WHAT IS HEALTH/WELLNESS/WELLBEING COACHING?
“The International Coach Federation defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential.”
Coaches honour the client as the expert in their life and work from the belief that every client is creative and resourceful. The coach’s responsibility is to:
Discover, clarify and align with what the client wants to achieve.
Encourage client self-discovery.
Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies.
Hold the client responsible and accountable.
Coaches honour the client as the expert in his or her life; each client is creative and resourceful, there is a strong emphasis on collaboration, the innovation of thoughts and opportunities, working from the position that the client is the bearer of their solutions. A client-led approach has been shown to result in change that is positive and long-lasting. There is no deferring to the coach for answers; instead, coach and client collaborate and the client in time confidently assumes responsibility for their health. Uniquely wellbeing coached clients find they can achieve, access, grow or express that which they might not have been able to on their own. The coach merely shines a light on the keys are to unlock the client’s potential and self-determination.
SCOPE OF PRACTICE OF A HEALTH/WELLNESS/WELLBEING COACHES
It’s essential to understand the extent of your scope of practice (SoP) as a coach, so you work safely and in the best interests of your clients. Just as a nutritionist, naturopath, counsellor, personal trainer and so on must work within the bounds of their training so too must a coach.
Your exact SoP will depend on you and any underlying qualifications you may hold, such as personal training, counselling, nutrition, health, and so on. If you hold a higher qualification, it’s recommended you refer to your registering/governing body, or insurer, for your specific SoP. We are often asked ‘can I give clients nutrition advice once I finish the course?’. Or ‘can I give out meal plans?’. If you have a qualification that deems you able to do this, then yes. Prescribing diets (including meal plans) or giving ‘advice’ is not what coaches do.
Coaches don’t solve problems; they enable clients to do this for themselves. The process is collaborative with the client reaching their own end goal. You might support a client to create their own meal plan, but unless qualified, you wouldn’t prescribe one yourself.
Coaches, let go of the need to:
• Judge
• Be right
• Solve
You will still hold excellent knowledge which you may share with clients to support their decision-making, you may offer up options for clients to choose, but at all times you are leading from behind, the client is leading the process. Coaches ask and offer, clients choose.
HEALTH & WELLNESS COACHING PROCESS
In coaching, we can look toward Thomas Leonard (2002), who devised the following ten notions around the philosophical basis of modern coaching, we feel this beautifully reflects coaching:
- It’s all solvable, or it’s not.
- The risk is always reducible.
- There’s usually a better way.
- Success is a by-product.
- Emotions are our teachers.
- Inklings are higher intelligence.
- The answer is somewhere.
- Self-confidence can be arranged.
- Problems are immediate opportunities.
- People are doing their very best, even when they seem not to be.
These statements are simple but powerful; at their essence is an absolute belief in our positivity, creativity and self-determination.
HEALTH & WELLNESS COACHES DO…
Coach through their genuine concern, integrity, transparency, bravery and honesty. Coaches:
- ✓ Connect with clients without assumption, but full of curiosity to initiate a respectful coaching process.
- ✓ Support clients in identifying underlying challenges they wish to explore.
- ✓ Invoke a creative, fun, and brave process of self-exploration and discovery.
- ✓ Aid clients in articulating goals in a meaningful and achievable manner.
- ✓ Ask clients for permission to explore areas that may lead to significant steps towards their vision.
- ✓ Trust their own insights and intuition to support their client’s processes.
- ✓ Communicate in a way that connects deeply with clients, creating trust and intimacy for change.
- ✓ ‘Hold the silence and space’ for clients, by sitting quietly so clients have space and time to think, feel and process.
HEALTH & WELLNESS COACHES DO NOT…
- Hold court or monopolise time or attention.
- Offer, or guarantee solutions or answers.
- Judge clients for where they are or where they wish to be or for what they do or do not do.
- Dictate how things should be done.
- Control the change and growth process.
- Attempt to influence the client in any particular direction.
- Provide services that they are not entitled to provide.
- Need to prove they are right, informed or able to ‘make things better’.
BENEFITS OF SEEING A HEALTH & WELLNESS COACH
Through skilful questioning, relevant tools and a supportive process, clients might work through challenges they have been stuck on or uncover strengths; they may also:
- ✓ Become the masters of their own wellbeing.
- ✓ Become confident, empowered individuals with tools to live as they see fit.
- ✓ Find new creative, brave, positive and growth-orientated ways to view themselves and others.
- ✓ Be inspired to achieve overall wellness and wellbeing for healthful longevity.
- ✓ Support clients to find their hidden potential, their purpose and their fulfilled life.