Educate and Inspire vs Diagnose and Treat - the role of coaching

In the conventional medical health model, it is typically all about prescribe and treat, otherwise known as let’s look at what is wrong with you and treat that in isolation. This does not leave the patient in a very empowered position.

Let’s be clear, modern medicine is nothing short of being genius when it comes to acute conditions and emergency situations, but does very little from a preventative approach.

So whilst medicine appears to be very physiological, the success rate is often determined by the psychological aspects. In the field of behavioural medicine , there is an understanding that nothing is physiological, but psycho-physiological instead. In simple terms this means that there is no separation between a persons mind and body. They work together and impact each other, therefore you cannot look at any symptom in isolation.

This is where wellness coaching becomes golden, it is focused to look at the person as a whole from a holistic approach to induce positive behaviour change to achieve a desired health outcome.

We are in an age where it is not enough to just know information, you need to act on it.

How do we make this action happen is the jackpot question?

According to Integrative and Functional Medicine, much if not most of health comes down to lifestyle behavioural change from a holistic point of view.

This is realms of health and wellness coaching, it is there to not only educate in a specialised area, but to also inspire and support the growth and development of the client. Coaching is seen to be standing by the client, with them and next to them, so eloquently explained by Michael Arloski as mountain guides. The mountain guides do not climb the mountain for people, but instead help them by:

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• Planning the climb

• Assessing the physical and mental readiness to climb

• Examining whether the climber is equipped with the right tools to climb

• Together plan the best route

• Does not force the climber to climb the mountain, the motivation to climb must come from the climber

• At times when the climber is discouraged, the guides gently supports the climber to reach a little deeper and keep going

A health and wellness coach is like a good mountain guide that is providing you support and accountability.

Whilst it may seem like the ‘action’ that is needed is simple, yet you struggle to do what you know you should be and then you beat yourself up about it! You will be pleased to know that none of it is your fault, but has everything to do with how your mind is currently wired in terms your beliefs, thoughts and feelings which are informing your actions. Trying to make any sort of long term sustaining change is next to impossible without examining this aspect.

Join me inside the Empowered Mums Group where I dive into this much more along side the right actions to take at the root cause level.

Chantal is a Certified & Accredited Nutrition and Wellness Coach on a mission to help stressed and overwhelmed mums transform their physical and mental health so that they feel energised, confident and calm to build a thriving resilient healthy happy family.

What does it mean to have a coach?

Coaching in all arenas of life is on the rise and I think it is a smart decision to invest in having a coach to achieve your desired goals. Knowing the information or what to do is ONLY 1 piece of the puzzle, but it's about taking consistent action with that knowledge.

This is where most people get stuck for a host of reasons, but mainly because:

• Lack of clarity and purpose, i.e. the WHAT & WHY changes are needed

• Lack of tailored plan, i.e. the exact steps to get you from A to B

• Lack of accountability & support to keep you on track and course correct

The main aim of coaching is to:

• Help you generate self responsibility, i.e. accept that the hard work ahead is yours and that learning and creating new habits may need to happen in order to achieve their desired goal

• Raise awareness of how life could be different IF you achieved your goal OR if everything stayed the same. The main aim is to help you dream and design your new life as if your goals have been achieved

• Illicit positive behavioural change, however this change starts in your mind and is often the biggest hurdle to overcome. The coach is also there to help you become the person you need to be in order to achieve your goals, this follows the concept of BE DO HAVE, i.e. Be the person you need be NOW, Do what is needed to achieve and the HAVE your desire.

• Empower and build confidence in you so that you can make the necessary changes without overwhelm

The elements of having a coach:

1. The success of a partnership between me the coach and you the client is based on the relationship and rapport. In a coaching relationship, there is no hierarchy, we both operate from a level playing field

2. The coach is there to provide structure to the conversation and provide a line of questioning that will help YOU identify the pathway forward. All the answers are within us, sometimes we just need some help sifting through all the noise in our head

3. The coach is there to provide accountability for you. Quite often you already know what you need to do and don’t need to be told, but it is having someone to be accountable that helps you take that action needed.

4. The coach is also there to provide a level of expertise in a chosen area of specialty. This is done in an empowering way and is not meant to be prescriptive. In my case, my chosen area of special interest is gut health and helping mum’s rock life without overwhelm given the stress of this modern day life.

5. Lastly and most importantly, the coach is also there to support and guide you to achieve your goals using a structured approach.

All the above is quite general to coaching, so how does that relate to me as a Nutrition & Wellness coach? As I mentioned before, my area of special interest is gut health and helping mum’s become the captain of their ship using proven transformational wellness practices.

Obtaining transformational change is very difficult to do in 1 session, therefore I’ve designed 2 main 1:1 programs to achieve this:

1. 6 week 1:1 Thriving Families – this purely focuses on Nutrition and aiding the switch to real wholefoods in small bite sized chunks.

