Helping People Achieve Sustainable Self-Care with Wellness Coaching [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Wellness Coach.
He has a background in exercise physiology and is a certified sports nutritionist.
[1:13] Referrals to wellness coaches
“[T]he overwhelming majority of people that come to us come to us directly, aren't coming through the medical system. They're making a decision on their own. I'm gonna say it this way. I don't mean this flippantly or adversarially. They're making a decision that the medical system isn't providing them with something that they need.”
[2:21] Wellness coaches value proposition
“[W]e have specific training in positive psychology and we have specific training in lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation.”
[5:09] Consumer demand
“What they need more is the help with behavior change along with the accountability, guidance and support that tend to be part of a health coaching relationship.”
[8:57] Wellness coaching success
“Training wheels is an analogy I use quite a bit. A good wellness coach is like training wheels. And a successful relationship results in the client being able to ride off on their own.”
[13:37] Tips for other wellness coaches
“At Mayo, in like week one of that training program, they teach you that 50% of your ability to help your clients is going to be from the coaching techniques and methods that you use with them. And 50% is going to come from creating an alliance with them so they feel like they have a partner in this process.”
“And for someone who's new to this idea, what you're really doing is acting as a mirror and a magnifying glass. You are showing them who they are, allowing them to grab hold of what they bring to the table that's going to help them be successful in this behavior change process.”
[17:42] Standardizing wellness coaching
“And the fact that there are wellness certifications that need to be accredited in order to qualify for the board exam have created a degree of legitimacy and standardization so that if you're talking to a wellness coach in California or you're talking to a wellness coach in New York, if they're saying they're board certified, they're talking a similar language, providing a similar service.”
[20:40] Marketing wellness coaching
“What makes it easy for me to market and advocate for wellness coaching is that what's behind it is just such a cool opportunity. And it's such a humanistic approach to a professional and a client working together that does teach them how to fish and does give them a set of skills that they can use for a long time that helps them with their well-being outcomes, but also empowers them in a way that I just have no trouble advocating for that.”
[23:04] Empowerment
“[A] lot of what comes from wellness coaching is it takes the sea of information, and helps turn it into empowered action kind of thing. Because there's a lot of information. A lot of it is very useful. But ultimately becoming empowered is what it takes to move these needles in an individual sense or a community sense.”
[24:41] Care team
“If I'm on a team with a physician and a dietitian and an active fitness trainer, we're learning from each other all the time. And that helps our clients, helps ourselves.”
