What is Coaching?
Coaching is quickly becoming one of the leading tools that successful professionals use to live extraordinary lives. Through weekly coaching sessions, clients identify what is most important to them and align their thoughts, words, and actions, accordingly.
Coaches work with clients to identify what they want personally and professionally, and to support them in achieving a life that they really want and love. Having a life one loves starts with gaining clarity on values, enabling more meaningful choices and consistent action. Coaching offers a means for more balance, joy, intimacy, energy, financial abundance, focus, and action in every area of life.
In this powerful alliance, clients find themselves:
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doing more than they would on their own;
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taking themselves more seriously;
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creating momentum and consistency;
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taking more effective and focused actions;
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becoming more balanced and fulfilled.
How is coaching different from therapy or consulting?
Unlike therapy, which goes into depth on various issues, usually dealing with the past, and consulting which generally results in giving the client answers, coaching is more action-oriented and focuses primarily on the present and future. Coaches enable clients to determine their own “answers” through the work done in the coaching partnership.
What is Wellness?
In 2004, psychologist Judd Allen, Ph.D., a board member of the National Wellness Institute surveyed a number of experts in the wellness field to get input regarding a definition of wellness. From that survey he concluded the following.
There appears to be general agreement that:
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Wellness is a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.
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Wellness is multi-dimensional and holistic (encompassing such factors as lifestyle, mental and spiritual well-being and the environment).
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Wellness is positive and affirming.[1]
Most of us think of wellness in terms of illness; we assume that the absence of illness indicates wellness. There are actually many degrees of wellness, just as there are many degrees of illness. The Illness / Wellness Continuum (below) illustrates the relationship of the treatment paradigm to the wellness paradigm.[2]
Moving from the center to the left represents a progressively worsening state of health. Moving to the right of center indicates increasing levels of health. The “treatment paradigm” (drugs, herbs, surgery, psychotherapy, acupuncture, etc.) can take you to the neutral point, where disease symptoms are alleviated.
The “wellness paradigm”, which can be used at any point on the continuum, helps you move toward higher levels of wellness. The wellness paradigm directs you beyond neutral and encourages you to move as far to the right as possible. It is not meant to replace the treatment paradigm (left side of the continuum), but to work in harmony with it. If you’re ill, then treatment is important, but don’t stop at the neutral point. Use the wellness paradigm to move toward higher levels of wellness.[3]
[1] Arloski, Michael. Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change. Whole Person Associates (Duluth, Minnesota: 2007), p. 12.
[2] Travis, John W. Wellness Index: A Self-Assessment for Health and Vitality. Celestial Arts,. (Berkley, CA, 2004), p. 1. The diagram belongs to Dr. John Travis and is used in many of his wellness works.
[3] Ibid.
What is Optimal Wellness?
We use the term Optimal Wellness to mean your ability to enjoy the many pleasures of being alive: happiness, vitality, laughter, abundance, connection, and purpose. What this looks like in any person's life will be very subjective and personal. Early on in coaching you will be encouraged to determine what optimal wellness means to you.
This is what Optimal Wellness means to me personally:
Optimal Wellness is a dynamic state of healthy living where you experience abundance and vitality on all dimensions of your being.
- Your energy feels vibrant, pure, and readily available for you.
- You feel your attraction to the things that truly benefit and enhance your life, and you are able to attract into your life what you truly desire with relative easy.
- All the resources you need to create, maintain, and restore optimal health and wellness are present to you and you’re proactively engaging them in a holistic and balanced lifestyle that fits you perfectly.
- Optimal Wellness is an inside-out process that recognizes you as the primary person responsible for raising the quality of your life.
What may be even more useful to you than "my" definition of what optimal wellness means to me is to discover for yourself your own answer to the questions: What does optimal wellness mean to you? What does it look like? Feel like? What are the mental and physical obstacles resisting optimal wellness in your life?
What is Wellness Coaching?
Wellness Coaching is the application of the principles and processes of professional life coaching to the goals of lifestyle improvement for higher levels of wellness.
Wellness Coaching is NOT me as your coach prescribing a regimen of vitamins, dietary changes, and exercise that I feel would be good for you. Rather, this is a co-creative process of you choosing to adopt and apply a wellness mindset by making lasting positive lifestyle changes. Coaching will help you expand your awareness, create effective strategies for change, and keep you accountable to yourself for following through.
