Understanding your role as a trainer when it comes to mental wellbeing is really important. There is a fine line between staying-in-your-lane and not.
It’s very common for clients to confide in their coaches and feel comfortable doing so. The hardest part for coaches is to not project our beliefs, diagnose or label any issues. The biggest responsibility as a coach is to do no harm and provide a safe place for clients to grow in your ecosystem.
You need to provide a clear care pathway in the event a client needs more support, which could be listed in your welcome pack as something like:
Care Pathways
I have carefully aligned myself with some of the top professionals in the area should you/we feel you need additional support along your journey. If you ever feel the need to get in touch please don’t hesitate to request this and I’ll put you in touch.
Here are my preferred top professionals in their respective fields:
- Nutritionist – (name and location)
- Physio – (name and location)
- Osteopath – (name and location)
- Massage Therapist – (name and location)
- Psychologist – (name and location)
- Sport Doctor – (name and location)
- Naturopath – (name and location)
The example above allows for a more natural conversation should you feel your client might need additional help. When considering mental wellbeing, it’s important to recognise where we sit on the continuum below:
It’s important to recognise when a client might be moving towards the direction where reactive strategies are necessary, however this is where our care pathways need to facilitate that conversation.
Our role, can and always should be in the realm of proactive strategies feeding towards psychological fitness. We need to be proactive, positive and preventative, as building psychological fitness sits in-line with the values of building fitness: a consistent effort towards better. We can easily implement strategies like meditation, mindfulness, resilience, grit, compassion, self-esteem and confidence to build psychological fitness.
We encourage you to watch this introductory video from Dr Vanessa Moulton for more information on psychological fitness and stay tuned for a pioneering course we are due to release for coaches looking to take their coaching to new heights.