Introduction
Wellness coaching as a field has roots in psychology, behavioral change theory and life coaching, and the general healthcare industry. In other words, it seeks to bridge the gap between traditional healthcare options and behavioral changes. This means that health and wellness coaches are professionals who can work both individually and in a group setting to facilitate communication and allow their clients to achieve the goals they set together. The main purpose of these consultations is to help give clearly defined goals and recommendations to your client to use them to mobilize his inner determination for permanent positive changes.
A Health and Wellness Coach Goals
Advantages
These trainers act as allies and advocates for their clients to help them improve various aspects of their lifestyle, such as their diet, fitness regime and sleep levels. Unlike other areas of health, healthy lifestyle coaches usually refrain from acting as an “expert” on how their clients should live. Instead, the client retains control over determining what changes they want to make. A health coach will help his clients identify and comprehend self-destructive behavioral patterns. But ultimately, it is their choice to put the coach’s recommendations into practice to create lasting behavioral changes. Thus, the main advantage of working with a healthy lifestyle coach is gaining confidence in achieving your goals.
The Concept of a Healthy Lifestyle
People want to make our lives as comfortable and full as possible. However, for each person the concept of a healthy lifestyle may be different. It will include a balanced diet, physical activity that brings pleasure, and the absence of bad habits. For some, a healthy lifestyle is also the joy of every day spent or the opportunity to travel; for others, it is communication with loved ones or the opportunity to be alone with themselves. Someone sees their happiness in constant learning, development and self-realization. Health-coach helps to find all these individual components of harmony for each person so that his health, physical and mental, is really on top. That is why the demand for health coaches has increased markedly in recent years. People are beginning to actively engage in preventing chronic diseases that arise due to malnutrition, lack of exercise, obesity, constant stress, depressed psychological state. The fashion for a healthy way of life is constantly growing; the desire to look younger than their years and lead an active lifestyle even at an advanced age is already characteristic of the modern society.
The Help of a Health Coach
To achieve all these goals, people need a health coach who will help develop the system and diet, the search for types of activity, and the establishment of all other areas. It is he who will teach you to take responsibility for yourself and your lifestyle and not to look for excuses in the absence of time, unsuitable conditions, difficult marital status. Health and wellness coaching is ideal for discussions related to five main topics: fitness, nutrition, weight loss, stress management and general health (Ahmann et al., 2019). A wellness coach looks at the health of his clients from a holistic perspective and helps them solve individual areas of their lives that prevent them from thriving physically, mentally and spiritually, giving them the tools to improve. Thus, experienced health instructors make up an individual program for each patient and motivate him to follow all recommendations.
Motivation
It is very difficult for a person to motivate himself to act himself, so he needs qualified help from the outside. The health instructor becomes a voice of conscience and motivation for the patient, who leads him in the right direction and helps to correct not only individual moments but also the whole lifestyle. It is optimal if qualified medical workers teach health instruction in sports, dietetics, and physical therapy. Of course, a health instructor should be an excellent psychologist who understands and feels different people, having a subtle approach to each person.
The Process of Work
People can scold themselves for years because there are no changes, and at the same time, do nothing or do and quit. A person can find a wellness coach who will help to understand health issues and take the first steps that give a good result. Today, everyone can participate in coaching sessions and benefit from them without leaving home, for example, the meeting can be held via Skype. As a rule, one session takes no more than an hour. During this time, the client talks about what he wants to achieve. The wellness coach asks him questions to help identify problems and determine goals. After that, he will be able to choose ways to achieve goals and outline specific steps.
Choosing a Wellness Coach
Usually, working with a wellness coach lasts for three months. But the time frame depends on how often you meet and what goal you want to achieve. When choosing a wellness coach, it is better to find several specialists and look at their websites or profiles on social networks, chat with them and find out how they usually work with clients (Blackwell et al., 2019). It is important to remember that a wellness coach is not a psychotherapist or a psychologist. If a person has depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or other mental health problems, it is better to contact a qualified specialist. As a result, health coaches are needed by society and healthcare as psychologists and motivators. They help people get on the right path, get rid of bad habits, and motivate for changes.
The Difference Between Health and Wellness Coaches and Psychotherapists
The Competence
Psychiatrists and psychotherapists have higher medical education; their competence includes the examination of the patient, the definition of the disease (diagnosis), the appointment of medicines. To become a psychotherapist, after graduating from a higher educational institution (medical or humanitarian), you need to undergo retraining or improvement on the topic of “Psychotherapy”. Psychotherapy is one of the treatment methods for mental disorders and psychological disorders, including many techniques. The principle of psychotherapy is the joint work of a doctor and a patient on the latter’s psyche. A psychotherapist study the human psyche identifies and treats borderline neuropsychiatric disorders. A psychotherapist is a teacher, a curator who helps complete a course of “adaptation” in case of a disorder of one or more components of the psyche (Chrisman et al., 2021). The slogan of a psychotherapist-psychologist can be represented as follows: “you can help a person if he wants to be cured of mental disorders, but you cannot help a person who likes the status of “sick” and who does nothing to help himself.”
The Psyche of a Person
The psyche is the inner world of a person, a kind of tool that allows him to perceive the world around him (to learn) and change his behavior, depending on what is happening to him (to adapt). Unlike other processes of learning and adaptation of the body to the environment (for example, conditioned reflexes), a person can control the processes of the psyche, thanks to the presence of consciousness.
Conclusion
In conclusion, coaching is initially focused on an emotionally stable, psychologically mature person who needs a little ‘kick’ and who already has internal resources and potential for movement. A psychotherapist is a specialist who has a basic completed higher psychological education and has received an additional specialization in one of the areas of modern psychotherapy. Therefore, if a person has a confirmed diagnosis or referral to a psychotherapist, then you should contact an employee with medical education.
References
Ahmann, E., Smith, K., Ellington, L., & Pille, R. O. (2019). Health and wellness coaching and psychiatric care collaboration in a multimodal intervention for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A case report. The Permanente Journal, 24, 18.256. Web.
Blackwell, J., Collins, M., Scribner, C., Guillen, J., Moses, K., & Gregory-Mercado, K. (2019). Health and wellness coaching implemented by trainees: Impact in worksite wellness. Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 8, 2164956119831226. Web.
Chrisman, S. P., Gomez, D., Kroshus, E., Mayer, C. V., Garrett, K., Ramshaw, D., & Glang, A. (2021). Developing a conceptual model of coach concussion communication by adapting the theory of planned behavior and the social ecological model. Journal of American College Health, 1-8. Web.