For Health Coaches, Every Day is World Mental Health Day
How we can use our evidence-supported skillset to address the growing need for mental health support.
As national board-certified health and wellness coaches (NBC-HWC), and those working toward certification, we learn throughout the training and certification process the difference between coaching and counseling and the importance of remaining within our scope of practice when topics around mental and emotional health arise as part of the coaching process.
Initially, this kept me from being as helpful as I might have been until I had a “Dorothy and her ruby slippers” moment that changed my perspective.
In honor of World Mental Health Day, read on to explore how you can lean in to your evidence-supported coaching skillset to offer powerful, in-the-moment, support for individuals going through difficult times.
The first two thirds of my career in health and fitness was spent in many of the world’s most wellness-affirming environments—destination spas. Imagine rising early in the morning and getting paid to hike up a beautiful mountain with groups of eager wellness pilgrims, then spend the rest of the day guiding them through classes and workshops that supported their desire to live at elevated levels of health, wellbeing, and flourishing.
Yep, it was as amazing as it sounds. When my husband and I moved on from our first tenure at Rancho La Puerta into the real world of kids, cats, and mortgage payments, we often laughed and told people, “We came out of retirement to have our children.”
At the same time, we quipped to each other, “What were we thinking?!”
Uncharted Territory
You can imagine how unprepared I felt years later when I pivoted, with great intention, into health coaching and corporate wellness to make a difference with a broader population.
I remember arriving my first day onsite into the land of busy break rooms, vending machines, cubicle mazes, and coaching conversations that were anything but focused on flourishing. Most people were just trying to get through the day.
It was a daily occurrence for individuals to plop down in a chair beside me and feel open to share, “I’m not doing so well.” There’s something about talking to a “coach” that feels safer and less vulnerable than seeking help from a counselor or even going to HR because you’re struggling with your manager.
As a novice coach back then still navigating my “scope,” I’ll be honest and share I struggled with responding in helpful ways—sometimes gently changing the subject—Self-care, anyone? restating my role, “As your health coach I can . . .” and always a safe bet, offering referrals to resources and the “real” professionals in this lane.
As you’ve probably guessed, none of these approaches felt satisfactory or even touched on providing a modicum of reassurance in a moment of need—I could see it in their eyes and sense it in their body language. Each offering only led to another step to take, another conversation to be had, more feelings of risk and vulnerability, and most disappointing, a guaranteed lapse in time before relief was on the way.
I bumbled along in these uncharted waters for a while until I had the opportunity to become Mental Health First Aid certified (MHFA) and later, certified as a Mental Health First Aid instructor.
As we moved through the course material during training, which included learning how to use the MHFA ALGEE acronym to come alongside individuals experiencing a mental health challenge, I felt I was returning to the familiar territory of my coaching skillset and simply looking at it through the lens of another key dimension of health—our mental well-being. It was a “Dorothy and her ruby slippers moment” for me to realize I had it within me all along to provide an eddy of support for people experiencing a difficult time in their life.
We Can’t Look Away
There’s no way around it. For coaches, every day is “mental health day,” as topics around mental and emotional wellbeing cannot be separated out neatly from our client’s goals around stress, sleep, nutrition, or physical activity.
In “Changing to Thrive,” Prochaska and Prochaska state early on the importance of applying the stages of change to “healthy stress management, since it is so closely linked to the causes of relapse for the other four high-risk behaviors—smoking, alcohol misuse, unhealthy eating, and inactivity.” (p.34)
Whether or not you’re regularly checking in with your clients on their stress level (which, BTW, is one great way to gather data on the effectiveness of your coaching sessions), coaching around health and lifestyle is bound to lead to conversations and coaching related to mental wellbeing.
How many of you have had clients open up to you about their concern for their “wine before dinner” pandemic coping strategy that lasted far beyond the end of the pandemic? Or their grief over the passing of a family member, or feelings of anxiety and uncertainty that regularly interrupt their ability to sleep?
Luckily, as I discovered, we have tools for this that enable us to be helpful first responders without veering out of our coaching lane.
Here are a few that stand out to me as golden:
The Spirit of Motivational Interviewing
By far, the evidence shows that the way we show up for people, as described in Motivational Interviewing in Life and Health Coaching, by Lanier, Bean, & Arnold, “with the components of partnership, acceptance, compassion, and empowerment, help spark a connection from one human to another, a connection that enlivens and ignites client action.” (p.37)
The quality of our presence has been demonstrated to be more powerful than any hard skills or formal coaching interventions we learned in training. Good news, indeed, as we all move along the long and winding road to skill proficiency.
