I have recently returned from the long trip over to Boston to attend this conference and also to participate in a summit on the future of health and wellness coaching. see below! I was so very fortunate to be able to be there for these two events and I hardly know how to begin to report on what I saw, heard, experienced and learnt!
I had been to this conference two years earlier and knew I was in for a treat with some of the big name speakers. What I hadn't expected was how similar their messages were to what I truly believe is the direction we are heading. Wellness and Executive coaching are quite different disciplines, or so I thought. One is about changing behaviour and the other is usually about improving performance. Life coaching seems to float somewhere in the middle on elevated ground perhaps, or perhaps not, depending on who is delivering and what training they have had.
In the two days of the conference these coaching modalities merged to become one and the message was simply, help people create a better life for themselves.
Sir John Whitmore brought sporting analogies into his presentation with humour and truth which illustrated how ludicrous the expert approach was compared to the more effective coaching approach. And Sir John is now heavily involved in coaching in education and organisation. His message was simple. Coaches have two functions - a) to increase awareness and b) to generate self responsibility in their clients. I love it.
Talks on leadership and "Coaching with compassion", blended with sessions showing how theory from family systems therapy can be used in the individual's change. My favourite area of study, motivation, came straight from the horse's mouth when I listened in awe to one of my heros, Edward Deci, recount his enormous depth of research that we have all been studying at Uni for 30 years or more. I have been greatly influenced by Daniel Pink's recent publications and yet here was this highly respected, far from new expert talking about our three basics needs of a) competence, b) autonomy and d) sense of relatedness to others. A variation on the theme but grounded in evidence based research.
We heard (and saw cold hard facts) on how the brain reacts when stress causes the sympathetic nervous system to kick in - and destroy brain cells.. And how when our parasympathetic nervous system is activated (by yes, caring for others and aroused compassion) we grow new brain cells! so the coach gets the benefit too!
Coaching with compassion is just so much better than coaching for compliance.
Barbara Fredrickson rose to lofty heights in my estimation when she presented her research on how positive emotions could transform our very existence and all we had to do was put a plan in place and choose to experience them. Keegan spoke on how we actually build an immunity to change to protect ourselves and how insight can alter these patterns of stagnation and behaviours that do not serve us well. These were just a few but they all blended into one simple message. Coaching is the way of the future and the means to allow people to experience these "better lives". You may wonder how this assortment of information could relate to health and wellness coaching. Every word has relevance, significance and meaning to what I hope to take to coaching and to training coaches. I was in very good company. The mix of psychology, health, medicine, wellness and leadership was perfect and I came home clearer, more grounded and convinced that I am one of the luckiest people in the world to be doing what I do.
THE SUMMIT
How could anything top the experience of the conference? but it did. One and a half days in the company of the key players in health and wellness coaching in the US was a little daunting but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. The aim was to come up with a consensus of thoughts on the way forward and despite the seemingly different needs and views of the attendees, that's what we did. I was moved to write a description of what went on when flying home and this will give a blurry picture of what followed but it says so much for the process that was used; that of appreciative enquiry.
We left with the blueprint of a plan that will be taken to the white house to convince them that money should be allocated to this area and that the people involved were working together to help change the healthcare system and ultimately the health of the nation.
