It’s not (just) physical

There are a few common types of responses that I get when I tell people I'm a health coach.

"Oh my gosh, please don't judge me for what I'm eating."

"Ugh, I probably need you - I have put on so much weight."

"My doctor keeps telling me to exercise more but I just hate the gym."

They expect a health coach to be talking exclusively about nutrition and exercise.

Maybe sleep, at a push.

And when people think about improving their health, they're usually thinking of physical health.

But when I'm helping you make adjustments to your sleep or exercise routine, I'm not just thinking about physical health.

I'm thinking about how it affects your time with your partner.

I'm thinking about your energy levels and emotional state when you're seeing patients all day.

I'm thinking about your relationship to rest, how you manage your time and how you talk to yourself when you're wanting to make a change.

And when I'm helping you make a decision about your career - big or small - I'm not thinking of that as only mental or emotional.

I'm thinking about how less anxiety about work is going to help you sleep more deeply and be more emotionally present with your patients.

I'm thinking about how filled up and lit up you'll feel when work feels more like YOU.

I'm thinking about how much more likely you will cook nourishing meals or go for that run when you're feeling purposeful and energised.

Nothing we do together is just for your physical health. And nothing we do together is NOT for your physical health.

Everything we do is for all of you - your mental and emotional health. Your physical health. Your relational health. Your environmental and your existential health.

You are a whole human with a whole life and a whole body. And your ecosystem forms part of bigger ecosystems with the whole world.

Your health is all of it, all of you. All of us, all of them.

So yes, maybe people would be less confused if I just called myself a life coach instead of a health coach.

But I don't plan on changing this description any time soon.

Because part of my mission is exactly that: to help people become aware of how they frame the idea of "health" and to understand that their physical health is not separate to any other area of their life or health.

To help them understand that they deserve to be the healthiest version of themselves - in the deepest and widest sense of that word.