Health & Wellness Coaching

A health coach is a qualified professional who works with you to help you making last change in your lifestyle, diet, physical activity, and behaviour. Sometimes we know what we need to do, but implementing the changes can be challenging or overwhelming. A health coach is like your pocket cheerleader, helping you to makes those changes, overcome any obstacles, and be your accountability partner.

Health coaching is a partnership between the you and the coach and client, whereby the coach will support you in achieving your health and wellness goals through lifestyle and behavioural change.This is achieved through regular coaching sessions that will challenge you, in a positive way, to focus on what really matters to you, and transforming those goals into action.

Both a health coach and a nutritionist can provide nutrition advice, but a health coach is more focused on helping you to make the changes you need and overcoming any problems, limiting beliefs or day-to-day challenges that get in the way of you acting, or creating lasting change. A nutritionist is trained to provide a deeper level of advice around food, including supplements and functional testing, but the two roles complement each other. Here at Urban Wellness, often the nutritionist will assess your health, recommend the nutrition plan and any additional supplements or functional testing, and then the health coach steps in to help you implement (and stick to) it. The health coach can also support you beyond nutrition, looking at your lifestyle and your fitness, for example, helping you to increase exercise or movement in your day.

There are two ways: 1. You can book a call directly with Kate to discuss how she can help you, and then from there you’ll go on to boo a health coaching package. For a lot of our clients, they know what they need to do, but it is the doing it that is the hard bit, as life has this annoying habit of getting in the way! 2. You start working with one of the nutritionists, and then work with the health coach to implement the recommendations. The nutritionist will step in about once a month to reassess how you are doing, change the plan, etc but the health coach is the one who will help you make the changes.

A health coach is not able to diagnose or treat medical conditions and is not a substitute for professional medical advice & treatment. They also cannot recommend supplements, functional testing or write meal plans (this is for the nutritionist to do). However, they will help you overcome any mindset blocks or day-to-cay challenges making changes to improve your health.

Here are some ways to know if you are ready to work with a Health Coach 1. You want to make changes to improve your health but don’t know where to start 2. You feel ready to work with someone who can look at your daily routine and general life (including the stressors), and help you make adjustments or changes that will improve your health. 3. You have tried to make changes before, and maybe several times before, and just can’t stick to anything. This is why you need a Health Coach! 4. You want to be made accountable so you can get your health and fitness on track, but without the overwhelm.

Functional medicine is a systems-based approach to your health and wellbeing that aims to restore balance by addressing modifiable lifestyle factors such as sleep, movement, nutrition, stress, and relationships. It focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease, whilst also understanding an individual's genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors so that a personalised treatment plan can be created. Functional medicine aims to remove what is causing imbalance and provide what creates balance.

A functional nutritionist is someone who has trained as a registered nutritional therapist, and in the functional medicine approach. They can then specifically support a client with their health through personalised nutrition plans, and they are also trained to recommend supplements which can help support an individual.

We work with our clients for a minimum of three months. The first consultation is 90-minutes, and we will discuss your health history, lifestyle, diet, and any symptoms or health concerns you may have. We’ll also consider your family history, genetics, and environment so that we can understand the root cause behind your symptoms or disease, and then we will create a personalised treatment plan that includes dietary changes, supplements, and lifestyle modifications. We’ll then meet weekly or fortnightly to check-in, see what is working and what we need to change, as we move you towards your health goals and allow the body time to adapt and heal. We may also recommend working with a health coach if you find change difficult. Click here to read more about how we work

The team at Urban Wellness are all functional medicine trained, but you can also look at the directory at the Institute For Functional Medicine, or head to BANT for a list of registered nutritionists. You can also ask for recommendations from healthcare professionals. Urban Wellness offers functional medicine services in the UK. Get in Contact with us today.

Conventional medicine is aimed at diagnosing disease or illness, and then provides help on managing or treating the symptoms (e.g. a painkiller for when you are in pain or an antidepressant for when you have low moods). Functional medicine focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of diseases. It provides a personalised approach and looks at how changes to diet and lifestyle can then begin to bring the body back in balance.

Functional medicine can help treat a wide range of conditions including chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders, as well as conditions like hormonal imbalances and digestive issues. Here at Urban Wellness, we specialise in mental health, including anxiety, depression, trauma, and addiction, as well as eating disorders and disordered eating. Find out more about areas of mental health we can help you with.

Functional medicine can benefit you by providing a personalised treatment plan that addresses the root cause of your health issues rather than just treating the symptoms. Most of our clients here at Urban Wellness have been living with their symptoms or illness for some time and found that conventional medicine either doesn’t help or doesn’t go far enough. We understand that, for example, people get diagnosed with depression and yet why is started and how it feels is individual for every person. This is why the personalised, functional medicine approach is key, because it is about you as in individual, and not the diagnosis!