In coaching, “you” are the expert in what's best for your life. My expertise is in the process that will get you to your best goals and vision for your life faster, easier, and perhaps even more completely than you would be able to do on your own. While I do have many coaching resources and have studied many helpful areas related to wellness (and will happily share with you want I’ve discovered), the heart of wellness coaching is you taking action to live your own highest vision for your life.
What is your background and training as a Coach?
Michael Richard Hands, MA graduated from the Coach Training Alliance "Certified Coach" program. After graduating Michael received Advanced Coach Training through CTA in:
- Coaching Wellness
- Coaching Career Transitions
- Group Coaching
- Coaching Emotional Intelligence
In addition, Michael also hold the following coaching related certifications:
- New Life Story Coach (Certified & Licensed by MentorPath)
- Certified Wellness Coach (Spencer Institute)
- Certified Holistic Stress Management Specialist (NESTA)
- Certified Hypnotherapist (New England Institute of Hypnotherapy)
- Mind-Body Fitness Specialist (NESTA)
- Lifestyle & Weight Management Specialist (NESTA)
- Mental Skills Training Specialist (NESTA)
N.E.S.T.A. is the National Exercise & Sports Trainer Association, a leading international training organization specializing in the areas of personal fitness, life & business coaching, and developing full human potential.
Michael's clients benefit from his rich background in many mind-body methods and personal development processes he has studied. The following methods have provided past and current coaching clients with excellent tools for reaching the results they desire:
- The Work of Byron Katie
- The Sedona Method
- Emotional Freedom Techniques
- Enneagram
- Modern Hypnosis
Michael's interest in personal growth and wellness began through his study of various martial art traditions. He has practiced and taught martial arts professionally for over 25 years, specializing in arts from southeast asia. Currently Michael is an active member of the New York Shambhala Meditation Center where he integrates the study and practice of meditation, buddhism, and warriorship.
Michael lives in New York City and offer wellness coaching services to holistic minded professionals throughout the world.
What is Stress?
Stress is the body’s response to a threatening condition. When confronted with stress, the mind tells the body that there is imminent danger and it must fight for its life or flee. This “flight or flight” response is an instinctual process to help insure survival of the species. In modern society, the stressful event may be a public speech or a deadline rather than a saber-toothed tiger, but our body responds as if it were in danger of being destroyed.
Stress causes physiological changes in the body: our muscles to tighten, our breath comes more quickly, blood flows more quickly to spread the increased oxygen throughout the body, nausea may set in, and thinking becomes confused. Once the stress is alleviated, our body is left in a weakened state as it recovers from the adrenaline surge. Unremitting stress can impair the immune system making it less able to resist the viruses that cause disease and can lead to a constant sense of exhaustion and loss of energy.
The events that provoke stress are called stressors, and they cover a whole range of situations -- everything from outright physical danger to making an important sales presentation, to having to face the possibility of downsizing eliminating your current job. Yet even those events that we'd normally consider wonderful, like the birth of a child, marriage proposal, or winning the lottery, can also trigger deep stress. Stress is a normal human experinece in the face of change, whether that change is regarded as good or bad is immaterial.
The human body responds to stressors by activating the nervous system and specific hormones. The hypothalamus signals the adrenal glands to produce more of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol and release them into the bloodstream. These hormones speed up heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and metabolism. Blood vessels open wider to let more blood flow to large muscle groups, putting our muscles on alert. Pupils dilate to improve vision. The liver releases some of its stored glucose to increase the body's energy. And sweat is produced to cool the body. All of these physical changes prepare a person to react quickly and effectively to handle the pressure of the moment.
This natural reaction is known as the stress response. Working properly, the body's stress response enhances a person's ability to perform well under pressure. But the stress response can also cause problems when it overreacts or fails to turn off and reset itself properly.
What are the effects of stress?
According to the American Institute of Stress in Yonkers, New York:
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43% of all adults suffer adverse health effects due to stress;
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75-90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints or disorders.
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An estimated 1 million people in the work force are absent on an average workday because of stress-related complaints.
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Nearly half of all American workers suffer from symptoms of burnout or severe job-related stress that impairs or impedes functioning.
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Job stress costs US industry $300 Billion every year in absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee turnover, and direct medical, legal, and insurance fees.
