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In my last post, I was discussing the meaning and the dimensions of wellness and at the end, I mentioned that a health coach could help you very effectively set up goals related to your personal wellness and how to pursue them. To understand how a health and wellness coach can help you in your health and fitness journey you should be aware of what a health coach does and when it is time to hire one. 

What does a health coach do?

Health coaching is a field of coaching and in order to fully understand what a health coach does you should understand what coaching is. I am sure a lot of you have heard about coaching since it is a very popular profession nowadays, but maybe only some of you really know the definition of coaching. 

In the beginning I would like to emphasize three very important characteristics of coaching:

1. It is based on a partnership (client and coach) without any hierarchies

2. The coaching process is based on communication between client and coach,
3. It is self-directed, which means that the client is the driver in the process since he or she is the expert of his or her own life.

To make this clear the coach is not a therapist does not give advice especially if it was not requested or permitted by the client.

However, a health coach is expected to communicate with the client by using such communication skills as open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening and summarizing. With such communication skills the health and wellness coach 

• supports the client in setting achievable and measurable goals and 
• motivate and empower the client on the journey of behavioral change.

So coaching supports behavioral changes which is probably the most important element of goal setting. Health coaching is a field of coaching and it focuses specifically on health and wellness issues. An executive coach for example helps clients achieve career or work-related goals.

A health coach should not provide therapy, consultation and is not a counselor. Therefore he or she does not prescribe meal or exercise plans and does not diagnose the client. Don’t forget we are talking about a client and not a patient here.

The importance of a health and wellness coach

You are probably wondering how on earth a health and wellness coach could possibly help if all he or she does is to communicate with the client?

How could a client be an expert in his or her life if there is a need for help?

Well, I think some misconceptions need to be cleared here and for that, I have to explain: 

When is the time (when you are ready) to hire a coach?

As I said before the health coach should not, diagnose, heal or therapize you. This process should preferably happen before the coaching session. You could only be an expert in your health and wellness journey if you are aware of the issue you want to change. In order to be aware of your health issue, you should consult with your physician because at the end of the day the physician is the one who has the credentials to diagnose and heal. 

However, if you know what the issue is and what behavior change you will need to tackle certain health issues (such as hypertension, diabetes, or obesity), then the only issue left is that you don’t know how to develop new habits to follow through with this goal, then you should consider hiring a health coach.

How a health coach will help you reach your health goals?

If you are aware of your health issues, but the only thing you struggle with is making the lifestyle change due to lack of motivation or ideas about how to do it, then a health coach could really help you map out your options. 

The way of helping is (as I mentioned before) communication through affirmation, reflective questions, open-ended questions, and summarizing.

The great thing about health coaching is that you feel that you have the freedom and autonomy to make your own life choices. You are going to figure out your way to the change which could potentially make you feel proud of yourself and motivated as well since the root of change is based on your needs and wishes. And it does not happen because someone else told you so.

In substance abuse, motivation has always been the core of interest for clinicians, since without it the clinicians could not do much. Hence, lack of motivation has mostly been the common cause of failure to make lifestyle changes. (1.)

But just motivation is not enough, because according to researchers the motivation could really be a help when it comes from within, instead of a suggestion by others (2.)

Coaching only supports tools that are supporting the development of intrinsic motivation.

Should you consider hiring a coach now?

Well, to decide this question let’s take a little quiz!

• Have you been diagnosed or are you aware of a certain health issue that makes your life harder?
• Do you know or have you been told by a specialist what lifestyle changes you should deliver?
• You have no idea how to do it because your lifestyle or the lack of motivation makes it difficult?

If your answer is yes to all the questions above then I probably would consider hiring a health coach! Only being aware of your health issues won’t solve the problem.  Acting solves issues and health coaching could really help you make this action powerful and long-lasting by internalizing it.

As a matter of fact, I am providing health and wellness coaching services if you need support making lifestyle changes.

Are you trying to get in shape with a sedentary lifestyle?

Why my weight loss coaching services might be different from others?

I have THREE reasons:

Reason 1:

There are self-made health coaches out there who are selling online programs and offering online services without a healthcare background or related education in health coaching.

By law, in order to become a health coach you don’t need special credentials and a lot of these self-made coaches might be great, especially if they have a lot of unbiased testimonials from previous clients.

However, after studying my health coach exam at ACE I do think it makes a big difference because I will know exactly what to do in a session to make it effective for you. I would not know this if I didn’t study to become a health coach. I can’t be an advocate for making health-related changes if I don’t know what I am doing, because health is a serious thing.

Reason 2:

I am a certified fitness professional, so if your health issues are related to fitness and exercise I can also assist you as a health coach by having more in-depth knowledge about exercising that I could share with you. You could hire me as an exercise instructor, but in that case, I have to take off the health coach hat because exercise instruction is a different service.

Reason 3:

Since I am also an ACE Certified weight-loss coach I am taking on weight-loss coaching clients for a very low cost in exchange for testimonials for a limited amount of time. If you want to have a successful weight loss that is aligned with your lifestyle book a free consultation with me here.

Stay safe and healthy,

Eszter

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