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Health Coach Jobs: Working in the Healthcare Industry to Drive Behavior Change

Reed Davis/25 June 2020/ All MFN blog/

Today, chronic disease management ranks as one of the top priorities in the healthcare industry. With the total costs in the US for direct health care treatment of chronic health conditions totaling $1.1 trillion, ensuring patients know how to manage their health and prevent costly health episodes is a primary goal.

More and more healthcare organizations are turning to Health Coaches to drive patient motivation and engagement with healthy behaviors.

Health Coaches are helping patients with stress management, health goal-setting, time management, and other activities needed to improve their lifestyles and overall wellness.

Health Coaches possess the skills needed to help patients develop intrinsic motivation for healthy behavior changes, with each visit bringing them closer to managing their own health and making lifelong changes.

Health Coaches understand there are different types of paths for different types of people; with the motivator being unique to each patient’s health goals and lifestyle changes required to meet those goals.

Ultimately, Health Coaches are transforming the healthcare industry by having a powerful impact on clients’ and patients’ lives.

Getting the best training is key to your success as a Health Coach. Great Health Coaches find the best accredited program that matches their goals and provides the skills and tools to be the best in the field of health and wellness. And the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® (FDN) course is that program!

FDN training sets you apart from all other Health & Wellness Coaches by helping you to identify the real physiological, biochemical, and behavioral problems that will allow clients to improve overall health & well-being.

That is why FDN practitioners are the most successful Health Coaches in health & wellness today.

Originally printed on the FDN blog. Reprinted with permission.

Reed Davis is a Nutritional Therapist and has been the Health Director and Case Manager at a wellness clinic San Diego for over 15 years. Reed is the Founder of the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Certification Course, offering functional lab training, data-driven protocols, tools and leadership you need so professionals confidently solve your client’s health issues and grow your career.

Health Coaches Don’t “Diagnose or Treat Disease”: Those Words and Others Don’t Belong in Our Vocabulary

Reed Davis/11 May 2020/ All MFN blog/

It is nothing new that there’s inevitable overlap between the practice of medicine and providing sound health coaching. Ideally, there should be a seamless continuum between the two endeavors, but that could only exist where there is a continuum of cooperation and respect. Health Coaches need to be careful with how we describe and present our work. While health coaching is a vibrant movement, it is still a junior partner to “traditional medicine” and for self-preservation; we should seek to avoid direct “turf wars” with Physicians.

The most balanced approach requires continuous consideration of the distinctions between these complementary fields. While there will always be principled differences, the practical applications change steadily along with knowledge and technology. The most prudent approach is for Health Coaches to simply concede medicine’s proprietary terms. We need to understand them, and can use them, but anytime we do we must draw distinctions that educate our clients about the difference in objectives and procedures of these complementary endeavors. In that sense, there are no “forbidden words”, but there are plenty of places where lack of clarity in purpose and practice can cause problems. Some of the major terms that should be conceded include:

Patient, practice, diagnosis, cause, disease/pathology, prescribing, medicine, treatment, management, effectiveness, intervention and cure.

Health Coaches should strive to embody in our mission what comes from consideration of those terms. We develop relationships with clients, we are not in the practice of seeking responsibility for treating patients. We are helpful guides in exploring the vast, common sense resources of the field of wellness, not prescribing proprietary agents or using medical modalities to treat disease. We act as individual guides on a quest that prioritizes personalized discovery and anecdotal utility, not practitioners who prescribe antidotes approved by impersonal population-based investigations.

Health Coaches are about beings, synergy, elasticity, balance, flourishing and optimization.

We look for associated (natural) influences that can combine to re-establish balance, not for a cause or diagnosis that be controlled by the use of a foreign/artificial agent. Health Coaches are about beings, synergy, elasticity, balance, flourishing and optimization. Medicine predominantly lays claim to systems that don’t display those features.

