When was the last time you asked for help?
Jordan Dunin had little choice in the matter in the summer of 2016, after he dove off a boat into the shallows of Ontario’s Lake Muskoka, breaking his neck and suffering a traumatic brain injury. During his recovery, Jordan was so debilitated he had to drop out of college. Soon after, he was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease (the bacterial infection that can lead to long-term fatigue, pain and cognitive issues, is often exacerbated by and diagnosed after an immunity-disrupting trigger). The combination of life-altering events forced Jordan down a five-year road to recovery that involved trying every treatment under the sun and building a vast network of experts to help regain his motor skills and mental stability.
His commitment to wellness paid off. This summer, Jordan completed his first Half Ironman triathlon, finishing in just over six hours, about the time it takes seasoned athletes to complete the back-to-back 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run. Jordan is also celebrating the second anniversary of his company, HatchPath, a personal marketplace for wellness coaching. After Jordan’s arduous road to find the proper support, the Queen’s University at Kingston commerce graduate launched the web-based platform to connect clients nationwide with structured health programs and hundreds of vetted coaches in more than 19 wellness fields—from nutrition and spirituality to personal development. “We all have an area where we’re not great,” Jordan says.
At the core, HatchPath provides a bridge between providers and clients within the vast, booming wellness world. Estimated as a $5.6 trillion industry by the Global Wellness Institute, the field is rife with scammers, pseudoscientific claims and lots of confusion and overwhelm. Much of the industry goes unregulated, which can make it difficult for clients to find legitimate services and providers. “There’s a lot of unregistered, unlicensed, undocumented coaches out there,” Jordan says. “We kind of regulate the unregulated.”
Jordan and his team review prospective partners’ formal certifications and display the credentials on coaches’ profiles for clients to see, along with a tool for community monitoring through user reviews. HatchPath also books one-on-one meetings with applicants to learn about their wellness journeys and experiences in their practice areas. Jordan believes empathy is vital to promoting healing and growth and is born from experience. “When I was going through Lyme disease, I struggled with people telling me what to do who didn’t overcome it themselves,” he says. Guides with familiarity filled him with hope and actionable takeaways. “They were a living example that all I wanted was possible,” adds Jordan, who now pays it forward as a Lyme disease coach.
The 28-year-old entrepreneur sees wellness coaching as supplemental, not replacing traditional medicine and psychotherapy. For years, Jordan struggled to progress as he cycled in and out of hospitals and doctors’ offices. He struggled through multiple surgeries, gut-wrecking prescriptions, injuries resulting from treatments, and antidepressants that made him suicidal. Meanwhile, he felt responsible for his injury and berated himself for being reckless with his well-being and the toll his pain took on loved ones. But from that dark place, he was open to the greatest change. Jordan’s now-wife, Lauren, a holistic nutritionist, introduced him to clean eating and meditation, and a neighbor put him in touch with hypnosis coach Bec Symonds, who specializes in emotional detoxing.
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Courtesy HatchPath/Bustabad Collective
hatchpath health yoga event setup
Through his digital wellness coach finder, HatchPath, Jordan Dunin also collaborates on in-person events with like-minded organizations.
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Courtesy HatchPath/Bustabad Collective
hatchpath health yoga setup
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Courtesy HatchPath/Bustabad Collective
hatchpath health event giveaways
Bec—now a HatchPath coach—helped Jordan realize he was stuck in fight-or-flight mode. Until he escaped his chronic anger, sadness and guilt, no treatments would work. The results started slow, but with a new diet and mental practice, Jordan felt himself grow stronger in a way he hadn’t in years of traditional treatments alone.
Through it all, Jordan learned good health is all-encompassing and requires a holistic approach. HatchPath’s more than 400 coaches cover every facet of well-being through structured programs delivered via one-on-one virtual sessions. Rather than simply serving as a coach-finder, the platform is set up with hundreds of modular, multi-week programs centered on topics as varied as skin-health nutrition, trauma recovery, feng shui, flexibility and fostering mental resilience.
The curricula provide accountability, an actionable roadmap, and a consistent intake of reinforcement and motivation. A fitness reboot may start by developing a meal plan and continue with tailored personal training blocks and check-ins to discuss roadblocks and successes or simply to vent. One five-star nutrition program is broken into 12 one-hour meetings, with modules focused on sub-topics like the mind-gut connection, understanding carbs and sugar, nutritional goal-setting, mindful eating with meditation training, and the importance of sleep hygiene in weight management. Sessions build on each other for manageable, incremental change. Jordan says each small gain creates a ripple effect that fuels your momentum. “You see the power that you have in your own life to change,” he says.
To simplify the often-daunting process of finding a wellness coach, HatchPath brings everything into one user-friendly platform—no third-party services, like Zoom or Venmo, needed. “Everything from payment, booking, scheduling and the actual consultation to messaging, ratings and reviews is handled within our system,” Jordan says.
And, he’s constantly working to expand his reach. HatchPath offers corporate accounts, through which business owners can allocate funds for employees to book programs; and earlier they started working with nonprofit Operation Healing Forces to serve U.S. Army Special Forces veterans and their families. Now, the group is HatchPath’s biggest business generator, with more than 400 sessions facilitated for veterans, addressing the toll military service can take on emotional and financial well-being.
With about 133 million struggling with at least one chronic condition, Jordan has made it his goal to reach 1 million people. What happens when he hits the milestone? “We go out and make it bigger,” he says.
Photography by Brian Tietz
jordan dunin hatchpath, jordan lifts tire
HatchPath was born of Jordan’s struggle recovering from a head injury and coping with Lyme disease—now, he’s thriving and recently completed his first Half Ironman race. The platform connects users with hundreds of vetted wellness coaches and structured programs.