I used to get these perplexed looking faces when I answered the question “What do you do?” or “What is it you are studying?
I could see on their faces that they had absolutely NO idea what I was talking about, and I get that, I wouldn’t have either until I started searching what I could do with my passion & love of eating wholesome healing foods.
I desperately wanted to shout out from the roof tops what a difference it made to our family’s health and well-being and knew that if other families knew this information, they too could be encouraged to make small progress steps towards a wholefood/healing way of eating and experience abundant health.
That’s when I found the term a health coach or nutrition coach.
So, let’s delve a little deeper into what exactly a health coach is!
According to Wellness Coaches US, coaching is defined as;
“A close relationship & partnership with a coach, providing the structure, accountability, expertise and inspiration, to enable a person to learn, grow and develop beyond what he or she can do on its own”
A health & wellness coach focuses on mental & physical behaviours relating to nutrition, exercise & stress management. In my case, the focus is that of gut health and emotional well-being from a truly wholistic point of view.
It has also been defined that successful coaching takes place when coaches apply clearly defined knowledge and skills so that clients can draw upon internal strengths and external resources to make the necessary sustainable changes needed.
Any change in behaviour starts in the mind! It has been my experience that one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is clients believing in themselves & lacking confidence in their ability to actually make the changes they need to make.
“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they themselves have discovered than those that have to come to the mind in other”
Pascal Penses
Love this quote because it embodies what a successful coach is. That is, empowering the client so that they can come up with their own solutions rather than it spoon fed to them. It has also been proven that this idea promotes a longer sustainable change as the client will then take responsibility for making the necessary changes.
A nutrition & wellness coach does NOT diagnose or prescribe. This is the role of a qualified health practitioner.
In Summary, a health coach empowers and provides a line of questioning which is designed to help the client discover, dream, design & identify their strengths and potential solutions. The responsibility for initiating change lies with the client.
The coach provides the structure, goal setting & accountability. The aim of coaching is to generate self awareness & empower the client to take responsibility for change.
If you need help with you or your child’s gut healing journey, book in for a free 15 minute call, email me or check out my work with me page to see if one of my programs are a suitable fit for you.
Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach who specialises in working with stressed and overwhelmed mothers of immune & digestive challenged children to heal their child’ gut by implementing a wholistic personalised step by step plan.