What is intrinsic health coaching? Is it something you should be interested in as a coach? Is it something you can use in your sessions with clients?

Most likely you already know the answer to: “What is intrinsic health coaching.” Most likely you are already using some form of intrinsic health coaching in your practice. So – what is it?

What is Intrinsic Health Coaching?

The basic philosophy of intrinsic coaching is that people are their own agents for change. People have the power to change their own lives through unique, intrinsically-derived solutions.

As a coach, you are already applying these foundations in your practice. You listen and help clients find their own answers to their issues while also helping them create a unique road map to their goals and dreams. You have already been using intrinsic coaching without even knowing it!

What is Intrinsic Health Coaching and Why Should You Care?

As a health coach, you already know that people will only truly change when they want to change. They won’t adopt a healthy lifestyle for very long just because they have a few sessions with you. They will quit smoking, lose weight, eat healthy, exercise regularly, and change bad behaviors when they are good and ready. You are merely a facilitator to that change.

Intrinsic coaching also takes a more positive approach to health than the current model of disease or behavior management, It takes a more asset or positive approach by focusing on the assets of the individual, It doesn’t tell people what’s wrong with them – they already know that, that’s why they are in your office seeking help! It builds on their strengths and the goals that are most important to them to facilitate change.

The concept of intrinsic coaching is aligned with positive psychology coaching, which focuses on the positive instead of the negative. Intrinsic health coaching values the concept of “what should be’ instead of “what is wrong.” It takes positive characteristics and positive goals and seeks to find that point where they merge.

What is an Intrinsic Health Coach?

To coach intrinsically, you must deviate from thinking extrinsically. Extrinsic thinking and extrinsic coaching is giving clients steps, instructions, or directions and having them follow these steps to achieve their goals. That’s an easy way to coach, but not a very effective way. An intrinsic health coach listens to the client, helps them become their own agent of change, and facilitates that change by providing them with the positive space to find their own solutions. This allows for long-term change instead of short-term deviations.

What is intrinsic health coaching? It is all about the client and not about the coach. It is all about what can be done right and not what is being done wrong. It is all about achieving goals and not about overcoming obstacles. It is all about emphasizing positive change rather than focusing on negative past behavior. It is all about being the best coach you can be and helping your clients become the best than can be.

Hope you took some great value out of this post today! I’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts or questions. And also, you can click on the Twitter button below to retweet this article… Thank you!

Fred Philips
Business Coach
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