Doing less while “being” more is often more than enough to help. (More to come on this below).
Engaging
In MHFA training, we learn that many people often suffer in silence until the signs and symptoms worsen into behaviors and choices that negatively ripple out into other areas of life and become harder to overcome.
Early intervention is key.
As health coaches, “engaging” is the first “task” in motivational interviewing, giving us the ability to approach and assist early and proactively, if we choose.
We know how to open the door to conversations gently—with genuineness and authenticity—and create safe spaces for people to share and explore their own stories. Often we hear a sigh of relief afterwards, that the darkness is now out in the light.
Listening to Understand
I love this quote from Carl Roger’s book, A Way of Being,
“Very early in my work as a therapist, I discovered that simply listening to my client, very attentively, was an important way of being helpful. So, when I was in doubt as to what I should do in some active way, I listened.”
I’ll spare you any commentary on this point. Rogers said all . . . and beautifully.
I will share though, upon reconnecting with this quote, I plan to reinstate my 2024 New Years “listening more and saying less” intention for 2025!
Removing Stigma & Connecting to Resources
To be sure, we need to recognize the important boundaries and limits to our skillset that need to be honored for the health and safety of our clients by knowing when it’s necessary to provide a referral.
We can go an important step further though, and act as “connectors” by providing information and contact numbers to those resources and reducing any stigma and barriers to accessing them. In the past, people have shared with me, “I don’t know what to say when I call,” enabling me to help them create a simple script and provide reassurance that it’s all they have to say and the professional on the other end will take it from there.
A Story of Impact
As a field still in its infancy (yes, 20+ years young, lol), we are continuously having to prove our impact to payers in hard, measurable data, to gain ground in career opportunities and compensation.
That’s a hard truth to swallow knowing the humanistic nature of the work we do can’t always be measured in data on an excel spreadsheet.
I’ve had the rare opportunity to hear many impactful stories from coaches about how our skillset stands up in the arena of mental wellbeing. Until the recognition of our efforts comes from above, their experiences, along with my own, will be enough to keep me a believer.
One coach shared that a colleague in her population passed away suddenly and the company immediately contracted for a grief counselor to spend a couple of days onsite providing professional support. In the end, only one or two employees took advantage of that opportunity, while many reached out to the coach for support.
It makes sense, actually. In MHFA, we learn that people are more likely to open up to those they know and trust in times of struggle. As coaches, the trust and rapport we build over time is like money in the bank when things fall apart.
(Important Note! I believe the addition of a grief counselor was critically important in this example, and shows how board-certified health coaches work impactfully as part of multidisciplinary teams.)
Your Ruby Slipper Moment
When we put two pieces of information from my Mental Health First Aid training together;
Close to one in five adults in the US has a mental illness or substance use disorder.
With proper care and treatment (early intervention being key) people CAN recover, and many completely.
The need for more help along with a message of hope are clear.
Realizing my evidence-supported skillset would enable me to both help AND remain within my scope was all I needed to step more confidently into these courageous conversations.
What about you?
How ready are you to close your eyes, click your heels together three times, and join me in making a difference?
Let’s discuss!
Share in the comments below your experiences coaching around topics related to mental health and wellbeing. Which skills feel most aligned with providing help while staying true to our scope? I’d love to hear your thoughts and start a conversation.
Resources
My MHFA training was by far, the most impactful post certification-training I have taken and has been invaluable to my personal and professional life. The nbhwc.org now recognizes and awards CE’s for this training.
To learn more about MHFA click here.
To honor World Mental Health Day, I invite you to remember (and share) these key contact numbers so you are ready and able to respond if someone you are with is in crisis:
National Suicide and Crisis Hotline: Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
To find crisis intervention or mental health services in your area: Call 211 or go online to 211.org
The “Never Apologize for Promoting Your Coaching Work” Section
As always, thank you for visiting and reading this week. My aim is to share ideas that provide value in a way that nudges your coaching and the field of health coaching forward.
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Onward!
Meg
Thank you for this! I certainly needed this as most recently a situation happened where I was questioned about the scope of health coaching and I was told that anything related to stress management practices was out of my wheelhouse as a health coach. I responded appropriately but this (you) are exactly what I needed to hear! ❤️
Meg, thanks for the share! This is timely as I’m coming off of a mental health consult this week that is really sticking with me. While I am very comfortable in this space in person, I found myself less prepared to be there with a virtual client, and someone who I have yet to build rapport with in the same way. Definitely, shined a light on where I can improve as a coach. Thanks for this.