Hello Cyber World. So nice to be with you, thanks for reading my humble Health & Wellness (H&W hereafter) Coach David blog.
Welcome to the CoachDavidHealth&WellnessCoaching website. This Musings link is how I’ll share thoughts, observations and information related to wellness and the road to getting there.
I love to share musings, but I’ve never been a social butterfly. In the wake of the 2020 pandemic, it seemed that random conversations stopped for a while and there were fewer opportunities to…muse. Also, I shifted my career from education policy to a new role as a H&W coach. So, change was in the air In May, 2022, when, after a year of study and supervised client coaching, I became a certified Wellbeing Coach. I studied with a group called the Wellcoaches Training Institute (https://www.wellcoachesschool.com/ ) whose 20-year record of training coaches and affiliation with the American College of Sports Medicine (https://www.acsm.org/) and the (ACLM) American College of Lifestyle Medicine (https://www.lifestylemedicine.org/ ) established them as a leader in the emerging field of H&W coaching. Now I see clients (in-person, via Zoom, and by phone) certified as both H&W and Lifestyle Medicine coaching. Lifestyle Medicine is a complementary field and a way to play offense against many common obstacles to wellbeing.
Any questions?
What the heck is Health & Wellness coaching?
You’ll find direct answers on the “about” link on the website, but in a nutshell, H&W coaching is touted by doctors, health plans, and public health professionals as an effective tool to support people seeking pathways to healthier living. A recent New York Times article described the H&W coach’s job as giving “patients the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence they need to participate fully in their own care and well-being.”
But Coach David, how can a H&W coach help me? If you choose to work with me, we’ll collaborate to write and implement your own Wellness Vision. Then we’ll create an initial set of short-term (to do by next week) and mid-term (to do by 3-months) goals that will empower you to not just survive but to thrive.
Coaching is a partnership between client and coach. Together we’ll co-design and co-navigate a journey to improve your focus on and capacity to establish and practice health-promoting mental and physical behaviors aligned with evidence-based behaviors around fitness, nutrition, weight management, health risk, stress management and life satisfaction.
We meet once a week or every 10 days to talk about what you want, both the outcomes you seek (call it will-power) and the behaviors you’ll need to get there (call it way-power). As Coach David, I’m not interested in weaknesses or “fixing” problems. We’ll leverage your strengths. Our roadmap is based on what you find meaningful in your life, your values and your needs. Our sessions are conversations about what motivates you, what interests you. We use your stories to create and design pathways that move you towards your Wellness Vision.
Are you some mad scientist or a magician? No. H&W coaches are not experts in ailments, or medical professionals, or nutritionists, or therapists or magicians. I/we are not trained in medicine or allied health fields, nor are we therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, dieticians, personal trainers or clinicians. Rather, coaches are trained to build a growth-promoting relationship with clients and to elicit autonomous motivation that increases your capacity to change. I listen and ask questions, and reflect back what I hear. We facilitate a change process and collaborate. In our sessions, you set goals. I help by offering support and accountability that creates conditions for sustainable change for the good.
And what’ in this blog/link of Coach D’s musings? I post short “musings” about information I think might interest clients or those who are curious about their own pathway to wellness. Posts will be brief and will offer both information and a few links for those who want expert input about the topic. My musings include attempts at humor and may include recipes. I suspect you will find them fun and informative and just a little wacky.