MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS AND HEALTH PROFESSIONALS - Would you like to do more to help your patients with, or at risk of, lifestyle-related diseases become more active, eat healthier and stress less, but as a busy practitioner, you just don’t have the time?

As a Health and Wellness Coach/Occupational Therapist, I can collaborate with you to help your patients bridge the gap between where they are with their health and wellness now, to where they want to be, and take them from wanting to do something, to actually getting it done. Wellness Coaching can support lasting behaviour change and have a positive impact on your patients’ health and wellbeing.

Despite evidence that a healthy lifestyle can improve physical and mental health, as well as prevent lifestyle-related diseases, patient engagement is often low. Whilst vitally important, the provision of information, education and advice alone is not always sufficient to motivate patients to make significant changes to their health behaviour. This is because altering behaviour is hard, and because most people don’t like being ‘told what to do’, often reacting with resistance.

Combining theory from Coaching Psychology, Behaviour Change and Positive Psychology, I provide Health and Wellness Coaching that can help your patients overcome resistance to change and assist with adherence to your recommendations. Health and Wellness Coaching also utilises the Transtheoretical Model of Change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1982; 1986), that recognises people will be in different stages of readiness for change. By identifying a person's position in the change process, strategies and actions can be appropriately matched to the their stage of readiness for change, increasing the likelihood of them actively takings steps towards modifying their health behaviours.

In the initial session, I assist your patient to identify their own personal Wellness Vision, based on what they want, why they want it, and what obstacles are stopping them. Then we create a ‘How To’ action plan together, incorporating SMART goals and small steps. In regular follow up sessions, I am there to support the patient, review goals with them and monitor their progress, but they are accountable for implementing the actions. With a focus on facilitation rather than prescription, this partnership empowers patients. They start to take on responsibility for their own health and wellness and feel more confident as they experience small successes, thus achieve more significant change than they would on their own.

Occupational Therapy and Health and Wellness Coaching are a natural fit, with a similar philosophy, i.e. they are both:

•       Holistic

•       Emphasise wellbeing

•       Client centred/allow choice

•       Utilise goalsetting and a graduated, step-by-step approach

•       Focus on what is meaningful and satisfying to the client/patient

As a registered Occupational Therapist (OT) and AUSactive Exercise Professional, I can also integrate Lifestyle OT and exercise/fitness services into a program to compliment Health and Wellness Coaching.