What is Health Coaching?
Health coaches specialize in behavior change. We help clients find their own strategies and motivation for change, overcoming obstacles, and implementing protocols that have either been prescribed by a practitioner or that the client has chosen to implement on their own. Health coaches do not lecture, prescribe, or simply give advice. Instead, they empower others to make the choice for health, including healthier behaviors, for themselves.
How can Health Coaches Help?
Six out of ten adults in the United States have a chronic disease, and four in ten have two or more conditions. The majority of those chronic illnesses are caused by diet, lifestyle, and behavior—not genetics. Changing those lifestyle factors has the potential to prevent and reverse chronic disease on a large scale. Research shows us that change is difficult.
Only 6 percent of Americans engage in the top five health behaviors
- No smoking
- Regular exercise
- Low/no alcohol
- Healthy body weight
- Adequate sleep
Health coaches work directly with their clients and support them as they create healthy lifestyle strategies. When a practitioner prescribes a treatment plan for a patient, health coaches can improve the patient’s adherence to the treatment plan and goals acting as a liaison and improving the relationship.
How Effective is Health Coaching?
Health coaching has been shown to
- Improve weight loss and help people maintain a lower weight for longer.
- Lead to a faster reduction of blood sugar levels in diabetic patients.
- Lower total cholesterol levels in people with coronary heart disease.
- Improve mood and overall quality of life.
- Encourage people to stick with the changes they’ve made long term.
