What is Health Coaching?

When someone tells me they're a health coach, I roll my eyes … And I'm a health coach. Because let's be honest, we all know the type. The fitspirational wellness guru who has discovered the secret to health and, coincidentally, the secret is available in six easy payments of $49.99.

That's not what I do.

I'm a certified personal trainer. I've studied nutrition. I've spent years studying health, exercise, behavior change, and mindfulness. But there is very little health information I possess that you couldn't find yourself with a few Google searches.

So what exactly am I bringing to the table? I help you build autonomy, cultivate structure from motivation, transform shame into accountability, and turn intentions into meaningful, sustainable action. Boy, that sounds slick, doesn't it?

The less sexy truth is that I don't do much of anything. You do. And, interestingly, that's pretty close to what the research says health coaching is supposed to be. Health coaching isn't built around an expert handing down commandments. It's a client-centered process in which you help determine goals, learn to monitor your behavior, develop your motivation, and build the skills needed to sustain the changes you make. And there's some encouraging evidence that this works.

A recent systematic review examined what happened after health coaching ended. In 25 of the 28 studies reviewed, at least some of the improvements people made were partially sustained, fully sustained, or continued to improve after coaching stopped.

That's important to me because the goal isn't for you to need a health coach forever. The goal is for you to need me less. I help you figure out what you actually want to change. We identify what's getting in the way. We develop realistic ways to put those goals into practice. We see what works, what doesn't, and adjust accordingly. You do the work. You are the expert on your life.

I can point you in the right direction. I can help you distinguish useful, evidence-based information from whatever the algorithm decided would get the most clicks this week. But most of what we do is about empowering you to incorporate health-promoting practices into your actual life, not some imaginary life where you have unlimited time, money, motivation, and a refrigerator full of perfectly portioned meal-prep containers.

And the research gets particularly interesting here. Psychological changes, things like confidence, activation, perceived support, and quality of life, were among the outcomes most likely to persist after coaching. The researchers even raise an interesting question: Could psychological change help set the stage for behavioral change, which then contributes to physiological change? … Duh!

Still... we don't know that yet. The study doesn't establish that causal chain. But that's a pretty good description of where I think coaching shines. It's less about, "Here's what you should do," and more about aligning behaviors with the values and knowledge you already have.

I have my own areas of focus. I am not a bodybuilder. No shade. But I firmly believe resistance training is one of the best investments we can make in maintaining strength, function, and independence throughout our lives. I like to run. I'm not particularly fast. Fortunately, your cardiovascular system doesn't require Nike sponsorship to benefit from exercise. I'm vegan. You don't have to be vegan. But food is inseparable from health, and let's be honest, most of us aren't struggling with the consequences of excessive kale consumption. And I'm an avid meditator. I'm not shaving my head and donning saffron robes anytime soon. But mindfulness can create a little space between an impulse and what we do next. In that space, we can make a different choice.

And that’s the magic sauce. Make different choices, make wise choices. Make wise choices consistently enough, and we can get different outcomes. That's health coaching as I understand it. I want to help you become the expert on your own health, and if I'm doing my job well, with a little time, you won't need me to help you do that.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10964774/