Health Coaching

Mention the term 'health coaching' and one problem that crops up is that people have a vision of sports coaches from college barking instructions and ordering an audience with varying degrees of enthusiasm to perform physical efforts.  Please understand that health coaching has nothing to do with that. Instead the whole idea of health coaching is building a relationship of identification with a coach who encourages positive life change.  Health coaching tackles the huge amount of chronic disease that can be attributed directly to lifestyle choices (though these often aren't seen as choices) and increases awareness of behavior, nutrition, and lifestyle to help the individual change their life for the better themselves.
 
Wellness Coaching
Health coaching is more than just physical fitness. It involves a holistic approach that acknowledges the importance of a broader category of wellness on the health of the individual. Many unhealthy behaviors are based in unhappiness or dysfunctional lifestyle and your health coach will work with you to better understand and take control of those aspects of your life that are negatively impacting your wellness. That includes your relationships with other people as well as your behavior and diet.  As well as understanding how your happiness impacts your behavior and thus your level of wellness you can expect to change it to not only feel better and enjoy better health but to have more positive relationships and interactions with the people in your life.
 
Motivational Interviewing
One of the key tools for any health coach is motivational interviewing which is a technique to raise your awareness of the factors that are influencing undesirable behavior that in turn negatively impacts on your health. The idea is to have a better vision of your present situation unencumbered by the baggage of the past so as to see your way to a better future more clearly.
 
Smoking, Obesity, Diabetes
The link between psychological well being, behavior, and physical health is never clearer than with the problems of smoking, obesity, and diabetes.  Your health coach can help you understand the factors that have led you to these outcomes and both see the way out of that situation and be motivated to take the steps that bring about positive life change.
 
Goal Setting
Many people think the goal of health coaching is simple – be more healthy. That's both true and unhelpful at the same time in the same way as hiring a physical trainer with the aim of 'being fitter' is unlikely to prove successful. Just 'being more healthy' isn't a sufficiently concrete goal to motivate daily adjustments in behavior.  Your health coach will help you identify the steps towards and ultimate target, the milestones on the way and how to reach and celebrate each one as part of the journey to life change and well being. Only with precise goals can we understand the sense of progress which in turn provides positive reinforcement for the process of life change. So we will help you understand exactly where you want to be then accompany you as you get there.