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Between 60-80% of industrial accidents are probably due to stress.
Research consistently shows that the adverse physiological effects of stress:
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decrease job performance;
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increase absenteeism, tardiness, and workplace injury;
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increase burnout and employment turnover;
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raise health care expenditures by at least 50%.
Today’s busy professional must address the multi-faceted reality of stress; according to the New England Journal of Medicine, doing this effectively is “critical to survival”. This finding is reinforced by recent statistical findings that suggest that 52% of executives will die from a stress related disorder.
How does stress cause so much trouble?
Stress can come from inside. It can be caused by your perception of events, rather than the events themselves. A job transfer might be a horrible stress for one person, a magnificent opportunity for another. A lot depends on attitude and the assignment of meaning in the interpretation of events.
But even when stress is undeniably external – say, all your money was just embezzled – stress affects a host of changes inside your body. More specifically, stress in all its many forms interferes with the body’s production of three very important hormones that help you feel balanced and “normal”.
1. Serotonin is the hormone that helps you get a good night’s sleep. Produced in the penal gland deep inside your brain, serotonin controls your body clock by converting into melatonin and then converting back into serotonin over the course of a 24 hour day. This process regulates your energy, body temperature, and sleep cycle. Stress can throw your body’s serotonin cycle out of whack, and one result is the inability to sleep well. People under stress often experience a disturbed sleep cycle, manifesting itself as insomnia or an excessive need to sleep because the sleep isn’t productive.
2. Noradrenalin is a hormone produced by our adrenal glands, related to adrenaline that your body releases in times of stress to give you that extra chance at survival. Noradrenalin is related to your daily cycle of energy. Too much stress can disrupt your body’s production of noradrenalin, leaving you with a profound lack of energy and motivation to do anything. It’s that feeling you get when you just want to sit and stare at the television, even though you have a long list of things you absolutely have to do. If your noradrenalin production is disrupted, you’ll probably just keep sitting there, watching television. You simply won't have the energy to get anything done.
3. Dopamine is a hormone linked to the release of endorphin in your brain. Endorphin is that stuff that helps kill pain. Chemically, it is related to opiate substances like morphine and heroin, and if you are injured, your body releases endorphin to help you function. When stress compromises your body’s ability to produce dopamine, it also compromises your body’s ability to produce endorphins, so you become more sensitive to pain. Dopamine is responsible for that wonderful feeling you get from doing things you enjoy. It makes you feel happy about life itself. Too much stress, too little dopamine, and nothing seems fun or pleasurable anymore. You feel flat. You feel depressed.
So, as you can see, stress comes from the inside as well as the outside. Your perception of events and the influences (such as health habits) on your body and mind actually cause chemical changes within your body. Anybody who ever doubted the intricate connection of the mind and body need only look at what happens when people feel stress and worry. It’s all connected. (And therein lies a clue to what you can do about stress!)
Are there different types of stress?
Yes. Keep in mind that stress can be defined as anything that adversely affects the health or functioning of the body, such as injury, disease, depression, or worry. These stresses on the body can come from many directions.
- Mental and Emotional Stress – we all have different stress triggers, things that “press our buttons”. This typically happens when something happens that doesn’t correspond to what we believe should be happening. When we hold beliefs, assumptions, and expectations that things should be other than they are, we typically experience this lack of correspondence as stressful.
- Physical Stress – For example, a reasonable level of exercise is good, but if we overtrain, the body’s reserves are put under stress and we make ourselves more susceptible to tiredness and illness. If the body is wounded, a host of mechanisms jump into action to repair the damage. But if it is already overstressed, repair cannot happen efficiently.
- Environmental Stress – We are surrounded by chemicals. Thousands of new chemicals have been introduced into our environment during the last 50 years. Man-made substances are found in food, water, cosmetics, household cleaners, and garden products. The whole of this chemical load has to be dealt with by the body, specifically by the liver, which has to process, detoxify and store or eliminate the chemicals. Given that the liver also has a whole host of other jobs to do, such as metabolizing food, manufacturing proteins and processing hormones, it is not surprising that this increased workload causes things to go wrong. The system begins, slowly and imperceptibly, to break down: you feel below par, and this is followed closely by illness. Feeling low is enough in itself to compound mental and emotional stress.
