The Health Coach Manifesto
Too many health coaches struggle with imposter syndrome. After mentoring health coaches for years now, I know that if you don’t hold a firm belief in the value of health coaching, and believe wholeheartedly that it’s one of the most vital parts of our health system, and the best thing that’s needed, you’re just going to stay small and doubt yourself. You’re going to get rocked around. I really want you all to own and embody your belief in health coaching.
This is why I’ve penned ‘The Health Coach Manifesto’
Health coaching is a holistic approach to looking after our health and wellbeing.
We are not doctors or dieticians. We are not diagnosing our clients with medical conditions. We are not telling anyone what tablet or treatment is miraculously going to work for them. We do not need to claim to treat, diagnose or cure. We don’t give diets or prescribe specific exercise plans.
That is not our role in the health puzzle. That is not where our value lies.
Instead, we help provide a lifestyle transformation tailored to what a client is struggling with. We are here to partner with someone to explore and investigate the health energetics that are true for them and help them practice radical self-care.
As health coaches, we sit by our clients’ side to help them find the needle-movers in their own health path. Yes, we can help share ideas. But we do not dictate what our clients do. We’re here to help them rock the fundamentals of health and find what is true for them and their body.
You don’t need to be a doctor, a naturopath or a nutritionist to help people transform their health. Health coaching doesn’t replace those other modalities — indeed, it works beautifully alongside them.
Getting your Health Foundations rocking and rolling
As a Health Coach, we are looking at getting all of our client’s basic energy systems optimized, helping them build solid health foundations, like:
Moving your body — That could include stretching, walking, cardio, strength training, yoga. What type of movement feels good to you? How do you feel when you do yoga or weight training?
Fuelling your body with vegetables and nutrients— We can encourage our clients to explore and experiment with all different diets, using principles like crowding out with more of the ‘good stuff’ like vegetables.. We are not here to dictate or prescribe a diet - rather supporting our clients to explore what works for their own body, with a focus on ADDING in as much nutrition as possible.
Hydration — Can you look me in the eye and say “I drink ample water”. I often can’t! (It’s my weak point, as a health coach myself!)
Tools to destress — Having stress in our lives is not bad, it’s natural and normal. Not being able to switch off from it is what’s bad. Do you have times in your life when you’re doing nothing? Do you have times in your life? What are your relaxation — pleasure, joy, the feminine activities? Do they exist in your life?
Nourishing relationships — Do you have a couple of core relationships where you feel you can share your truth and be yourself?
Quality sleep — Are you sleeping soundly? Do you wake up feeling refreshed? If not, do we need to play with an evening routine, do we need to try an evening meditation, do we need to try cutting back on caffeine? How we sleep affects everything. So if you’re not sleeping, then let’s devote some energy to changing that.
Breathing — Breathwork can be a big part of de-stress routines, such as qigong, tai chi, or pranayama exercises.
Bodywork — Personally, I’ve found that releasing fascia is one of the biggest things that changes my health, and impacts how I feel. I would never have thought this would be a key link in my health...but it is!
These are all very safe things for your client to be empowered around, and asked, “How would it feel if you did this/tried this for a few nights? What does it feel like to integrate that in your week?”
Health Coaches lose confidence because they think these health foundations are too basic, and their clients could simply find it online — this is simply not the case. How many of us devote time and energy to these things all the time?
Focusing on the basics is the best starting point for most clients and most people.
It’s in the basics that lasting transformation lies. And if you focus on the advanced things when people don’t have the basics in place, it gets way too overwhelming, too fast!
Bio individuality is the basis of health coaching
While getting these basics established, we work alongside our clients, inspiring and encouraging self-reflection, self-discovery, self-care, and self-responsibility around these health foundations.
I really do believe that Health Coaching is about bio-individuality. It’s for you to work with your client to explore what might be true for them. We’re there to help our clients tune in to what THEIR body needs.
That could be a combination of finding a diet that works for them, finding the exercise routine that works for them, and finding the stress-management that works for them.
It’s going to be a journey, too. This is not one and done!
Together, you’ll be turning the dials on these basics.
That’s why I love to call it health energetics — because sometimes we’re focused on one area of our health, like nutrition. Other times we’re focused elsewhere, say, on walking every day, and processing thoughts and reaping the physical and emotional energetics that come from that.
Honouring bio individuality is essential, too, because we can do all the “right” things, and tick all the “right” boxes, but if we’re not taking time to check in with ourselves and how we’re feeling and what we are needing? The outcome is very different. For myself, my own burnout journey had often come when I knew I should be resting.
This is why we guide our clients to practice self-reflection — to ensure they do what is true for THEM and their body, right now, and what works for their life.
We inspire our clients to devote themselves to their health for a time
For me, the outcome of working with a health coach is that you don’t just know the fundamental pillars of good health; you are living and breathing them in your daily life.
After all, we can all Google the basics or buy and read a book, but are we DOING those things we’re learning about? Probably not!
By providing accountability, support, a sounding board, powerful questioning, and a healthy resource, health coaching is all about getting your self-care foundations rock-solid and your energy systems humming along — on a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual level.
And if any thoughts/behaviours/habits are in the way a health coach will support you through that. Habit change is a crucial part of the journey.
To do that is probably going to take 90 days minimum. We’re not talking about quick detoxes to lose some weight. We’re cultivating real, sustainable lifestyle changes.
Ultimately, though, health coaching will help you go from “I know what to do, but I’m not doing it” to actually doing it. It will help you go from “My doctor told me to make this change” to “I’m loving this new healthy lifestyle with ease” and “I know what to do, when, and I know it feels right for me.”
Better health outcomes
Clearly, none of this is about diagnosing, but with all these basics more firmly in place, whenever your client is unwell, they can look their doctor in the eye and say with confidence:
I move my body regularly
I eat a lot of vegetables
I drink a lot of water
I have tools to destress
And so on
When you have this healthy lifestyle down and start dealing with new health issues, some extra testing or attention may indeed be needed from a different health practitioner.
The wonderful thing is, with solid health foundations in place, you would be in a position to get a much more straightforward and accurate diagnosis, whether from your Chinese Medicine practitioner, a Naturopath, a Functional Medicine practitioner or a Doctor.
Health as a movement
As a collective, it’s time to feel empowered in our own connection to our bodies and health.
In 2018 I sat down at a dinner table with Richard Branson during a Mastermind on Necker Island and asked him what he thought was the most important thing we could all do for the future of the planet and the human race. His reply? To take radical care of your health.
And this is what inspired me more than ever.
Because health coaching is a potent, integral part of the health puzzle. No other modality supports foundational transformation by getting all of your energy systems rocking and rolling together, optimising your health energetics and tuning your lifestyle to what works for you.
Learning to take care of our own health and not just understanding our own personal power in health and healing — but living it — is powerful.
From there, you can operate as your highest self for humanity. Then you do the same within your family, and after that, your community. And when the world is built on circles of communities with healthy bodies and mindsets, we are all stronger for it.
And this is what you help create as a health coach.
Love, Amanda x