by Dr. Brett Saks

Created on: August 15, 2008   Last Updated: August 16, 2008

1. What is Health Coaching?

Coaching is an emerging service profession based on concepts from sports, health, business, spirituality, psychology, and organizational development. It's for passionate people like you who want more from their personal and business lives. A Coach can help you set larger, more rewarding goals, develop a strategy to achieve them, and provide support throughout the process. It's not unlike having a personal trainer or an athletic coach... transformational, but in a business and personal sense. The achievement of goals is something that comes more quickly as a result of the Coaching partnership.

2. Why does Coaching work?

Coaching works when there are two factors present:
1) The Client is willing to grow, and
2) There is a gap between where they are now and where they want to be.

Successful Coaching Clients know the value of sharing ideas with someone who understands them and is subjective enough to want a lot for them, yet objective enough not to be biased or self-serving. Talking about options with someone who can listen is often enough to have it all become very clear.

Coaching works because of three unique features:

SYNERGY: Client and Coach become a team, focusing on the Client's goals and needs and accomplishing more than the Client would alone.
STRUCTURE: A Coach can provide accountability which motivates the Client to take more action, think bigger, and get the job done.
EXPERTISE: In addition to his/her Coaching skills, each Coach may also have specialized knowledge to help Clients make better decisions, set the best goals, develop new skills for communicating, and restructure their personal and professional lives for maximum contentment and productivity, respectively.

3. Where do you start with a Coach?

Most Coaches begin with a special Client meeting or call to get to know each other. The Coach wants to hear about the Client's goals, needs, and problems. The Client wants to become comfortable with the Coach. During this meeting, both parties design a list of goals and a game plan to reach these goals.

4. How do the Coaching sessions work?

Coaching is usually done over the phone (Tele-Coaching). In addition to allowing frequent, regular contact, it makes it easy to stay in the "Coaching relationship", since the Client can call from their office, home, car or hotel. The person coached completes a coaching call strategy form prior to each call, describing the current challenges and the progress they've made since the last call. Most people

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