- Nutritional Stress – Foods that do not agree with us (on any level) create a crisis for the body. These may be foods that over stimulate us, to which we are addicted, or which cause intolerance reactions. Also, nutritional stress occurs when the number of nutrients being absorbed from the diet is insufficient to maintain a healthy metabolism. Keep in mind that the production of stress hormones is very costly in terms of nutrients. If your body is constantly manufacturing stress hormones it must take valuable nutrients away from other metabolic functions.
What is Holistic Stress Management?
Holistic Stress Management takes a “whole person” perspective in addressing both the stressors (causes of stress) and the coping strategies a person uses to deal with them. Recognizing the importance of the mind-body connection, Holistic Stress Management looks at ways one can use the mind to stimulate the “relaxation response”, the natural counter-measure to the “stress response”. Thus, methods of stress management such as visualization, autogenic training, progressive relaxation, mediation and hypnosis are embraced.
Holistic Stress Management also embraces the use of diet and nutrition as a major way of combating stress. In Ayurveda, the 5000 year old medical system of India, food is considered medicine. Learning what foods help to de-stress and detoxify the body is considered a key principle in Holistic Stress Management.
Just as the mind effects the body, so too the body effects the mind. Therefore, a holistic approach to stress management also utilizes body oriented methods, such as massage, yoga, working out, and tai chi.
The key concept here is that just as stress has many dimensions to it, so too does effective stress management. To effectively manage the negative consequences of stress requires an approach that embraces all aspects of the human person: body, mind, emotions, and spirit.
Finding the right stress management plan for any particular person requires some trial and error, understanding of personality types, and being able to work with the different interests that a person may have.
In my experience, there is an effective stress plan for everyone. What works for some won't work for another, but there’s something that works for everyone.
What specific Stress Busting techniques do you advocate?
In my Holistic Stress Management program I help my clients find stress busting methods that work for them; these may or may not have anything to do with what I personally like to use myself.
But there are some methods I consistently find helpful for the majority of my clients. Among them are:
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Aromatherapy
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Exercise
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Hypnosis
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Massage & Other Bodyworks
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Meditation & Visualization
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Yoga
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Proper Nutrition
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Tai Chi
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Bio-feedback Training
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The Work of Byron Katie
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Rational Emotive Thinking
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Emotional Freedom Technique
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Time Management Training
This is my no means an exhaustive list, and many of the methods mentioned here can be subdivided into many other categories. What’s important to remember is that there are techniques that will work for everyone.
What is the Live A New Life Story® Coaching Program?
Live A New Life Story® is a master plan with concrete assessment and action steps for mentoring the next chapters of a life story. It addresses the concepts of story, change, and change implementation. Using the 7-Step ROADMAP® coaching model for writing a new life story, this program is designed to effectively facilitate significant life change for clients.
Furthermore, this approach guides further mastery of the new story creation integrating psychology, neuroscience, and professional coaching models. Understanding and regulating various states of mind, a most important variable to determining success, is addressed. Successful application of Live A New Life Story® to Money, Relationships, Career, and Personal Success Stories are all part of this process.
The creator of the Live A New Life Story® program is Dr. David Krueger, M.D., CEO of MentorPath, an executive coaching firm tailored to the needs of professionals and executives. He is a Training and Mentor Coach, and Dean of Curriculum for Coach Training Alliance. This program is the result of over 25 years of research and professional work in facilitating life story transformation using findings from psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and strategic coaching.
Dr. Krueger formerly practiced Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis for twenty-five years, was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine, and taught on Psychoanalytic faculties in Houston and Washington D.C. He has authored 14 professional and trade books, and 75 scientific papers and book chapters on success, money, work, self-development, and mind-body integration. He became a full time Executive Mentor Coach in 2002.
Can you give a quick overview of the 7-Step ROADMAP coaching model?
In the Live A New Life Story® we employ the seven steps of the ROADMAP® model for facilitating life story transformation:
1. Recognize the authorship of our life story.
2. Own your present story.
3. Assess the storylines and plot.
4. Decide what to keep, enhance, let go, and avoid.
5. Map changes.
6. Author new experiences.
7. Program new identity to incorporate and sustain the changes.
How do you accept payment for coaching programs?
Payments are accepted via Pay Pal. This is a safe and secure method for accepting electronic payment directly from your checking account or allows you to pay with any major credit care (i.e. Visa, Master Charge, Discover, American Express, etc.).
