Personalized Coaching to Help You Heal Your Best

Empowering You to Create a New Story of Wellness

Recovering from an injury or surgery? Preparing for an upcoming surgery? Or just tired of your old story of pain, frustration, and limitations? You’re not alone, I’ve been there. As a coach I work primarily with people who have been sidelined by an unexpected life transition such as an accidental injury, surgery, or acute illness – people who are in the midst of a season of healing and recovery.

Usually people recover quickly and life goes on. Other times, however, it takes months or even years of dealing with physical and emotional pain, limitations, doctor appointments, depending on others, and just plain wondering if things will ever be back to normal. Your support system – most often friends and family – are geared up and ready to help (at least for a while), but if the recovery process seems to drag on longer than a few months that support system tends to wear out, break down, or give up.

Countless hours of researching the psychological effects of injury have shown me that there are many powerful effects on the mind, body, and spirit when a person suffers such a sudden and unwanted life change. I know about this personally because I’ve had several surgeries following a serious injury, and have experienced the emotional and physical effects caused by a complicated healing process.

 What’s wellness coaching?

Coaching, whether personal, life, or wellness, is a collaborative relationship that focuses on helping you create the life you want, to realize your full potential, and to help you get from where you are to where you want to be. My role as your coach is to help you identify and co-create short-term and long-term goals, provide accountability and encouragement to reach those goals, and to help you develop the awareness and skills that you need to live a more fulfilling life.

What’s it like to work with a wellness coach?

Whether you’re newly injured, preparing for, or recovering from surgery, you need tips and tools to make the healing process easier and less stressful. Heal Your Best Certified Wellness Coaching provides the right tools for you at just the right time.

From the moment you decide to invest in this program you will benefit from having an experienced and highly trained guide along during your journey of recovery.  I’ll personalize a program starting with where you are currently, will encourage you as you look at your old story in order to know what to change, and will “walk beside you” to create your new story of wellness.

Aren’t all wellness coaching programs basically the same?

Everyone’s injury and surgery recovery process is unique.  Heal Your Best Certified Wellness Coaching doesn’t simply follow a recipe or fall into a chronologically ordered system; each set of tools can be mixed and matched to custom tailor the best program for you.

How can a wellness coach help me while I’m recovering from injury and/or surgery?

Recovering from injury can be a stressful process.  As a Performing Edge® Mental Training Consultant I provide tools based in sport psychology to help you focus on the present moment and the task at hand, visualization techniques to “see” yourself being successful at new challenges and healing completely, and daily self-talk affirmations to create a sense of hope for the future.

I help you design new goals to work toward for a complete recovery from your injury or surgery. Tips for getting around the house and enlisting the social support you need come from my personal experience with injury followed by several surgeries and recoveries, from speaking with dozens of others who have been through the recovery process, and from an extensive list of research and referral resources.

I still can’t do everything I used to be able to do, how can a wellness coach help me?

As time goes on there may be delays and frustrations in the recovery process which can bring about a sense of loss, grief, and the fear that things will never be the same–or even good enough.  That’s when, as a Grief Recovery® Specialist, I will support you as you look realistically at what’s happened, what your current situation means to you, and what’s possible to create for your future.  If you’ve begun to feel disappointed or discouraged it’s possible you may also start to feel alone or misunderstood.  It helps to know you’re not alone and that all the thoughts and feelings you’re experiencing are normal and natural.

It also helps to recognize how painful thoughts and limiting beliefs can interfere with a complete recovery. With the help of a caring and empathetic listener you can begin to let go of the hope for a better or different yesterday, assess what’s needed today, and look for what’s possible tomorrow.  If you’ve lost sight of your dreams, through a series of specific choices you can complete the relationship to your pain and loss while facing the future with renewed hope.

Now that I’m recovering from injury and/or surgery, how can having a coach help me get on with my life?

For most of us who’ve experienced an injury, or loss of health and activity level, there comes a time when we’re ready to face our challenges and move ahead.  In order to know what to change we need to recognize what aspects of our past and present that we would like to stay the same, what we want to change, what to get rid of, and what to add.  Here is where my training as a New Life Story® Wellness Coach fits beautifully.

So many times when we’re ready for change we experience a surge of energy, which is quickly followed by a sense of discouragement as we realize that permanent change is harder than expected. Simply recognizing and stopping an old habit is not enough to create lasting change.  New practices need to be put in place and repeated until they become new habits. While you’re recovering from injury or surgery you can benefit from having a guide to “walk beside you” as you take specific action steps to create a new story to be in, while leaving the old story behind.

What will I get out of coaching?

Everyone has different needs and goals, but some of the benefits coaching clients report are:

• Greater clarity of vision for the future
• Deeper awareness of personal ideals
• Reduced stress
• Increased self-awareness
• Enhanced quality of life
• Tools to create and maintain desired changes

How does coaching work?

Most coaching relationships take place over the phone during weekly 30-45 minute sessions, and may include email support between sessions. Coaching may take place individually or in a group, depending on your needs and preferences.  While I recommend that you make a commitment to yourself to work together for a minimum of 3 months in order to get the most out of our coaching relationship, we will determine your needs together and re-evaluate on a month-to-month basis.

What happens during coaching?

As your coach, I help you focus on what is most important for your life right now – to identify what is working, what needs changing, and what you want to let go of – by asking thoughtful questions and listening carefully to your answers. As your guide, I will walk beside you on the path toward creating the life you want by pointing out and helping you clear away cluttered thoughts, distractions, and roadblocks.

Isn’t coaching like counseling or therapy?

Not really. While there are overlapping similarities, counseling and therapy focus on fixing problems, while coaching focuses on co-creating possibilities. Coaches do not consider themselves to be experts, but rather, equal partners. Therapy is more about uncovering and recovering from the past (or coming to the end of an old story), while coaching is about discovering more satisfying solutions for now, and empowering you to create a new story for your future.

What type of coaching do you do?

Coaching at Heal Your Best is personalized for your specific situation and needs.  Whether you are in the midst of your healing process, anticipating surgery, or dealing with the aftermath of a long recovery, we tailor a program that meets you right where you are and helps you get where you want to be.  Certain tools work best for particular situations, so whatever you need will be included in our collaborative partnership.  Here are more details of some of the programs I am certified in:

How do we get started?

During your first free consultation call we will spend about 20-30 minutes to determine if there is a good fit between coach and client. From there we will decide how to proceed together, and professional coaching goals and fees will be discussed. Next we will arrange a one-time 60-75 minute session to determine your current situation and help you begin the next chapter of your life story. After that we will schedule regular, weekly 30-45 minute appointments prepaid on a month-to-month basis. Or you will be enrolled in the next available group coaching program if you prefer.   Monthly fees include 4 phone sessions per month and limited email support.

Contact Sue for your free sample coaching session.

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