Functional Medicine Health Coaching
IndividuWELL health coaches are graduates of the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA), a 12-month training program to earn the certification: Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC). The Functional Medicine Coaching Academy is a partnership with the Institute for Functional Medicine which trains physicians and other healthcare providers in Functional Medicine. The academy is also the only coaching certification program that has completely incorporated Functional Medicine and Functional Nutrition into the curriculum. FMCA-trained health coaches guide patients to optimum wellness using Functional Medicine, Functional Nutrition, Mind-Body Medicine, and Positive Psychology Coaching.
Why Hire a Health Coach?
Whether your goal is to lose weight, increase energy, or make better food choices, a health coach takes the time to listen to your concerns and helps you discover where and why you are struggling. They can also help you navigate often contradictory nutritional advice to figure out exactly what works for YOUR body. Everyone is unique—there’s no “one size fits all” diet or treatment plan. A Functional Medicine Health Coach knows this and will take the time to get to know you, your habits, your current diet, and your health and wellness goals, as well as any history you have with previous diets and exercises. They’ll work with you to develop a plan tailored to your unique story and needs that sets you up to reach your unique goals.
Health coaches WANT to see their clients succeed, so they won’t start you off on a restrictive diet or ask you to make dramatic changes that you aren’t ready for. Instead, they’ll help you implement small changes, little by little, at a pace that’s comfortable for you. It’s about taking a realistic approach to meeting all your health goals. And, if you fall off the wagon, they offer the non-judgmental support you need to get back up.
The ultimate goal of your health coach is to improve your quality of life through effective and healthy habits and changes.
The Coaching Relationship:
The Client’s Role:
The client comes to the coaching relationship with their health / wellness goals. This may include recommendations from their physician. How these goals are reached and the pace of change is client-centered and client-directed.
Clients bring their personal values and strengths to the coaching relationship which is key to motivation and success. For example, if I value being active and keeping up with my children, then what I value can provide motivation to make diet and exercise changes to stay fit and healthy. If my one of my strengths is creativity, then that can be put to good use to devise creative ways to fit the changes into my life more easily.
The coach’s Role:
The coach provides a setting for conversation that is open, honest, respectful and non-judgmental.
The coach asks questions or other methods of inquiry to elicit the client’s values, strengths and other positive aspects of their being and environment.
The coach helps the client clarify goals and break down overall goals into smaller, manageable mini-goals or action steps. This increases the potential for success which helps maintain motivation and momentum.
The coach helps the client proactively identify and circumvent potential roadblocks to meeting goals to increase potential for success.
The coach is a resource for information when the client requests help. Ideally, what works best for the client are solutions they devise--because they know their life better than anyone else.
The coach tracks progress and provides accountability by following up with the client regularly to ensure mini-goals and action steps are met.
The coach provides encouragement—celebrating “wins” and successes as well as providing support when there is a setback.
If you are considering working with a health coach, but have questions or concerns, you can submit them using our contact form or schedule a no-cost 15 minute phone consultation.
Questions?
Health Coaching: Coming of Age
Health and Wellness coaching has been around for decades, but only recently have experts in the field of coaching and wellness come together to set standards for health coaching programs and their graduates. This new standards organization, the International Consortium for Credentialing Health and Wellness Coaches defines health coaches this way:
“Health and Wellness Coaches partner with clients seeking self-directed, lasting changes, aligned with their values, which promote health and wellness and, thereby, enhance well-being. In the course of their work health and wellness coaches display unconditional positive regard for their clients and a belief in their capacity for change, and honoring that each client is an expert on his or her life, while ensuring that all interactions are respectful and non-judgmental.”
The Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA) is among the short list of schools that meets the rigorous requirements established by the International Consortium for Credentialing Health and Wellness Coaches.