Many people are attracted to the idea of hiring a personal Wellness Coach, to either help them achieve a challenging health goal or ease a difficult transition.
I liked the idea too, in fact after a really good experience of being coached I decided to become a coach myself and now helping people to improve their well-being has become both my passion and my work.
So just in case you find yourself becoming curious about what it would be like to have your own personal health coach by your side here are a few important pointers you should know about.
1. First of all Health Coaches aren’t the broccoli police. You set the agenda and the pace of change. If you find yourself working with a coach who wants to tell you what you should be eating, or how much you should be exercising I suggest you move on, unless of course you are really looking for a nutritionist or fitness trainer.
2. Baby steps are fine. As any of my clients will tell you I’m a great fan of taking ‘baby steps’ towards your goals. This is especially important if your ultimate goal appears overwhelming at first. For example, if you need to lose a substantial amount of weight, or swap a particularly sedentary lifestyle for a more active one, then it can be all too easy to put yourself off starting at all just because your goal to big to start with. Begin with baby steps and you will soon find that you are making confident strides.
3. Get SMART about your goals. By that I mean make sure that your goals are specific, measurable, action based, realistic and that you have set a time for completion. Vague goals hardly ever bring worthwhile results.
4. Be realistic and be honest about what you are willing to do. One of the greatest mistakes I find people make when they start on their journey to better health is to set unrealistic goals which don’t generate enough enthusiasm to make the effort worthwhile. If your heart isn’t in it, it will be much harder to get results.
5. Watch your language, it’s far more important than you think. For example, if you find yourself saying “I’m going to lose weight”, stop yourself and reword your goal to say “I intend to lose 2 pounds by the end of next week” or whatever is relevant to you. The word intend carries much more power and relates to the present, whereas saying “I’m going to” relates to sometime in the future that doesn’t exist yet. It’s powerless and meaningless, so get real about what you do and don’t intend to do.
6. Stop making excuses. I hear all sorts of excuses on a daily basis “ we are all fat in our family”, or “I’ve done the damage to my health now, so it doesn’t matter” and so on. You are worth more than that, much more. So do yourself the honour of at least being honest about your health.
7. Be prepared to be creative. Having several ways to approach your goal will help maintain both your interest levels and your motivation.
8. Make sure your goals are your own. In my practice I see many people who have been told, often by a healthcare professional, that they should change, or who have been nagged by a family member who feel that they ought to change. Unfortunately the words should and ought usually relates to the goals other people have for us, rather than our own goals. So make sure your goals are truly your own.
9. Make space for better health. It sounds strange I know, but often when we want to bring anything new into our life we need to make space for it and when it comes to your health this might mean letting go of limiting beliefs about what you are worth, or what you are capable of, or perhaps letting go of old unhealthy habits that are stopping you from enjoying really vibrant wellbeing.
10. Last but not least, if you’re planning on investing in some professional coaching, make sure you are clear about what you want to get out of the experience. Each time I work with a coaching client the first thing I ask is “How will you know that this session has been really good value for you, what will you have achieved, understood or agreed to, that would make you really pleased with yourself. So if I were to ask you the same question, what would your answer be?
At the end of the day wellness coaching is a partnership between you and your coach. It provides you with the structure, accountability, inspiration and the confidence to help you enjoy a higher level of wellness than you do right now and who doesn’t want that.
For more information about Health Coaching, please contact Erica at healthcoach@sonic.net.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Research Update: Health Coaching "Pays for Itself"
By Mark Joyella
How about this selling point for coaching? Coaching saves money.
A study just published by the “New England Journal of Medicine” finds telephone-based health coaching, when offered to a wide group of patients, ultimately saves more money than it costs. “With phone coaching, the client is educated, calm, and knows their body,” said coach Elizabeth Crouch, who was not involved in the study. “(The client) understands any new symptoms that require healthcare intervention."
The study, funded by Health Dialog Services—a Boston-based company that, it should be noted, provides the telephone coaching services used in the study—found average monthly medical and pharmacy costs were about eight dollars a month cheaper for patients who were offered coaching. With the coaching program costing two dollars a month per patient, the net health care savings was about six dollars.
David Wennberg, chief science and products officer at Health Dialog, was an author of the study. He told "The Wall Street Journal" that one of the groups who may have benefited from coaching were those "chaotic users of the health care system" who tended to get answers to their aches, pains and questions by running directly to the emergency room (at extremely high cost). The study, which followed 174,120 individuals over a twelve-month period, is described as the "largest randomized controlled trial study of care management ever published."