“The doctor of the future will give no medication but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

Each term, of course, could be expanded upon greatly as time permits. Back in 1903, Thomas Edison said that “The doctor of the future will give no medication but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” Edison was simply wrong. Health Coaches should focus on care of the human frame and diet which are the wellsprings of function and flourishing. That’s a big task that requires ever-increasing knowledge and wisdom.

Unfortunately, the human “machine” is inevitably subject to decay of various sorts and severities. Medicine will always have a very important place in providing resources for comfort where nature has been pushed to failure – which is not an uncommon occurrence. The line between those positions shifts over time, but until utopia breaks out, reality will maintain a vast market for both types of emphasis. For now, it is up to the junior partner to hold up their banner while keeping the peace.

Originally printed on the FDN blog. Reprinted with permission.

Interesting Times for Interested People

Dr. Mark Kelly/6 April 2020/ All MFN blog/

So, we are all shut in our homes and are not supposed to go to work, movies, or restaurants to dine in, and we can’t even watch live sports on TV. Life is so bad, and unfair… or is it?

I have decided to look at the bright side of this event, and see it as an opportunity. While many are not in my particular position, and are actually out of job and income due to this pandemic, I want you to reframe it. Change the paradigm of this being a negative, to this being a time for catching up, reflecting, and perhaps actually changing yourself.

We all have parts of our lives that need attention. In today’s current society, it is basically impossible to be all things to all people, including ourselves. We must try to balance job, family, social contact, social media, our own diet, hobbies, medical attention, our education — professionally or otherwise, our spirituality, and even our environment. Having balance in a variety of areas is true wellness! We are often so busy teaching and preaching the benefits of fitness and wellness to others, we deny it to ourselves. I remember doing a self-survey several decades ago by some program discussing the “wellness wheel”, which many of you have probably heard of. The survey was showing areas that needed attention. (Back then I had a very lop-sided wheel, and it is not much better now.) The wheel consisted of a mnemonic (6 components. It has shifted slightly in past few decades, but the pneumonic still works well: SPICES.

Old Wellness Areas	New Wellness Areas
S-ocial	Social – all interactions with people outside of ourselves
P-hysical	Physical – our physiological status
I-ntellectual	Intellectual – includes cognitive and emotional health
C-ognitive	Career – includes educational and skill acquisition and financial health
E-motional	Environmental (could include emotional) – clean, organized?
S-piritual	Spiritual – interactions with entities beyond people

I want to use this as a time to clean up many things that have been neglected — both around my house and inside “my house”, my physical body and mental space. I may even use this opportunity to shift my professional pursuits away from academic teaching to wellness coaching. Maybe I can chat on the phone more, spend time with my daughter, or spend more time cooking or reading. Whatever it is, start doing it now!

If nothing else, this has opened the world’s eyes to the need to stay healthy. It has shown people the need to be sanitary and practice good old-fashioned health care techniques, like washing hands and not running out of toilet paper! (Sorry, had to throw that one in!)

As an educator in both physical health and medical applications, we are perfectly positioned to show the communities we live in how to harness the power of exercise for both preventative and rehabilitation purposes. I have learned many new applications for teaching online and most people are focused on coming together for the “greater good”, and this is a breath of fresh air.

Good luck and stay healthy as you address the holistic health agenda in our society.

Dr. Mark P. Kelly has been involved with the health and fitness field for more than 30 years. He has been a research scientist for universities and many infomercial projects. He has spoken nationally and internationally on a wide variety of topics and currently speaks on the use of exercise for clinical purposes and exercise’s impact on the brain. Mark is a teacher in colleges and universities in Orange County, CA., where Principle-Centered Health- Corporate Wellness & Safety operates.

