What is Health Coaching?

What is a health coach? 

Perhaps it would be easier to start out by saying what a health coach is not:

• A health coach is not a doctor or a nurse.  A doctor or a nurse spends years in medical school learning about how the human body works, and is able to diagnose diseases and prescribe medications.  A health coach does not need to go to medical school and does not diagnose diseases or prescribe medications.

• A health coach is not a dietician or a nutritionist.  Dieticians and nutritionists prescribe personalized plans for a patient based on their specific needs or medical diagnoses.  A health coach does not formulate a specific plan and “prescribe” it to the patient, but rather helps the patient design their own meal plan based on their priorities and values.

• A health coach is not a personal trainer.  A personal trainer is the authority who hands down a training plan and “makes rules” – a health coach can certainly help a client set up an exercise plan, but it is the client who ultimately has the final decision.

A health coach essentially differs from all these health professionals because they all stand in a position of authority over the patient; they are the “expert” who we are supposed to listen to and whose instructions we are supposed to follow to the letter.  

What Makes A Coach Unique?

The coaching relationship is different.  Of course, the coach is an expert in human health, and of course the coach knows things the client doesn’t know – yet.  But the coach’s job is not so much to tell the client what to do as to help the client figure out what to do and how to draw on their own resources and wisdom.  The coach is an accountability partner and a guide who leads the client to a place of empowerment and self-sufficiency.

Change is hard.  In order to make change stick, you need a strong sense of purpose – why change is important to you.  Maybe it’s so that you can be healthy so you can be there for your spouse and your children.  Or so that you can live long enough to play with your grandchildren.  These reasons come from within – the coach doesn’t give you the why, but can help you discover your inner why, and help you work out concretely how to turn that why into a how.

What to Expect in a Coaching Relationship

What does all this mean in practice?  In practice, this is what to expect in a health-coaching relationship:

• Your coach will ask a lot of questions.  This is a client-centered approach – the coach is using questions to help you arrive at your own conclusions.

• You set the goals.  The coach is there to share information with you and teach you – but only you know your why, your values and what you want to achieve.  Your coach will respect your values and goals.

• Your coach will act as an accountability partner.  You will help set goals with your coach’s help, and your coach will help you come up with an accountability plan.

• We will focus on sustainability.  A “less good” plan is better than a “perfect” plan if you can stick with the “less good” plan but not the “perfect” plan.  The goal is to get you to keep getting better, not to make you perfect overnight.

• We will focus on diet and lifestyle changes that you can control.  Managing medical treatments or medications is outside the scope of practice for a health coach – see a doctor for that.

• Coaching focuses on the whole person, including your mental, emotional, and physical health.  Your body and mind are inseparably connected – there is only one you!  Mindset, stress management, and fostering gratitude and healthy relationships all have a place in you achieving better health.

• Primal health coaching is rooted in an ancestral approach to health – in modeling your behavior on your ancient heritage as a human being.  You were born to be a strong, healthy hunter and forager!

Sound interesting?  Sign up for a free discovery call today to see if Primal Health Coaching is right for you!