What is health coaching?

What is a health coach?

A health coach is a professional trained to blend the sciences of positive psychology, behaviour change, habit formation, nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle medicine with the art of relationships, connection and health personalisation. They guide clients through self-discovery to clarify values, gain lifestyle insights, and find solutions to challenges. The ultimate goal is to inspire and motivate clients to turn intentions into actions, fostering self-awareness and self-determination.

Lifestyle support expertise

Health coaches are experts in lifestyle support, and use conversation and other tools to guide individuals through stages of change to achieve desired health outcomes. The methodology is rooted in various scientific principles, including motivational interviewing, self-determination theory, positive psychology, social cognition, emotional intelligence theories, and neuroscience.

Specialisations in health coaching

In the realm of health optimisation, coaches may be referred to as biohacking coaches, longevity coaches, or lifestyle coaches. These roles emphasise different aspects of well-being, from enhancing physical performance and lifespan to fostering healthy lifestyle changes.

What does a health coach do?

Your health coach is your personal wellness partner. Just like with your practitioner, your health coaching experience is completely tailored to you. Your health coach will be your partner, advocate and guide, whose sole focus is on helping you execute using these ten approaches:

Providing education and clearing confusion

While health coaches typically refrain from giving direct advice, they may occasionally wear the “educator’s hat” to explain concepts like nutrition, sleep science, or stress management habits. This helps you gain a deeper understanding of these topics and improve your health literacy.

Understanding your optimisation plan

Health coaches work closely with your practitioner to ensure you understand and stay up-to-date with your optimisation plan. They help clarify any updates or changes, making it easier for you to follow along and stay on track.

Facilitating problem-solving

Problem-solving is at the heart of health coaching. Whether it’s a minor issue like forgetting to take supplements, or a bigger challenge like managing work-life balance, coaches use coaching strategies to help you develop actionable plans and overcome obstacles.

Promoting self-management

One of the most empowering aspects of health coaching is helping you take control of your health. By fostering self-management skills, coaches encourage you to move beyond simply following instructions and take an active role in your wellness journey.

Setting realistic goals for behaviour change

Health coaches assist in setting realistic and achievable goals using the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) framework. This level of clarity in goal setting helps you progress smoothly toward your long-term health objectives.

Providing emotional support

Emotional support is often a vital component of health coaching. Having a safe space to discuss emotions can boost your confidence and make you feel heard and understood, which is key to your overall success.

Celebrating small wins

Health coaches celebrate every achievement, no matter how small. Acknowledging these wins fosters motivation and reinforces your commitment to your health.

Persevering through obstacles

Change is challenging, so your health coach is there to support you through difficult times. They help you navigate obstacles, providing guidance and relief as you work towards your goals.

Bridging the gap between recommendations and action

Health coaches play a key role in bridging the gap between the advice given by practitioners and its implementation. By staying in close contact with your healthcare team, coaches guide you on prioritising the most important strategies to get you results.

Identifying self-sabotaging patterns

Coaches help identify areas where you might be holding yourself back, such as self-sabotaging beliefs or patterns. By bringing these issues to light in a non-judgmental way, they create opportunities to move past these blocks for true and lasting change.

Health coaching is a facilitative approach

Health coaching is distinct from other health professions in its facilitative, rather than prescriptive, approach. According to Wellness Coaching Australia, it’s a “client-centred, collaborative intervention” aimed at supporting sustainable lifestyle changes. In coaching, patients set their own goals, embracing a sense of self-responsibility with coaches providing the skills and knowledge to facilitate the change process.

Comparing health coaching with similar fields

Health coaches operate similarly to executive, mindset, leadership, and life coaches. They offer guidance and support for change and development, using established methodologies and tools to help individuals achieve their objectives.

Health coaching differs from therapy, counselling, and casual conversation. It isn’t a “talk fest” or a lifestyle prescription. Instead, health coaches work with the lifestyle plan provided by your healthcare professional, such as a functional medicine practitioner or integrative GP, to help you implement it effectively.

Health coaches vs. fitness coaches 

Health coaches differ from fitness coaches in that while both involve coaching, fitness coaches provide prescriptive plans and hands-on implementation. In contrast, health coaches guide patients through making lifestyle changes independently, rather than prescribing specific actions, or being with patients as they implement their plan.

Health coaches work with patients during focused sessions, whether weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, to foster motivation, create clear action plans, and identify barriers and solutions. This approach empowers patients to make sustainable changes in their own time and take ownership of their health and lifestyle.

Professional scope of practice 

Health coaches adhere to a defined professional scope of practice based on the focus areas above. They do not:

• Diagnose medical or psychiatric conditions

• Develop treatment plans

• Provide psychotherapy

• Order or interpret lab tests

• Recommend supplements

While coaches are supportive, they will never:

• Make changes for you

• Nag you

• Take responsibility for your changes

Why choose health coaching?

