Health Coaching at Highbridge Medical Practice
“Raising awareness and increasing responsibility for health management”
What is Health Coaching?
Health Coaching involves a series of conversations which help you to build your knowledge, skills and
confidence to enable you to work towards your personalised goals and take back control of your health and
wellbeing.
What we often hear people saying when they access health coaching is “I know what to do, but it’s putting it
into practice that I find difficult” - and that’s what we support you with.
We understand that being healthy and well isn’t always as simple as eating less and moving more. Life can
be more complicated than that, and many things can get in the way of us making the choices we know are
going to make us feel happier and healthier long term. We can offer you a safe space to explore what and
how improvements can be made and support you to work through challenges that are holding you back.
Your Health Coach will help you to recognise what is most important to you right now and identify simple
action steps you can take at your pace, which contribute to lasting changes to your health and wellbeing, in a
way that makes sense to you and fits with your individual circumstances.
What Health Coaching is not
We do not advise or tell you what to do but support you to explore your options to help you work out the right approach for you.
We are not healthcare specialists; however we do work alongside a wonderful team of medical and health professionals and can help you to you access more specialist support in certain areas if this is what you need.
Personal responsibility
Your success in health coaching depends on you implementing the actions and strategies we discuss and identify. We remain non-judgemental and understand that making changes and breaking long term habits can be difficult, therefore it is important that you are fully honest with your health coach and yourself about any challenges you face so we can support you to work through these and to give you the best chance of long-term success. We aim to help you do things differently this time.
It is important to remember that you are fully responsible for your well-being during health coaching sessions, including your choices and decisions and you can stop coaching at any time.
What to expect:
Approaches
Health Coaches will draw on a range of tools and resources to help you as best as they can, however these are 2 of the main approaches we use.
➢ A coaching approach. This means that we believe you are the person best placed to create your own solutions and our role is to support you in this.
➢ Behaviour change. Health coaches use knowledge of behaviour change principles to best support you to tailor your actions for long term success.
Appointments:
Enquiry call (if you want to find out how Health Coaching can help you)
• 15-minute telephone call for you to find out more about Health Coaching, how it could help you and meet our Health Coach Laura.
• Book your 1st appointment.
• You’ll be sent an acknowledging referral email if there is a waiting list.
Initial appointment (self-referral or booked by health practitioner)
Coaching is effective on the telephone and face to face. The first appointment lasts up to 45 minutes and is time to talk about the changes you want to make, why this is important to you, current circumstances, challenges, and opportunities. We take everything at your pace but if you are ready, we can also start to explore the approaches and actions you might take.
Follow up sessions
Typically, you are offered up to 6 x 30-minute sessions on the telephone and face to face, but this varies from each person. How often we meet is up to you but anywhere between 2-4 weeks between appointments seems to work well for most people.
To get the most from your sessions please come to your appointment with updates, progress, current challenges, and an idea of what you want to work on to support you on your journey. You can be provided with a reflection template to help you prepare for your sessions if you wish.
Halfway and/or final appointment
30-minute telephone call to reflect on progress to date, anticipating and planning for future obstacles. In addition, there is the option for follow up check ins if wanted - 2/4/6/12 months post initial appointment.
Added support
In-between if you have a problem or can’t wait to share your success with me, we can arrange for you to text me. My working days are Monday-Friday, however I can give you a quick call if you need to talk anything through that you feel can’t wait until our next appointment.
Problems
I want you to be happy with your experience of health coaching. If I ever say or do something that upsets you or doesn’t feel right, please tell me. I promise to do what I can to resolve this.
Confidentiality and data protection
Anything we discuss is kept confidential and only shared with staff members involved within your care as appropriate and with your prior consent, except as required by law.
Rescheduling and cancellation
If you need to cancel your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible, at least 24 hours’ notice where possible. Please let us know if you would like to rebook your appointment but bear in mind that at busy times there may be no further appointment slots for a few weeks.