Graduation at the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute marks a real turning point.
Twice each year, our Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® and Advisor graduates complete rigorous, fibromyalgia-specific training—equipping them to support patients with clarity, confidence, and care.
The Winter 2026 graduating class carries special significance. Winter 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of IFCI’s very first graduating class, which completed training in January 2016.
Over the past decade, IFCI graduates have gone on to support fibromyalgia patients around the world—helping replace confusion with understanding, resignation with possibility, and isolation with informed support.
Many of our graduates also experience meaningful improvements in their own fibromyalgia symptoms during training—but just as importantly, they gain the clarity and confidence to advocate for themselves long after graduation.
These aren’t miracle stories.
They’re real people, real bodies, and real progress.
The Winter 2026 IFCI graduating class.
What Graduation Really Represents
For many people with fibromyalgia, the message—spoken or unspoken—is that improvement has limits.
Our graduates know from experience that this framing is incomplete.
Through their training, they learn to see fibromyalgia as a complex, whole-body condition—and to work with the nervous system, capacity, and real-life constraints rather than pushing against them.
They leave with clearer language, stronger self-advocacy, and practical strategies that support sustainable progress.
Progress with fibromyalgia isn’t always linear.
But clarity changes everything.
And that is what this milestone represents: not perfection, but momentum.
Meet Our Winter 2026 Graduates
We’re proud to celebrate the newest members of the IFCI community—each bringing their own lived experience, professional background, and motivation for paying their progress forward.
Kerstin Goldstein — Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®
Kerstin is a Fitness Coach and Behavior Change Expert with over 25 years of experience, supporting clients worldwide in building sustainable movement and lifestyle habits. After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2019, she began specializing in gentle, empowering approaches for people with chronic conditions.
Her work focuses on pacing, energy management, and well-being to support an active life without pressure or guilt. She loves traveling and working from inspiring places—wherever in the world they may be.
Kerstin works with clients in both English and German.
Biani Garcia — Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor®
Originally from Mexico, Biani is a 32-year-old PE-Architect, currently based in South Dakota. Married for nearly a year when she was diagnosed, she and her husband have a lovely puppy named Buffalo who has been the main caretaker during flare up days.
Her fibro journey is fairly new, but having lived with other conditions for over 15 years she wanted to take action as soon as possible.
Her dream is to be a mom and wanted to learn as fast as possible how to get this “fibro thing” under control. She's excited to continue learning in IFCI's Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® program and help others get better and not to give up their life goals!
Megan Hill — Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor®
Megan lives in Tallahassee, Florida. After discovering IFCI through the Fibromyalgia Podcast® and books, Megan went from being completely disabled by fibromyalgia to thriving in ways she once thought were impossible.
Today, Megan balances a demanding career while attending college full time to become an ASL interpreter, with the goal of coaching Deaf and Hard of Hearing clients. She is especially passionate about helping future clients develop fibromyalgia disaster plans learning how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural and manmade disasters without fibromyalgia flares.
Sabine Nold — Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor®
Sabine has been living with fibromyalgia for decades and had become used to being the patient, with no doctor knowing what to do.
Over the years, she realized that the disease was limiting her more and more. So she decided to take her health into her own hands, learn as much as possible about fibromyalgia in order to understand what she really needed.
At the end of her working life, she also wanted to make new plans: a trip to Japan and finally sewing quilts again — big quilts!
Sabine wants to support people, because she is convinced that if this program has helped her, it will help others too.
A Milestone Year for IFCI
January 2026 marks a major institutional milestone for the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute.
Ten years after our first graduating class, IFCI’s training programs are now approved by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)—allowing eligible professionals to earn continuing education credits through our coursework.
Today, IFCI graduates live and work around the world, supporting fibromyalgia patients across multiple countries, cultures, and languages—bringing informed, fibromyalgia-specific care to communities that have long lacked it.
A Tradition We’re Proud to Continue
Graduation isn’t a one-time event at IFCI.
It’s something we do twice each year — in Winter and Summer.
Our commitment remains the same — to train coaches and advisors who understand fibromyalgia as it actually shows up in real bodies and real lives.
For more than a decade, IFCI graduates have demonstrated that meaningful improvement is possible.
On average, Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® graduates reduce their fibromyalgia symptoms by nearly 50% during the 90-day training program, while many Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® graduates are nearly symptom-free by graduation.*
Just as importantly, they gain the knowledge, confidence, and practical skills to help others improve as well.
To our Winter 2026 graduates
We’re honored to celebrate you — and proud of the work you’ve done to get here.
Could This Be Your Story?
Many of the graduates we're celebrating today first came to IFCI looking for help with their own fibromyalgia. Along the way, they gained the knowledge, confidence, and practical skills to improve their own health — and eventually help others do the same.
Whether you're interested in becoming a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® or Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®, we'd love to show you what's possible.
Explore More Graduation Events
Visit our Virtual Graduation Archive to watch past graduation celebrations and hear graduates share their real fibromyalgia stories — along with what they did to improve their fibromyalgia symptoms.
Photo Credits
- Photos courtesy of the graduates.
About Tami Stackelhouse
Tami Stackelhouse is an award-winning author, founder of the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute (IFCI), and one of the most influential voices in fibromyalgia today, having helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rethink what is possible with fibromyalgia. Through her signature Fibromyalgia Wellness Framework℠, Tami is helping transform the way fibromyalgia is understood, supported, and lived — moving people beyond symptom management and into a future they once believed was out of reach.
Photo by Emily Broadbent
