Wellbeing Coaching is a tool I use to help people to recover from their chronic fatigue and change their health and wellbeing.
In just the same way that you can use an executive coach to develop your career, or life coach to help you achieve your life goals, you can use Wellbeing Coaching to tackle areas of your health that aren’t happy with and make your health goals happen.
One of the most important aspects of Wellbeing Coaching is the focus it gives you about the future that you want to have. This clarity is really important in recovery because not every person wants the same thing. A lot of clients tell me that they want “more energy” but their definitions and ideas of what “more energy” looks like vary tremendously. By nailing down exactly what you will be doing and feeling when you have more energy, you are much more likely to i). recognise it when you get it and ii). actually achieve it!
This Wellbeing Coaching approach is at the heart of a proven approach The Chrysalis Effect Online Recovery Pathway, that has been delivering recovery results for the last 14 years. Not only do I measure your progress as your energy levels return but the coaching tools and techniques ensure that you can overcome any obstacles getting in the way of the future that you want.
This is not about “thinking yourself better”
I am not suggesting, in any way shape or form, that serious conditions like M.E, Fibromyalgia or CFS can be “magic’ed“ away with a few coaching techniques. Far from it. The path to recovery is smoothest when you:
1. Work 1-1 with a specialist who can tailor the work to meet your needs by working with Wellbeing Coaching. This approach short cuts recovery time and preserves precious energy.
2. Understand 6 key areas of yourSELF so that you uncover what's driving your chronic fatigue.
3. Handle the emotional charge caused by traumatic incidents from your past. This releases energy that you can then use to live a live your life.
4. Develop tools and techniques to manage the demands of everyday life so that you never return to chronic fatigue.
When all 4 of these elements combine, recovery is achieved in a way that is both manageable and sustained. So, let's take a look in more details at Wellbeing Coaching.
Breaking down complex situations
Most of the people who I work with have a complex list of symptoms, medication and health concerns. There are usually lots of different issues going on within their day to day life. Sometimes it can be difficult to pinpoint just one area to focus on because everything seems too overwhelming.
So, we start with the 8 Elements of Freedom Wheel. This provides a visual snapshot of what is happening for you right now by rating your satisfaction within 8 key areas of life. The process gives a quick, instinctive overview of which areas to focus on first. It’s quite normal to have 2 or 3 areas where the scores are lower than the other areas, guiding where to start work in the Wellbeing Coaching session. We then follow a coach approach to work out what small change(s) are needed to address whatever is driving the low score.
Look a little deeper to discover more
Gentle questioning helps us to delve a little deeper and understand what is going on with a particular area. We spend some time working out what you would prefer to have happening in that area and then do a bit of brainstorming to think of as many ways a possible to get you to that outcome.
The final step in a Wellbeing Coaching session is to agree some kind of action that starts you moving towards the outcome. This step is vital. All of the work up until this point is pretty much pie-in-the-sky, a bit of a daydream. By committing to take some action, you are taking back control over your life. It can be scary and exciting all at the same time!
Wellbeing Coaching in action
The easiest way to understand the power of Wellbeing Coaching is by example. I have changed my client’s name to Sylvia to protect her identity – does this example ring any bells for you?
Sylvia was concerned about her nutritional health as so many foods and products had an impact on her energy levels as well as her skin. Skin breakouts/hives, psoriasis, asthma, blistering in her mouth and were causing a real problem in everyday life. Sylvia was a vegetarian. Up until 6 years ago she had been eating a vegan diet. A very stressful period, combined with low energy, made it difficult to sustain the diet. Sylvia wanted some help to get back to a vegan diet as she was aware that her health was much better when not eating many of the foods currently in her diet.
The session goal was a simple one – to make a plan to go vegan, starting today. There were lots of challenges around achieving it, such as:
finding the time to sit down and refresh knowledge about food groups
being too tired after work to think about what to eat and then prep it,
financial concern as can be very expensive, but getting a bit more savvy about that,
being unable to have nuts/nut based products in the morning or at lunch time (work colleagues with severe nut allergies). Protein replacement had to be carefully planned.
not wanting to cook multiple meals for family members who do not want to eat a vegan diet
eating more fruit and vegetables may increase the risk of coming into contact with pollens which may make life difficult with reactions
Exploring options opens the door
Our discussion also included looking at different ways to get around these challenges, and Sylvia identified the following:
planning out the meals for the week ahead every Sunday
plan it out over a Fri/Sat/Sun so has some flexibility but it gets done before Mon
re-reading information about the benefits of being vegan which would reinforce all of the positive impacts of making the change
wasingh fruit & veg multiple times and cooking as much as possible to de-activate pollens
giving herself a weeks’ grace to research and plan menu (instead of starting today)
seeking support from Mum
spending time prepping on Sun so things are just ready to use in the week.
considering buying pre-prepared food but ruled this out as too much packaging.
considering having food delivered but felt it better to see where food has come from and choose local.
indentifying that she could to just cook vegan and add in the non-vegan elements i.e. the base of every meal was vegan
Deciding on action is the key to success
After we had finished reviewing the ways to get around the challenges, Sylvia decided on two things she was going to go away and do:
TODAY, to plan the meals for the week using up what they have in house. Plan will be vegan + non-vegan add ons
Heading in a vegan direction, family to help use up non-vegan store cupboard items. Longer term 100% vegan.
We also agreed that Sylvia would drop me a text later that day when she had completed the planning. This was followed by another text at the end of the week. The plan had worked out!
I am really pleased to report that Sylvia did do her plan, and did stick to it for that week. What’s even more impressive is that having got back into the swing of things, she has been able to keep up her vegan diet. There have been ups and downs – Sylvia is human after all – however, the change was made and she is feeling the beenfits of it!
This is the power of a simple, focused Wellbeing Coaching session.
What's the next step?
Well, you could chose to get in touch to find out more about how I can help you to make changes within your life that improve your energy, health and wellbeing. Book your 15 minute call here
If you decide that you want to work with me, we will arrange a free, 30 minute Health Profile Review based on a Health Profile form that you submit before we meet.
This short video explains a bit more about the Health Profile Review process, a great way for us to get to know each other and for me to understand more about what's going on with your fatigue.