The coaching, Wennberg told the Journal, did not attempt to steer patients toward low-cost health options, or away from pricey procedures. Instead, he says, the coaching's focus was on facilitating the kinds of interactions between patient and doctor that will lead to the most effective treatment.
"The goal of this is to have a well-informed patient talking to a well-informed physician, preferably his or her own primary care physician," Wennberg told the Journal. "We are careful to grease the communication between patients and physicians," not prescribe or advise treatments. Most physicians would rather have a fully informed patient with objective information than 50 pages of downloaded information from the Internet," he said.
Ultimately, according to the study's authors, the majority of the money saved came from a ten percent reduction in annual hospital admissions. "By answering medical questions and explaining conditions and treatment options, our coaches help people become active consumers in their own healthcare," says a Health Dialog statement. "Coaches also help people prepare to ask the right questions at their doctor visit so that they can fully understand the risks and benefits of their treatment choices. And coaches teach people how to communicate their personal values effectively and appropriately with medical professionals.
"The payoff for companies deciding to support this kind of coaching, Grant says, is that employees make better decisions about their own healthcare, and become far more productive on the job. "(They) stay at work, versus (making) frequent trips to the doctor," Grant says, noting that the employer's cost for healthcare stabilizes or drops. A side benefit—not part of the study—Grant believes, is that this kind of coaching empowers workers to spread the word, educating "family, friends and community."
How about this selling point for coaching? Coaching saves money.
A study just published by the “New England Journal of Medicine” finds telephone-based health coaching, when offered to a wide group of patients, ultimately saves more money than it costs. “With phone coaching, the client is educated, calm, and knows their body,” said coach Elizabeth Crouch, who was not involved in the study. “(The client) understands any new symptoms that require healthcare intervention."
The study, funded by Health Dialog Services—a Boston-based company that, it should be noted, provides the telephone coaching services used in the study—found average monthly medical and pharmacy costs were about eight dollars a month cheaper for patients who were offered coaching. With the coaching program costing two dollars a month per patient, the net health care savings was about six dollars.
David Wennberg, chief science and products officer at Health Dialog, was an author of the study. He told "The Wall Street Journal" that one of the groups who may have benefited from coaching were those "chaotic users of the health care system" who tended to get answers to their aches, pains and questions by running directly to the emergency room (at extremely high cost). The study, which followed 174,120 individuals over a twelve-month period, is described as the "largest randomized controlled trial study of care management ever published."
The coaching, Wennberg told the Journal, did not attempt to steer patients toward low-cost health options, or away from pricey procedures. Instead, he says, the coaching's focus was on facilitating the kinds of interactions between patient and doctor that will lead to the most effective treatment.
"The goal of this is to have a well-informed patient talking to a well-informed physician, preferably his or her own primary care physician," Wennberg told the Journal. "We are careful to grease the communication between patients and physicians," not prescribe or advise treatments. Most physicians would rather have a fully informed patient with objective information than 50 pages of downloaded information from the Internet," he said.
Ultimately, according to the study's authors, the majority of the money saved came from a ten percent reduction in annual hospital admissions. "By answering medical questions and explaining conditions and treatment options, our coaches help people become active consumers in their own healthcare," says a Health Dialog statement. "Coaches also help people prepare to ask the right questions at their doctor visit so that they can fully understand the risks and benefits of their treatment choices. And coaches teach people how to communicate their personal values effectively and appropriately with medical professionals.
"The payoff for companies deciding to support this kind of coaching, Grant says, is that employees make better decisions about their own healthcare, and become far more productive on the job. "(They) stay at work, versus (making) frequent trips to the doctor," Grant says, noting that the employer's cost for healthcare stabilizes or drops. A side benefit—not part of the study—Grant believes, is that this kind of coaching empowers workers to spread the word, educating "family, friends and community."
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Dr. Oz Promotes the Benefits of Health Coaching
Recently, Dr. Oz was on Larry King speaking about the benefits of having a Health Coach. This would allow people to consult with a trained professional about how nutrition and other lifestyle factors can positively impact their health and give them some tools to achieve their goals. His argument is that you do not need to be an M.D. to understand the links between diet, lifestyle and disease. He proposes a tier of health care providers below medical doctors that would have more knowledge about nutrition and lifestyle, be more cost effective and be able to be your personal health coach.
In today’s medical climate, it really makes sense to look at other ways of supporting people with their health outside of the current model. Doctors already are strapped for time with their patients and in order to make serious lifestyle changes most people need support and direction.
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