Christian life coach? Is that like a gym trainer with a Bible?
Not quite 🙂 I’m a health & wellness life coach, Board Certified through the International Board of Christian Care, and an Abuse Survivor Advocate with an emphasis on life recovery for Christian adult survivors of childhood trauma & abuse.
I’m also a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors, and the International Christian Coaching Association.
What all this means is that in my work, I address the emotional, spiritual, and physical health & wellness of my clients.Â
As a result of the unresolved trauma from their childhood abuse, many abuse victims not only have poor emotional & spiritual health, but also poor physical health. Thus, I also offer to help with their physical wellbeing, as well as their emotional & spiritual health.
A health & wellness coach is not as much focused on helping a person achieve a “ripped” physique as they are on the overall wellbeing of the person they are helping.
Health & wellness coaches are going to motivate people more so toward:
- Good Nutrition
- Good Sleep
- Good Exercise
To better understand what a health & wellness coach does, take a look at the following image.
In the Illness-Wellness Continuum, notice the NEUTRAL POINT running down the center. Notice that it points to “No Discernable Illness of Wellness.”
From my experience and research, the Neutral Point is where most people live. They are not aware of ongoing illness and they are not invested in an ongoing plan to prevent illness or achieve greater wellness.
When people do become ill, they move to the left side of the Neutral Point. As the image shows, there are signs that illness is present, however many people do not notice or know how to interpret those signs.
People next move to symptoms and they are now aware of illness; that is when they seek help from their doctor.
The next statement helps to better define what a health & wellness coach does. Again, look at the Illness-Wellness Continuum.
"Doctors are trained to help move people from the left or illness stage of the Illness-Wellness Continuum and toward the center Neutral Point. Health & wellness coaches are trained to help people move from the center Neutral Point to the right or High-level Wellness stage of the Illness-Wellness Continuum."
A health & wellness coach helps a person accomplish their goal of high-level wellness first through the awareness of possibilities & practices. Coaches then offer education, guidance, and ongoing encouragement to help the person continue moving toward their goal.
As a Christian coach, I’m not only interested in helping a person develop good physical health through nutrition, sleep, and exercise, but also:
- Spiritual Wellbeing
- Emotional Wellbeing
As I previously mentioned, I add spiritual & emotional wellness to my offerings. Thus, when I work with a Christian we’re looking at the entire person.
I then help a person achieve not only better physical health, but also better emotional and spiritual health.
To help a person accomplish their goal of physical, emotional & spiritual health, I’ll help them understand:
- Good nutrition as opposed to fad diets.
- Exercise for fitness as opposed to body-building.
- Issues such as failed marriages & relationships, anger, addictions, anxiety, depression, poor self-worth, and perfectionism, and where these things can come from and what can be done to alleviate them.
- Unique tools I’ve developed to help a person come closer to Christ.
- Creative ways to improve a person’s devotional life that includes prayer, meditation, and Bible knowledge
I am willing to help just about any Christian move toward better spiritual, emotional, and physical health from whatever stage they are in.
That said, I am most interested in helping broken Christians become free from the pain of their past and toward becoming the person God intended them to be.
Thus, to accomplish all that God has planned for a person, they will need to achieve good spiritual, emotional, and physical health.Â
