Access to health coaching has exploded over the last few years.

Healthcare organizations have realized that we’re a cost-effective way to improve our population’s wellbeing. Not only do we help you get healthy, we help you stay healthy. You avoid long-term health problems like type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, and everyone saves money in the process.

However, health coaching is still a young field. People often sign up for coaching without having a clear idea of what it involves. I believe this is the fault of the organizations that provide coaching - they don’t always explain the process before allowing folks to be paired with a coach. It’s a soapbox of mine, and one I’ll talk about at a later time.

Maybe you’re interested in coaching, but not sure what it entails. Or maybe you’ve just signed up for coaching and you’re not sure what to expect. This blog post will help you better understand what health coaching is and is not, and it’ll help you get the most out of health coaching.

1. Understand what health coaching is

If your coach has their own private practice, they’ve likely been very clear with you about what they do as a coach. However, as I mentioned above, many health coaches work in an environment where they’re not able to choose their clients. While everyone can benefit from coaching, it’s crucial that our clients understand what the process entails.

If you’re not sure what to expect from coaching, you may be anticipating something similar to therapy, or prescriptive advice, like from a dietitian or personal trainer. Coaching isn’t either of those things.

▸Health coaching is a collaborative process between a coach and a client.◂

Health coaches work with you to reach your goals - we don’t tell you what to do. We trust that you know yourself best.

We help you find your own, unique path forward. We do this by mapping out your values, goals, and unique strengths. We combine these factors to create a plan, and then we talk through any challenges you might face along the way. We ensure your goals are realistic and achievable, and we offer accountability through regular check-ins. In coaching sessions, we ask a lot of questions and give you space to talk.

When we empower you to build your own goals instead of doing what we say, several powerful things happen:

You choose the path that is most likely to work for you
You build autonomy - you can rely on yourself to reach your goals
You build confidence in your ability to make your own decisions
With time and practice, you won’t need us anymore

When you can identify what works for you and what doesn’t, and you learn how to apply your values to your decision-making, it means you won’t need us forever. You’ll be able to “graduate” and reach your goals without our help. This is ultimately what we want!

2. Understand what health coaching is not

Health coaches have a limited scope of practice. This means that we’re restricted from performing certain actions or giving certain kinds of advice. For example, I can’t write you a meal plan - this is the work of a registered dietitian. I can’t diagnose you with ADHD - this is the work of a psychologist.

However, I can provide you with general nutrition guidelines and help you work them into your daily routine. I can help you reduce the impact of your suspected ADHD by working with you to identify the root causes of your procrastination.

There’s a time and place for having a firm plan, and it’s okay if you need more structure and guidance. Health coaching works really well alongside other more prescriptive forms of healthcare, because we can help you put any recommendations you receive into practice. We’re just not able to give you that guidance ourselves.

I’m a huge fan of working with other allied health professionals - we can fill any gaps in care as a team.

3. Trust in your ability to make your own decisions

If you’re looking for someone to tell you exactly what to do and how to do it, you’re likely going to be frustrated with health coaching. And we might be frustrated with you, too.

Health coaches work within the concept of self-actualization: the belief that you have the ability to become your best self. But the thing is: no one can do this work for you. Of course, we all need guidance and support, and that’s what we’re here for! However, if we did the work of figuring everything out for you, we’d rob you of your own autonomy.

If you rely on someone else to figure your life out for you, your life isn’t really yours. We don’t want this for you, and I bet you don’t want it for yourself, either.

The good news is we can help you build your belief in yourself. We do this by starting really small - choosing the easiest possible step toward your goal, and creating as many fail-safes as we can.

You are capable, and we believe in you.

4. Get specific with what you want to achieve

The more specific you can get with what you’d like to work on, the better. For example, living a healthy lifestyle means something different to everyone. For one person, it means eating a serving of veggies and walking 20 minutes a day. For another, it means fasting until noon and running an ultra-marathon.

To get more specific with a goal, try thinking about the actions you would take to get there. What does a day living a healthy lifestyle look like? What does a healthy morning look like? Once you can describe the actions you want to take, we can start to build your goals.

To get more specific with a goal, try thinking about the actions you would take to get there. What does a day living a healthy lifestyle look like? What does a healthy morning look like? Once you can describe the actions you want to take, we can start to build your goals.

However, if you’re not sure where to start, we can help with that!

When you know what actions you need to take to reach your goal, our sessions will be really efficient and productive.

5. Be honest with us

In order to best serve you, we need your honesty.

This doesn’t mean we need to know everything that’s happened in your past, although you’re welcome to share whatever you feel will help us understand you better. It means that you should let us know if a goal we set isn’t working, if you’re struggling to achieve it, or if you feel like giving up.

Health coaches are bound by unconditional positive regard. We will hold you in high esteem, regardless of your past mistakes, your current challenges, or failed attempts. We are not here to judge you. We’re human, too. Every coach on the planet has experienced setbacks, has tried and failed, and has had moments of wavering confidence. For a lot of us, it’s part of why we coach. We know change is tough, and we also know it can be done. Everything is figure-outable! We’ll help you through it. But we can only do that if you’re honest - really honest with us about what’s working and what isn’t.

Honesty is also important for you: if you really don’t like salads, it’s okay to stop making yourself eat them. There are other ways to eat healthy! But we can’t find them for you if you’re stuck trying to convince yourself to like salads. The sooner you decide something isn’t for you, the sooner we can pivot.

Bonus tip: Be patient

Change takes time. You won’t reach your goal overnight. There are occasional moments when a client has had a sudden, ground-breaking epiphany. But most of the time, change looks like weeks or months of steady work.

Health coaches keep track of your progress and identify your small victories to help keep you motivated. However, there will be times when you don’t feel like you’re making progress. There may even be times when you feel like you’ve gone backwards. Trust that this is part of the process. Never in my decade-long health coaching career have I ever seen progress look like a straight upward line. Keep going. You will get there.

That’s all for today - I hope this helps you feel more confident about starting your health coaching journey. If this brings up any additional questions for you, please reach out!

Five Ways to Get the Most out of Health Coaching