Social Distancing – Not Social Isolation: Coaching for Connectedness

Dr. Michael Arloski/25 March 2020/ All MFN blog/

We all still need each other. Even in the age of COVID-19, our health continues to depend upon healthy supportive relationships. Our coach training company, Real Balance 1 has always stressed what we call Coaching for Connectedness. We‘ve seen lifestyle improvement occur and last more often when people receive support for the changes they are making to live healthier lives. When a coaching client sets up an action step we ask “Who/what else can help support you in this?”. Research on what makes health behavior last points primarily to two factors: a shift in self-concept and community support. (2) It’s also a well-established fact that people who are more socially isolated have significantly higher rates of all major chronic illnesses. (3)

Our challenge in the midst of a pandemic situation is how we distance from each other while remaining connected to each other. Yes, follow the CDC guidelines for social distancing. We can still greet each other with elbow bumps, and then go for a walk, a bike ride, a cruise in kayaks, etc., and continue to avoid the proximity that puts us at any risk. We can connect via phone and receive the nourishment of live, interactive conversation that texting and e-mail don’t quite match. We can climb on board a web-based platform such as Zoom and Skype where we are face-to-face for our conversation. We also have all sorts of apps such as Facetime, WeChat, and many more that allow us to have face-to-face interaction for live conversations.

As coaches we can continue to work remotely with our clients, as the majority of coaching is already done. As we do, explore the feelings that the changes brought about by social distancing are bringing out in your clients. Empathize. Explore. When people talk about their fears, the intensity of those fears almost always lessens. As people become less afraid, their thinking improves. They aren’t so quick to jump into dismissive all-or-none thinking. They are then able to engage in strategic thinking with their coach to find unique solutions to staying healthy.

The fitness center is shut down. How can you shift to working out at home? Use stretch bands. Modify a spare room into a place to do Yoga, floor exercises, etc. Spring brings better weather allowing more cardio outdoors.
Do more outdoor exercise/activity with other people – just keep your proper distance.
Encourage clients to find new ways to electronically visit their friends, grandchildren, and others. Play online games together.
Check in with your clients to make sure they have CDC information/WHO information about how to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. (5,6)

Take heart at how people are showing concern for each other during this time. Younger people who are at somewhat less risk are engaging in social distancing, handwashing, etc. not only for themselves, but for the older and more vulnerable people who could be affected by the contact they are having. People in neighborhood chatlines are volunteering to go pick up groceries and prescriptions for older or more sickly neighbors. Hopefully what will come out of all of this is a greater sense of how we are all in this together. Distancing does not mean isolating. The truism of wellness pioneer Jack Travis is still valid: Connection is the Currency of Wellness.

Be well and stay well!

Michael Arloski, Ph.D., PCC, NBW-HWC – A psychologist with over twenty-five years of clinical work, and more than 23 years as a professional wellness coach, Dr. Arloski is one of the key developers of the field of health & wellness coaching. He is the author of Wellness Coaching For Lasting Lifestyle Change, 2nd Ed., and Masterful Health & Wellness Coaching: Deepening Your Craft. His company, Real Balance Global Wellness Services, Inc., has trained over 9,000 health & wellness coaches worldwide www.realbalance.com.

References

This article was published on Dr. Arloski’s blog. Reprinted with permission.

Prescription for good health diet and exercise flat lay overhead with copyspace.

A New Era Begins

Phil Kaplan/3 December 2019/ All MFN blog/

The rallying cry is, “Let’s change healthcare!” From all corners of the medical universe, there is agreement that change is necessary. The biggest questions are, “What is the change?” and, “Who will make it happen?”

Living Well with Arthritis

Linda Gogl/11 July 2019/ All MFN blog/

Although arthritis today is considered one of the leaders of the pack in the epidemic of chronic illness, millions of those affected are living fulfilling lives and living them well.

According to The Institute of Medicine’s New Report on Living Well With Chronic Illness, 8.6 million Americans are living with disabilities related to arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation reports it as “striking one in every five adults, 300,000 children and as the leading cause of disability in the United States.” Arthritis is a chronic illness that impacts many.

Depositphotos_39763765_xs(1) Those living with arthritis can live well and have a good quality of life by employing lifestyle interventions as medicine, in conjunction with, prevention, joint protection, weight management, physical activity, wise food choices, stress management and a good medical regimen. By combining all these necessary recommendations into a personalized Wellness Strategy and Plan, a coach can assist an arthritis patient in organizing what is important for them to live life well. The Wellness Plan then becomes a map by which to navigate toward managing and maximizing the patient’s best life possible.

