Yes, they can do it with the right training and some important caveats. A health coach is your personal health coach, guide and partner. They help you make lifestyle changes to improve your physical health. Health and wellness coaching is a growing field of health.
What does it mean and how can a health coach help you? Some states allow coaches to give nutritional advice and even order lab tests, but many others reserve these practices for dietitians or physicians. However, health coaches are not qualified or legally covered to advise on a client’s medical care or treatment. Certified health coaches are usually trained in general health, nutrition, exercise and stress management.
It is not regulated, so many people call themselves “health coaches” without significant health training or experience. You will often find that many doctors, personal trainers, nutritionists, counsellors and other licensed professionals are also health coaches. While traditional psychology has focused on what is “wrong” with people and what needs to be “fixed”, the coaching philosophy focuses on what has worked, can work and will work best for you. A health coach “unstuck” you by helping you discover what is holding you back from achieving your health goals.
Just as a sports coach can help an athlete develop and excel in their sport, a health and wellness coach can help anyone excel in their life, even, or especially, if they have chronic medical problems. According to a study by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, lifestyle coaching is effective with clients and has shown great health improvements in cases such as diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome. Rather than limiting and restricting, it offers unlimited potential to help people take charge of their health and make profound changes that lead to a better quality of life. As leading causes of disability and premature death, chronic disorders are responsible for most of the trillions of dollars currently spent on health care.
Even if doctors had more time, he said, they are not taught and few know how to motivate patients to make changes that improve their health. Achieving health is a team sport and when coaches partner with doctors, dietitians, nutritionists and therapists, they are not only meeting the needs of their clients, but also advancing their own careers. Coaches support their clients in mobilising their internal strengths and external resources, and in developing self-management strategies to make sustainable behavioural and healthy lifestyle changes. A health coach who lived in California moved to Florida, where she resumed her coaching activity, which included asking clients for information about their diet in order to coach them.
