What is a health coach

Coaching is a form of development in which a coach supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance.

Health coaches are change agents.

The coach will use special techniques, personal experience, expertise and encouragement to assist the coachee in bringing his / her behavioural changes about while aiming for improved health.

They also understand how habits form, they know how to reverse them, and they specialise in helping people overcome obstacles in pursuit of their goals. As part of a collaborative care team that includes GPs, Functional Medicine practitioners, nutritionists, and other allied health providers, health coaches support their clients as they make positive changes.

The role of the coach is not just coaching! Health coaches assist people in developing to their full potential. They are responsible for improvement by analysing performance, instructing in relevant skills and by providing encouragement.

A good coach offers education, support and assistance to those he or she is coaching to help them implement change and achieve desired goals.

Coaches are responsible for planning, organising and delivering an appropriate range of activities and programmes for individuals. Typical responsibilities include: teaching new skills, principles and techniques: what to remove from your pantry, or where and what to shop for a healthy pantry.

A Health Coach is a supportive mentor and wellness authority helping clients feel their best through food, exercise & lifestyle changes by tailoring individualised wellness programs to meet their clients' needs.

Generally, health coaches work with individuals to help them improve their health and then maintain a healthy lifestyle. This includes establishing dietary principles, safe exercise routines, and monitoring systems. The coach generally works one on one with clients or in small groups.

Coaching Process

Audit
A detailed personal lifestyle audit is undertaken, along with clear and reasonable goals.

SWOT Analysis
Aims to raise clients' awareness of problems and possibilities while reducing their ambivalence about change by a focus on the present and future, rather than the past.

Objective Setting
A health and wellness vision is a creative statement by the client that reveals his/her highest potential and can include physical or emotional realms of their life. A vision empowers one to see new possibilities along with a specific and clear direction.

Guiding the strategy and goal setting
Guiding the strategy and goal setting is a collaborative behaviour change technique used between the coach and the client.

Goals promote behaviour change through a collaborative process, which includes the coach making a plan to track and evaluate progress.

Monitoring, Measurement, and Revisions
After a set period a review of the achievements can be taken and a new set of activities programmed to achieve more.