What is a Mental Health Coach?
Mental Health Coaching is a form of strengths-based support and is the process of coming alongside an individual and helping them identify where they are, where they want to be and how to get there.
Mental Health Coaches also support individuals living with serious mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety, bipolar) by helping to develop a healthy balance in life, decision making support, navigating mental health challenges, and referring as needed to clinical mental health providers.
Coaches help clients find ways to obtain and maintain stability, rebuild relationships, and strengthen abilities and explore new ways to thrive. Coaches also help clients find resources for professional care and treatment, family support, education and assistance in establishing a plan for living life on purpose.
What is the Role of a Mental Health Coach?
Mental health coaches are unlike licensed mental health care providers in that coaches do not diagnose or offer professional care or treatment for mental health difficulties and disorders. Coaches support any positive change, helping persons in professional care to manage symptoms, build support for recovery, and work on life goals such as relationships, work, and education. Mental health coaching is action-oriented with an emphasis on improving one’s present life and reaching goals for the future.
Mental health coaches use a partnership model wherein the client is considered to be the expert on his or her life, the one who decides what is worth doing, while the coach provides expertise in supporting successful change. Mental health coaching focuses on achieving goals important to the client. Mental Health Coaching emphasizes honoring values and making principle-based decisions, creating a clear plan of action, and using current strengths and teaching new skills to reach future goals. The coaching relationship also provides accountability to help the client stay on track.