2. 12 week: Healing with wholefood – this program truly is my babe and focuses on change in the 4 core pillars of health, i.e. nutrition, gut microbiome, toxicity and emotional wellbeing. No stone is left unturned in this program.

The above 1:1 programs will be offered as a group in the 2nd part of the year and the investment will be much lower.

I also understand that sometimes, you need to dip your toe into the water before making that investment, so I also have a 90 Minute Nutrition & Wellness Audit. The purpose of this session is to:

• Help you identify your what & why for health & wellness

• Design a plan for you to create this so that you always know your next step

• Perform an audit of your nutrition & wellness and provide recommendations and suggestions for improvement.

If you are feeling stuck on your journey and not sure of your next step, please reach out and schedule a complimentary 30 chat to see if any of my programs are a fit for you.

Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach with a special interest helping mum’s transform the health of their families using healing wholefood and transformational wellness practices. This is achieved by using a proven, yet personalised step by step wholistic approach

Interview with Sally Gray - The IGNITE Quest

Is this you today?

• Life is just feeling OFF and you are not sure what to do next?

• You are consistently beating yourself up for not being a good enough mum, wife, sister, friend, employee etc.....Just not feeling enough, deserving or worthy?

• You are carrying so much baggage from the past, the shackles are so heavy on your back, you just cannot move forward?

Let’s paint a different picture – What if:

• You could live a life free of self imposed guilt, shame, embarrassment and anxiety

• You could have 100% control of your emotions, thoughts & actions and live the life you desire AND more importantly teach this to your children – PURE GOLD

• You could achieve more of what you want in your life, regardless of past challenges

• You could walk tall and BE in your authentic self EVERY SINGLE day and speak your truth with confidence

• You could face the crap & challenges of life with calm, ease and confidence, let’s face it – this stuff is still going to happen. The DAILY challenges and irritations WILL still be there, but it’s how you experience it.

I have the pleasure of interviewing my mentor, coach, primary health practitioner, friend and loving angel Sally Gray, founder of Real Healthy Kids.

Sally is a self confessed eternal student. She also possesses the most impressive credentials I know of which include:

• Naturopath,

• Herbalist,

• Masters Trained Nutritionist,

• Functional Medical specialist,

• EFT & NLP Practitioner,

• Jack Canfield Success Principles Trainer,

• Master Life Coach and

• Neuroscience Pracitioner.

So you are in the best hands here today.

Below is a brief summary of the video:

What is the mind, body connection?

• Quite often we are getting stuck in the physical doing, however science has proven that emotional well being and the brain is the single biggest predictor of our future and healing potential

• As mum’s our emotional set point is shaping our journey and that of our kids. Not an easy message to hear, but a necessary one

• Emotional well being is the REAL work that is needed if you are on a healing journey

• Doing the emotional well being work can save you years and not mentions thousands if dealing with a chronic health condition

How did you connect the dots that Emotional Well being is the key predictor for our health?

• From the personal journey of pain and crippling anxiety. Once the REAL work was done properly, the symptoms disappeared

AN overview of IGNITE:

• 15 years in the making of trying to find out how to marry Naturopathic practices with emotional well being practices such as life coaching, transpersonal counseling and human potential

• The purpose of IGNITE is to adjust your emotional set point and set you free

• It bridges the gap of where you currently and where you want to be

• Teaches the fundamental life skills

• 12 week LIVE online program, guided by Sally including additional Facebook Support

• Guided step by step frame work of weekly lessons learning how to harness the potential of the human brain

• Learn practical tips and tricks of how to put the information into practice

Sally’s overall message:

You are not alone on this journey of motherhood. We are ALL sista’s wanting the very best for ourselves and our family. You are not broken or need fixing, BUT we ALWAYS have a choice. A great life is only available to the courageous who are prepared to do the work

As mum’s we need to take back the reigns and create the life we desire. There is no such thing as perfection and we can walk our path the way we want to feel with confidence, self belief and a deep connection to our authentic self

My personal recommendation to join the IGNITE quest:

This work has really been the missing link on our healing journey. Awesome nutrition, whilst it yielded life changing results, was not enough. We can focus on perfect nutrition and supplements till the cows come home, but the results will always be temporary unless this INNER work is included as well.

I’ve always had an interest in personal development, but I’ve not had anyone teach me the way Sally delivers IGNITE. Not only do I stand up and take 100% responsibility for my life (the good and the bad), the message and concepts are taught to the kids, and man oh man, do they get this so much quicker than us. The journey is never complete and it is the work of life, but so bloody worth it!

The next round of IGNITE commences Thursday 22nd February

Click the button below to get much more detail on the program and join the IGNITE quest.

Added BONUSEs for action takers

• Join this week and get the first 30 days for FREE

• Access to the Wholistic Coach for 1 year FREE- valued at $564- this alone is worth the weight in the GOLD!

