind-body approaches of mindfulness meditation; relaxation training (i.e., breath work, progressive muscle relaxation, and imagery); hypnosis; cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused, person-centered therapies; and coaching techniques with clients.
Wakefield's research has also focused on helping individuals to make healthy lifestyle changes. During her time at Duke Integrative Medicine, she has been a research therapist on an NIH-funded study exploring the utilization of meditation and mindfulness-based treatments for binge-eating disorder and weight maintenance; a health coach for a CMS-funded grant using a Strategic Health Planning model to reduce 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease; and as a health coach for a GlaxoSmithKline-funded study working with individuals who have type 2 diabetes so they become adherent to taking their medications and in making lifestyle changes.
