#302: Answering the Question: Why a Health Coach Instead of a Dietitian?

Michelle:
Hello there, health coaches, thank you so much for joining me for another episode of the podcast. Today we're going to tackle a very tricky situation that comes up fairly often among health coaches, and here's what it's Crystal actually posted inside our Health Coach Power Community Facebook group, and she asked, how do you answer the question? Well, why would I hire, I work with the certified health Coach if I can work with a dietician or if I can work with a nutritionist? E, that's a tough question, right? And she said, how would you eloquently explain the benefit to working with Health Coach in conjunction with a dietician or a nutritionist? And I thought this was a really great question on several levels, and I'm curious if you're here with me live or if you're watching this in our Facebook group later, tell me in the chat, have you ever had to answer a question like this, and what would you say and how does it make you feel?

Most of all, because I bet every health coach in our community has experienced something like this at one point or another. I know I have. Now, before we dive into answering that question, I do want to give a quick shout out to Amber Swift. Hey Amber. She is one of the health coaches in our community and she's a healthy Profit University member, and Amber just launched her podcast using nothing but our free podcast, quick Start Guide for Health coaches. I took a listen. Amber, you are doing an amazing job. Way to go. I'm so glad you did this. The podcast, everyone, because you might want to check this out. The podcast is called Everyday Health for the Christian Woman, and we'll put that link in the show notes. And if anyone's listening and you're like, I'd like to start a podcast, Michelle, you can get that same free quick start guide.

It's at healthcoachpower.com/podcastguide. Again, that's healthcoachpower.com/podcastguide. Anyway, Amber, I left you a five star review, and speaking of reviews are really, really, really helpful for podcasts. It's like one of the ways that we get this show in front of so many listeners and have become, I'm proud to say the number one podcast in the health coach business space. So take a minute, leave a review for your favorite podcast because we are all so very appreciative of that. But this episode, this episode is not about podcasting. I just had to give Amber A. Little love. She just launched this into the world last week. This episode is about feeling really confident in how health coaching and how you fit into the bigger picture of the health industry. And why would someone hire us if they could just go to a dietician first? I think we need to be clear within ourselves what that difference is.

What are the clear benefits to coaching? What does make it different? Either going to know that or we're going to immediately feel less than when someone asks this question, we're just going to go, oh, I hate this question. I feel like an imposter. We're inferior. We're not enough. So first we have to know that in here. And then secondly, how do we communicate this especially to a potential client? I think it's easiest if we start with the first question. Just like within ourselves, we know the value of coaching. We've gone to school, we've done the thing. Hey, maybe you've even hired your own coach. If you haven't, I highly recommend it. Then you'll really know it in your bones how helpful coaching can be when you're actually on the other side of it.

So why would anyone hire us though? They don't know that. What is the difference? I think the mental story that comes up for me is like, well, they could probably get insurance to just cover a visit to a nutritionist. That sounds like a pretty good idea. Why would anyone spend out of pocket money to work with someone who has fewer credentials? This is killer. So what I really loved was inside our Facebook group, everyone was kind of grappling with this question and I was just kind of eating popcorn and watching as all the comments came in. So I'm going to share some of them with you and give my own color commentary on the whole thing. Cynthia said about dieticians, and I quote, you're just a number to them to collect insurance payment. They may be interested in nutrition, but there is little follow up in between appointments.

Just my experience now, I read what Cynthia wrote. I am 100% positive that there are so many dieticians who care very deeply about their clients and who also provide perhaps a level of coaching. And Cynthia, I have also had poor experience with dieticians, and this is anecdotal, but yes, I think it is safe to say that health coaches tend to be more personal with our clients, and that's because we have the time to do it right? We have longer sessions, we have more frequent sessions. We aren't restrained by the medical model at all, which is a gift. We're not limited to those short little visits because that's all that the insurance company is going to cover. So our model of care is actually vastly different. It's like comparing apples to oranges. So there's that. And I really liked what Susie and Deanna had to say. So shout out to both of you.

Susie wrote, the term health coach is not a great title. We're really more behavior change specialists. Love that she said, dieticians and nutritionists and doctors can be directive while health coaches help the client actually implement lifestyle changes they know they need or want to make. Right? And Deanna said, this is a good topic to discuss. Let's just say telling people what to do without any mindset or cognitive behavioral guidance applied can make one not reach their goals. Dieticians are there to prescribe meal plans, diets, et cetera, whereas coaches help them implement or in the passenger seat when it comes to helping clients. Plus rds aren't able to sit with clients for weeks at a time and are driven by insurance if they do accept it to only be reimbursed for a few sessions. So yes to all of this, people can get a diet plan from a licensed medical professional. People can get a diet plan from a book that they pick up at the library, but regardless of where it comes from, we know it's incredibly hard for most folks to actually follow the plan and then they don't. And nothing changes. And that's the difference. Now in my experience, and I'm super curious if any of you have had experiences like this, the biggest shifts that my clients ever saw in my own health coaching practice had nothing or had very little to do with their food choices. Oh yeah, I said it. I mean, yes, I've had clients get rid of really terrible autoimmune pain by eliminating trigger foods. That's true. I've had clients get off blood pressure medication, acid reflux prescriptions just by changing their diet. Also true. And I've had clients who changed jobs, who started riding a motorcycle, let their hair go gray, climbed the Mount Everest base camp and just started living a more authentic life.

