Why Hire a Health and Wellness Coach?New Title

Habit change

Have you ever been to a doctor, dietitian, naturopathic doctor or other practitioner who told you what lifestyle changes you needed to make for your health, got you all excited to do so and when you got home and thought about it, you thought to yourself “If I had ANY idea HOW to do that, I’d be doing it already!”. Maybe they say you need to clean up your way of eating but you find the nutritional advice you read contradictory or confusing. Maybe you are sedentary and don’t know where to start getting active. Maybe you or a family member got a diagnosis, and you want to level up your habits to reduce your risks. 

This implementation phase is where health coaches begin. We help sort through the habits that have gotten or might steer you off track in your health, and help you normalize healthier new ways of living. We do it through conversation, asking lots of questions, helping you realize your strengths and how to apply them to the new changes you want to make. We help you get clear on what your goals are and what it looks like to you to succeed. We do it through holding you accountable to goals each time we meet that are just right for you level of change between the two sessions. We notice where you are succeeding that you might be overlooking. My clients often remark about how much more confident they are in themselves and their ability to change through the work we do.

There is no one right path. We lead different lives with different biology, challenges and abilities. A genuine coaching situation respects the client as the expert in their own life and circumstances, and the coach as the expert in change with the knowledge and experience to guide the client through the goals set by the client.

What coaching is NOT

A qualified health coach will NEVER diagnose, claim to treat or prevent a disease. Most health conditions have known lifestyle habits from exercise to ways of eating, stress reduction to sleep, etc., that help on your path. Health coaches guide you in implementing these habits

Coaching is more than accountability. According the National Board of Health & Wellness Coaching, sessions must include at least 20 minutes of actual coaching time (excluding the educational conversation) to qualify as coaching. 

Coaches are NOT dietitians or nutritionists. This is an area where the lines can seem blurry. A dietitian or nutritionist is trained in supplements and nutrition on a very high level and is able to prescribe an individual diet or meal plan specific to you that a coach cannot. A dietitian or nutritionist can assess if you are meeting your every nutritional need through your food and supplements or not. A coach is trained in the over all patterns of healthy eating, exercise and more, but cannot give you an individualized meal plan. Though we can share samples, that you modify as needed. There are people that are trained in both, though not common. Coaches are more broadly focused. Many coaches take additional specialized trainings that might change their scope of practice.

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What is it like to work with a coach?

“Oh, I get it, it’s like therapy for my health!” is maybe my favorite aha quip from a client. She had been struggling with hating mealtime and we dug in, found some skills and mindset sticking points and were working through them. In getting clarity around what brought on the frustration in her relationship with the kitchen and setting tiny weekly goals to move towards the removal of those obstacles, she was changing her relationship with the kitchen entirely. At its heart, Health and Wellness coaching is about guiding an individual into the health habits theychoose to take action on. Yup. There is no one perfect roadmap for all, it’s really about the individual in coaching, what they want and or need to change, and supporting them through the transition in habit and thinking that normalizes the desired new way of being. That might be starting to exercise, implementing the health protocol you just got or crowding out your current food habits with ones that serve you better. Or any of a myriad of other things.

While not entirely accurate, her statement really got to the heart of real coaching, which is that we use conversation, asking questions, exploring underlying assumptions and more, mixed with goal setting at a pace and level that is realistic to an individual client. Our training uses ways of conversation created in traditional therapy, but we focus entirely on health and wellness issues and habits. If you want to explore your career dissatisfaction, find a life coach, not a heath coach. Similar tools, different topic expertise.

Coaching options

Coaching might be one to one or group. It might come as part of a course.

In group coaching, there might be recorded lessons mixed with group coaching sessions via video, phone or in person, and a support community. Group coaching often starts with a set program, combining information with habit change support, group conversation and group coaching calls. Some coaches have ongoing group coaching programs around specific topics. We are coming up with new ways to support all the time.

In individual coaching, coaches might use insightful tools to help you learn about yourself. I had a client who felt like she was failing in many areas of her life, but using one of my favorite tools, we explored, and she realized of the areas evaluated, only two were really needing attention to help her feel at her best. It might be structured as a multi month package or a month-to-month arrangement. Each coach creates their business independently.

Who is a qualified coach?

Who is a health coach? Unfortunately, that definition is still vague since the profession is not yet regulated. Anyone can claim to be one, certified or not, trained or not. No regulation. Buyer beware.

Fortunately for the general public, the profession is setting standards under the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching.(www.nbhwc.org) This organization, started in 2016, sets an exam run by the Medical Board of Examiners to make sure that whatever program someone graduated from of the 80+ approved programs, you can trust the person has been vetted for their basic competency in how to coach as well as some details around ethics, the most basic health data such as blood sugar and pressure numbers and more. If you find someone with the NBC-HWC credential, you don’t have to research their program, it’s done for you by the board. You don’t have to wonder if they did well in their studies, cause the exam double checks that for you.

As a profession, Health and Wellness Coaching is making huge strides towards strict standards. My hope is that we will be a licensed profession. Not long ago, the AMA created a research code for coaching, a required step before being creating a billing code for insurance. We are getting there!

Each coach brings different life experience and knowledge to the relationship. A well-qualified coach can help effectively in general situations, but you also may choose to find one who specializes in a particular concern you have, such as hormones or blood sugar control. 

I've had so many questions about what to ask before hiring a coach that I'm creating a little guide for that. If you want to get it, join my mailing list and you will be first to know when it's ready later this month!