Hello everyone!

Though I have a short answer to this question in my FAQs, I thought it would be good to elaborate with a blog post since health coaching is a relatively new and quickly-changing field that most people aren’t familiar with.

Coaches are educators, support systems, and mentors for individuals working towards health-related goals. You can think of them just as you would an athletic coach. A good coach is someone who can identify an athlete’s strengths and weakness, help them set realistic goals, brainstorm an action plan to reach those goals, think creatively about solutions to issues that arise, and work proactively on preventing injury and burnout.

Health coaches take this approach and apply it to general health. We can receive training through private health coaching schools and increasingly through universities, including Emory, Vanderbilt, the University of Minnesota, and Duke. Coaches can work independently, as I currently do, or directly in conjunction with other healthcare providers in clinical settings.

Coaches work specifically in the realm of lifestyle medicine, an application of environmental, behavioral, medical, and motivational principles to manage lifestyle-related health problems (Egger, Binns, & Rossner, 2009). We focus on the aspects of health that we can affect through behavior. Coaches do not replace the work one is doing with their physician or other medical professional but rather support it. For example, you may have been advised by your doctor to “eat better” or “exercise more” but been unsure what that looks like or how to make that happen within the context of your life. In this way, coaches also support physicians who are often pressed for time and only able to see patients for 10-15 minute appointments. Your doctor can help identify issues and make diagnoses and treatment plans, and your coach can take the extra time to help you with the factors you can control through lifestyle changes.

These factors include what can help improve your diet, how to find an exercise routine that is enjoyable and effective, and how to do both within the constraints of your budget and schedule. With so much health information available, it can be easy to know what to do for better health in theory but coaching can help address the how questions and turn general theory into individualized practice (Frates, 2018). Health coaches also support clients in taking the lead in designing their own health plans rather than simply giving instructions (Gorman, 2013).

I was drawn to health coaching as a way to combine several educational experiences, including health coach training, a master’s where I studied social issues around health, food, illness, and quality of life, yoga teacher training, and my practical training as a cook specialized in culinary medicine and sustainability. After serving as an unofficial health coach for numerous friends, I am excited to now be able to offer that type of guidance and support to clients.

References:

Egger, G. J., Binns, A. F., & Rossner, S. R. (2009). The emergence of “lifestyle medicine” as a structured approach for management of chronic disease. Medical Journal of Australia, 190(3), 143-145.

Frates, B. (2018). Health Coaching: Changing the Delivery of Health Care. Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 24(6), 250-252.

Gorman, B. (2013). Health coaching: holistically empowering change. Global advances in health and medicine, 2(3), 90.