Health Coaching Session Critique

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The health coach Meg in the scenario used a variety of strategies and techniques in order to evaluate the client Laura’s issue and help formulate the best strategies for resolving it. Meg showed conscientiousness, care, and attentiveness to Laura’s struggles and attempted to steer the conversation in a way that the client could find the core of the problem and solutions within herself. Through this approach, Laura was able to gain the understanding, knowledge, and skills to become an active participant in her wellness journey and begin to regain control of her weaknesses.

Meg attempted to become more familiar with the client by using her name when addressing her directly. Using someone’s name in a conversation can have a powerful effect since it lets them know that the speaker is seeking their attention. It is an instinctive cognitive technique because the name establishes a person as a wholesome individual within the social and power dynamics of the coach-client relationship. In a manner, it empowers the client as well, which Meg was able to do through the use of Laura’s name as well as using supportive sounds and encouragers.

Meg showed significant control of the emotional understanding and Laura felt that in her language and use of encouragers which helped to establish trust. The conversation was lighthearted, humorous, but at the same time, very informative for both of them, which will help to build their coaching relationship.

Throughout the dialogue, Meg sought to determine the client’s vision and goals. The conversation consisted of specific concrete goals such as losing weight and stopping late night overeating as well as creating general vision for the client. This helped Laura realize why she was trying to achieve these goals and the impact it would have on her life. Meg did this through the use of closed and open questions. However, she began the session with a closed question rather than an open one, asking Laura whether she wanted an overview of what they will be covering in the session that day.

Closed questions were asked to investigate a specific fact, such as whether Laura knew how to control herself or if she needed new skills (also, helping to outline a subgoal). Open-ended questions were targeted in a manner which would allow the client to “ramble” and discuss her internal thoughts or concerns. Meg seemed to use more open questions for the purposes of gaining a more in-depth understanding of the client as well as allowing Laura to come to certain conclusions by voicing her thoughts out loud.

In order to establish trust and for the client to have a sense of being heard. Meg used reflective techniques. Reflection of content is repeating back to the client, the subject essence of their words (“Reflective listening,” n.d.). Meanwhile, reflection of feelings is repeating the client’s words in a manner which explicitly highlights the associated emotions. The coach can determine these through experience based on word choice, the tone of voice, and context (“Reflection of feelings,” n.d.).

Meg actively used both reflective listening strategies with Laura. Meg helped build upon Laura’s vision by rephrasing her words in simple but powerful statements which would likely resonate with the client. At one point Meg pointed out, “it’s your signature” when talking about the positives of the vision and Laura herself came to the realization that it is indeed what defines her.

Finally, at the end of the conversation, Meg used summation. She essentially summarized the conclusion that she and Laura came to on the strategies which would be used to work on the issue. Meg presented the challenges that may be encountered and laid out the road ahead. However, the final destination is presented as reachable with Laura’s potential. The overall impression of the coaching session was positive. It was incredibly interesting to listen to a professional use various techniques and reflective listening strategies. The tone of the conversation was lighthearted and engaging, which is one of the central goals of wellness coaching – to establish a firm, trusting relationship with the client.