There are many reasons to choose to work with a health coach. The most common we see at Melbourne Functional Medicine is the benefits of accountability and dedication to action.

We say that working with a health coach is the secret sauce to 10X your health.

If you truly seek outcomes and measurable change, a health coach is a crucial part of your success team.

Impact = knowledge x action. A practitioner provides the knowledge; a health coach empowers you to act. Together, this dynamic duo can 10x your health.

Benefits of health coaching according to research

The field of health coaching is relatively new, and Melbourne Functional Medicine was an early adopter of the profession. We’ve been incorporating coaching into our service offering for almost a decade, with great success.

Substantial evidence for health coaching as a clinical intervention is collated in the Compendium of Health and Wellness Coaching: 2019 Addendum with some additional key studies noted below:

Functional medicine health coaching improves elimination diet compliance

When people are required to cut certain foods out as part of an elimination diet, those who have the support of a coach have superior outcomes to those doing it alone.

Improved metabolic health outcomes

Studies show health coaching can lead to small but significant improvements in HbA1c levels (a measure of blood sugar control) and reductions in BMI as well as improvements in managing chronic disease.

Health coaching to improve cognition and dementia risk

Another study aimed to determine if a multi-pronged program featuring health coaching might reduce dementia risk in a group of at-risk older adults. When cognitive outcome measures were assessed, the health coaching group improved their scores on attention, memory, language, and cognition tests substantially more than the control group.

Health coaching improves healthy lifestyle behaviours

Another study demonstrates how supporting lifestyle change causes significant improvement in behaviours around nutrition, physical activity and weight management. All of these changes are related to disease risk reduction. Support with goal setting and collaboration with health care providers are key aspects of the improvements.

Health coaching supports decision making and better health outcomes

A qualitative study revealed how health coaching empowers patients to make decisions that enhance their health and foster overall well-being. Building a strong coach-patient relationship, providing education, offering personal and practical support, and bridging communication between the patient and their clinical team are key aspects identified as how coaches contribute to better health outcomes for patients.

Further to the studied benefits, our experience suggests working with a coach can also help you with:

Getting more bang for your buck

Your health coach is your health advocate, providing a continuous line of connection to your practitioner. This ensures you make the most of each 45-minute appointment with your practitioner.

Behind the scenes, your health coach connects the dots and prepares your practitioner before your appointments, updating them on your progress, wins, challenges, and any questions you want to discuss. By acting as a preparatory resource, your coach ensures your practitioner is up to speed with everything that has happened since your last appointment with them, allowing you to hit the ground running and make the most efficient use of your appointment time.

Your coach is your personal health activator. They connect the thread between appointments with your practitioner and provide a layer of continuity not possible when engaging with practitioners alone.

Mindset shifts

Health coach Bee Pennington asks “what’s it all for”? A proponent of mindset and an explorer of belief systems, Bee knows that getting to the deep roots of your behaviour is one of the most compelling ways to make change.

What’s your deepest ‘why’? It’s usually nothing to do with money or success. It’s much more likely to do with how you are seen (that aligns with your values) and what difference you can make in your world.

Mindset exploration can be a tool in the coaching toolkit. The art of coaching means the use of the right tools and the right time. Of course, not every health optimiser will want to use this tool. In that case, the coach will use an alternate option to drive your health progress forward. 

Coaching in action: patient case studies

Below are some real life examples of coaching in action from some of our patients.

Clarity and prioritisation

Coach: Liv

When Steve walked out of an appointment following the interpretation of his DNA, methylation markers, biological age test and full blood and metabolite panel, he was inspired, informed, and overwhelmed.

Steve had booked a 30-minute health coaching call with me for the day after his practitioner appointment, knowing full well he would need guidance. On this call, Steve and I reviewed the latest strategy notes (aka lifestyle prescription) and reviewed the 5 actions. Two were low-hanging fruit, two were important yet not critical to action before the next practitioner follow-up. One was pegged as critical yet difficult. That was where Steve wanted to start – “and get the hard one out of the way”.

The action recommended by the practitioner was intermittent calorie restriction. The prescription was a 14-day protocol, where every 3 days he was to eat less than 1000 calories per day.

At my invitation, over the phone, Steve opened his diary, and together we agreed exactly which 14-day stint this would work in, then we marked out the 1000 calorie days. I asked Steve what he thought might get in the way of this actually happening. He identified that a meal plan x 3 days would be what he needed, so he and his partner could agree and do this together, including the shopping!

Having another person to talk through the prioritisation process is extremely efficient. It allows a person to take the emotion out of change and focus on execution. When we have a neutral party to gain clarity and then prioritise, we stop fighting ourselves and get focussed on the task ahead.

