What is a Health Coach?

Certified health coaches are trained in dietary theories and healthy lifestyle coaching techniques in order to help you discover exactly what will bring you success with reaching your health and wellness goals, and what is holding you back. We help you do this with incremental changes, at a pace that works for you, and that facilitates lasting behavioral change. Health coaches are also unique in that we focus on working with your specific needs, lifestyle, and personality. The goal is not to find the best tools, but to find the best tools that will work for you.

What does a Health Coach do?

Wellness looks different for everyone. We support you in every way we can to help you find the motivation and tools to reach your specific goals and achieve optimal wellness. The process incorporates all aspects of your lifestyle, so we can work with you to achieve a variety of goals.

Here are just a few of the topics we can work on together in your health coaching sessions:

• How can I have more energy?
• How do I stick to a regular exercise program?
• How do I  create healthy eating habits?
• How do I manage food cravings?
• How do I quit smoking?
• How do I manage stress?
• How can I sleep better?
• How can I strengthen my relationships?

Other common topics include managing chronic health conditions such as high blood glucose, high blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, and diabetes, reducing sedentary behavior patterns such as too much screen time, etc.

How does online or video coaching work?

One of the best parts of health coaching is that it can be done from the comfort of your home via telephone or video chat. For clients based in Boulder, Colorado, we are also available to meet in person. We work with people one-on-one for their individual needs, or in small groups which are focused around achieving a specific goal.

How is a health coach different from a personal trainer?

A health coach primarily helps you with health behavior change, and a personal trainer helps you with building fitness.  As both a certified personal trainer and a certified health coach, I can help you to both change to your patterns and behaviors, and improve your fitness.

Can I do health coaching and personal training simultaneously?

Health coaching helps you build new habits (like exercise), while a personal trainer helps you do the exercises with good form and the correct intensity to see results. As each process requires time and attention to detail, it’s best to conduct them separately to make sure you get the most results for your effort. We can schedule these appointments back to back, or on separate days, depending on what works best for you.

How is a health coach different from a therapist?

How is a health coach different from a life coach?

Health coaches start with the view that there is nothing wrong with you. Our goal is to help you mobilizie your strengths and thrive. Therapists usually make a diagnosis, with an intention to help heal a patient.  Therapists are also generally concerned with the past, whereas health coaches deal with the present and your desired future. Unlike a therapist, a health coach is an equal partner with you, helping you to gain tools, implement change, and reach your goals.

Is health coaching alternative or evidence based?

Health Coaching reflects an approach that takes into account all evidence-informed therapies that support physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspects of individuals. It is inquiry-driven, evidence based, and open to new paradigms.

What is a holistic health coach vs. an integrative health coach?

Health coaching by definition is both integrative and holistic. These terms both refer to a shift away from fixing sickness and disease, and towards including you, the individual, as an active participant in the process of managing your health. By creating a  coordinated, holistic sharing of information between health care practitioners, and empowering you with information which allows you to be included in the decision making process, your health coach can provide meaningful collaboration with other health, wellness, and exercise professionals to provide a truly integrated approach to care.

Can I bill insurance for health coaching?

At this time insurance cannot be billed for health coaching or fitness training services. However more and more medical practices and hospitals are incorporating certified health coaches into their practices, so this may be changing sometime in the future.