In case you haven’t noticed, the booming health and wellness industry is the one that doesn’t stop growing. More and more, people are developing an interest in transforming their lifestyles and building wellness in all aspects of their lives – because it’s something truly worth investing in. And for this reason, we are seeing the steady rise of the health coach.
If you’re someone who feels inspired by helping people do just that, in supporting people to radically improve their lifestyles, then this is for you.
Why South Africa Needs Health Coaches
Increasingly, people are looking to take charge of their own health, and truly want to understand how to better manage it. And if you thought wellness was costly, try illness. Usually, doctors and medical professionals often need to operate under extremely tight schedules – usually having only a few moments a day to spend with each patient. Because of these unfortunate circumstances, many doctors simply focus on and treat the symptoms, and don’t stop to look for the cause. There is little or no time to discuss how the patient really feels, or to take a look at their overall wellbeing – focusing on diet, nutrition, stress or activity levels. And so often, these factors play just as important a role as the immediate condition of the patient – not to mention the overall longevity of the person.
It is also becoming clear that the majority of conventional doctors lack training in the sense of how patients should develop a long-term plan to keep them healthy and motivated. For example, in many medical schools, the subject of nutrition is simply skimmed over, with little attention being paid to it.
At a recent Health Coaching conference in the UK Dr Rangan Chatterjee (Doctor in the house) voiced his frustration at not being able to spend more time discussing lifestyle changes his patients could make, and expressed his support for Health Coaching to become an integrated part of any doctors practice, with trials beginning now.
Presently, there is an opportunity to become one of the first trained Health Coaches in South Arica with professional membership to Comensa (Coaches & Mentors of South Africa) and HCA (The Health Coaches Association).
During this in-depth 9-12 month training period, you will be taught everything you need to know in order to become a highly skilled Certified Health Coach. In doing so, you will be able to use a behavioural change process in order to help people transform their health and eventually build a thriving health coaching practice.
The landscape of healthcare has changed.
Today, acute illness is actually outweighed by chronic disease, and 80% of premature deaths are caused by lifestyle diseases. For this reason, health coaches play an important role in helping people understand how to avoid chronic disease through diet and lifestyle changes. A major factor in this regard is health coaches’ ability to get people to make permanent changes. Research has shown that, despite the seriousness of their condition, only 14% of heart disease patients ever make permanent lifestyle shifts and change lifetime habits. This is mostly because they don’t really know how.
And that is where the health coach comes in – producing a behavioural change.
What Exactly Does A Health Coach Do?
As mentioned above, the health coach is there to help his or her clients to overcome the barriers that prevent them from changing their lifestyles. Their role is to mentor, inspire, guide, and motivate their clients. The health coach needs to understand the client as an individual and which drivers and motivators have an impact on the lifestyle choices they make. Another important element in this regard is that, when it comes to health coaching, it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The generic motivators are unlikely to work, because every client and their reasons for struggling is different.
As such, the health coach needs to work with each person as an individual. The goal in this regard is to help them create a new future in relation to their health that is clear, exciting, in line with their values and geared towards their preferences.
Health coaches have the luxury of time that medical doctors don’t, to delve deeper into the how’s and why’s of preventative care. Understanding the importance of this, many doctor’s offices are now starting to add Health Coaches to their team making Health Coaching a fantastic new opportunity for those who are passionate about health and about helping others avoid unnecessary disease and suffering.
Message from Zest for Life
Helping people to transform their health, improve their lives and grow in confidence is one of the most rewarding careers you could possibly have. We have been working as Health Coaches since 2003 and we LOVE what we do. We have been training others to be Health Coaches in the UK since 2007 and this Accredited Health Coaching Course is now available in South Africa too. You can be one of the first SA trained and accredited Health Coaches and become part of the solution.
If you would like our information pack to find out more please visit us at www.healthcoachesacademy.co.za and download your prospectus today.
Would love to become a health coach