Health Coaching: Motivating Lifestyle Change

As life becomes more fast paced and cutthroat with each passing second, chronic illnesses such as stress, hypotension and chronic pain become more common. What’s most unfortunate about such illnesses is that they do not have a solid cure, as they arise due to a variety of factors, the most likely being psychological. In recent times, health coaching has been adopted as a possible solution to chronic illnesses. Health coaching revolves around motivating patients to change their lifestyles by offering them healthier choices and by supporting behaviors that enhance their quality of life. So let’s take a look at how science backs up my claim that lifestyle change can cure diseases. In the US, approximately fifty percent of adult population suffers from at least one chronic disease, while almost a quarter of the adult population suffers from multiple chronic diseases. There is supporting evidence that this number will continue to grow.

As chronic illnesses can be difficult to diagnose, and hence cure, not to mention, they can be greatly debilitating and decrease the quality of life significantly, a lot of practitioners and healthcare experts started advising patients to make use of health coaches. Even though health coaching, sometimes referred to as wellness coaching and lifestyle coaching and lifecoaching, is a relatively new field in the realm of medicine, there is a lot of supporting evidence regarding its benefits. A 2010 study was used to assess the efficacy of health coaching in improving health outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. The fifty six patients were divided into two groups, one receiving six months of health coaching over the telephone, while the other served as the control group.

The group who received health coaching adhered to their medication more successfully compared to the control group, and showed improvement in disease knowledge, self-medication and change in behavior, while the control group had shown no improvement. Another study was conducted to test the efficacy of wellness coaching in reducing symptoms of cardiovascular disease. This multicenter study was conducted on 792 patients, which were divided in two groups, one was given usual care while the other was given health coaching via mail and telephone.

Results showed that patients who received wellness coaching had a massively lower amount of total cholesterol, and LDL-C, compared to usual care patients. Moreover, the group which had received wellness coaching lost more weight, exercised more, showed less anxiety, had better quality of life and overall shown better health outcomes. These studies therefore make health coaching as a viable alternative to traditional treatment methodologies, once they are combined with proper training and medication.

As the results speak for themselves, one must be wondering how health coaching actually works. Health coaching is a type of behavioral intervention which revolves around motivating patients to make positive changes by identifying their weaknesses. After they have identified their weaknesses, patients and health coaches must work together in minimizing them and bringing about habit changes. The first step in doing this is by holding motivational sessions. These sessions involve the experts establishing an environment of peace and openness, so that their patients feel at ease. This allows for a trust to develop between the heath coaches and their patients. Good health coaches develop trust by being effective communicators, showing off positive body language, using a clear and calm voice, while addressing all reservations a patient might have. Health coaches constantly remind their patients that there are consequences to their actions matter and in order to progress they must accept responsibility. Often times accepting responsibility is the hardest step in bringing about positive change.

Therefore good health coaches try to motivate their patients by helping them accept responsibility through positive reinforcement, once mutual trust has been developed. Once patients accept that they are not perfect and accept responsibility, they will be able to change their lives with much more ease and freedom. One a bond of mutual trust between the patient and the coach has been established, the coach assesses and discusses the patients shortcomings using a technique known as motivational interviewing.

Motivational interviews are employed to motivate patients so they are more willing to develop good habits and get rid of the ones holding them back. This process helps identify what changes patients are willing to make and set goals for themselves. Health coaches set out to help patients achieve their goals while constantly monitoring their performance along the way, after the motivational interviews have been conducted.

To make about these changes, the coach and patient work in tandem. Throughout the process of change, the coach is working tirelessly with the patient giving him constant feedback throughout the way, reminding the patient about the strengths and core values. For this to happen, both parties must be open and constantly communicating with each other throughout the way. Even if patients do not feel as if they have achieved their goals, coaches can give them feedback about their progress, which the patient might take a liking to, as it is as much about the journey as it is about the destination.

As coaches can easily monitor progress once the patient has created concrete achievable goals, health coaching relies heavily on patients setting measurable goals for themselves. This collaborative process can be quite rewarding in itself as both parties help each other figure out what goals matter the most to the patient. Some words of caution if you are looking to make use of health coaches. Health coaching can only occur if the patient is willing to change, and has accepted his shortcomings. Moreover health coaches, by law cannot prescribe either medication or diet plans to their patients.

Effective health coaches are those who have an outstanding professional reputation. They do not become emotionally attached to a case, as it might impair their judgment, nor do they become adamant on patients sharing their personal stories, as it might cause them to completely shut themselves. Secondly and most importantly, health coaching must work in conjunction with traditional medicine, i.e. health coaching used to treat chronic pain would not produce desirable results without first seeking medical help from a neuro-physician for example. Keeping all these facts in mind health coaching when combined with traditional medical knowledge and techniques, is an effective technique in bringing about behavior change, enhancing quality of life of patients, improving health outcomes and has a bright future ahead of it.