Would You Hire a Health Coach?

What does the word coach say to you?  Perhaps you think of a football club for kids or some other sort of sports coach. Or maybe you think business or career coaching.  For me coaching has always sounded like a very American thing to do, rather fanciful, a bit too Oprah.  And yet a couple of months ago I found my self signing up for some sessions with a health coach.  And yes she was American.  And no it wasn’t at all the experience I thought it would be. 

Just over a year ago I wrote an article for BritMums that charted my experience of being diagnosed with post-viral fatigue syndrome.  I don’t know where I thought I would be a year later.  When you have a chronic condition it becomes difficult to imagine what the future might look like.  Of course you hope, always hope, that you will be better, pain free and back to your old self.  And you fear that you will not, the you might never get to that place again.  Well or not well, black or white.

So where am I?  In the end neither of those things, not my old self or exactly where I was this time last year either.  Last year things felt pretty hopeless, I wasn’t able to work, I couldn’t do any exercise and I rarely socialised.  I managed my energy so I could deal with doing the housework and childcare.  I risked a trip down to BritMums Live only to pay the price of a massive flair up and a spell back in my  bed.  I felt so trapped and so low that I began a private little quest to throw anything and everything I could find at trying to get better.

And I do mean everything. I gave up alcohol, caffeine, sugar, gluten and more recently dairy.  I turned to alternative therapies trying  acupuncture, energy healing, seeds in my ear, metaphysical work as well as more traditional approaches like CBT.  All were interesting and useful in there own way.  None of it was the fix all I was hoping for  but I did feel improvements in bits and pieces.  But something was still missing.  Or rather someone.  Someone who really understood what I was dealing with

Looking back at my old post I can see I wrote about finding post viral fatigue a very lonely illness. It still is.  I spend a lot of my  life lying, saying I’m fine when I’m anything but.   People don’t understand what it is like to deal with chronic pain or how it can be that one day everything feels fine and manageable and the next it doesn’t.  So when I clocked a woman who claimed to be, not only a health coach, but a health coach specifically for people with chronic fatigue I had to get in touch.  And yet I still had a lot of reservations. Would she be yet another health professional assuming that my symptoms were all in my head?   

I needn’t have worried.  I soon learned that Angela had suffered and successfully recovered from chronic illness herself.  She completely understood where I was coming from and was able to hold space for me in a truly beautiful way.  In that space she did all the things you would guess a coach would do, she questioned, challenged, suggested and supported.  I had made a commitment to travel to France to do some training and I was terrified I would become unwell abroad.  Angela worked with as I moved towards that event and helped to ensure that not only was I well enough to go but that I didn’t suffer a major flair up on my return. 

The nicest thing about the coaching work I did with Angela is that it has left me with a shift in perspective that has a positive impact on my day to day life.  I return constantly to one of her key questions, how I can I make this lighter?  It’s such a simple thing and yet it’s impact has been quite profound.  I experience less stress and most importantly less pain as a result.  That’s literally life changing for me.  Coaching as an approach to healing might not be everyone’s cup of tea  but I would encourage anyone who finds it intriguing to give it a go, you never know what you might discover if you do. 

You can learn more about Angela’s work at

http://angelarocchio.com/