What Exactly is Health and Life Coaching?

Lifestyle is the best medicine!! This is the best way that I can describe health and life coaching. For someone to have transformation in their health or life, whatever area it may be in; physical health, emotional well-being, relationships, career, or spiritual connection. The key is to change whatever it is your doing every day. If you want to change, you have to change something you do daily. In this article, we will explore the purpose of a coach and how to know if you’re hiring the right one.  

Life Coaching

With life coaching, some believe that it rides a very fine line to therapy. Coaching could be highly therapeutic, but the difference is that a coach asks their client a series of questions to get a picture of how clients see themselves, as well as how they see themselves IN the world. Coaches are not so much analyzing or interpreting the answers, such as a therapist. A good coach is just asking the right questions that will lead to more possibilities that individuals may not be seeing for themselves. They will offer the right tools to move forward by changing habits, beliefs, and other obstacles that might otherwise be holding them back. Coaches are giving people tools to move forward.

Some examples of what life coaches offer are career coaching, relationship development, work/life balance, parenting, helping to eliminate fears and anxieties, and improving communication skills. These are just some areas that a life coach may work in to support and get results for their clients.

Health Coaching

Health coaching is not much different in the way that it is approached. Coaches will still be asking the right questions; only they are developing a menu of options for the individual in health. The connection between health and life coaching is very close, as to reach optimal health and wellness, all areas of someone’s life need to be addressed. For example, if someone seeks to conquer their binge eating, their emotional health will likely impact their success considerably.

Health coaching isn’t all about getting a lot of information on how to do something, what to eat, and what exercises to do, for example. It’s about having the right curated information based on an individual’s needs and goals. Someone can have all the information they can get their hands on; heck, we have google. It doesn’t matter how much or even what the information is. We need to take the right action to reach our desired goal. Every person is unique, and what might work and be suitable for one person’s body, health, situation, etc., can be quite different from the next person.

How Coaching Can Benefit Healthcare

What you need is the right system, the right support, and the right accountability. That’s where a coach comes in. They are the bridge between you needing to change your lifestyle and how to get it done, based on an individual’s needs. You see, it’s not the amount of information but curated information for that person.

This may sound like a straightforward concept. If someone has a chronic health issue; they need to change their lifestyle by not smoking, eating a healthy diet, moving their body, and managing stress (by the way, these are the four central pillars of preventing and reversing chronic disease). People are not always going to do what they need to do, just because they were handed a booklet and told to do so. This is where we end up with a compliance issue. There may be an attempt to do the right thing, but in the end, they will, nine times out of 10, end up right where they were, to begin with.

The reality is the time constraint that a medical provider has with the person, and more importantly, the follow-up. There is minimal follow-up with people from when they seek care to when they go home and either implement change or not.

It is not necessarily a lack of information and communication. There may also be obstacles standing in the way, such as limiting beliefs or circumstances in one’s life. Again, this all boils down to individual needs and situations.

The Art of Coaching

I love the way that coaching brings science and art together in a beautiful package. What do I mean by this? Information is abundant out there. Again, as a coach, a person can be given all the information, but it doesn’t matter without action. In addition, the way that someone takes action looks different for everyone. There are various stories to consider. Everyone has their puzzle, and someone else’s piece may not match another’s puzzle. The information and the delivery need to be curated to each individual to help them take the right action.

Why Coaching Works

Have you ever said to yourself, “It feels like something is holding me back,” well, we all have specific programming, and that is precisely what is happening. What do I mean by programming? These are particular beliefs and perspectives that you might hold about yourself and the world. This is all in a subconscious container, so when you try to change and evolve, your subconscious will quite literally stop you. You will then come up with valid points and reasons why that specific change will not work for you. This is where self-sabotage comes into play.

Say you have a new gym membership. You’re going five days a week for, let’s say, three weeks. You’re doing great and feeling fantastic, then boom, out of the blue, you stop. Something came up one day that kept you from your workout, but now you have just stopped going altogether. Maybe you tell yourself you don’t have time, or the membership is not worth the money. Whatever the reasons are, you have chosen not to go, and it is no longer a priority. Our subconscious wants to keep three things intact; love, safety, and belonging. To read more about this concept and why it keeps us from change, read my article Why Do We Go Back To Old Habits.

How to Find the Right Coach

The right coach is going to have a specific result that you want. The first thing you should look for is whether or not they cater to everyone. Are they a coach that fixes every problem under the sun? A good coach works with a specific population of individuals. For example, A coach who works with midlife women struggling with their sense of purpose, as opposed to a coach that fixes your marriage and helps with meal planning because you are pre-diabetic, and oh, also can find you the career of your dreams. Do you see the difference?

The second sign? If you are not the right client for them, a good coach will let you know. They may even offer a referral to another coach that might be better suited for you. A good coach for you has a service that is worth your time and money. Your desired outcome is the result that they are offering.

It is a good thing when a coach has a free initial call, discovery call, or an application for you to fill out before meeting with you. This means that they are not necessarily going to enroll you into their program just because you are looking to hire a coach, and they are looking to get paid. Yes, they are well deserved for your investment but be sure that they are the right fit for you and you will be the right fit for them. A good repour is essential to make the relationship beneficial on both sides.

What Kind of Coach Am I?

I am a dually certified health and life coach. I work with the body and mind connection using a holistic approach to coaching. What does that mean exactly? I look at the whole person, surrounding their wellness. In my almost 20 years of being a nurse, I have learned that you can’t put health and wellness in a box. It is not separate from love, money, spirituality, and emotions. It’s all like one puzzle with different pieces that make up the whole person. That is what holistic truly is.

If someone is being coached to lose weight, for example, there is much more that needs to be addressed, besides what you should be eating. Someone can go on a diet to lose weight, but weight loss is not sustainable unless they change some beliefs, long-term habits, and lifestyles. This is key! It’s not just about green veggies, protein, and carbs. It’s about the whole person!

Even when you’re talking about chronic illnesses, unless the root cause is addressed, we are simply placing a cover on a pot of boiling water without turning off the burner. It may quiet down for a while, but eventually, that pot will boil over again and with more fury.

I want to help people turn off the heat, or more importantly, not turn it on at all. Specifically, focusing and working with those who have experienced past trauma and suffer from chronic mental and physical health issues, as a result. I help individuals break through the autopilot survival mode and connect with the missing piece from that wellness puzzle so they can start feeling whole, fulfilled, and moving toward thriving mode.

Finding and investing in a coach that meets your needs can and should be life-changing. Are you feeling “stuck? Or are you confused about where to start in your wellness? Book a Discovery Call!