And it's not because of a diet plan, it's not because they were able to adhere to some particular diet plan that somebody gave them. That wasn't it at all. It's because yes, maybe they came with certain health goals and certain ideas about their diet, but they had someone actually listen to them for once and ask the right questions. They had the space to think through some of the larger questions and sort out what's really most important to thrive on the plate. Yes, but also off the plate, right? Are you with me? Health coaching goes so far beyond eat this food, eat that food, eat this many calories, blah, blah, blah, whatever. So I would say health coaches, yes, we help clients change their behavior around food and we help clients explore and change their behavior around everything, around how they do life. And that is the really, really exciting stuff.
But how do you convey that to someone? How can you summarize that and have someone who's never heard of coaching before go like, oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Oh yeah, I totally get that. My whole life, all I've ever done is gone to my physical at the doctor and the dentist twice a year. But I totally understand what you're talking about. It's very hard. And if a person's coming to you with that mindset of like, I go to the doctor, I pay a $20 copay or whatever, that's the only type of practitioner I've ever seen. And this person, let's say they want to lose weight, just an example. And you're like, great, I'm a health coach. I can help you with the required behavior change. They're like, all right, but can you just tell me what to eat? Just put up a hand.

Say me in the comments. If you've ever had a client say something to the effect of, can you just tell me what to eat? I have a list of clients going through my head right now. That's just where they're at. That's how people come to us because that's all they know. That's all they've ever been led to believe can help them. And if you're like, alright, you want me to tell you what to eat? Or we can explore that, but we're going to do more than that. We're going to explore changes to your entire life, a holistic approach, which sounds really good to us, but this person's going to think, what sounds a little over the top? What does this cost anyway? I just want to lose a few pounds. So my point is it's really difficult to explain coaching in words. This reminds me by the way, we have an episode in our archive, it was number 193 and it's called How to Answer What Is a Health Coach, which is very similar with that question or with this question about why should I hire you over a dietician?

What happens is it's really easy to get thrown into a defensive position where you are over explaining yourself. You're trying to justify your existence. It's a weak spot for you to be in. So if you find yourself answering the question, what's a health coach? Or Why should I hire you instead of a nutritionist or instead of an RD or instead of a dietician, my best advice is you are having the wrong conversation. However you found yourself in this conversation, you just don't want to see yourself out and try not to do that Again, I really like what Natalie wrote in our Facebook group because one of her comment on this question was, honestly, if someone asked this question, I'd consider if I properly conveyed my value and the transformation I can help them achieve. If they continue to question it, either I failed at conveying or they're just not a good fit.

I'm not into selling myself like a hard sale. I'd rather align with those who match me energetically. Yes, yes, and yes, I agree with this 100%. So the question is how can you convey your value and prove how helpful a coach is so much that the question is never asked, it just doesn't come up. They already inherently see your value. I mean, you could say with words, you can say how valuable coaching is, or you can be valuable. You can show up in the world in a way that is already very clearly valuable and this person already knows it. How you can be a voice in your community. You can have super valuable content to share on your blog, on your podcast every week. You can give someone a giant aha moment during a free workshop. Any of these, you can show up with such great energy that people are just attracted like a magnet and they don't care one bit what your credentials are. I mean, in my entire 13 years in private practice, someone asked me maybe twice if I was a nutritionist or if I was a dietician. In my experience, if they're psyched to be around you, that's all they need to know. That overrides everything else in their brain, all the different objections that they can come up with. If they're just like, yeah, this person makes me feel like everything's doable, they feel inspired. You lift them up. And if someone still asks, you can say, oh, coaches spend time with our clients, coaches actually listen to you. You can say that. Or you can take the opportunity to actually listen.

What is this person looking for? What is important to them? What have they tried in the past? Ask them why didn't it work? Can they think of a time that they did have success working with a practitioner of any kind? Tell me about that. What made it so successful? Ask the questions, actually listen to the answers instead of jumping in where you start to defend yourself. Trying to define what health coaching is, putting down other professions. I mean, there are no reason to do this, so don't say you are a coach. Be a coach in that moment. You have the opportunity to do exactly that and help this person figure out for themselves what they need. They might need a nutritionist either because of their health issue or just because that's where they're at right now, And that's okay. So in other words, when it comes to answering the question, why a health coach instead of a dietician, you don't need to answer at all. I hope that helps. Crystal, thank you for asking the question in the first place. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this conversation inside our group.
If you are feeling stuck in your health coaching practice or lonely working by yourself, or you're looking for guidance from someone who's been in your shoes since 2009, that's me. Subscribe to the podcast and join the conversation in our free Facebook group at healthcoachpowercommunity.com. I'll see you all soon. Take care.