Health coaches guide journey to well-being

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Jan 14, 2022 | Jennifer O'Hara | @jenohara | Comments (3)

Whether a chronic condition affects your quality of life, or you have bad habits you'd like to change, a health and wellness coach could help. At Mayo Clinic, wellness coaches are board-certified professionals trained to help patients develop skills and tools to improve their well-being.

"When we're focusing on well-being, intention, accountability and commitment are all important concepts," says Dr. Moain Abu Dabrh, a Mayo Clinic integrative medicine physician and board-certified health and wellness coach. "What is our motivation to make this change? What is the outcome we desire? And then, an important step is to create accountability to making that change."

Health and wellness coaches partner with patients, using evidenced-based strategies to help them identify their vision to live their best life.

"Health coaching is still a relatively new process, and it has been integrated into our practice because we believe that a patient's life is still a person's life," says Dr. Abu Dabrh. "We don't just focus on illness care. We need to look at the 360-degree view, including illness and wellness care."

On the Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Abu Dabrh discusses how health coaching can help patients reach their goals.

To practice safe social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, this interview was conducted using video conferencing. The sound and video quality are representative of the technology used. For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in an area not designated for patient care, where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

Read the full transcript.

For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.