My no nonsense explanation on coaching: Coaching is about your Coach walking alongside you and championing you as you make changes. Also, challenging you when needed, and holding you accountable as you move towards your goals. We have all tried to make changes in our lives, be it a new years resolution to go walking more, or we might have signed up for a ‘food app’ to keep track of our nutrition habits, and muddled along nicely, for say three months. What happens when you have a wobble, question what you’re doing, feel like the results you wanted are not happening. We loose momentum and focus. That is when a Coach comes into their own. Supporting you, keeping you accountable and motivated. Changing habits is not something that happens overnight, but it will happen. You can do it. Through putting into place new, realistic and healthful habits, the changes you make will be lifelong.

Through thought provoking inquiry, curiosity and powerful questions your coach will help you move forward with purpose and intention to reach your goals and long term change.

Through the coaching process you will be challenged, inspired, encouraged, presented with evidence based information and feel empowered and confident moving forward.

A partnership is created between Coach and Client, to support sustainable behaviour change, to meet the needs of the client, and improve their quality of life.

Health is multi-faceted. Health and Nutrition coaching covers many areas such as Sleep, Stress, Movement, Nutrition, Emotional Wellbeing, Gut Health etc.

Coaching is all about individualised strategies that focus on your specific needs. Instead of you wading through the mass of information that is advertised a Coach will look at researched, evidence based literature that promotes sustainable and ‘healthful’ changes and bring that to the sessions.

At it’s heart coaching is about helping clients to become creators of possible. You are the expert on you.

Coaching - the emphasis is on the present and future. Therapy is more designed around past and present.

Therapy - More apt to view clients from a medical model whereas Coaching views clients as naturally creative and resourceful.

Coaching - Accountability and ‘homework’ between sessions held as important. Therapy - accountability is less common.

Coaching is a partnership model whereas a Therapist is considered the ‘expert’.

As individuals no one size fits all. First of all we look at your goals and where you are ‘now’. We then make a plan for moving forward that will result in sustainable behaviour change. Getting started is your number one goal. Individual, personal circumstances will always be taken into consideration.

If we dive deep into this area we can always find positive and not so positive information around this question. As a practicing Cancer support Coach and Nutrition Health & Wellness Coach I believe that there is a place for Coaching as part of a ‘wrap around’ care system.

“Health and Wellness Coaching (HWC) has been proposed as a solution to create partnerships to empower individuals to take ownership, leadership, and accountability of their well-being, using nondirective, empathic, and mindful conversations that employ motivational-interviewing and evidence-based approaches”. This is an extract from PubMed Central - Health and Wellness Coaching in Serving the Needs of Today’s Patients: A Primer for Healthcare Professionals

If you are reading this then you are taking your first step towards wanting to make changes. The coaching process is a partnership, with accountability and goals giving the client the best possible outcomes. The Coach is there to walk alongside their client, to help them with behaviour change, to provide clarity, inspire, challenge, support, as well as to present evidence-based information.

My clients meet me halfway by staying accountable and working towards their goal/goals.