Health Coaching
in Houston, TX and Online
Are You Looking For Help To Make Your Health Goals Finally Come True?
Do you want to:
Or Perhaps You Need Help Identifying & Focusing on Specific Health Goals?
Perhaps you have several of these health goals in mind (or some that are not listed), but you’re unclear which one to tackle first and how to go about it. Or maybe you are not sure about your real goals and the motivation behind them.
Identifying and implementing the changes needed to make you healthier can be difficult to do on your own.
Health coaching at Eddins Counseling Group can help you clarify your health goals, identify what your drivers are, and plan the steps that you feel ready and able to take. A trained, holistic health coach will provide encouragement and support all the way on your journey toward a healthier you.
What Is A Health Coach? And Who Do They Work With?
A health coach is a supportive mentor who can provide personalized one-on-one strategies and skills to help you make food and lifestyle changes so you can feel your best.
No matter where you are right now with your health—whether you’re an athlete, aging, diabetic, etc.—you can learn to improve your wellness with the guidance of an experienced health coach.
Additionally, health coaching can also be a part of an integrated mental health and wellness approach. For example, utilizing food and lifestyle changes has been proven to decrease mental health symptoms—such as an increased intake of Omega-3 fatty acids can help ease depression and ADHD symptoms, or reducing caffeine can decrease anxiety.
If you’re simply looking to enhance your overall mental and emotional well-being or if you’re being treated for mental health issues, promoting your physical health can also support those goals—and vice versa.
Restrictive, Cookie-Cutter Approaches to Improving Health Do Not Work For Anybody
Most of us probably have some idea about what we should be doing to take care of our health, but we often can’t seem to get motivated or follow through, despite good intentions. The reasons vary—from a busy schedule and a hectic lifestyle to restrictive health issues or personal preferences.
Moreover, when we contemplate doing something to get healthier, we may have a lot of negative thoughts or feelings about it. Perhaps we imagine having to go on some weird, unappealing, and restrictive diet (eating nothing but carrots all the time) or having to exercise in a way we don’t like (jogging for an hour at 5 am).
The fact is, this kind of black-and-white thinking (you can only eat or do this, but not that) doesn’t work for anybody. So, if this sort of mentality has failed you in the past, you’re perfectly normal.
It’s not your fault!
It wasn’t due to a lack of willpower on your part that it didn’t work, but because of the way your body is built from a biological perspective. And that is why our health coaches do not follow this strategy. Of course, making lifestyle adjustments can be challenging regardless of the reason. But while changing your habits can be hard, it doesn’t have to conflict with your values nor with what your body needs.
On the contrary, integrative health coaching at Eddins Counseling Group honors the whole of you—your mind and your body.
Nutritional Choices Can Improve Your Mental Health
Food choices and combinations can impact our mental health. Nutrition ofter plays an underutilized role with respect to mental health. It also impacts your digestion, sleep, energy levels, productivity, and mood. Thus nutrition and emotional wellness go hand in hand. A health coach can help you identify food combinations that support your mental health and those that increase symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Health Coaching Can Help You Reach Your Wellness Goals
Our mental, emotional, physical, and nutritional needs are unique to our own biology. What one person defines as good health and how they choose to get there might not be the same or work for someone else. For that reason, at Eddins Counseling Group, we approach health coaching from the belief that there is no one-size-fits-all, optimum diet or exercise routine.
The optimum approach is the one that feels right for you. We will begin coaching sessions with assessing how your physical, mental, emotional, and nutritional parts work together, identifying your specific needs and goals and what will work for you. We’ll also incorporate stress management strategies and other factors that impact your health and get you off track from your goals.
We utilize an integrative health coaching model meaning we incorporate nutritional, physical, mind and body assessments to help you create a plan that works for you. Being clear on the results you are hoping to achieve—and why—is the first step toward reinventing yourself.
Once we have clarified your goals, your health coach can provide you with information, education, and practical tips about what can help you to reach them.
Health Coaching Services FAQ's
At Eddins Counseling Group, we incorporate the principles of intuitive eating.
