Health coaching is a partnership
Health Coaching
Health coaching is a new profession, developed to meet a gap in our health care system. We go to our health care professionals, are told what we need to do, and then struggle to achieve our health goals. Health care professionals are frustrated with patient non-compliance, and patients are frustrated with appointment times, high costs and lack of support.
Health coaches are experts in behavior change with the time and skill help you figure out HOW to make the changes you want to improve your health .
Today, chronic diseases are a major public health problem worldwide. In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 61 per cent of all deaths -- 35 million -- and 49 per cent of the global burden of disease were attributable to chronic diseases. By 2030, the proportion of total global deaths due to chronic diseases is expected to increase to 70 per cent and the global burden of disease to 56 per cent. World Health Organization
Much of what makes us ill can be avoided or mitigated. Screenings for disease (to catch conditions early) and vaccines (to prevent illness) are critical. But the most powerful - and cheapest - way we can prevent disease and enjoy good health is by changing our behavior. In 1900 the leading causes of death were pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhea (infectious diseases) and heart disease. Today the leading causes of death are heart disease, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and cancer - conditions that can be treated medically and. more importantly, prevented and sometimes reversed by lifestyle change. If you scroll through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website for what you can do to prevent heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer the recommendations are consistently the same; to choose healthy foods and drinks, keep a healthy weight, get regular physical activity, and not to smoke. Health coaching supports in making the changes you want, developing new habits that align with your values and your health goals.
Coaching skills and strategies that work for you
I am a professional health coach trained at Duke Integrative Medicine and Board certified by the National Board for Heath and Wellness Coaching. I have helped hundreds of clients achieve their health goals and learn coaching skills and strategies to help them the next time they face a behavior change challenge.
An Integrative Approach
An integrative approach to health encompasses the whole person and recognizes that many factors coalesce in defining good health. Health problems and their solutions are multifaceted, and an integrative approach better allows us to recognize and touch on all the moving parts. An integrative approach recognizes that our health goals do not reside in silos. Like diabetes, heat disease or pain, a chronic condition will affect more than one part of our lives.
Likewise one action can have multiple benefits. If stress and frustration at work contribute to a person’s high blood pressure taking a pill might help but won’t solve the problem at work. Finding ways to reduce or better cope with stress at work might help lower the need for medication or provide additional benefit. An integrative approach helps us look at our health with a bigger lens, considering all the parts that interrelate to create goo d health.
Check out the link below to view a video on how the wheel of health developed at Duke Integrative Medicine illustrates this whole person approach.
Duke Wheel of Health
WHO - https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/lifestyle-diseases-economic-burden-health-services