Smashing barriers

Coach: Liv

I co-created a meal plan with practitioner Mark’s clinical oversight, ensuring foods that were uniquely inflammatory to Steve were omitted (as determined by the functional food inflammation test Steve had already completed) and longevity-related polyphenols were ramped up. We delivered this plan as a PDF to Steve which outlined a set meal plan, shopping list and nutrition panel per day. All Steve and his partner needed to do was to add that to the shopping list and adhere to the 14-day plan he had already set with me.

In addition, we’d identified a major barrier to his likely adherence, which was the desire for a G&T and bowl of crisps after his board meeting. I walked Steve through one of the scientifically proven tools – the ‘If-Then’ approach (also called WOOP) to stay focused on his goals and smash through his habitual board meeting > G&T & Crisp routine!

It’s extraordinarily hard for most people to get out of their way and ‘just do it’. That’s because we often are blinded to our own obstacles and barriers, and have a tendency to blame situations outside of our control. Whilst, it is often true that situations do and will arise that are out of our control, with a coach you can be directed to focus on the barriers within your control, to think more critically about what is ahead, and be challenged on the honest likelihood of that ‘thing’ being done. The Woop method is incredibly effective, and a good coach can weave this into the conversation without knowing you’re methodically moving through a clinically efficacious way of planning and setting micro-goals.

Creating time

Coach: Bee

Arun was a crypto startup founder and a new father. It was fair to say time was scarce. He came to us with no health problems, yet wanted to invest in our 6-month program to hold him accountable for his own health. He knew where his money flowed, his energy would go! So we set about making his experience to optimise his health as impactful as possible.

It was after a revelation of excessive LDL cholesterol and fasting blood glucose, that he had the impetus to change his food and fitness habits. For him, food was the easy part. He simply stopped the croissant breakfast habit, cold turkey. That took mental effort but not time.

Fitness was going to need time. Time he did not have. I know this is mostly true for the optimisers I work with. Time is a precious resource that’s usually jam-packed with more meetings, reviews, projects and responsibilities than can be packed into a 12-hour work day.

Rather than finding time, we looked to get smart and make no assumptions. We explored the protocol recommended by the practitioner which was to increase his strength and resistance training from 1 day a week to 3 a week. Before his son was born 3 months earlier, Arun had been going to a good gym 15 minutes from home between work and dinner. The thought of this was impossible – he wanted to be home to help his wife with the witching hour! One thing Arun was good at was taking a brisk short walk along the river after his lunch break to get some fresh air, ready to get his brain firing for the afternoon ahead. He had a corporate gym, but working out after/before eating felt too time-consuming. He knew there was no way he wanted to eat then do a hard gym session, or vice versa. In brainstorming together with Arun, we came up with the following action plan:

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, he would trade lunch for a balanced, high-quality pre-made protein, veg and nut shake. He would save time needing to eat his lunch and therefore could get 20 mins in at the gym, with 10 minutes after to stretch, cool down and drink his shake in the sunshine outside before heading back to his office to get back into it.

Oh – and over time Arun confessed his phone screen time had gotten out of control, so with a clear plan (also using the WOOP method above) he managed to curb his use of Instagram from 60 mins a day to 20 mins. That created over 2 hours a week of time and headspace!

There was no way his mates, wife or colleagues could have played the role to address this secret vice. It was the judgement-free zone created with coaching conversations that allowed that to be explored.

By being realistic about the work and life demands on our patients, our coaches navigate the management and creation of time respectfully. Our job here is not to teach you time management techniques – most of our patients are well versed in efficiency – instead, we spend the time to help see alternate possibilities, stitch two new habits together, and remove habits that no longer serve our patients.

Tracking outcomes

Coach: Kelly

Optimiser Michael came to us as a self-confessed data guy. While he knew coaching was key for making the lifestyle change he desired badly, he said to me “Conversations alone will not motivate me to change”. I valued his self-awareness and honesty. He however wanted to go all in, so he decided to commit to 3-months of weekly, 30-minute coaching calls to explore where it could go – on the proviso it was as left-brained as possible!

We started out assessing his health strategy notes from his practitioner and carefully matching data points to each protocol. He had specific recommendations from his practitioner to:

• Improve his sleep quality by doubling down on his sleep hygiene

• Reduce cortisol production and stop his over-exercising habit

• Support cellular detoxification with supplementation – Michael added his own goal here of additionally curbing his drinking habit by at least 50% – from 60 standard drinks a month to 30

Each strategy had a data point and specific, measurable goal attached:

• Sleep: Track using his Oura. Improve deep sleep from 20 minutes to at least 40 minutes.

• Cortisol: Track every 3 months with labs, with the aim of bringing down cortisol by focusing on his overexercise goal.