As a quick overview, here are some key principles that our health coaches utilize:
Rejecting the diet mentality – We reject the diet mentality but will honor any nutritional lifestyle that you may have chosen for religious, ecological, life protection, food allergies/sensitivities, or other personal health reasons (e.g. vegetarian, vegan, paleo). So, if you’re a vegetarian, we will not tell you that you have to eat meat, or if you have an allergy to gluten, we won’t insist that you include whole wheat bread in your diet.
Honoring your hunger – We encourage you to honor your hunger and respect your fullness and to get in touch with your body sensations and with the pleasure of eating. You will have our complete support in making food choices that respect your health requirements and what you like eating while making you feel well physically and emotionally.
Not expecting perfection – We will not demand that you shoot for perfection. Instead, it is what you eat consistently over time that matters—progress, not perfection, is what counts towards health.
Having the right attitude about movement – With exercise, we encourage you to focus on how it feels to move your body, rather than only on the outcomes it may provide in terms of body weight/composition or athletic performance. Focusing on how the experience of exercising feels is likely to be much more motivating.
Do these principles make sense to you? Then let us help you consider your options objectively, identify your strengths, and develop a personalized plan that you can integrate into your daily lifestyle for reaching your goals toward greater health and well-being.
We understand that, like many of us, you may at times feel overwhelmed by the demands of everyday life. Oftentimes, that stress causes us to de-prioritize our self-care and health needs, relegating the things that could enhance our life and well-being to the backburner.
However, our aim is not to throw your whole schedule upside down and only add stress to your already busy life. We want to help you establish and achieve your health-related goals within the life that you currently live.
A health coach is not a dietician or nutritionist who provides meal plans. Health coaching is about helping you eat, move, and live better by building lasting skills and habits for long-term success.
This might include some education in the science of nutrition and exercise, but our main focus is on helping you to stay motivated, understand your eating behavior, and achieve your goals in a more structured way.
An eating disorder is a much more serious issue than unhealthy eating/nutritional habits. It can lead to extreme eating patterns and even obsessive relationships with food and body image. This is a medical/mental health condition.
If you feel you have an eating disorder or you’ve been diagnosed with it already, we can refer you to one of our compassionate and skilled eating disorder specialists who can help you address these problems from a psychological angle. They will also collaborate with other medical and nutritional professionals to ensure you get the full support you need.
Health coaching is not therapy. While making changes to nutritional choices can help with symptoms of some mental or emotional problems, a health coach does not focus on solving personal issues.
If mental or emotional concerns come up during coaching, we can refer you to therapists with specialized training to help you work on those issues too.
A Wellness Coach Can Help You Take Steps to Improve Your Health
Depending on what you feel ready to take on, we can also help you determine and embrace the daily steps and actions needed to promote a new direction for your health.
After identifying potential obstacles (practical or psychological) or any unhealthy compromises you’re used to making, we can then help you put your personalized plan into action, sustain momentum, build upon progress, and make adjustments as needed until you get where you want to go.
The next step is setting health goals that will work for you and your current lifestyle.
Most importantly, your coach will listen to your concerns and make you feel supported—working with you through challenges, shining a light on your progress, encouraging you, and establishing the right cadence of accountability and check-ins.
Get Started On Your Journey Toward Better Health
If you are looking for a sensible approach to improving your health and need support with the process, a trained, holistic health coach at Eddins Counseling Group in Houston, TX, can help you get started. Contact us at 832-323-2726, or schedule an appointment with a health coach online.
Disclaimer:
*We do not diagnose medical conditions. Health coaching is also not a substitute for medical treatment. Though it can be a supportive addition to treatment by a medical professional, such as with diabetes management. Health coaching is also an important component of integrative medicine.
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What OTHERS Are Saying
Welcoming & Great Listener
Sessions are going very well with my therapist. I like her ability to create a comfortable and open environment. She is a great conversation starter, and it’s easy to express ourselves about anything. She is very welcoming and a great listener.