Wellness Coaching, Part III: How Does A Coach Fit Into Health Care?
Wellness Coaching
A blog series to answer your questions about the collaborative approach to well-being with meaning
In “Part II: Who can call themselves a coach?”, we dove into more detail about the specialized education and experience required of individuals to become national board certified as a coach (and why that’s important). We also talked about how to discern between the many types of people who might use the unregulated title of “coach” to describe their work as you look to find a professional that meets your needs.
In this post, we’re going to talk about the role of the certified coach in health care so you can get an idea of how working with a coach will help round out your medical team, giving you the support you’ve been missing up to this point.
HOW DOES A WELLNESS/HEALTH/LIFESTYLE COACH FIT INTO HEALTH CARE?
If you have ever left a doctor’s appointment thinking...
“I’m more confused than when I arrived.”
“This appointment was way too short and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do between now and my next appointment.”
“The doctor gave me a diagnosis and/or treatment plan but I have so many questions about how this will affect my life.”
...then you can imagine the relief of having someone you can rely on that is able to help walk you through what your doctor has told you or asked you to do for your health. Maybe you have even come to the conclusion on your own that you need or want things in your life to shift (like your ability to manage stress, preparing healthy meals for yourself/family, or how you can support a loved one living with chronic illness, for example), but you aren’t sure how to go about making that happen.
The uplifting feeling of finding someone who is able to walk alongside you through those shifts, assisting you in setting goals and developing plans to reach them, ready to offer resources, accountability, and encouragement is something I wish for everyone to experience at some point in their lives.
In most cases, patients are not getting enough time in the exam room with their provider to dig around and get to the root of certain issues, answer questions, or have discussions about meaningful challenges and/or contributions to overall health and well-being. This is where the coach becomes key.
You have likely experienced firsthand how little time is spent or focus placed on things like disease prevention, true day-to-day disease management, and how to create a healthy lifestyle that works for you. A certified coach is able to do these things in a way that supports the client in their needs and allows them to have a more productive and beneficial relationship with the rest of their healthcare team.
Coaching is about collaboration. The coach is not a substitute for your doctor, or a registered dietitian/nurse. The coach complements the rest of the team as they specialize in their own scope of practice and area of health, with you as the team captain. It’s your body and your health--you draft the players you need to level up. You call the shots.
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What questions do you have about how a coach fits into your current health care team? I would be happy to explain in more detail while addressing your specific situation. If you are part of a health care team and would like to discuss how certified coaches can help you provide more support in your clinic, let’s chat!
You can book a free session with me here.
Stay tuned for the final post in this week’s series!