What Is The Role Of Health Coaches In Healthcare?
I’m Abby, a holistic health coach who graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and I’m continuing my education at Functional Nutrition. I am the founder and owner of curechoices.com. I help people with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, hypothyroidism, type 2 diabetes, and weight loss. My friendship with Elaine started in 2016 when we became accountability coaches for each other as part of the IIN curriculum. I would like to thank her for giving me the opportunity to write in her blog.
Everyone has a reason why they want to choose their career. It was my own health problems that motivated me to choose a career in holistic nutrition and wellness. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 2009, 10 months after giving birth to my second baby. When I was diagnosed, I was not happy with the idea of getting on a prescription medication for the rest of my life. I was looking into the possibilities of curing the disease. I discovered that I had to follow a disciplined protocol where I needed to make some dietary changes, along with the supplements and exercise to address the root cause of the problem. I was mentally prepared to do whatever it took to accomplish that. Within few months I started to feel better. I started to see the numbers of the anti-thyroid antibodies coming down and then gradually it came down to normal range. I was able to put my Hashimoto’s in remission. In this journey of healing my disease, it dawned on me that the most important aspect of healing any disease is taking care of yourself by getting the proper nutrition, making the appropriate lifestyle changes, getting enough physical activities, and last but not least believing in yourself.
Over the last few decades there has been a significant rise in chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and obesity. When you visit a doctor for these kinds of illnesses, doctors work primarily to identify the symptoms and treat for the symptoms. They really don’t have enough time to dig deep to find the root cause of the problem or to find what is really going on with the patient.
This is where the role of health coaches comes in. They can step in and provide support. The main role of a holistic health coach is to guide the clients toward a healthy lifestyle. They help them not only with food but in all areas of their life – their relationships, spirituality, exercise, and career. They can help their clients balance these because the imbalance of one can adversely affect the other areas.
Each person is unique with their individual requirements. One person’s physiology, cell structure, metabolism, and body structure are different from another person's. Each person has unique needs according to their age, gender, size, lifestyle, blood type, and ancestry. A holistic health coach can work according to the specific needs of their clients. They can give you recipes and diet guidelines, exercise and lifestyle changes which can help their clients to achieve optimal health goals. Health coaches educate and support their clients throughout the process of healing.
A health coach is a mentor, friend, cheerleader, and guide. He or she can help by recommending lifestyle and behavioral changes and by challenging the client to listen to their inner wisdom, identify their inner strengths, and transform their dreams into action!
I hope you enjoyed this article and feel free to leave comments!
Website: www.curechoices.com
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“A health coach is a mentor, friend, cheerleader, and guide.”