• Overexercise: We would measure this by tracking his recovery. We agreed to use his overnight heart rate pattern. The goal was to have his lowest heart rate point in the middle of the night, rather than right before waking. If his overnight heart rate lowered too late (close to waking), he would choose a different, low-intensity exercise from a picklist provided, rather than rely on his hard-core F45 and HIIT workouts.

• Alcohol: Michael started using the app DrinkControl to track and stay accountable to count and reduce his drinking per his goal down to no more than 30 drinks a month.

Michael told me he was an all-or-nothing type of person, and would not celebrate until his data points significantly improved. He told me he was a type A, perfectionist and was always hard on himself.

We started tracking progress, and Michael kept a spreadsheet of his data, which he liked. He could see the trends, and each week was able to reflect on how he felt in mind and body. He was able to start matching the data points to how he felt in his body. This is a skill many of our high-performance patients have forgotten over time, as they see their bodies as a mere vessel to move their brain around in.
Michael started to see his numbers improve and as he got closer to his goals, he not only felt better in his mood, he felt more energised and his cognitive capacity started to improve.

In 4 months, Michael’s sleep had improved from 20 minutes to 90 minutes. He also credits his use of his blue-blocking glasses as a significant help here. He was diligent in tracking his overnight heart rate recovery, although was not able to comply with the rule of a lower-intensity exercise every time. He reduced from 80 drinks on average each month to 30. Not perfect, but it was progress that was worth celebrating.

By having guidance to select the right metrics, set measurable objectives, and having a regular interaction with a coach to review, tracking becomes more meaningful. The benefit of having a coach also means you highlight wins that otherwise might go unnoticed. The science of behaviour change shows that acknowledging small wins are essential for positive progress.

Coaching celebrates both outcomes and the behaviours that lead to them. This is important, because health is not a destination, but a dynamic journey. Your body experiences ups and downs, sickness and wellness, and life’s challenges. Health is about having the agility to handle these demands, so celebrating milestones along the way is essential.

As you can see from these examples, every patient’s coaching experience is unique. Our coaches focus on what works for you and your individual goals, lifestyle, and barriers.

Accreditation and integrity

While anyone can call themselves a coach, true professionalism in health coaching requires specific qualifications. Coaches must undergo approved training, hold relevant insurance, and engage in continuous education to be accredited by the Health Coaches Australia & New Zealand Association (HCANZA). At Melbourne Functional Medicine, all health coaches are HCANZA accredited, reflecting our commitment to integrity and excellence. 

Meet our coaches

What to expect when working with a coach at MFM

If you have an EA or PA, you already know the benefit of someone being in your corner – having your back, reminding you of important tasks and keeping you on track.

At Melbourne Functional Medicine, working with a coach to upgrade your health optimisation experience is optional, but highly recommended.

As a first step, your coach will reach out for a brief call to explain how coaching works, and what the experience could look like for you. During your initial coaching session, you’ll review your latest health strategy notes and actions, and discuss your medium-term health goals. These goals will then be broken down into smaller, actionable steps that you can start working on right away.

Your coaching service can be set up ad-hoc basis, from appointment to appointment, or can be bundled into a prepaid 3 monthly package of weekly appointments for 3 months, plus the benefit of digital message access via an easy-to-use app between sessions.

Most patients benefit from at least 5-7 coaching sessions, though progress can be significantly accelerated with 3 months of support. Everyone is different, which is why we do not prescribe a set coaching cadence.

If you’ve already been working with us for some time, and want to upgrade to include a coach as part of your success team, just let your practitioner or concierge know.

How to know if you’re ready to work with a health coach

If you can answer ‘yes’ to each of the questions, you know you’re ready to work with a health coach to optimise your health:

• When it comes to feeling ready and willing to make lifestyle changes, on a scale of 1-10, (10 being most ready and willing) you’re at least a 7

• You take full responsibility and ownership over your health choices

• You’re willing to trust the process. Whilst you might love to question things, you’re now willing to take the direction of your practitioner and get the guidance to simply make it happen

• You’re open to being in a health partnership consisting of you, your practitioner and your coach

• You have the energy and capacity for change in that your health is at a good baseline level, and you wish to amplify it

• You believe you can sacrifice immediate gratification for the big picture

• You understand health optimisation is personalised, n=1 medicine is about being curious, experimenting, tracking learning and having a growth mindset. You’re ready and willing for this

If performance, outcomes and health optimisation habits for life are important to you, a health coach is an invaluable addition to your team. Bringing a coach onto your team will allow you to move faster, with more precision and longer-lasting results.

Your future coach is going to be your new health ally, and could just be the secret sauce you need in your health journey.

Take charge of your health destiny

Discover how Melbourne Functional Medicine can help you find the healthiest version of you.