If you live in the Bay Area or Silicon Valley and you're managing a chronic condition, you probably know a particular kind of tired. You're capable and used to solving hard problems, but between work, the commute and your parents' appointments, your own health keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. I'm Cheri Sacks, a Registered Nurse and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES), and I coach people with chronic illness across San Francisco, the Peninsula and the South Bay, in person and by video anywhere in California.
Who I am and how I help
Your Bay Area health coach meets you from your kitchen or between meetings, virtually and just as real.
"Health coach" can mean almost anything around here, from app subscriptions to influencers selling supplements. My coaching is nurse-led and whole-person, and it works alongside your own doctors.
I'm a Registered Nurse with more than twenty years of experience, a CDCES, a Cannabis Nurse, and a trained Reiki and Motoki practitioner. I've worked as a disease-management nurse coach and as a corporate trainer for other nurses and educators. So when you tell me your blood sugar climbs every afternoon, a new medication left you foggy, or your autoimmune flares seem to follow your stress, I understand what you're describing. I can explain it in plain English and help you walk into your next appointment prepared.
The Bay Area has some of the best medicine in the world, but what many people don't have is time with one person who knows their whole story. You get fifteen rushed minutes, a portal message queue and a different specialist for each part of you. I work in that middle space, where daily life actually happens.
Why chronic illness feels different here
Chronic illness is common everywhere. Roughly six in ten adults in the United States live with a chronic disease, and four in ten live with two or more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In California, about four in ten adults, some 11.4 million people, report at least one major chronic condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, asthma or serious psychological distress, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. If you're managing something, you're in very good company.
The Bay Area adds its own layer, and I see a few patterns often:
- Years of powering through. Many of my Silicon Valley clients have spent a career skipping meals and running on very little sleep. Burnout isn't a character flaw. It's a nervous system that was never given a chance to settle.
- Doing everything "right" and still feeling unwell. Great doctors, the newest wearable and every wellness trend can make it seem like your health is handled, until the fatigue doesn't lift and the numbers creep up.
- Caring for aging parents. Many people I coach are in the generation in the middle, running a household or a team while helping a parent with dementia, diabetes or recovery from a fall, sometimes from a distance or across a language.
- Treating health like a dashboard. This region loves a metric, and that can help, but it can also turn your body into one more target you feel you're missing.
How coaching works, by video or in person
A health coach serving the Bay Area: San Francisco, the Peninsula, and the South Bay, plus virtually across California.
Most of my coaching happens by video, and clients find it makes support sustainable. You don't lose an afternoon to traffic on 101 or 280, and we can meet from your kitchen, your office between meetings or a hotel room on a work trip. Video also means I can work with you anywhere in California, from San Francisco to the Central Valley or wine country.
If you'd rather sit across a real table, we can arrange to meet in person on the Peninsula or in the South Bay. Either way, you get the same nurse, the same attention and the same follow-through between sessions.
Our work follows a simple framework I call PATH:
- Personalized care. We start with your actual life, not a template.
- Awareness. Change begins when you notice what your body has been telling you.
- Transformation. We pick one small, doable step and build from there.
- Health. Not a perfect number on a chart, but feeling like yourself again.
Where I coach
I serve the whole Bay Area, with many clients in San Francisco, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park and San Jose. In San Jose, one of California's largest and most diverse cities, I coach people managing diabetes, high blood pressure and burnout across many cultures and family structures. From the East Bay to Marin to the coast, and by video anywhere in California, distance doesn't have to be the reason you go without support.
Working alongside your doctors
I coach and educate. I don't diagnose or prescribe, and I never replace your medical team. Your diagnosis and medications belong to you and your physicians, so please talk with your doctor before changing medicine, meals or activity that could affect your blood sugar.
What I can do is help you get more from the care you already have. The Bay Area has a rich mix of functional-medicine and integrative physicians, endocrinologists, cardiologists and primary-care doctors, and I'm happy to work alongside them. If your functional-medicine doctor has given you a detailed protocol, I can help you live it day to day, make sense of the labs your physician ordered, and stay steady between visits. If you're facing a new diagnosis in a big health system, I'll help you prepare so those short appointments count.
Why a nurse coach?
Most health coaches are trained in behavior change, which is valuable and something I use every day. What I add is two decades of translating complicated medicine into something a real person can live with, so fewer things get lost and you're never made to feel foolish for not already knowing.
I hold the clinical side, like blood sugar, blood pressure, medications, labs, and the endocannabinoid system and where CBD may fit for some people. I also hold the whole-person side: sleep, nourishment, nervous-system calm, connection, time in nature, movement and the emotional weight of being sick while everyone counts on you. If you'd like to know more, I've written about what it's really like to work with a nurse health coach, and there's a fuller guide to chronic illness health coaching.
What progress can look like
Here's a composite of several Peninsula clients, with details changed for privacy. "Marianne" was in her early fifties, a senior leader in Los Altos running a team of forty while caring for her mother with dementia. Her prediabetes numbers were creeping up, she was exhausted in a way sleep didn't fix, and she had a folder of advice she had no energy to follow.
We didn't add to her plate that first month. Her one goal was a real breakfast with protein before her coffee, and we met by video on Tuesday mornings. Then we got curious about her afternoon crashes and how she felt on days she spent even ten minutes outside. She started bringing sharper questions to her doctor visits. Months later her numbers had improved, but what she talked about was finally feeling like herself again.
Talks for teams and organizations
I also speak to Bay Area workplaces, groups and community organizations about living and working well with chronic conditions, including diabetes and blood sugar, caring for aging parents, stress and whole-person wellbeing. If you'd like to explore a talk or workshop for your team, reach out here and tell me a little about your group.
Your first step
You don't have to piece this together on your own, and needing support isn't weakness. If you're ready, book a free discovery call. It's an unhurried conversation about where you are and whether we're a good fit, by video from anywhere in California or in person around the Bay. You can also read my guide to living well with chronic illness first if you'd like a sense of the path.
With Care, Cheri Sacks, RN, CDCES Your Neighbor, The Nurse
This article is for education and coaching support. It is not medical diagnosis or treatment. Please talk with your own care team about your specific health needs.
Related reading
- A complete guide to chronic illness health coaching
- What it is really like to work with a nurse health coach
- Living well with chronic illness: a practical guide
- Work with Cheri: book a free discovery call
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Cheri Sacks, RN, CDCES, offers nurse-led chronic illness health coaching across the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Jose, both in person around the Bay and virtually anywhere in California. It is coaching and education, not diagnosis, and it works alongside your medical team.
Both. Most coaching happens by video, which is what makes it sustainable for busy Bay Area schedules, and it lets me work with clients anywhere in California. For clients on the Peninsula and South Bay who want that in-person feel, we can arrange to meet in person as well.
The whole Bay Area, with a particular focus on San Francisco and the affluent Peninsula and South Bay, including Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Jose. Because coaching is available virtually, I also work with clients throughout California.
The first discovery call is always free. If we decide to work together, I walk you through session length, frequency, and cost up front, before you commit to anything, so there are no surprises. You will never be pushed into more than you need.
No, and that is by design. I do not diagnose or prescribe. I help you understand your body, prepare for appointments, and follow through on the plan you and your physicians build, and I collaborate happily with functional-medicine and integrative doctors across the Bay Area.
