What is a Health Coach?

And how can I benefit from working with one?

“The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.” - Hippocrates

Health Coaches support clients in figuring out where to start the change process and how to make sustainable shifts to achieve their wellness goals. Health Coaches are uniquely positioned to bring lasting change to those living with preventable nutrition- and lifestyle-related diseases.

Their support is both evidence- and experience-based; it’s a combination of traditional and modern approaches catered to each bio-individual client. In addition to supporting you with specific dietary and lifestyle goals, Health Coaches empower you to choose health-promoting behaviors that work for you. While nutrition is discussed, there’s also an emphasis on non-food forms of nourishment, like relationships, career, and spirituality. Coaching can lead to long-term behavior change because Health Coaches help make the sustainable shifts that form a strong and mindful foundation for achieving goals.

Health Coaches can also play a key role in helping clients implement doctor-recommended preventive practices by guiding clients in meeting goals that can help reduce the risk of certain lifestyle diseases. An Integrative Nutrition Health Coach is not a doctor, nutritionist, registered dietitian, counselor, or consultant. But by working with these other providers, they can offer more comprehensive and meaningful support than any one profession alone.

There are more and more studies being conducted that show the connection between using a Health Coach & achieving positive outcomes. According to one study (Clinical Effectiveness of Lifestyle Health Coaching) that spent over 2 decades developing, testing and implementing evidence-based Health Coaching programs, such systems can result in “clinically relevant improvements in multiple biomarker risk factors (including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and cardiorespiratory fitness) in diverse populations.”

So, what are your health & wellness goals? Let’s get together and develop a sustainable plan to help you achieve them!