A common factor also influencing quality of life for those challenged by arthritis or any chronic illness is what is called “adherence” or “medical compliance”. Lack of adherence to medical and lifestyle improvements is a large piece of the cost of healthcare today and contributes to the epidemic of chronic illness. Average patient adherence rates for prescribed medications are about 50 percent, and for lifestyle changes they are below 10 percent.

The World Health Organization reports “improving adherence also enhances patients’ safety because most of the care needed for chronic conditions is based on patient self-management, use of medical technology for monitoring, and changes in the patient’s lifestyle.” A coach assists in supporting patient compliance and self-accountability and works with the patient to forward the action toward their goals.

The same report goes on to say “patient-tailored interventions are required and must be customized to the particular illness-related demands experienced by the patient. There is no single intervention strategy that has been shown to be effective across all patients.” Therefore, working with individuals one on one is of primary importance for enhancing their quality of life. Coaches work with clients on a one on one basis assisting them in creating a wellness plan that is personalized to them.

Dr. Bennett and team’s article Health Coaching for Patients with Chronic Illness states “it is critical that those with arthritis understand, agree with and participate in the management of their chronic condition. Health coaching is one way to accomplish this function.”

A long-term study done at Stanford University indicates that interactions with a coach can significantly increase the health of people with chronic illness. Stanford’s Chronic Disease Self-Management Program brought patients (including those with arthritis) together with a coach. “Subjects who took the Program, when compared to those who did not, demonstrated significant improvements in exercise, cognitive symptom management, communication with physicians, self-reported general health, health distress, fatigue, disability, and social/role activities limitations. They also spent fewer days in the hospital, and there was also a trend toward fewer outpatient visits and hospitalizations.”

Young Couple Jogging in Park

It was found “This type of self-management, through coaching, is so effective it has been endorsed by the Surgeon General of the United States.”

“Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.” Health & Wellness coaches work with a client to tailor-make a wellness plan that includes self-management, coordinating their medical regimen, and forwarding lasting lifestyle changes. Working together with a coach, a patient can successfully manage their condition and create a strategy to living life well with arthritis.

What Can Health & Wellness Coaches Do for You?

► Work with you to take an inventory of your current wellness status

► Guide and facilitate your personal well-life vision toward the life you would like to live

► Work with you to develop a personalized Wellness Plan that is tailored to your needs. The wellness plan becomes the map that integrates your important areas of focus including: self-management support, the medical regimen, and lifestyle improvements.

Self-management support:
- Promote healthy behaviors
- Impart problem-solving skills
- Assist with the emotional impact of chronic illness
- Provide regular follow-up and accountability
- Encourage people to be active participants in their care
- Assist in patient self-advocacy
The medical regimen – facilitation of a patient-directed approach
- Scheduling and attending medical appointments
- Asking your medical team the right questions
- Following through on daily prescribed medications
- Tracking your regimen to support success
Lifestyle improvements
- Physical activity
- Healthy eating
- Eliminating risk factors
- Promoting healthy behaviors

► Bridging the gap between clinician and patient.

Health coaches can bridge these gaps between the medical team and patient by following up with patients and guiding a patient-centered approach, asking about needs and addressing obstacles, addressing health literacy, cultural issues and social-class barriers.
Health Coaches help patients become self-directed in navigating the health care system. Coaches can help with patient self-advocacy and coordination of care

► Provide accountability & support for you to be successful

Offer emotional support
Coping with illness is emotionally challenging. Coaches can offer emotional support and help patients cope with their illnesses. They also assist patients in seeking out additional emotional support that will help them achieve and maintain success.

► Provide ongoing evaluation of progress toward your goals

Re-evaluating success
Resetting goals & action steps as necessary
Provide acknowledgement & support of successes
Assist in maintaining forward momentum toward goals

► Serve as a continuity figure

Coaches travel with the patient as an ally and assist them with staying the course while implementing their wellness plan.

