Coaching
Group Coaching
A fun way to improve your health while meeting new like-minded people.
It is more affordable than 1-1 coaching.
Summary
Group coaching can be a fun way to improve your health and wellbeing while meeting new like-minded people and perhaps even making new friends. You may find learning with and from a group of people very rewarding. While being less personalized than one-on-one coaching, group coaching is more affordable.
Over a 3-month period, we explore a variety of topics related to your health and wellbeing. We cover nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and many other aspects of lifestyle that affect your health. The topics for the sessions are pre-defined, based on what most people struggle with in today’s world, but there is always room for adjustments based on the preferences of the group.
What can you expect?
We meet weekly for a total of 12 video-conferencing sessions. Each session is 90 min long. Group size is limited to 4-6 participants.
During the program you will gain clarity about your health goals and make progress towards them. You will arrive at new insights on how your body reacts to certain changes in food and lifestyle. You will better understand what works for you. Throughout the program, you will experiment with a series of incremental changes, small and large, to your nutrition and other lifestyle factors in order to optimize your health and wellbeing. Those changes will be big enough to make a difference to your wellbeing, and small enough so that you can make them “stick”. The group will be your support system that helps you be accountable in your own personal transformation.
Concepts
It’s Personal
As an IIN (Institute of Integrative Nutrition) health coach, my approach is deeply rooted in the concept of bio-individuality – the understanding that everybody and every body is different.
It’s Holistic
Another concept is that of multidimensional health. It is a holistic approach to health, acknowledging that the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of our lives are all intertwined. Everything is connected. This approach to health coaching is closely aligned with functional medicine, which seeks to uncover the root causes of imbalances as opposed to treating symptoms.
Session Details
The following provides more details about each session: the topic, some of the questions we will explore during our time together, and outcomes you can expect.
Session 1 – Introduction
Introducing the group and the program.
Each of us will have an opportunity to share our health journey, our health goals, and what we are expecting to get out of the group coaching sessions. This is a good time to set your intentions for the program.
I will introduce the program and will share some (surprising?) takeaways from my own learning and transformation. Find out what you can expect from the program.
Session 2 – Sleep
Sleep is so fundamental to our health. Most don’t get enough or lack quality sleep. That’s why we start the program there.
Why is sleep important you? What do you know intellectually or intuitively about the importance of sleep? What’s your belief system about sleep? How are your actions and behaviors aligned with your belief system? What’s your chronotype and how are you honoring it?
What is getting in the way of having your best sleep possible every night? What are the obstacles?
There is a lot you can do to improve the quality of your sleep. Learn what works for others, find your own approach, and build new habits that last.
Session 3 – Stress
Stress is a survival mechanism. The body needs it. But chronic stress causes chronic disease and can literally kill you.
What exactly is stress to you? What types of stress are you experiencing? Where is stress coming from? Is it external or internal? How does it affect you? How do the people around you affect your stress? How do you manage or reduce stress? What role does your mind play in stress?
Become more aware of how stress is affecting you and find ways to mitigate it.
Session 4 – The Food on your Plate
Everybody eats. We are, to a large extent, what we eat. Food is medicine. Food is information. Food is a key determinant of our health and wellbeing.
What’s your relationship with food? How do you decide what to eat and when? What’s your belief system around food and how have you arrived there? What foods nourish you? What foods do you stay away from and why? Do you count calories and macronutrients? If so, why?
Raise your level of consciousness about your food choices and build new food habits that support your health and wellness.
Session 5 – Activity and Exercise
A sedentary lifestyle is detrimental to our health in the long run, yet getting sufficient activity and exercise is difficult for many of us.
How would you characterize your lifestyle when it comes to activity and exercise? What are your goals? What is working well for you and what is difficult? What are your beliefs regarding activity versus exercise? What’s your Why?
Find out how you can live a more active lifestyle and incorporate exercises most beneficial to you.
Session 6 – Open Session
In this session you will reflect on what you have learned so far, what behavioral changes you have implemented, and how they affect your overall health and wellbeing. It is a good time to revisit your intentions for the program and make adjustments as needed. We may also fine-tune how we run the sessions and what topics we cover based on the feedback from the group.
Session 7 – Gut Health
“All disease starts in the gut.”
The gut houses 70% of our immune system. We have more microbes in our gut than human cells. Science only fairly recently began to understand the importance of the microbiome for our health.
What’s your “gut feel” about your gut health? Why is it important to you? What are the foods that nourish your gut and how can you incorporate more of them into your diet? How can you tell your gut struggles? What are the factors that compromise gut health and how can you minimize or eliminate them? What are your beliefs about antibiotics?
Learn how to listen to your gut and adopt new approaches for gut health.
Session 8 – Metabolic Health
Metabolism is the sum of all the chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism, some substances are broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized.
What is metabolic dysfunction? What are the differences between conventional and functional medicine approaches to metabolic health?
Learn new ways of thinking about your metabolic health, the most useful lab tests, and strategies to improve your metabolic health.
Session 9 – Navigating our Healthcare System
What are the strengths and shortcomings of our conventional healthcare system? What additional resources are available to you and which are you using? How do you make sense of contradicting advice and information overload?
How would you characterize the relationship with your primary care physician? What is the ideal patient-doctor relationship in your mind?
Gain a new perspective on healthcare overall and find ways to take charge of your health in a less than ideal world.
Session 10 – tbd by the group
Session 11 – tbd by the group
Session 12 – Wrap-up
It’s time to celebrate your success! You get to reflect on new insights you have gained and changes you have implemented. How has your health and wellness improved? It is also an opportunity to think about the next steps on your health journey.