• A FREE private 1:1 "Breakthrough" Session for the first 10 to signup this week - valued at $250

That's nearly $800 worth of bonuses for saying YES to you!

PS - I'm not sponsored for this post, I just really believe in the work Sally is doing & her vision for mums just like you & me!

BONUS FREE TRAINING

Sally has been so generous and provided this additional bonus training. This one training and concept alone is enough is remove the shackles of life, set you free and become the captain of YOUR ship. Stop waiting and click on the button below to access this FREE training.

You can access that training by clicking on the below button

Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach that has a special interest helping mum's transform the health of their families using Healing Wholefoods and transformational wellness practices. This is achieved using a personalised, yet proven step by step wholistic approach

Back to School: Emotional Wellness for our kids!

Man – it’s just about 3 weeks of being back into school and it feels like we’ve been there for weeks on end! Anyone else feeling the same?

So, in an earlier blog I spoke about the importance of nourishing their bodies with REAL food for fuel, well, we also need to nourish their souls and emotional well-being – equally as important.

In psychology it is believed that we have determined our identity and belief system by the age of 7! So as adults we are living with either empowering or self sabotaging belief systems that have been ingrained into our psyche before we are even able to understand what they mean – this is a huge concept so sit with this for a little and really grasp it.

When I first learned this – I panicked as I thought I’ve missed the boat on one kid and am just about to miss it with the other – talk about pressure like we don’t have enough of it today in the modern world.

Thankfully the boat is never missed when you are open to the evolution of learning and becoming your best self, and ultimately the best teacher to our kids. It’s about being self aware and course correcting CONSTANTLY.

With this in mind, how can we as mum’s enable the emotional well-being of our kids?

On a practical level:

• Nutrition – this is key and essential to fuel the body with nutrients to give it any hope of functioning optimally, not to mention core functionality of the cells & the brain. Many mental ailments and conditions can be the symptom of nutritional deficiencies
• Sleep – This is when the body is performing it’s biggest role of repairing and healing. Therefore crucial that they get age appropriate volume of sleep. Sleep is also essential for the immune system and emotional resilience.
• Water – They need water and plenty of it. Not only is water essential for the brain and the nervous system (the brain is made of over 75% water), but just the smallest drop of hydration within the body can lead to a drop in energy & mood levels
• Exercise to release all the happy hormones

7 recommendations/suggestions to manage their emotional wellness:

1. Help them feel loved, secure and confident. Talk to them in THEIR love language. You read more about that here.
2. Help them to identify their feelings as best they can, if possible why they feel that way or what’s behind the feeling. Here is a great tool I found online to help you, help them identify their emotions. This truly is half the battle
3. Equip them with tools to help manage the emotions and feelings such as:
   • Deep breathes when in a heightened state of emotion – resets the nervous system
   • If they are old enough, I'd say from age 7 – get them to write on paper how they are feeling and why. In neuroscience this is believed to help relief the emotional charge on a situation
   • Use tools such as EFT, otherwise known as tapping. More info on this here.
4. Help them to recognise the power of the little voice in their heads, also known as self-talk and how this can either empower their world or could be the slowest form of torture
5. Teach them to show gratitude EVERY SINGLE day. This is non negotiable in my household. It’s amazing what they come up with when they are stuck for something. Some of the answers just melts my heart
6. Get them in a mindfulness practice daily. This does not mean that they are sitting and meditating in a corner saying “Om” for 20 minutes, but helping them become aware of the present moment. Examples are:
   • Using an app to do a guided breathing exercise for 3-5 minutes. I really like Smiling Mind or Headspace, easily downloaded from the App store.
   • Colouring in, even better you if do it with them - this has to be one of my favourites
   • Sitting quietly in a nature, feet on the grass and recognise the sounds and surroundings, again only needs to be a few minutes
   • Engage them in any activity they truly enjoy and help them recognise moments of joy during that activity
7. Lastly, but more importantly – this may sting a little, but YOU become emotionally resilient and learn the tools how to do this, then you can be an EFFECTIVE teacher. Our kids learn by what we DO, NOT by what we SAY. They will model what they see being practiced. So the key here is to become very self aware yourself. This is not easy, but so worth it!

The above list not exhaustive, but just a small snippet of some strategies to help build emotional resilience and wellness for our children, especially in the age we are currently in.

Adjuncts to promoting emotional wellness

The below list serves as examples of adjunct therapies that can assist the promotion of emotional wellness. I do not believe that any one of these should be used in isolation or be seen as the magic bullet to fixing a symptom, but rather as an addition to the fundamentals listed above in the practical section:

• Essential Oils
• Massage
• Chiropractic or Osteopathic treatment
• Bush Flower essence
• Homeopathics
• Kinesiology

If you are concerned for the emotional well-being for your child, then please seek additional help and guidance from a qualified practitioner.

Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach with a special interest in helping families implement Gut Healing Nutritional Protocols using a proven step by step wholistic approach to improve the health of their family.