► Assist in patient-directed achievement of successful lifestyle behavioral change

Be your ally and walk shoulder to shoulder with you

Dr. Linda Gogl is a Doctor of Physical Therapy with Board Certification in Orthopaedic’s with over 20 years in healthcare. She currently serves as Director of Development and Team Member for Real Balance Global Wellness Services. Her professional experience includes outpatient Clinical Director, Developer/Director of an APTA Credentialed Orthopaedic Residency Program, Director of Quality Assurance for the largest physical therapy private practice in California, Credentialed Clinical Instructor, Adjunct Professor of Anatomy & Physiology, Research mentor and Clinical Coordinator for University affiliations. More recently she also served as National Director of Training and Implementation for OptimisPT, a physical therapy software system.

References

Arthritis Foundation. Arthritistoday.org
Bennett et al, Health Coaching for Patients With Chronic Illness. Fam Pract Manag. 2010 Sep-Oct;17(5):24-29.
Harris et al. The Institute of Medicines’s New Report on Living Well With Chronic Illness. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Volume 9 – September 20, 2012.
Lorig et al. Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, 2-year Health Status and Health Care Utilization Outcomes. Medical Care. Volume 39, Number 11, pp 1217-1223.2001
National Prevention Strategy, Clinical and Community Preventive Services, National Prevention Council 2010. www.surgeongeneral.gov/initiatives/prevention/strategy/preventive-services.pdf
National Prevention Council Action Plan: Implementing the National Prevention Strategy www.surgeongeneral.gov/initiatives/prevention/2012-npc-action-plan.pdf
World Health Organization. Adherence to Long-Term Therapies. Evidence for Action. 2003.

Understanding Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

Nichole Lowe/13 June 2019/ All MFN blog/

Is there really a difference between CBT and DBT? Both Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) come from the same family of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is one of the best treatment methods available to treat a wide range of emotional and physical health conditions, like depression and anxiety….

Finding Fabulousity!

Mirabai Holland, MFA, EP-C, CHC/27 November 2018/ All MFN blog/

I was back in my hometown recently, where I health coached and taught for over 20 years. I missed my clients so I decided to take some of them out for tea and dessert. I thought for a minute the dessert…

How Sharp is Your Saw: Using eLearning to Get More Coaching Clients

Nichole Lowe/15 November 2018/ All MFN blog/

One of the most powerful tools in any coach’s arsenal is his or her knowledge of which coaching techniques to apply to a given situation and how to apply them to best meet clients’ needs. “Sharpening the saw,” or continually honing one’s skills, ensures coaches are on top of the most effective practices.

Learning new skills and coaching techniques is easier than ever through eLearning–educational programs delivered online. Online courses are more accessible, less expensive and faster to master than traditional educational programs. And best of all, they can be taken at the learner’s convenience, 24/7/365.

So how does eLearning help coaches sharpen their saw? In his mega-bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Franklin Covey describes “sharpening the saw” as a way of “preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have–you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.”

By engaging in eLearning to expand their knowledge of proven, effective practices, coaches can treat clients with a wider variety of issues. These same practices also work on the coach! Taking online training gives coaches the opportunity to see their own issues, in each of the four areas mentioned by Covey, from a fresh perspective, making them better practitioners and better people in general.

Approaching eLearning not only as a tool to gain skills as a coach, but also as a way to live to one’s full potential provides extra motivation when taking online courses and makes “sharpening the saw” more fun!

Reprinted with permission from the SoleLife Blog.

Nichole Lowe is a board certified Health Coach, Educator and Presenter. She is the Founder and CEO of SOLELIFE™. SOLELIFE™ is an online training platform that offers proven advanced training for coaches and health practitioners in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) to improve its customers’ client results and grow their referral business. It’s an all-in-one solution for professional coaches where they can learn new skills, connect with peers, and gain valuable industry knowledge in a first-ever fully social eLearning platform.

If you’re interested in learning more about DBT, SOLELIFE offers a free course, Understanding DBT.